Death of Small Town Ontario

September 5th, 2005 - As possibly the last time that we'll get a chance to go away for a weekend for the year, Jason and I decided to visit Cambridge for a couple of days (Kingston was our first choice, but all the hotels were booked). Initially we were both fairly excited, as the Town is known for its churches and great architecture (I mean, even Waterloo has its School of Architecture there ! what could go wrong ?).

Well I was wrong...

Cambridge turned out to be a big disappointment. Historic downtown Galt was a joke: not only were the majority of the stores closed, many of them are also empty and abandoned. The streets were also eerily quiet, there was nobody around ! Sure, the churches were nice (see above) but they were the only highlight ! Jason and I managed to visit all 3 town centres within an hour (the other 2 were just a street lined with closed stores - and they aren't great stores either !) How silly I was to envision that the town would be like old Quebec City or even small town New England !

Is this the death of small town Ontario ? did small towns like Cambridge die due to competition from the mall, from Walmart, and from urban sprawl ?

So instead, Jason and I spent our time in Cambridge doing things that we could have done in Toronto: dinner, movie, and sitting around watching tv. Not that I mind of course, but I had expected better from the town itself.

Well note to self: next time, see a bigger city !