Westport versus the Evening News
I’ve decided I want to live in Westport! We visited this tiny, perfect Nova Scotia village recently and were completely charmed.
The last time I was on Brier Island was 50 years ago, and it is doubtful that it changed much in the interim, something that I like in a place, because when a place changes it usually changes for the worse.
Anyhow, the island has some of the most awe-inspiring scenery anywhere in the world, it is warm and welcoming to visitors, has a thriving economy based on lobster fishing, is surrounded by an ocean in which dwell the most majestic creatures on earth, and it does not have any big-box stores. The residents don’t miss them, according to two charming ladies we met on the ferry. The one store on the island provides everything you could need.
What is most important about Westport though, is the palpable feeling of a close-knit community. In a world where so many people want to kill each other, that is a rare and precious thing. We went to the firemen’s breakfast, which was raising money to support the Westport volunteer fire department. I suppose the whole community turned out to enjoy pancakes and bacon cooked by men who spend their working lives on the decks of lobster boats in winter gales, and look like it.
Unlike some Nova Scotia villages, Westport has lots and lots of young families, and irresistibly cute children. There are probably no secrets in a village like Westport, because they care about each other. It’s charm draws visitors who are fed up with tourist traps and kitsch, and who come for the experience of being close to whales and dolphins and seabirds.
When they get there they find they are close to real people too. There are not a huge number of rooms for visitors though, so if you go in the high season, reserve well in advance. For those of us who don’t have to go home to the US or Upper Canada, Brier Island in the fall would be a wonderful weekend.
I mentioned people who want to kill people. After three days away from TV news, re-entry into the rest of the world was a shocker. Besides the deluded maniacs and organized terrorists who think that a supernatural guy in the sky wants them to murder innocent children, we have the spectre of violent social collapse in one US city after another.
Then there are the uniquely stupid people who believe that the Donald will save them. I’m not talking about the hate filled crowds at his rallies, I’m talking about the leaders of the Republican party! I’m reminded of the old saying, “the devil has many tools but a lie is a handle which fits them all,” and the GOP has become the party of the lie! Even more frightening are the documented links between the Trump campaign and Russian mobsters.
If as is likely the ‘America First’ party he leads goes down in the election, don’t expect them to go away. They are a cancer on the body politic, which feeds on the ugliest threads in American society. It all makes living in Westport seem more and more desirable.