and still they fall in Bala part 15

- fall for lies, rumours, innuendos.  Bala Falls - errors and lies  continue.

Promises that the dam will 'ruin Bala' are unaware of the basics of economic development. Bala is dying.

Lies that the town "doesn't need it", despite the fact that Bala needs to do its part, even more so than many towns around, are misinformed.

Canada and Ontario need it.

Bala needs something. Bala business owners need a vision of where they want the town to go. With many businesses open only in two seasons, and many buildings for sale or lease, there are few reasons to invest in this town.

At the meeting, when someone asked if anyone for in favour of this development and one woman spoke up, she was booed. This is a shame as I thought Bala still was populated by those in a democracy. Apparently not. The meeting only seemed to reinforce negative attitudes.

Bumper-to-bumper in Huntsville

Those of us who have been speaking up and speaking out have simply been shushed, ostracized, ignored or lambasted. Those of us who elected politicians to work with, rather than against the environmentalists, are seeing what happens in this small town. The very few of us who are looking towards the future, not simply keeping Bala in its historical past, frozen in time, are not putting up signs.

Of all people in Ontario, it is the business owners who depend on a clean, natural environment, yet many fill their boats and watercraft with non-renewable gas.

Doors open, A/C running full blast

6 gas cans

These are the same angry people who came out of the meeting with faces you see only in lynch mobs. Angry that SREL, who have dumped a ton of cash into this project, will be able to harness energy and sell it. What are they thinking?

There are Bala business owners who keep store doors open while running the air conditioners. What is with this?

One mayoral candidate insists that this is wrong, yet don't most Muskoka Business owners make their money off of the water directly or indirectly. They make  money from those who come to Muskoka to use and abuse our water and our forests?

Our little town is peopled by those who need gas for work and others who pour it into the lakes for play. People who feel it their right to drive over frozen hills and valley dumping gas from 2-stroke engines onto bogs and marsh land.

 "Selling Muskoka by the Gallon", a marvellous piece by Michael Enright - while many depend upon tourists for their freely spent dollars, that aren't being so freely spent. Those selling gas, or fireworks are doing well!



Those who claim the hydro project won't generate much energy are ignorant of the power of the projects all over Ontario. It is not the amount of energy, it is the principle.



For those who want to play in the falls...well, you shouldn't! It is a lovely trip back through time, but we know better. People have drowned here.

Really, people shouldn't be swimming in the falls. It is dangerous. And dirty people do it, leaving behind diapers, cigarette butts, garbage, and plastics with a half life of millennia.

See the dirty diaper left here?

We have to do our part, however small, to ensure that over and above our right to view the beauty of the falls, we respect the earth.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.♩♪♫♬

These atrocious signs, all over Bala, are a ridiculous way to tell the world that we are small-minded, miserly small town locals who care more for a pretty place to illegally swim, that to build a dam that will cleanly harvest some of the power of nature while leaving non-renewable resources at rest.

During the peak of the beginning of the building of the dam most Bala businesses are closed. Business can't get any worse in Bala, with shops closed for the winter, and many more up for rent.

It takes people like Europeans who develop small cars and trucks, making us Canadians look stupid with our large gas-guzzling SUVs and Hummers.

It is time to move forward. As for me, I'll just move.