the past and the present
Traveled to Port Hope on VIA rail this evening. Arrived at the Port Hope train station off the 401 at the south end of town. Station was deserted. Called for a cab to get to the hotel.
Cabby very friendly - looked like a hard-rocking guy. Possibly played in a band, possibly still does, or possibly had dreams of it and never did instead listening always and drinking hard.
He asked where I was from. Said he moved out here from Toronto twenty years ago. Said Port Hope is where all the Toronto exiles go. I said I wondered where I might end up and now the mystery appears solved. The odds of this replicating my brother’s overnight trip to Montreal are slim.
He said he was from East York. I said Etobicoke and when I was growing up going to the east side of Yonge Street was a pretty big deal - and we never went further than Yonge. It was the same for him only reversed.
He said he worked for the Sun. Was a district manager. He got moved to Brampton and then finished his career there “on the Lakeshore.” I asked where. He said Palace Pier to Islington.
I told him I grew up at Royal York and Lakeshore. And I delivered the Sun. I told him Dan Newman was my district manager. He said Dan took over that area from him when he left the Sun. “Dan the politican. Dan was always pushing politics. Don’t talk to me about politics, I said.”
Dan Newman went on to become Minister of the Environment in Ontario.