Glorious day at Cootes Paradise in Hamilton with my pal Marybeth.
Hard to believe this area was once treated as a dumping ground and industrial sewer for the steel industry. After many of the factories moved offshore in the 1980s, the Federal and Provincial governments partnered with McMaster University and invested heavily in restoring this land and water.
This is what can happen when we stop poisoning the environment and start protecting it.
Hamilton’s original Indigenous name was Macassa, meaning “Bay of Beautiful Waters.” Forty years later, we are finally beginning to understand why.
I would love to see Mayor Andrea Horwath support adding the name Macassa beneath Hamilton’s city signs. It is a simple but meaningful project that honours the land, the water, and the history that existed long before us. I wrote several times to the former mayor and never received a response, but Andrea feels cut from a different cloth. I hope to one day see some real heart and investment put behind this very doable idea.
