As a blogger and local history enthusiast, I have encountered sufficient personas to populate many works of fiction
Having moved to Stratford, home of the Stratford Festival of Canada, from time to time I look at things from the perspective of drama, role play, dramaturgy, and fiction.
What characters and personas come to mind when as a former Toronto resident I look at life from a dramaturgical perspective? The link in the previous sentence refers to a definition of personas in the context of user-experience design. A more general definition can be accessed here. Below are a few personas (in the general meaning of the term) that come to mind when I look at land-use planning issues in south Etobicoke, where I lived from 1997 to 2018:
The lot-split / overbuild persona
This is a persona or character type in a category of people who own an old house in Toronto. It may have been owned a long time, or has been purchased more recently. The expenses are daunting. There are old houses all around with lots of room around them. “What can I do?” asks the owner.
Plaque commemorating first permanent building in Stratford. Ontario. Jaan Pill photo
The persona who understands data analysis
Some people understand that quantitative analysis of qualitative aspects of reality is available for each of us, if we have the requisite human capital to proceed. Residents adept at such analysis are rare; they possess a high level of human capital, and are a source of tremendous inspiration for me.
The persona (character type) whose capacity for human agency is awesome or limited, as the case may be
The persona – character type – who has traction is going to have a sense – based on personal capabilities, education, and experience in the wider world – of the wider picture. Without that, what I observe is a spinning of the wheels.
View of Ontario St., Stratford. Jaan Pill photo
Each of us is on a continuum, from a low to high level of human agency, with regard to any topic or issue. Agency expresses itself in a wide range of ways, depending on circumstances, and surprises in how agency manifests itself are not uncommon. Whatever our level of human agency, each of us has a role to play. We are all performers and the world is, indeed, our stage.
Air traffic noise unites many people
Lot-split / overbuilding enthusiasts – as well as opponents – are at times concerned about air traffic noise. A persona or character type in favour of lot splitting and overbuilding can explain how to push a project through the committee of adjustment, in the face of opposition from fellow residents. The same character type may also be very concerned about the effect that air traffic noise has on her or his quality of life.
Google Maps can sometimes be misleading
Raithby House, located at the University of Guelph across from the University of Guelph Bookstore. Jaan Pill photo
I visited the Guelph University bookstore a while back, and found it of interest to see the books on display.
I also visited the Co-op Bookstore at the University of Guelph, just to have a look around. I was persuaded to have a look at the latter bookstore after consulting Google Maps.
It turned out the latter facility, which has been around for over a century, is not in fact a bookstore where a person can walk in off the street, and peruse a few titles. I learned that quickly. Minor detail. Google Maps is misleading, in this regard. The co-op bookstore in question is as great resource for students but is not open to the public.
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The library facilities at Guelph University were a favourite of mine. My Dad’s favourite young female cousin of about three years of age when he was a teenager, a married mother of four daughters by the time I first went to Guelph and already a grandmother of a baby girl, lived across the highway from the University. It made access to the university library easy.
Her mother and father who lived in Montreal were surrogate grandparents in our family as our grandparents were all dead by 1949 between the ages of 30 and 65, half in Canada, half in England. Under the age of five, I really did not know any of them although I later met a step-grandmother from England, who from childhood we referred to as “Gran Gran” and who my mother called “Auntie”…
For you former Montrealers, the Browns lived on Bruton Road up one block north of Gouin Blvd behind Cartierville School which recently burnt down. The house for you Marlborough Golf and Country Club enthusiasts was behind the eighth green. It was a dangerous yard in which to sit out in the summer for fear of raining golf balls. The house was built something like 96 years ago. This is 2024. He was Chairman of the Board of the Dominion Bank when it was absorbed by one of the major chartered banks. I suspect he did okay by it. He raised both a son and daughter and had six grandchildren through them, all of whom I have lost touch with after the parents settled the families in Alymer, Quebec up near Ottawa and Guelph, Ontario respectively. I think a Guelph daughter and her family are now living in her mother’s childhood home even though the golf course is gone and the entire property that the golf course and clubhouse used to occupy has now been turned into a family community. The only things that remind me of that era are the fading memories of caddying there and a street named Golf Road.
Charlie Brown was an Irishman with four brothers back in Ireland. All of them lived to over 90 years of age. He came to Canada as a young man and married the granddaughter of my County Antrim “McKinley” ancestor who grew up in Ottawa. She was my natural grandmother on my father’s maternal side. That ancestor I speak of was a Montreal fireman and first foreman who died at age 36 in 1841, one of 1,056 individuals who perished in the last Cholera epidemic in the late 1850s. His pregnant wife gave birth to my Canadian great-grandfather five months later. Even though I was born in England during WWII, my Canadian ancestors have been here for over 200 years. I arrived at the age of 4 months. Today, I can say I am English and Irish on both sides, Swedish and Swedish-Finn on my mother’s side, Scottish on my father’s side, and Canadian by accident, thanks to WWII, a deceased Spitfire pilot my mother was first engaged to, the London fog and the war bride program which saw 49,000 war brides and 22,000 war babies come to Canada in the latter part and after WWII. No doubt, many children of former Canadians never made it to Canada under the war bride program. Their fathers had died in the war before all that was possible.
It was a different time and place and now that I am reaching 80, all I can boast is service in the Air Cadets, a medal for it, and two trips to New York City on behalf of Canada to March in the American Memorial Day Parade on behalf of Canada. Today, I am trying to publish fifteen books, which is keeping me busy. Life has been an interesting journey.
Bob Carswell
P.S. If this article is badly written, understand that it is 5:15 a.m. I have been working on my computer all night. It’s time to grab a few hours of sleep. Fortunately, it is Saturday.