As you can probably guess, l live in Eastern Ontario. Like most places, we complain that the East is ignored by those who govern the province.

1. I was at a meeting once where those in attendance were knowledgeable of the southern part of the Province. There was a proposal by the government to establish a stable of companies to provide a specialized but necessary service to the industry in which I worked.

They proposed that the Eastern part of the Province would be served from Kingston and that would be sufficient. I said that we would probably stop the task if we had to pay 4 hours just for travel time (total of both ways). A member of the group’s executive’s remark was “Is he really 2 hours east of Kingston?”

Yes we are.

2. At another meeting, one of those in attendance (a representative of a central Ontario municipality) said that he was “down in your country last month”. I ascertained that he had turned north on the then new Hwy 416. The entire group of United Counties in which I live are situated east of Hwy 416.

3. And speaking of Highways. I took the much vaunted luxury of using Highway 407 to bypass Toronto this weekend. My trip took me to the Waterloo area so we used the eastern portion from about km 100 (its east end since opening) to the 401 just east of Trafalgar Rd. The eastern portions of this road are not in the best of shape

The most easterly section is asphalt and is showing strength problems (cracks the wheel paths). It is 2 lanes per side rather than the 4 – 6 to the west.

The eastern terminus dumps onto a two lane non-provincial collector road with a rural section that is just adequately maintained and an urban section plagued by over capacity non-linked signalized intersections for a 10 km run south to the Highway system.

Any time saved on the toll road was lost getting back onto the Province’s freeway system

It’s been between 15 and 20 years (depending on section) since the toll expressway opened. I doubt that anyone living along the western part of the route would put up with the toll road dumping out on the Ninth Line at Britannia Road West.

4. When money is announced for public works, Eastern Ontario is most often represented by Ottawa. Yes, Ottawa is east (ish), but it’s still about an hour’s drive west of my home.

A plaque on a small church near hear says “Tread softly stranger, reverently draw near. The vangard of a nation slumbers here”. Our origins shouldn’t be forgotten nor ignored. The East (especially the far east) definitely has cause to complain

The Plaidneck