Pete Martin, TV producer
As a child, I was fascinated with the NFB film, Paddle to the Sea, in which a carved toy canoe makes a journey from snow-capped mountains, following the spring melt, to the ocean.
At that time, I lived in a large, bilingual city, in the middle of a river, where I learned to take the subway, and had a season’s pass to a centennial world’s fair.
I spent two formative years in a small Nova Scotia town, where I picked blueberries by the railroad tracks, admired the horses in the valley by a creek near our house, and met the ocean.
Later, I found a family connection to l’Acadie.
As a young man, I moved to the west coast, where I learned to ski in the mountains, encountered Northwest Native culture and Asian-Canadian history, worked at a world’s fair, and met the ocean.
Back in the east, I found my Franco-Ontarian roots, experienced Native culture and African-Canadian history, followed a river along the trail of the War of 1812, and reacquainted myself with the inland seas.
My daughter grew up speaking our two “official” languages, and last year came with me out west to visit family who never came back east, to walk on glacier-capped mountains, and to wade in snow-fed streams.
Over the years, I spent time ‘dans le nord’ eating tarte au sucre, and now I make an annual pilgrimage to the Shrewsbury maple syrup festival. This spring, I bought a kayak that I put into the water there, so I can paddle…
