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Zurich Citizens News, 1973-05-24, Page 10PAGE 10 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1973 The mall s That's when more and more Canad o gas . re living, and govern,, ents are going t have to recognize the fact, soon! By LANCE P. JONES CANADIAN PAPERWORKER JOURNAL Canada is developing a new social minority ... the Canadians who live in small towns. This isn't surprising, for ever since the Second World War, social scientists, jour- nalists, politicians and spokesmen for Big Business have been lauding the growth of Canada's cities and the trend away from rural living. There's no denying there has been such a trend. In 1901, most Canadians — 63 per cent — lived on farms or in unincor- porated hamlets. Most of the others Lived in small villages or towns that served as trade centres for the surrounding regions. There were only a few big cities in Canada. But by 1971, 76.1 per cent of Canadians were classified as urban dwellers. The rural pro- portion, according to Statistics Canada's definition of rural, was only 23.9 per cent. And the trend is supposed to continue. It has been estimated that Canada's population by the year 2,000 will be 80 per cent urban, with half the total popu- lation concentrated in nine giant metropolitan centres; Montreal with 5.4 million people, Toronto with 4.5 million, Vancouver with 2 million, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa with 1 million each, Calgary and Hamilton with 900,000 each, and Quebec City with 800,000. So our legislators concern themselves with the problems of the big city, and draft massive — and expensive = programs for Urban redevelopment, urban transportation, control of urban' pollution, urban un..mployment, urban poverty, urban crime, and even urban alienation — the lone- liness and lack of a feeling of belonging that are said to beset modern man because he lives in the big city. And so often these are shared -cost programs, avail- able only to those municipalities with a big enough tax base to pay the municipal contribution that becomes, in effect, a deterrent fee, eliminating the smaller muni- cipalities. Even education is geared to- wards the larger community, with the stress an larger schools with more complex facilities. The uni- versities are located mostly in large centres, giving the city dweller the advantage of not having to send his university -age children to another centre and pay board for them there. In On- tario, there was. a tremendous growth of community colleges. It had been hoped some would be built in smaller communities, and that they would offer the first two years of university. Instead, they became terminal schools, and the universities successfully lobbied the provincial government to keep the community colleges from giving university credit courses. eluding social scientists have ignored. That is Statistic Canada's definition of "urban dweller". Statistics Canada classifies people as urban if they live in commu- nities of 1,000 population or more. So the 76.1 per cent of Canadians classified as urban in: the 1971 census include millions of people who live in small towns or vil- lages. This puts an entirely new light on the picture of Canada as an "urban" country. Unfortunate- ly, few of our politicians seem to have found the switch with which to turn on that light. They still seem to think most Canadians live in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. What's more, even the great metropolitan areas to which we as a people are flocking, including hundreds --of communities with populations between 1,000 and 30,000. The minetowns, railtowns and No wonder, with all this atten- tion on the city and its problems, people who live in small towns are beginning to share some of the feelings of other neglected social minorities: the aged, the pen- sioners and the native people. But is Canada an urban coun- try? Is it made up mainly of rural people? Or is this image of Canada as a country of city dwellers just a myth? One contemporary sociologist says it is just a fairy tale. Rex A. Lucas of the University of To- ronto says this idea is just a myth and that it has been perpetrated by social scientists for years. Lucas reached his conclusion after he analyzed the data of the 1961 census.. It showed that even at that late date 6,004,383 people lived in communities of 30,000 population or over. Another 2,072,785 lived on farms. That came to a total of 8,077,168 people, close to one-half the total 1961 population of a little more than 18,000,000. And he pointed out another relevant factor most people, in- milltowns where millions of Canadians live are mostly smaller communities. Yet on their pro- duction depends the economy of all of Canada. And it is from the centres of 30,000 population or less that most ' of our urban dwellers come. Just because these communities are neglected, their young people leave them and move to the cities, bringing with them the values of life in a com- munity where people_ know one another and people care for one another. Our small communities have problems. More and more indus- try — particularly secondary in- dustry — is moving to the larger population centres to be close to markets and transportation. The federal regional incentive pro- gram was supposed to have helped this situation. But too often it has just meant the open; ing of a modern, automatic plant in one community, at the price of the closing of a bigger one, em- ploying more people, in some other small community. People who live in smaller communities face some disadvan- tages, usually due to the lack of attention from legislators. Often their schools go only to grade 12, offer little choice of subject, and are staffed by young teachers who get a few years' experience and then move to the cities. Often they have little choice as con- sumers, and this is particularly true of isolated mill towns or mine towns. Their recreational facilities are limited, and they have •a much better case for government subsidization of re- creation than the urban centre where commercial entertainment is readily available. Small town people learn recreation is a do-it- yourself matter, and they prob- ably are better people for it. Politically they sometimes have problems, with one major com- pany dominating local decision making. Often, too, the major employer also dominates the local newspaper, and vital issues aren't discussed in its pages. One other real anxiety in the life of the resident of the small town is insecurity. Whether he has a job tomorrow is often dependent on decisions over which he has no control, made at com- pany head offices thousands of miles away; or on world market conditions which he can't in- fluence; or on laws made by legislators who see Canada as an urban country. Yet they .survive, because they 'offer something the ,: rge com- munity doesn't offer. And that is the kind of inter -personal rela- tions that exist only where people are aware of one another and recognize their personal respon- sibilties to one another. Thus it is, for example, that people will continue to live in a Prairie farm community long after the grain elevator, the only economic reason for its existence, is gone. And that, too, is why the people of Temiscaming and united in their fight to buy and reopen the pulp mill closed by Canadian Interna- tional Paper company. There may be a trend towards urbanism in Canada. But Canada's smaller communities are tre- mendously important. And the people who live there have the right to the same educational opportunities, health care, hous- ing, recreational programs and job security as the people in the big cities. But ' they won't get them as long as legislators have a phoney vision of Canadians as a people who live in big cities, and as long s the big lobbies that influence politicians see their well being as synonymous with the well being of the big cities. Political boundary redistribu- tions are lessening small town influence in politics. The trend towards bigness and consolidation is hurting the education of small town youth. The move by sec- ondary industry towards the big population centres is hurting small town economies. In most institutions of society, small town people- are under -represented and neglected. The one exception is the trade union movement with its insistence on representation from the local at regional and national conventions. Trade unions leaders may be the one hope left for the well being of the millions of Canada who still live in small communities.