Rideau Lakes, My Home For Over 50 Years
Experience and drive
My career with Parks Canada did not follow a straight line. I began on the front lines of Rideau Canal operations and gradually worked my way through infrastructure, project management, marketing, visitor services and resource conservation.
That range of experience taught me how public organizations work from the ground up.
I started in 1988 as a relief lock operator in the Central Sector of the Rideau Canal, filling in while permanent lock staff took their days off. From there, I became a canalman and later an acting lockmaster.
During the shoulder seasons, when the locks were quieter, I worked with maintenance crews building lock gates, sluices and ironwork. I later joined the grout crew involved in rehabilitating the historic locks, operated as a core driller and worked on the careful process of pointing and raking lock walls and floors.
Eventually, I became a foreman on major rehabilitation projects at several lockstations, leading crews of up to 10 people.
I have worked at every lockstation along the Rideau Canal in some capacity. I was also part of the crew operating the central crane and scow while working on dams and weirs.
That experience gave me a practical understanding of the work required to maintain public infrastructure. It also taught me how to plan projects, organize crews, manage equipment, work with contractors, meet budgets and schedules, and respond when something did not go according to plan.
Later, I competed for and was appointed Marketing Coordinator and Promotions Officer for Parks Canada’s sites across Eastern Ontario. My portfolio included the Rideau Canal, Thousand Islands National Park, Bellevue House, Fort Wellington and Laurier House.
I spent 10 years in that role, learning a different side of public service. I worked to build partnerships, promote destinations, understand visitor needs and collaborate with communities and tourism businesses.
I then moved to Thousand Islands National Park as Visitor Services Manager, where I was responsible for park staff and island attendants. Managing employees working in different locations and circumstances reinforced the importance of clear expectations, good communication and consistent service.
I later returned to the Rideau Canal as a Resource Conservation Officer. In that role, I was responsible for permits involving docks and structures over the water within the National Historic Site.
That work involved regular conversations with property owners, contractors and others seeking to make changes along the waterfront. It required me to consider individual needs while upholding regulations and protecting a nationally significant historic resource.
After leaving Parks Canada, I became Brockville Tourism Manager, a position I held for five years. I led major events and festivals, including the Tall Ships Festival, and supervised permanent staff and student employees.
That experience showed me what can be accomplished when municipalities, businesses, volunteers, community groups and government partners work toward a shared objective. Large public events require detailed planning, financial oversight, communication and the ability to solve problems quickly.
Today, I am Senior Marketing Manager with Regional Tourism Organization 9, representing tourism interests across Southeastern Ontario. The region stretches from Prince Edward County to the Quebec border and includes communities along the Rideau Canal.
I work with communities and destination marketing organizations throughout the region on tourism development, partnerships and marketing campaigns.
When I look back on my career, what stands out is not any one job title. It is the range of experience.
I have worked with my hands on public infrastructure, led crews in the field, managed major rehabilitation projects, supervised staff, worked with contractors and property owners, dealt with conservation and regulatory issues, organized major public events and collaborated with municipalities, businesses, community organizations and different orders of government.
I have also learned that leadership is not about pretending to have every answer. It is about recognizing expertise, listening carefully, setting clear expectations, making difficult decisions when required and accepting responsibility for the outcome.
That is the experience I would bring to the mayor’s chair.
I understand what it means to be responsible for public resources. I understand that decisions affect both the people doing the work and the people paying for it. I also understand that successful projects rarely happen because of one person. They happen when people with different interests, responsibilities and expertise are brought together around a common objective.
Most importantly, I have spent my career working in and around the Rideau Canal. I know its infrastructure, communities, tourism economy and history, not only from reports, but from personal experience.
Rideau Canal World Heritage Site Designation:The way I remember it
The Rideau Canal becoming a World Heritage Site is something I remember personally, because I was there when it happened.
The story really started several years before 2007. Doug Stewart, who was the Superintendent of the Rideau Canal, brought together a small core team within Parks Canada to develop the submission. It wasn't something that happened overnight. We spent a couple of years compiling the information, documenting the canal's history and significance, and putting together the submission that would eventually go before UNESCO.
There were five of us working closely on different parts of the effort. John Coleman, a Parks Canada historian from Bellevue House National Historic Site, was the writer. Manual Stevens was responsible for conservation and worked out of the Parks Canada Regional Office in Cornwall. Nick Feeley was the researcher. Pam Buell handled communications, and I was responsible for marketing and visuals. Doug, Nick, Pam and I were based at the Parks Canada headquarters in Smiths Falls. We each brought something different to the project, but we were united by a common purpose. That purpose was to tell the story of the Rideau Canal and demonstrate why its history, engineering, landscape, and cultural significance deserved to be recognized on the world stage.
When the time came for the World Heritage Committee to consider the submission, Pam and I were chosen to represent the Rideau Canal. We travelled to Christchurch, New Zealand in 2007 as part of the larger Canadian delegation, which included representatives from Parks Canada’s National Office and Canada’s representatives to the World Heritage Committee.
I remember spending two days there waiting for our turn and wondering what was going to happen. We had done the work. The submission was there. But ultimately, the decision was out of our hands. All we could do was wait.
Then it happened. The Rideau Canal had been accepted and inscribed on the World Heritage List, and Pam and I were absolutely thrilled. We immediately called our colleagues back in Canada to tell them the news. A media release was then issued announcing the designation.
It was a pretty remarkable moment to be standing there in Christchurch and realize that something we had spent years working on had actually happened. The Rideau Canal wasn't just a historic canal that mattered to Eastern Ontario or to Canada anymore. It had been recognized internationally as a place of outstanding value.
And 2007 was an interesting year in that respect. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee was inscribing some significant places around the world. The Sydney Opera House was among the other properties inscribed that year. To have the Rideau Canal recognized in that company was pretty special.
But the story didn't end when we came home.
The Rideau Canal was celebrating its 175th anniversary that year, and on July 1 there was a big celebration at the base of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Pam and I took part in the celebration dressed in period costumes as Colonel By and his wife, Esther. By was Chief Royal Engineer associated with the original construction of the Rideau Canal.
So there I was, having just travelled to New Zealand to represent the modern-day Rideau Canal at the moment it received international recognition, and then coming home and portraying the people who had actually built the canal 175 years earlier.
Looking back, I think that experience changed the way I understood the Rideau.
You realize when you are involved in a World Heritage designation that the canal isn't only a piece of infrastructure. It isn't just a waterway, a series of locks, or a beautiful place for people to live and visit. It is a living piece of history. It connects communities, landscapes, engineering, recreation, tourism, and local economies. And its value doesn't stop at the municipal boundary or even the national boundary.
That is one of the things I took away from the experience that I still think matters today.
The people who live along the Rideau aren't just living beside a historic attraction. They are part of a landscape that has been recognized internationally for its cultural and historical importance.
But I also learned that recognition brings responsibility.
Once something has been designated a World Heritage Site, you can't celebrate the designation and then walk away from it. You have to look after what makes the place special. You have to understand its history, protect its character, and at the same time make sure that the communities along it can continue to live, work and prosper.
That experience gave me a much deeper appreciation for the relationship between the Rideau Canal and the communities along it.
And that's probably why, when I talk about the Rideau Canal today, I don't talk about it as something separate from Rideau Lakes. The canal is part of the identity of our communities. It is part of our history, but it is also part of our future.
I was fortunate enough to be there in Christchurch nearly 20 years ago when the Rideau received that recognition. I remember the excitement of making that call to Canada. And I remember coming home and standing at Parliament Hill dressed as Colonel By.
Those are very different memories, but together they tell the same story. We inherited something extraordinary, and we have a responsibility to make sure we pass it on in good shape.