To the Editor,
In response to the letter by Michael Macdonald, published March 11, 2026.
To Michael Macdonald,
Thank you for your letter dated March 11. It inspired me to respond, and I hope you have a sense of humour.
You write, like so many before you, that “everyone calls Hawkesbury the town of potential”. Discussions about my town’s ‘potential’ tend to ignore the elephant in the room: the reasons WHY the imagined potential has not happened.
One reason is that those leaders, who you say, “have planned for yesterday”, were voted in by the citizens of Hawkesbury. A very large percentage of our population has lived in this town for eight generations…and they like it the way it is.
I realized that Hawkesbury is a ‘special needs’ town. Don’t expect it to do what it can’t do. We should not compare it to other ‘successful’ towns. Who wants parks, trails and a public waterfront? We like our cour arrière.
What we can do is car dealerships, restaurants, cannabis stores, dog groomers, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlours, dollar stores and secondhand shops.
Hawkesbury is “a place to call home” for about 50 homeless people. There is a strong support system to make their lives a bit easier.
It is a place of great diversity, including many new citizens from the Philippines, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They are busy raising families and enjoying their new life. They have their own “culture, music and community”.
Hawkesbury employs hundreds of people from across the bridge.
Why not let Hawkesbury be the backdrop for a TV series, along the lines of “La Famille Plouffe”? That project could put us on the map with our unique, funky vibe.
Mr. Macdonald, what exactly do you propose to do to fulfill that potential you write about? The LLRC might “awaken that sense of possibility” but then what? Ironically, you reminisce about how great Hawkesbury “used to be” but I prefer, after 15 years here, to let it be and love it the way it is.
Marlana Carnett, BFA
