2 Friday, October 8, 2021brooklintowncrier.com "Proud to be a Brooklinite" Founded in 2000 and published 24 times per year. Editor, Richard Bercuson 613-769-8629 editorofbtc@gmail.com The Brooklin Town Crier is locally owned and operated and is a publication of Appletree Graphic Design Inc. We accept advertising in good faith but do not endorse advertisers nor advertisements. All editorial submissions are subject to editing. For advertising information, contact: 905.706.0482 Email: mulcahy42@rogers.com Next Issue: Friday, October 22, 2021 Deadline: Friday, October 15, 2021 During COVID-19 dates are subject to change. Less than half the picture by Richard Bercuson Where do you live? Happened upon a longtime Brooklin resident one day. Wide-ranging discussion about mutually interesting topics. Asked where I live. Brooklin, of course. Really, he replied. Yeah. Where else? Not Whitby, he snapped back. Whitby. Yes. But Brooklin. Ah, yes, I suspected where this was going. "You're not sure," I queried. "Oh, I'm sure. I live in Brooklin." "Which is in Whitby." "Brooklin. Just Brooklin." And what followed was his anecdote of a brief encounter with Canadian Customs at the airport. The usual questions. Where do you live? And the answer was Brooklin, which meant an explanation was needed about which Brooklin. Well, the Canadian one. An "i" instead of a "y." The Canadian one? Yes, Whitby, to be technically precise. So you live in Whitby, the officer says. Yes, but Brooklin, was the response, hanging on for dear life to a certain truth. Thereupon required proof of residence is supplied and the matter is resolved to no one's real satisfaction. Back to our repartee. I related how, in Ottawa, residents still put their pre-municipality mergers as their home addresses. Nepean, not Ottawa. Kanata, not Ottawa. Orleans, not Ottawa. Even Barrhaven, which was never anything but a neighbourhood. Don't know what it means except perhaps that people are married to their homier communities. Then again, since minor sports associations are still determined by the old names, it's easier using those. So then, said my companion, I live in Brooklin and that should be the address. Except Brooklin doesn't exist as a separate entity, I point out. At least not until we secede. We're just a former village, a former neighbourhood ourselves, and now a burgeoning suburb north of the 407. Still, he says, Brooklin. As if that single word response should be sufficient to convince anyone of his point. He states we have our own postal code: the prefix L1M. I checked. Correct. We do. But so what? East Whitby has one. West Whitby, too. No one says, with even a modicum of pride, that they live in east Whitby. It's just not a thing. Brooklin? We're a thing. Personally, I use Whitby for official stuff. For others, it's Brooklin. The problem lies with the connotation. I grew up in the Town of Mount Royal in Montreal, a tony suburb that elicited eye rolls because of its high rent rep. I've frequently shifted blame to my parents' choice of habitat at a time when I could not write my name on the mortgage doc. Me the toddler was born in NDG. Far more plebeian. Brooklin has a bit of that, too, I've learned. You live in Brooklin? Oh, excuse me. Yes, I do. Lower east side. Did you know Brooklin's a thing? Irony coming. The day after our conversation, I made an online donation to a right proper cause. Inputted name, email, street address, postal code and, before I could write in the city/town, to my surprise, the autofill came up as - Brooklin. Region Hosting Virtual Budget Town Hall Residents are invited to join Durham Region's Chief Administrative Officer, Commissioner of Finance and Treasurer and other members of our senior leadership team, for an hour-long virtual Town Hall session on October 20. Community members will have an opportunity to learn more about the Region's Business Plans and Budgets, gain an increased understanding of the Region's programs and services and to provide their input on priorities for 2022. Your voice matters! Questions can be submitted ahead of the Town Hall through email at budgets@durham.ca. When: Wednesday, October 20 at 6:30 p.m. Where: This is a virtual event. Residents who would like to listen in to the live event or ask questions via phone can email budgets@durham.ca with their name and phone number to pre-register. The event will also be streamed live online via the Region's website. Why: It's a chance for residents to join the conversation: ask questions, listen in, and learn more about the Region's 2022 Business Plans and Budgets. Note: For more information, please visit durham.ca/DurhamBudget.