Toronto Star

The historic centres and main streets of Canada's towns and cities are under threat. They are neglected and are losing the war against bad taste, poor planning and the power of big-box retail. Main Street is home to more boarded-up and broken windows than shops and cafes. Public institutions like libraries are following the trend to big-box formats at the edge of urban sprawl. We are losing something unique: Our sense of place. Ontario is blessed with beautiful historic town centres. You can't help but be charmed by the handiwork of immigrant Scots who cut the old city of Galt from a vein of black granite. Twelve kilometres farther west, the granite gives way to the alluvial soils that were baked by German and Russian Mennonites into the distinctive red bricks of historic Kitchener-Waterloo.