A Glimpse of the Past Imagined

Toronto is full of landlubbers, people who rarely if ever give Lake Ontario a thought, let alone think of this place as a waterside town. I am one of them, I admit. When I do go down to the lake, I am always a little surprised to see that elemental expanse of water in front of me, and surprised too at how different Toronto feels by the shore.

Not so for Jane Fairburn, for whom the waterfront is home. She grew up in southeast Scarborough, and now lives in the Beach. Along the Shore: Rediscovering Toronto’s Waterfront Heritage is Fairburn’s ten-year literary labour of love, in which she explores life along the Toronto shoreline, from the Rouge River in the east to Etobicoke Creek in the west, in nature, in geology, in patterns of settlement, in reminiscence, in historical anecdotes and local personalities both famous and not-so-famous. She paints a picture of the eras that have come and gone, the summer resorts and cottage communities (whose descriptions make...