Populist Theatre In Kingston Ontario

Kingston, Ontario Canada is a small town at the convergence of three major waterways; Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Cateroqui River. (This becomes the Rideau Canal, connecting Lake Ontario to Ottawa,Ontario) Ideally situated at the half way points between Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, one would assume that it would play some significant role in life along the St. Lawrence seaboard.

Ever since it was stripped of its title of capital of Canada in the 1850’s, there has been a steady downward progression to its fortunes. (After the War of 1812, and with continuing war like sounds emanating from the America’s, the forty-five miles from the border to Kingston was considered too close for comfort and the capital was switched to Ottawa.) With no deep water port to attract the shipping that wended it’s way down the river, Kingston could only sit and watch the big lake boats sail past with the opening of The St. Lawrence Seaway.

In fact, the only traffic that came to Kingston through the St. Lawrence were the poor Irish immigrants imported to dig the canal to Ottawa. Those that were dropped in Kingston were either dead or dying of Typhoid. The survivors and their descendants have formed the nucleus of Kingston’s labour pool up until present day.

Up until their arrival, Kingston had been primarily a garrison town. First settled by the French who called it Fort Frontenac, upon New France’s conquest in 1759 it was turned over to the British. In the period directly following the American revolutionary war, the population was increased by an influx of “Loyalist” soldiers and their families.

Anyone who served the crown during that period was rewarded with the gift of land in and around the St Lawrence River. This served the dual purpose of paying people back for their loyalty and quickly populating a precarious border. These people would form the backbone of British North American resistance in the War of 1812.

The United Empire Loyalists, as these people came to be known, had sixty years to settle and establish themselves before the poor Irish turned up. Prosperous, protestant, professionals do not mix well with Irish Catholic unskilled labour. Social and religious class distinctions from the Old World made a much more successful immigration than most of the poorer refugees.

Contemporary Kingston maintains those divisions. In fact, if anything, the social economic split of the city has increased with the passage of years. As the need for unskilled labour decreased, and Kingston has increased its dependence on service industry jobs, employment opportunities for the descendants of the canal diggers have evaporated.

In 1990, I migrated to Kingston with the two-fold purpose of escaping the big city madness of Toronto and opening a theatre company. One of the first things I became aware of was the almost tangible border that separated the two halves of the city. North and South of Princess St. was a designation of social standing.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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