Peace Bridge Carries A Caravan Of Hope To Hurricane Stricken Regions

By Doug Draper

Here’s what I think might be a nice story for you – a bit of news that people on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border can truly feel good about.

Peace Bridge carries a caravan of help and hope from Canada to hurricane-stricken regions of northeastern United States.

The story began for me when my wife and daughter and I were driving a friend to Buffalo, New York this Saturday, October 3 for her flight back home to Florida. As we approached the Peace Bridge crossing the mouth of the Niagara River and border, we looked up and the bridge looked clogged with trucks. Our first response was; ‘Oh know, we are going to have a 40-minute wait at the bridge and we only have an hour to get to the airport.’

Then came the good news. The trucks were only taking up one lane of the bridge and the second lane was relative free for us to pass. And as we passed, we looked over and noticed that most of these trucks where hydro trucks from Halton, Guelph and other regions all over Ontario. It was a caravan of what seemed like 40 or 50 hydro trucks from Ontario, on their way to hurricane-stricken, coastal communities in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut, and we found ourselves welling up with feelings of warmth and pride as we passed this caravan of hope for more than a million people still freezing in the dark almost a week after Hurricane Sandy’s cruel landing.

You may know that the idea of building the Peace Bridge crossing was conceived close to a century ago, and the bridge’s name was intended to celebrate all years of peace and friendship between Canada and the United States since the War of 1812. This past November 3, the link of friendship this bridge stands was proudly expressed as these hydro trucks passed over it.

Hydro crews work day and night to return power to more than homes and businesses in hurricane-ravaged northeast.

Let all of those ideologues and extremists out there – the neo cons and libertarians and their ilk – blabber on about how we should privatize the public good and let corporatists run our communities. I would like to know how many of them would refuse help from public servants if they were going days in frosty temperatures without adequate supplies of heat or food, or if one of their loved ones was in critical condition in a hospital that had suddenly lost power.

What we witnessed on the Peace Bridge and what we have been witnessing and reading about online and through cable channels and newspapers in the aftermath of this disastrous storm is some of the best government has to offer when people are facing the worst of times for their families and communities. This is what pooling our resources, which come through the taxes we pay, and using them to enhance the lives of our neighbours and ourselves, especially when we are going through dark times, is all about. It is not about some evil redistribution of wealth or socialism, or class warfare or whatever other diabolical conspiracy the neo cons and libertarians think the rest of us have hatched to disturb the comfort of the upper one per cent. 

I have and will probably always have my complaints about the way government does and doesn’t work. But at times like this, it is important to remind ourselves how vital a role government plays for the common good.

By the way, sorry Niagara At Large missed the story the mainstream media in the region reported on, that New York City-based late night show host David Letterman was visiting Niagara Falls with his family. I am sure David Letterman, who I am a fan of too and who has expressed his own concerns for the plight of his fellow New Yorkers suffering from this storm, would understand why NAL focused on the relief crews heading across the border. 

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. PLEASE NOTE that we only post comments from individuals who also share their first and last names.)