With Judy MacLachlan’s Passing, a Fond Reminiscence and a Clarion Call

Judy, along with her close friends and allies, Margherita Howe and Laura Dodson were passionate citizen activists who were never afraid to speak truth to power in the Old Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake

A Tribute to Judy MacLauchlan and Friends by John Nicol

Posted October 31^st, 2023 on Niagara At Large

It was 30 years ago that I wrote about two “old crones” waging battle from a kitchen bunker in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Margherita Howe, twelve years on from her successful fight to clean up the Niagara River, had other fish to, er, unfry. With her was Laura Dodson, who often bankrolled their battles.

Their adversaries were developers and all-too-pliant town councilors all-too-willing to irrevocably change their beloved Niagara-on-the-Lake.

“We are no more immune than big cities–greed is conquering all,” said Margherita, from her large white house on Gate Street. “Until we get younger people who are going to care–this town is so beautiful, it’s such a jewel–people don’t care.”

As I watched Margherita and Laura try to track down the developer by phone, Margherita said: “Isn’t this hysterical, two old crones” at work. I repeated the word “crones” in my column headline, meant in a positive context: wise women disagreeable in a constructive way.

A while later their younger sidekick, Judy MacLachlan, dropped in. Together, the three of them were regulars at Monday night town council, fighting issues such as allowing McDonald’s to set up on the town’s main street, and all sorts of cockamamie schemes that would have made the historic town as tacky as Clifton Hill.

In a conversation with Judy in recent weeks, she was loath to admit they might have won some battles, but adamant that they lost the war to protect the town.

“It’s gone, John, it’s gone,” she said by WhatsApp video.

Her daughter Sarah had set up the call for me to say goodbye because Judy had decided to use M.A,I.D.–Medical Assistance In Dying. She was tired of fighting cancer and other maladies. That took place on October 27.

By now, I’m sure, she has already joined Laura and Margherita at the latter’s celestial kitchen table to wage another good fight.

And now that I won’t get out-debated by Judy, I’d like to counter her argument.

Niagara-on-the-Lake was destined to change.

The Shaw Festival had already let the word out that the town was special. It didn’t take long before their main street gas station became a restaurant, and their library was moved to a Godforsaken place off Highway 55. And a misguided attempt to prettify the park and the streetscapes made it look Disney-World-ish.

As busloads of tourists descended, mom-and-pop stores gave way to tourism entrepreneurs.

Some would say it’s upmarket tacky–but the bones of the town would have been obliterated if not for the work of Judy, Laura and Margherita.

Tourism is a worldwide problem. Bigger cities have a better chance of protecting their allure, but don’t go to Salzburg looking for evidence of the Von Trapp family without getting trampled by tourists, nor try looking for a boulangerie in Mont-St-Michel without getting swept away by onrushing hordes. (Been to Key West lately? It has lost all its charm.)

Furthermore, the work of Judy, Laura and Margherita (and Gracia Janes)

inspired many journalists, myself included,  and especially Doug Draper (another former St. Catharines Standard reporter) who runs this site and has dedicated his life to making Niagara a better place to live.

Doug is a male version of a crone, older now, and fighting maladies of his own.

He was always a big fan of Robert F. Kennedy (Sr., that is), who famously said: “Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events.”

So this is a long winded way for me to say, “Thank you Judy,” for battles won, and changing a small portion of events.

All we need now, as Magherita said thirty years ago, is to find the “younger people who are going to care…”

To read the official obituary on Judy MacLachlan’s passing, click on – https://obituaries.stcatharinesstandard.ca/obituary/judith-elizabeth-maclachlan-nee-weston-1088988417 

About The Author Of This Column – John Nicol is a native of Niagara, Ontario who is now living and working as a journalist in Spain.

During the 1980s and 1990s, when The St. Catharines Standard was then a proud independently-owned newspaper, owned by the Burgoyne family with deep, caring roots in the same city, John Nicol distinguished himself as an investigative reporter and columnist whose work garnered a good number of provincial and national journalism awards.

When, in the late 1990s, The Standard fell victim to the talons of Conrad Black (then a poster boy for the greediest strain of take-no-prisoners, predatory capitalism)  and his infamous Hollinger media corporations , many good reporters and editors decided, one way or another, to leave the paper before the meat axe fell.

The sad news is that the newspaper’s new corporate masters did not care if the likes of John Nicol or Doug Draper left, just so long as the gutting of newsroom staff numbers produced a monetary reward for their shareholders.

It was by no means taken lightly by  journalists like John Nicol and to this reporter, Doug Draper, that people like Judy MacLachlan, Margherita Howe and Laura Dodson, who cared about the health and welfare of their community and about the role newspapers play in it, were sorry to see the newsroom we once thrived in reduced to bones.

To read a previous column by John Nicol and posted on Niagara At Large, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2011/03/05/niagara%E2%80%99s-henry-burgoyne-%E2%80%93-a-%E2%80%98life-lived%E2%80%99-with-passion-for-quality-journalism-in-niagara-and-yes-for-family-friends-and-fast-cars-too/

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