Lake Muskoka, ON - Gord Nixon
I grew up in Montreal but spent my summers down in the eastern townships and we lived right on Brome Lake.
Great memories of sailing and regattas and swimming and boating. It really was the central part of our lives. The water body that had the biggest influence on my life has been Lake Muskoka. My wife’s family has been up there since 1889 and I’ve spent about 40 years there and that’s where my kids in their summers have learned to swim and sail. It really is home to them more so than our homes in the cities. One of the greatest memories or stories I have with respect to water was in Kenya where I had the pleasure of being over there to open a well. When we opened the well in this community, the whole town was out and they were just so excited and to see them with literally buckets and they have the ability to pull on the lever and to have access to water and when you think of how we take water for granted it was something that was lasting memory in terms of how important it is to people and to communities. From my perspective, I became so much more aware of water issues as a result of the activities of Royal Bank when we decided to take water as our main environmental issue and as I became more and more aware and educated of water and water issues, something that I had taken for granted most of my life, I came to realize how important it was to protect it and to ensure its safety going forward.