Stephen Leacock

Stephen Leacock has played a small but significant role in my life. I think he might have been on one of my reading lists in high school. But, it was when I took my first (night) course at a university in the Stephen Leacock building on the McGill campus, my life changed. I was over-awed by the building and the course and the realization that one could spend their life with debate and discussion about literature - at least it was a possibility. One that was not fulfilled for many years. 

Over all those years, Leacock’s vision of the perfect small town has stayed with me. From time to time, I have thought I might find a version of it in the Okanagan. Lately, I have discovered it right here in Ambleside. 

We have the banks - many banks along with many money exchanges. Our shops can be a little off the wall - the large corner woman’s shop that sells only pajamas and maybe the odd bathing suit. Beside that one is/was a shop that sold only organic fertilizer and designer wall paper.  (Covid may have put him/her out of business). And, just steps way, is our own exclusive pot shop. Our new delightful mayor is just quirky enough and friendly enough with all the shopkeepers.

As I sit on a park bench by our newly re-opened Ferry Building, I can envision a steam boat (or party boat) picking up the town’s elite from the wharf to take them for an excursion up to Indian Arm for their annual picnic on the August Bank Holiday.

We have our very own Mariposa.

Back in the day, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town was one of the short stories that was required reading in high schools all over Canada.

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is considered the masterpiece of Stephen Leacock. Originally published in 1912, it is a set of fictional tales occurring in the little hamlet of Mariposa, on the coast of Lake Wissanotti. Mariposa is not an actual place. This composition has continued to thrive for its global appeal. Many of the characters, however patterned on locals of Orillia, are country town cliches. Their inadequacies and weaknesses are depicted in a funny yet sympathetic way.
Quoting Leacock: "Mariposa is not a real town. On the contrary, it is about seventy or eighty of them. You may find them all the way from Lake Superior to the sea, with the same square streets and the same maple trees and the same churches and hotels."