Newmarket

 
The contrasts of old and new make Newmarket a beehive of bi-polar disorder. Main Street and Fairy Lake create much a comparison with the new subdivisions and mall-additions that the town is experiencing right now. In a way, this works out to Newmarket's advantage, as it makes rural folk adapt so much more easily to city life, and city folk adapt easily to small-town life.

So what's so exciting about this part of mid-York Region? The urban sprawl has been ticking for some time for this town of seventy thousand, but thankfully, most of its old world heritage stays untouched as its Main Street district caters to its new audience of tourists.

What probably impresses me the most is the amount of support it gets from its residents and the region itself. The administrative headquarters of the Regional Municipality of York are located just up the street from its central courthouse, and it seems quite unusual to think that the town is actually the regional seat.

Of course, those administrative decisions are out of our hands, but it seems like quite the place to put a commuter train station AND the last stop on the Viva bus rapid transit line here. In contrasts to, ahem, more populous parts of the region, it hasn't lost its charm.

The shops that line up on Main Street are quite the feat to see given the big-box development going on in other parts of this town. Brandon and I even stopped by a store selling British and Scottish fare, which makes our afternoon delight even more pleasurable.

From the Coronation Street memorabilia to the incredibly large stock of steak sauces, it seems that we were transported to a different part of the world. But the minute we stepped out of this wonderful shoppe, the cars were driving on the right side again, and American television was the most television that residents watch. It's a feat to replicate that kind of power, especially with the lack of parity we get with the Canadian dollar abroad.

This definitely beats any day in the laptop aisles at the local Best Buy.

So what did we learn in our visit to this part of York Region? Well, it seems we didn't learn anything, but that is definitely not a negative process in this situation. We actually enjoyed ourselves in Newmarket.