Ontario: diversity + lakefront?

August 11, 2018 12:14 PM

What are the most demographically diverse cottage towns in Southern Ontario, located within a couple hours of Toronto?

I like going to cottages and swimming in Ontario lakes. I dislike spending time in places where the population is homogenously white and straight.

Is there a cottage town within a couple hours' drive of Toronto that has a reasonably-sized population of people of colour (especially Black people), and maybe some queer people?

Thanks!

posted by pseudostrabismus to Society & Culture (2 answers total)

Best answer: Are you looking for places to live, or the people who will be on the public beach beside you? Because most places within a day trip of Toronto get a pretty diverse group of day trippers. Otherwise, cottage country is definitely still very white. You can look up community profiles on Stats Can to get an ethnic breakdown of residents.

The south shore of Lake Simcoe (Georgina) is just over an hour from DT. Very white community, but it does have a large population of First Nations because of the Chippewa Nation. More and more ethnically Chinese residents, and getting a larger Desi community. Not a huge Black population, about 1,000 out of the 40,000 population base. Being queer/trans is not hugely remarkable. I know five people who have publicly transitioned in the community with little blow-back, and a lot more openly queer folks. Not really a religious community (really only three churches with small populations each, which is small for the population size) which may have something to do with that. Jackson’s Point is much more relaxed than Keswick in my experience; Jackson’s Point was/is the place the Jewish community came to when the rest of Cottage Country had a “whites-only” policy. So that seems to have set the tone, and the existing small synagogue has been left unmolested. As many Georgina residents work in Markham/Toronto/Scarborough there tends to be a lot more personal experience working with a diverse population.

Generally around cottage country there are a bunch of cottage trailer parks that centre around a specific ethnicity, I’m sure there must be one for the Black population as well, I’m sorry I can’t be more specific. Contacting a Realtor who works in the Black community may generate some leads about where the Black community is cottaging.
posted by saucysault at 3:17 PM on August 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You would be surprised at the number of Desi, Middle Eastern and Black humans that live up around Owen Sound. We were there for the fireworks at Canada day and the Demographics of the area have definitely shifted.

They also had their first pride parade this year.


Along the shores of Lake Huron anywhere from Port Franks upward you will find lots of different types of families enjoying the water and natural surroundings. Even up Tobermory way.

We were just camping at the Pinery and the delicious food smells coming out of the neighboring campgrounds was something else. Korean, Chinese, Black, and many many women in Hijabs. And there was a huge Desi family (like 50+ people) playing games all together in the water at the beach. They were having a blast.
posted by csmithrim at 7:50 AM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]