(cheering & applause)
A gorgeous little town in haliburton county
With close proximity to dozens lakes, and rivers.
In fact, your town straddles the mighty gull river.
The gull river was once famous for moving logs
During the heyday of the logging industry.
Now, the gull is more known for moving
Inner tubes, kayaks, and canoes.
I'm told that around 100,000 people come here
Every summer to do everything from
Lazy drifting, to tackling your world class
Competitive whitewater rapids.
(cheering & applause)
However, things have not been so harmonious
With the river in recent years.
The gull river has gone from moving logs to moving kayaks
To moving into your basements.
(laughing)
You guys had what they call a hundred years' flood in 2013.
- And 2017... - (laughing)
- And 2019. - (laughing)
The gull river moved into your basement
Three times over seven years.
That's less like a river, more like your son
With a fine arts degree.
(laughing)
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see the people have a sense of humour about hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
[announcer] mr. Johnny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect it, canada's struggling small town.
Towns that are against the ropes but hanging in there.
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is minden, ontario.
♪
(cheering & applause)
I don't want to speak ill of the gull.
It's just that sometimes your river, not unlike myself,
It gets full of itself and breaches certain boundaries.
(laughing)
But even despite the floods, people flock here to minden.
And not just tourists, people want to buy here.
Sometimes I wonder if the floods make it
Easier to sell real estate. "cottage for sale in minden."
"oh... Is it by the water?" "pfft, sometimes."
(laughing)
- Woo! - (applause)
♪
If information is power, but the power's out,
Who do you call during a flood?
Your town communication officer, emily stonehouse.
(cheering & applause)
She got here in 2018.
She missed the first two floods,
But was just in time to get her feet wet.
I actually moved right into that house right there.
I was settling in, I had my first little garden.
I was really becoming part of the community.
My heart was just getting fuller and fuller with
Everything we had here and then,
Our community flooded.
So, from those windows, you can look out,
And I was literally watching the water creep up
Closer and closer to my house.
This is something I've heard from a lot of people in town,
That, that feeling, you're watching the water rise,
Come towards you. Is this happening?
And, I can relate. I had the exact same experience -
Very similar experience, okay... I, ah...
I backed up a toilet, gave it a second flush,
And the water's rising, the waters'--
No, this can't be happening. At a party, not my own home.
Line up of people waiting to get in.
I'm watching the water rise. This can't-- no, god!
Anything but this.
Actually, no, probably worse for you guys.
You couldn't just jump out the 2nd storey window and run away.
(laughing)
[emily] so, I was the communications officer at
The time and, what I had to do is make sure that
Effective communication went out into the community so
People knew what was going on. That's the most important thing,
Is that everybody's on the same page.
She was impressed by the way the town jumped into action.
This is the third flood, of course.
There was a plan of attack in place.
People know what to do now.
[emily] you have all of the people of the community
Who are just stepping up to be volunteers.
There are people serving food in different places.
There are trucks going by with sandbags.
Everybody is helping everybody out.
Still, it was harrowing and exhausting.
As communications officer, she worked 48 days straight,
Often with huge stretches with no sleep.
It was crazy.
It was nothing like I've ever experienced before.
And after a particularly long shift, I did come home
And my whole front yard had been sandbagged,
And I don't know who did it. (laughs)
She was still relatively new.
She said whoever did it probably didn't even know
That she lived there or even who she was.
Now, I thought that's pretty cool.
That's like the minden twist on welcoming
Somebody to your community.
You don't leave a pie on the porch.
You leave sandbags along the retaining wall.
(laughing & applause)
Mindenites have become efficient now at flood relief,
But still, it's like every spring,
Everyone now has that anxiety.
And you'll see the water come up and you're kind of
Holding your breath, you're holding your breath,
And then all of a sudden, it's may,
And you're like, okay, I think we did it.
I think we made it through this year.
I found that a bit heartbreaking.
It's like, does that mean you guys can't get excited
About spring like the rest of us?
I feel like canadians deserve that.
After a canadian winter, you should be able
To get excited about spring.
You get a warm day in April, you should think,
"oh, sweet, break out the sandals."
Not, "shit, break out the sandbags."
(cheering & applause)
You know, in a town that's had to pick up the pieces
And put them back together, isn't it fitting that I talked
To a couple who own and operate a jigsaw puzzle company?
Brigitte gall and michael bainbridge.
(cheering & applause)
They spent a lot of time in minden, loved it,
Thought it would be a great place to raise their daughters.
Eventually they committed, they bought a house.
Fast forward a couple years and the first flood.
I was home with the girls, and it was raining.
Raining, raining, raining. We're right on the river.
And I'm seeing the water coming up and coming up.
Brigitte is at the front window looking at the water rise--
Stop me if you've heard this one, folks.
Watching the water rise and come towards her house.
It's getting darker, and it's getting later,
And I'm going back and forth and I'm trying to call michael.
She can't get michael on the phone.
He's a photographer, working in rochester.
The girls are upstairs, asleep.
The house is surrounded by water.
Now I'm starting to realize,
Oh, my god, I gotta get out of here.
And before she leaves, she makes a facebook post.
She was gonna upload a video,
But the river was streaming faster than she could.
(laughing)
So, I'm, I'm in rochester.
My publisher shows me her ipad with a picture of
Our driveway with the water coming up to the truck.
Imagine you find out your wife and kids are
Fleeing your home on facebook.
What do you do, give it a like?
- Seems insensitive. - (laughing)
And now I'm backing out of the driveway and
I'm realizing, oh, my god, how deep the water is,
And it's cold.
She can't see the surface of the road.
She knows there's ditches on either side,
But doesn't know where they are.
She said to keep herself and the girls from freaking out,
She said, "okay, girls, we're gonna sing a song."
In that strange high voice that you sometimes get
When you're like, [high pitch] "hey, ladies! Let's sing!"
And it sounds so cheesy,
But the only thing that came to my head...
Was 'oh, canada'.
So, there she is in the flood, in the dark,
In the truck, the girls are singing.
She's got tears streaming down.
She's singing 'oh, canada', as the water's-- I doubt it
Was with a glowing heart she did see thee rise.
Of course, after the flood,
Brigitte and michael sat down and they discussed it.
And, what if it happens again?
And, do we stay or do we move?
There was a lot of, you know, practical things to consider,
But one thing brigitte said was, she was so impressed by
The way the community supported each other.
They embraced us when we needed them most.
They helped in every possible way.
And to leave felt like, well...
It would be like a betrayal of everything that had happened.
Like, you don't want to bail on your neighbour.
Bail's a poor choice of words, I'm sorry.
Bail with your neighbour. Maybe that's the motto.
But as far as the puzzle company goes,
They had some friends over.
For three days, we had 8 friends circling our kitchen table
Working on this, this van gogh puzzle.
And at one point, brigitte and I
Found ourselves standing back and thinking...
It was like the same thought bubble, boop, boop, boop.
- Exactly. - Ah...
Maybe that's what we do.
They thought, my god, jigsaw puzzles.
Perfect for cottage country, do you know what I mean?
It doesn't require wifi, or electricity, or sobriety.
So, next thing you know, now we have a puzzle company
And this is how we stay.
Michael showed me a little bit of the process
Of making puzzles. He made a puzzle of me.
Basically, there's a template made out of razor blade.
Then he rolls it through a machine that exerts 750 tons
Of pressure, punches the card down through the razor blade,
Comes out the end in 504 pieces.
I hadn't seen my face that cut up
Since I taught myself to shave.
- Look at that. - There you go, my friend.
Thank you.
And that's it, I'm officially puzzled.
I always figured I was, but now it's official.
I think, I don't know. I'm never sure.
♪
I couldn't visit minden without stopping by
The most famous building in town.
I went over to the dominion hotel and
I had a chat with owner, shawn chamberlin.
(cheering & applause)
The d, as locals like to call it.
The dominion hotel has been around longer than
The dominion of canada.
This building opened in 1865.
Wow, wow.
1865, the d was erected. That's 155 years.
I thought if your d was erect for more than four hours,
You're supposed to call a doctor.
(laughing & cheering)
So, three major floods in seven years.
Did you stay open for business while all this was going on?
We did. We actually had customers
Come to our back door here with their canoes.
So, they boated to our back door,
That's how much water was here.
Shawn said he's had people finish their stint
Sandbagging and row up to the back door
Of the dominion, in canoes, in rowboats.
(laughing)
I wonder, if someone comes to your bar in a rowboat and
Drinks too much, is that a dilemma for a bartender?
Do you know what I mean? It's like, okay, I'll serve you,
But you're gonna have to leave your oars with me.
(laughing)
[shawn] this is the unofficial hub of information.
During the floods, we had people calling in
To take a temperature on the town.
One day, alone, I tracked 172 phone calls.
Really?
His staff was frustrated.
No one could get any work done,
They're all tied to the phone.
So, shawn, who's a bit old school,
Had to break down and do something that he didn't
Want to do, he bought a cordless phone for the bar.
- (laughing) - no choice.
He had to get with the times.
If the times were like, late 80s, early 90s.
(laughing)
Heaven forbid, but if there is another flood,
I think he might break down and get a pager.
(laughing & cheering)
Here in minden, you know,
You can get beers from boshkung brewing,
Famously delicious ice cream from kawartha dairy,
Or you can get a soft serve at river cone.
But if you're looking for something old,
And something new, and something tasty too,
Look no further than minden's antique store, slash,
Thai food restaurant. From suwan's thai cuisine,
Suwan khambduang.
(cheering & applause)
- Hi, suwan, how are you? - Hi, johnny, how are you?
It's nice to finally meet you.
You're kind of famous in this area.
- (laughs) - yes.
Suwan moved to minden with her husband, ron.
Ron owns the antique shop.
I start to work with him a little bit and,
I say, I don't think I can do the antiques.
I can do, but it's not my thing, I said, yeah.
She wanted to make thai food for people.
That's what she'd been doing professionally
From the age of 14.
And ron said, "oh, thai food's never gonna go."
I said, "thai food will go."
Ron was a bit more weary. He knew she was a great cook,
But wasn't sure if thai food would take off in a small town.
Well, turns out he couldn't have been more-ron.
(laughs)
Oh, when the first day we opened,
People just line up to the door.
The first day she opened, people just flooded the--
Bah, sorry, poor choice of words.
(laughing)
People were pouring-- no.
So many people came that you couldn't find a seat.
She ran out of seats.
We don't prepare to get this busy.
I said, "I don't have no seats." I said,
"if you can find a chair, you can have the seat."
And they went downstairs, looked for the chair,
And they find a chair.
- From ron's shop. - That's right.
One person went over to ron's antique store and
Took a chair from there.
This sounds a bit brazen to me.
Anywhere there was somewhere to sit,
Somebody was sitting. I think even the toilet.
Next thing it was like, "suwan, make mine extra spicy.
Might as well, I'm already here."
(laughing)
She said, you know, the restaurant that she has now,
It's her dream set up, you know.
It's popular, but small enough that she can manage,
She can do the cooking.
And what she loves about it, no haggling over the price.
She said that's what she hated the most
In the antique store.
Like, okay, this is 100, 100 dollars.
And people would say, "can I give you...
...30 bucks or $20?" I say, "oh, I can't do this."
She didn't want to negotiate with people so,
That's not the case in her restaurant, okay.
Pad thai, $16.
Noodles are soft, price is firm.
Want me to sweeten the deal, order some dessert.
Mango sticky rice, 6 bucks.
(laughs & applause)
♪
- Hey, guys. - How are ya?
- Good, how you doing? - Very well.
I was impressed to hear about minden's pride festival.
(cheering & applause)
Attended last year by over 2,000 people.
I talked to a guy who helps organize,
But his drag queen character, plum vicious,
She's the real big wig, real big wig.
I sat down and had a chat with shawn smandych.
(cheering & applause)
First year was literally just a picnic, and then
It just grew quite quickly into being more of an event.
Pride is growing exponentially and has had
Huge support from this small town.
They organize a burlesque ball, there's street performers,
Food vendors, people are dressing up.
They first gave shawn a call when they were
Throwing around the idea of drag queen story hour.
Now, drag queen story hour is a growing phenomenon
In bigger cities, where drag queens come in and
Read kids' stories to kids in public libraries.
They asked shawn to participate.
He agreed so, he got done up as plum vicious.
♪
Shawn said he's never been into the subtle side of drag.
I mean, plum vicious is an extraordinary getup.
I'm thinking, in a rural ontario town?
Like, are they ready for this up here, like...?
So, I said, "let's just see."
And he comes in full regalia, and he said, of course,
It's the youngest kids who aren't phased by this at all.
They were exceedingly engaged and interactive,
Completely onboard the whole time.
You know, you'd ask a question. They were just right there.
They were firing back at you as fast as you could say anything.
For kids who were like me with attention issues,
That's gotta be-- just have somebody spectacular
To look to keep you engaged.
I mean, when we got read to in kindergarten,
There was none of that.
There was no big hair and massive lashes,
Jewelry, we had none of that.
We had none... We had nuns...
We had nuns!
He, he told me, you know, there was this one gentleman
Who came up and wanted to get a picture with plum.
He said this gentleman might have been 80 years old.
And he goes, "do you mind if I have a photo with you?"
And I said, "well, of course."
And he says, "the whole reason I want to have this is,
I want to show my kids and my grandkids that
No matter who they are and what they become,
I'm totally cool."
I thought my grandfather was cool for pulling
A quarter out from behind my ear.
But to me, there's a grandfather who's
Really embracing change.
Oh! (laughing)
And I think between minden pride and story time,
Being exposed and open to something like this
Allows the kids to see that, you know what,
Yeah, it's okay to be just who you are in your own skin,
Whatever that is.
But I think the cool thing about minden pride is,
It's gotta be a game changer for kids to see that firsthand,
And not just to see shawn and the performers,
But to see it supported by the community.
And now, maybe it's not like,
Oh, you know, there's this world out there somewhere,
Where what I'm feeling is okay.
Maybe it's, you know, it's okay here.
Woo!
(cheering & applause)
I can't wait 'til minden pride has a full-on pride parade.
I mean, a town that has this many floods,
Your floats are gonna be fabulous.
(laughing & applause)
When I heard there was world class paddling happening here,
I didn't want to leave until I saw it.
Who better to show me the gull whitewater rapids than
Canada's whitewater woman, claudia van wijk.
(cheering & applause)
Claudia is ten-time
Canadian national whitewater kayaking champion.
- (cheering) - in a row, that's incredible.
Usually, in whitewater kayaking, there's a lot of turnover.
(laughing)
This river is so special because it's narrow.
So, it has forced the water to go faster...
- Is that right? - And, it's...
...Revered around the world.
Claudia's not only a champ of the sport,
But a huge advocate for it.
She lobbied hard to have whitewatering included at
The 2015 pan am games, which, of course,
Were held in toronto.
Organizers said, "no, no, no, minden's too far away."
And it actually took two years of a lot of bureaucracy.
I sat around many board tables, and we were able to
Host the canoe slalom here on the gull.
She fought hard for it. Eventually she won.
So, of course, who did they ask during the torch relay
To bring the torch down the gull rapids?
Canada's whitewater woman.
(cheering & applause)
After chatting on the river, it was time to take the plunge.
Left, right, nice and vertical.
Okay!
[johnny] we get going, she tells me she's gonna control the
Steering back there, but I had to keep paddling.
I was responsible for forward momentum.
I thought the river was taking care of that just fine.
(laughing)
So, we're zipping along and, you know,
I think we're doing well and then we get to the otter slide.
Woohoo! Here's the big one!
[johnny] oh, man!
To me, it was a bizarre experience.
I've never gone downhill on water.
My whole life, the only water I've ever been in, horizontal.
(laughing)
But then you hit what they call the standing waves.
Woo! That's it! Reach over the waves!
You're doused in water. It's in my eyes, in my mouth.
I'm spitting it out, I'm trying to remember what she said.
Keep paddling.
So, I get back at it and, of course,
You hit the second standing wave, doused again.
- Woo! - Ha-ha-ha!
Third standing wave, I felt like,
Oh, my god, still standing waves?
- (laughs) - oh!
Still standing waves!
That's what you should call them!
- Hey, how'd it go? - He's a true canadian!
- He knows how to paddle. - Great job, johnny.
- Well done. - Thanks, guys.
Woo!
(laughing)
♪
Minden's a place where you can piece together a puzzle
Or go to a party for pride.
Where flood relief folks can row to the d and
Buy beers from canoe at high tide.
(laughing)
Paddling and ice cream and exotic thai dishes...
Or stories for kids as read by plum vicious.
- Woo! - (applause)
In the times of emergency, anxiety was high.
Surely, the stakes were high too.
In fact, the steaks couldn't be higher if you had
A cow on the roof,
Which come to think of it, you do.
(laughing)
Your backs are strong from sandbagging,
Even though it sometimes makes them stiffen.
But in minden, you don't go bail on your neighbour.
Grab a bucket and go bale with 'em.
Thanks for coming out to the show, minden.
(cheering & applause)
It gave me a whole new level of pride in minden.
For being a really small town, they've got a huge heart.
- And now we go in? - Eh, whoa, whoa!
Just kidding! (laughing)
♪
I had an idea for your pad thai.
What if you called it, paddle thai?
♪
- Paddle thai? - Like a canoe paddle.
- Like a kayak. - Okay, okay.
- Like a joke. - Mhm.
Not a very good joke. But a joke, nonetheless.
♪
You know what my favourite part was?
Hm?
How johnny really managed to pull all the pieces
Of the puzzle together.
Yes, yes, very funny.
♪