David+Adams+Richards

David Adams Richards is one of Miramichi's most famous authors. His books have been studied througout the world and are of particular interest in Russia. This article, taken from the Toronto Globe and Mail, captures the essence and spirit of the Miramichi. Thanks to Jennifer Sullivan who brought this to my attention. You can learn more about David by means of an interview that was conducted by District 16 students and which can be found at the following web site:http://cspace.unb.ca/miramichi/chathamlibrary/richards.html

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail December 19, 2007**
 * DAVID ADAMS RICHARDS

A friend of mine visited from the Miramichi two days ago, bringing Christmas presents for the kids. He is up here, in Toronto, working a shutdown. That is to say, he's a man who goes into a plant when it closes for repairs and does repairs, a travelling troubleshooter of sorts for industry - in this case, American industry, Chrysler or Ford.

He has been doing this now for 25 years: away from home, seasonally, for a generation. He has raised his family this way. The copper-zinc mine he used to have a steady job at, on the Miramichi River, closed years ago, when he was much younger and far wilder. Well, he can still be wild. Enough to make many turn pale. Yes, they'll never take that away. But I often wonder if he ever thinks of the cards life has dealt him. His marriage is over, in part because of his travels - yet he needed those jobs to pay the bills.

The fishing is gone on my river, the mines, too, and the lumber industry has been hit blows that would stagger Jake LaMotta. Another mill has gone down this month - UPM from Finland; 600 more men. It becomes, after a while, just another statistic.

My friend is just one of the hundreds of men (and women) from Miramichi, New Brunswick - home of my great river - doing this now: travelling for dignity. In a real way, as clandestine as it seems to people who might not know, these men from all parts of our country are still the backbone of the nation. You meet them in places they never thought they would have to go. You can tell by their eyes, in a second, that they are the ones to keep Canada going. They have worked shutdowns and drilling operations and pipelines; in the woods and on the water; have repaired everything from heavy equipment to sewers, to hydro, and travelled to Quebec during the ice storm, or to B.C. during the fires, and helped keep people alive.

To say these men didn't have proper life skills or training - which might be said by some - is as silly as saying executive management of the '90s should have known it was going to be downsized, or a professor was silly because he wasn't offered tenure, even though he was as capable as anyone in his field.

The Miramichiers believed, too, in the industry they were trained for.

They are millwrights and boilermakers and mechanics, lumbermen and heavy equipment operators. They married and had dreams, and kids and houses and jobs. There was nothing wrong then or now with the skills they acquired. They simply need to travel farther from where they belong to use the skills they have. And now they're growing old.

They leave their families behind in order to send money home. They spend months in single rooms, sleeping and working, and keeping children's birthday promises and spouse's anniversary dates, by e-mail or cellphone. So the problems with substance abuse and broken lives won't be mentioned here.

The real secret is the damn mill was never ours anyway. That is Canada's true tragedy, which goes beyond my region.

This time, the company was Finnish. It could have been from anywhere. But whoever owned it, they were dealing with people they didn't know, or ever feel obligated to. Our natural resource was all that mattered. The sanctity and security of our life didn't matter too much. In fact, the Finns are still cutting the wood as I write this. They will just ship it to other places for processing. That is a cynicism and disrespect to our people, not only by the Finnish company (in the end, who gives a fig about them?) but by our own government. Come to think of it, it is never morally justifiable to lay all the blame on outsiders.

So the people of the Miramichi are kept afloat by the Alberta tar sands. The men I know, many old school friends of mine, and their sons, have gone out. This is what keeps our towns and villages going this Christmas Eve. For the entire substrata of our economy, the shops and stores and appliance dealers and property owners depend on a world that has crumbled beneath them. The men have gone away - and send money home to keep the region alive.

It's been almost 50 years since the great Escuminac fishing disaster. On June l9, l959, 35 men, drifting for salmon in Miramichi Bay, were drowned in the most violent storm to ever hit our water. On that desperate night, men gave their lives for their friends, boys no older than l5 made sure their little brothers and fathers were saved before themselves, small boats turned back into the teeth of the storm, and refused to abandon those in trouble.

When asked about it, one fisherman said: "What in hell else could we do?"

I am sure the men leaving everything they have known to provide for those they love say the same thing now.