Here we are in markdale, ontario!
[cheering & applauding]
The, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for..."
[audience] ice cream!
Ice cream capital of canada.
[cheering & applauding]
Home, of course, to chapman's ice cream,
The country's largest ice cream maker.
It is the last of markdale's big employers,
Even while your footwear
Manufacturing jobs got the boot...
[laughing]
And your ski industry went downhill.
Ice cream kept this town root beer afloat.
[laughing]
Your ice cream factory here continued to employ people
Even through 2009, when the factory burned to the ground.
Now that's a whole other story, I'll get into it.
But for now, let's just say it is the worst case of
Freezer burn I've ever heard.
[laughing]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see that people have a sense of humour
About hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
[mc] mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect, canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes, but hanging in there.
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is markdale, ontario.
♪
Markdale, like many small towns across canada,
Has seen real growth and development from,
From a perfect storm of three things.
First of all, the pandemic, covid.
Second, insanely high real estate prices
In the big cities.
And, third, a trend of people being able to work from home.
People moving back out of the cities into rural areas.
Small towns are getting young people.
You're getting an infusion of fresh blood,
Which always seems to work for keith richards.
[laughing]
♪
I met with a woman who has seen incredible growth here.
When she first got here in 1978,
This place only had one stoplight.
Just decades later, that number has doubled.
[laughing]
I talked with the owner of p.J. Knickerbocker toys,
Pam petch.
[cheering & applauding]
Tell me about, you know, when you opened your store here
And what the local business scene was like at the time.
Well, I opened it 27 years ago.
There was a lot going on in the town.
But over the years, little by little,
You see one shop close and another one close.
Sometimes we felt like we were barely standing and
Not still standing. - Right, right.
She has seen real, you know,
Rural decline here over the decades.
Our grocery store, losing it downtown was a hit.
Nordic furniture, they made beautiful furniture.
They closed up. Tera footwear was a huge one.
-Yeah. -They employed a lot of people.
The closing of the tera boots factory.
When they pulled the plug on the operation,
You guys were just hoping that they were gonna reboot.
[laughing]
Talisman, the ski resort, they closed up.
That was another huge hit because it had employed
A lot of people and it drew so many people to this area.
I've talked to a lot of people in town who said
When they were young, that was their first job,
Up at the ski hill.
And as far as the skiing goes, that was, you know,
That was kind of your last resort.
[laughing]
Markdale was struggling, but still had chapman's
As a major employer.
And then, September 4th, 2009.
They had a huge fire.
Seeing the huge flames happening and,
All of the fire trucks and police cars.
I live just up that street, and the day that it happened,
There were burning pieces of black,
Charred things falling in our neighbourhood.
And the future of the community was in jeopardy.
People thought, you know, not only are these jobs
In jeopardy, but, but the support industry.
When you're in a small community,
You know all the employees there and...
You just felt so bad for them.
And we're all kind of, well, what do we do?
People were worried, you know, like,
"oh, maybe we'll not only lose our jobs,
But our town will sort of lose its identity."
You thought that you were,
You thought you were double fudged.
[laughing]
♪
I got a chance to talk to a guy who played a big role in
Keeping the chapman's rebuild here in markdale
'cause there's no place like cone.
Ashley chapman.
[cheering & applauding]
Chapman's was founded by ashley's parents.
He said back in the 70s.
There was a point where they were about $500 from
Going out of business.
My parents were out beating the bushes for every single
Container of ice cream sold.
Even when my sister and I were born,
They were just dedicated to this business and growing it.
Don't think for a second that this guy was born with
A silver scoop in his mouth.
[laughing]
It was more like one of those little wooden,
Like the little flat like a...
[laughing]
It was late 80s, early 90s when,
When the business really started to pick up.
Chapman's began a run of great success,
Which lasted for decades.
In fact, there was over 300 full-time employees
In September of 2009,
When it all went up in flames.
[sirens]
[roaring flames]
Mom, dad and I, we were standing up front watching
The firefighters from this entire region,
Show up and started fighting the fire.
And they, they fought the blaze,
But the factory burned to the ground.
The factory, the office, it was gone.
That day, the question came from my parents to me.
They said, "look, we're too old to do this for us.
So, if we're gonna rebuild this, like, it's,
It's got to be for you, as the future."
And I said, "yes, let's do it."
They made this decision while the factory was still on fire.
There was no time for waffling and nobody "wafered."
[laughing]
They sprang into action.
He said that week, they were on the phone,
They were getting in touch with their employees,
Saying, "don't move away.
Don't make like a banana and split.
We're gonna rebuild.
Don't move away looking for a new job."
And something really creepy happened, actually.
The week after the fire, I went to pick up the mail.
There's a flyer for a fire sale.
It was a fire sale in florida.
An ice cream factory had caught fire,
And they were selling the undamaged equipment.
Like, how weird is that?
Florida, I mean.
[laughing]
I got a lot of calls from different areas
Around ontario saying,
"hey, why not build your new factory with us?"
There was offers of free land and tax deferrals and whatnot.
At the end of the day, we couldn't.
As a family, we owed everything to this town, so...
Here we are, we're not gonna go anywhere.
He didn't name which communities were trying to
Seduce him, but I got a feeling, you know...
-Flesherton. -[laughing]
I think, you know, showing a little flesh, it's okay,
But a ton? Come on, flesherton.
[laughing]
Ashley told me that the main reason to stay in markdale
Was to keep people in the community employed.
But, the company would benefit from this as well.
It's not like you can go to college or university and
Learn how to run ice cream machinery, right?
Like, it's a very specialized,
So we needed our people to stay with us.
And not just that- it was things like, for example,
The recipes were destroyed in the fire.
Our mix-making department, they hadn't looked at
One of our recipes, probably in years.
They just knew how to make the mixes so,
A few days after the fire,
They just sat down and we wrote them all out.
"this is what goes in everything.
Here's your recipes back."
That's a big difference, I mean, that could have been-
Well, maybe it wouldn't be that hard, I don't know, I don't-
I don't want to be dismissive of the problem, but like,
To come up with the recipe for ice cream-
I just feel like, if I said to you,
"butter pecan ice cream,"
I think I just listed the 4 main ingredients, right?
[laughing]
♪
We did a little tour of the facility.
Did you eat a lot of ice cream as a kid?
Not really, we never really ate ice cream.
Now the factory's rebuilt, they are at peak production.
There are over 800 workers churning out ice cream
Full-time, 24 hours a day, 6 days a week.
6 or 7 days...?
5 days a week.
I couldn't remember if you made ice cream sundaes.
[laughing]
So, this is...?
Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream.
There was a bucket of, I think was, run off?
Run off ice cream.
I said, I said, "is this gonna be used?"
He said, "no." I said, "but it's still good?"
He said, "yes." anyway, later, I went back by myself,
I found this bucket of ice cream and...
I dunked my face in the bucket,
This huge steel bucket of ice cream,
Because when else are you gonna get a chance to do that?
Some people, their whole lives,
They'll never have that opportunity.
I came up to breathe and my face was-
It was like a, like one of those mud masks.
[laughing]
But ice cream, if they're supposed to make you
Look younger, I probably look two years old.
[laughing]
I wanted to ask this next guy how he went from
Out-of-towner to town councillor,
Deputy mayor aakash desai.
[cheering & applauding]
Aakash moved here to markdale in 2011.
He got involved with the community when he was young.
He joined the chamber of commerce when he was 21.
Before I moved to markdale,
I didn't know what fall fairs were.
I knew what cows were, obviously,
'cause my family back in india had, had cattle.
But I'd never really been around cattle.
He'd never heard of a fall fair.
By 2018, he was elected deputy mayor,
And they were asking him to go to fairs
To show cows and show pigs.
I never really understood the cows, like, you know,
Okay, you're walking in a circle.
Well, how do you judge a cow?
I don't know how a cow was judged, but I do know,
Fellas, you don't just stare at the teats.
[laughing]
Her eyes are up here, rib eyes.
[laughing]
The markdale fall fair actually said,
"well, you know, do you want to show a cow?"
I said, "of course."
They gave me this large beast.
I was walking this cow around,
And I got second prize.
-So the cow got the...? -I did.
-You got it? -Yeah, I did.
The cow barely did anything.
He won second place as the person showing the animals.
He couldn't believe it.
And, and, and one of the cows won- I think it was the
Biggest prize- which is the title of...
Canada's next top moodle.
[laughing]
Tell me about, you know,
What's happened in markdale since covid?
We've had a lot of interest in people
Who've moved to the area.
-Where are they coming from? -So, from the urban areas.
Compared to toronto, we're still a lot more affordable.
New subdivisions are being built here as we speak.
The fact that you can now work from home as long as
You have reliable internet, it just expands your,
You know, where you can live.
Working from home in markdale is better than
Working from home in toronto.
Because with the money you'll save on a home,
You could buy a desk, and the desk fits in the home.
[laughing]
♪
This next couple moved from bustling downtown toronto
For a fresh start running a main street deli
In a quaint small town.
It's still standing meets hallmark movie of the week.
I'm talking about suzy raposo and catherine clarke.
[cheering & applauding]
These gals have moved here from queen west,
An area called parkdale in toronto.
The pandemic put us in this position of, like,
We got to do our own thing.
This is- it was like challenging us in a way and
Challenged everybody.
They came to this area looking at options.
They wanted to run a business of their own.
- I was a chef. -Yeah?
Suzy was a hairdresser.
And we thought, like, we don't want to
Continue with the professions that we were in.
We were ready for a change.
You couldn't pick jobs that were more impacted
By the pandemic.
So, we came up here and we investigated.
Most of the businesses were empty.
And we saw this space that had been dormant for 5 years.
They came across a much beloved local diner,
Though it had sat empty for 5 years.
And catherine knew it was for sale.
And susie looked above the door,
And she saw "susan's," and she thought...
-"that's a sign." -[laughing]
We actually opened during the pandemic.
We said, "we need to open right now."
I'm just gonna open the door, I'm gonna put the sign out.
Not gonna say anything.
They made 250 bucks that day,
Just selling coffee and squares.
You know, 'cause susie bakes these squares.
She's the baker, she does actually all...
-Yeah, we traded roles. -...All the baking.
So, catherine now is front of house,
Which is what I've always been.
And I'm now hiding in the back, cooking and baking.
She went from a hairdresser to a baker.
She can make a gluten free loaf
Look like a natural breadhead.
[laughing]
♪
For a long time, this place has been known as
The home for horse therapy.
I had a chat with the maven of hope haven, barb sheperd.
[cheering & applauding]
Our mission here is to really empower and celebrate
Individuals of all ages who have disabilities and
Diverse challenges, by building their self-esteem,
And their confidence, and lifetime skills
Through hippotherapy.
It's called hippotherapy because 'hippo' is
Greek for horse.
But I gotta say if you call it hippotherapy and
There's kids coming...
[laughing]
Is that a little bit of false advertising because
There's no hippos? I'm just saying,
Is this sort of like what barenaked ladies did...
[laughing]
...To get people to come to their concerts?
[laughing]
It uses the movement of the horse to actually
Help improve the rider's motor skills,
And stability and coordination.
It's becoming more and more popular,
Not just because people believe in it,
But also because of the migration
That has happened in this area.
I've never seen a boom like this, it's crazy.
We have a waiting list now.
We're actually going to build a second arena,
So that we can...
Have more programs and not work 7 days a week.
They've been running 7 days a week.
I bet the horses are like, "wait a minute,
You've been open 7 days a week.
We're doing the running."
[laughing]
These horses, they're, they're intuitive,
They can read you.
I may ride a horse, and he'll be an idiot.
And then you get someone who has a challenge or a
Disability on the horse and behaves completely differently.
There was a horse there, a norwegian horse called fred,
Looked like a norwegian folklore professor.
[laughing]
And fred, he would kick the stall.
He would kick the door of the stall...
[banging]
...Several times during the interview, like,
At one point, he kicked the door and I was like,"
Hey, now." and he was like, "yeah, hay, now."
[laughing]
[whinnying]
After speaking with barb, I got a chance to groom
One of the horses with alexandra richardson.
[cheering & applauding]
She was a university student and
A ballet dancer in toronto.
At the age of 18, I was diagnosed with
A really aggressive stage four cancer.
And I finished chemo, then covid started.
And so, I was here almost all the time, because suddenly,
I had no immune system, and I couldn't be in the city.
So, during covid,
She moved in with her grandparents up here.
♪
Because of the chemo damage, I couldn't run,
I couldn't do anything high impact.
And grandma suggested hope haven and we got in touch.
She said at the beginning, she could only sit upright
On the horse for 5 minutes before she'd have
Painful muscle fatigue.
Just holding your core upright for 5 minutes
On something that's moving is so hard
When you haven't had to do that.
And that was the early days, but now, like,
I ride twice a week.
It became sort of the thing that she looked forward to
The most, going there twice a week.
And for her, for a lot of people,
The more riding they did, they would feel physically
And mentally stronger, right.
Being there in the barn with the horses,
Makes people feel stable.
[laughing]
♪
I went to a community barbecue put on by the
Rotaract club of markdale.
It's like a version of the rotary club,
But younger people.
-Patrick! -Hey, jonny, how's it going?
I'm well, how are you doing?
I had a chat with patrick petch.
[cheering & applauding]
Patrick's introduction to the rotary club,
His grandfather was very active in it.
My grandfather was a rotarian so, from like 9 years old,
He had me cutting onions for, for barbecues.
And he was very impressed even at that age that this
Group was, was very community minded.
And, he, he had the old rubber band effect.
He moved away for a while, felt he had to come back.
He got back, and he went to a rotary meeting,
And said that he was thinking about opening a rotaract.
A rotaract is essentially a younger version of rotary.
So, the whole idea behind rotoract is that
You're trying to get young leaders from the community
To get involved.
The rotary club were all for it, they said,
"yes, go for it."
Bring in some young people, bring in some, some...
Young energy, bring in people, you know,
Young people who had their own hip...
Who have their own hips,
Bring in people who have their own hips.
He put some signs around town, but it didn't say,
You know, volunteer work or community service.
It said, "free barbecue and beer".
[laughing]
It's an old 1812 war tactic.
Get 'em a little tipsy and press gang 'em into service.
-Get them to sign a contract. -Sign on the dotted line, yeah.
Right, if you can get people to fight in a war,
You could probably get them to bring coleslaw
To the rib rally.
[laughing]
Patrick inspired me when he said...
We do random acts of kindness in the community,
Really anything to raise awareness and
Kind of make people stay.
If you're going to live in a community,
You should try and make it a better place.
He said it's important that wherever you live,
You try to make it a better place.
And I think I'm, I'm buying a foosball table.
I'm gonna do it, he convinced me.
[laughing]
♪
It's a tale of fire and ice cream here in markdale,
So they say.
A story of life handing you lemons...
And you turning them into lemon sorbet.
People look for homes outside the city
Where the prices will surely bone ya.
For all the stuff that small towns don't have,
One of them includes corona.
Kids with disabilities might do hippotherapy,
Or do an adaptive riding course and learn some
Life lessons 'cause when they fall off,
You get them back up on the horse.
In markdale, you learn that life is like ice cream.
If you drop it, instead of slowing,
You pick it up off the ground,
Take a sec to dust off,
Then you take your licks and keep going.
Thanks for coming out to the show everybody!
You've been great!
[cheering & applauding]
Oh, it was super, everybody enjoyed it.
-Amazing, hilarious. -It was amazing!
♪
The people that came with me loved it,
And now they owe me favours.
♪
Hope haven is my great grandpa petch's old farm,
So it was neat seeing hope haven now.
♪
I mean, the ice cream jokes were a killer.
-Yeah. -[laughing]
♪
He ate a lot of ice cream on the plant floor,
Let me tell you.
♪