This week my family participated in a quintessentially Canadian rite of passage: We dropped off our 7-year old son at sleep-away camp for the first time.
For the next two weeks, there will only be letters going back and forth between us. At least I hope he’ll write back — we stuffed stamped, return envelopes into his knapsack.
He’ll bunk with a few boys his age in a very rustic cabin with no electricity, and will be wholly free of screens. He can’t call home, unless there’s a real emergency.
He will fish, canoe, swim and — the best bit, according to him — learn how to use a knife for woodcarving.
My son has lived on three continents in his seven years, and watching him become attached to his Canadian life since moving here two years ago has been fascinating, and heartwarming. So when he came to us earlier this year asking to go to summer camp with his school friends, we took a leap of faith.
Parents I asked about the experience reminisced about core memories formed at lakeside summer camps in Ontario and elsewhere, and urged me to sign him up.
They told me about the independence the experience gives young Canadians, helping them develop foundational skills to navigate nature, water and the woods, safely, communally and enjoyably.
This, I thought, was about our son beginning to build the quality I have most admired in Canadians since moving here: grit — for him and, in some ways, for us, building our courage and trust in letting him go.
Grit is not necessarily a central goal in raising children where I come from. Greek parenting is focused on smoothing your children’s way, making things easier for them. I attended overnight camps as a preteen and teenager, but they were not tech-free, nor were they as focused on nature. I called home regularly. So I got a few raised eyebrows when I told family and friends back home about my son’s Ontario camp plans.
Another telling reaction came from my father, when he heard the costs involved: “Are you sure you don’t want me to pitch him a tent in the olive grove and give him some farming work?” he jested. “It will be free!”
The cost of overnight summer camps in Canada varies, with the most affordable being about 500 Canadian dollars a week, and the highest-end ones 2,500 dollars a week or more.
Historically and culturally, the experience has been a building block of the Canadian middle class, but financial pressures on both the camps and the parents, and changes in regulations, attitudes and standards, have driven those costs up.
The Canadian Camps Association is the professional body that represents about 750 accredited camps around Canada that host more than a million kids a year, create 42,000 jobs for young people and generate up to 3 billion Canadian dollars in revenue. It identifies rising fees, pressures on family budgets and changes in parents’ attitudes as trends that can keep children away from overnight camp, and the organization is working with its members to counter those dynamics.
Information on summer overnight camp attendance in Canada is limited, but it seems to track U.S. trends, showing that camps have become increasingly expensive and are squeezing out children from less privileged backgrounds.
The camp industry has transformed since the 1990s, said Matt Wilfrid, the executive director of the Canadian Camps Association. He pointed to three major pressures: costly upgrades to water, sanitation and safety standards; post-Sept. 11 insurance spikes; and a shift toward more hands-on parenting.
But he added that Canadian summer camps are adapting, focusing on expanding access for more families from diverse backgrounds.
Mr. Wilfrid said that 80 percent or more of overnight camps are nonprofit, charity-led, religiously affiliated or otherwise subsidized. Several camps also serve children with specific disadvantages — for example, those with incarcerated parents.
“I never want a family to think that they’re priced out of the experience, no matter what type of camp,” he said. “You should always ask the camp if there’s any subsidies or bursaries available.”
The Canadian Camps Association is also lobbying the federal government to increase the tax-deductible amount for camp fees under the child care expense deduction benefit through a pre-budget submission, an initiative that Mr. Wilfrid said has supporters from across the political spectrum.
“We have a lot of members of Parliament that are champions of the camp experience in Canada from across the aisle,” Mr. Wilfrid said. “We can have very different beliefs on everything in Canada, but across the aisle, summer camp is this like beacon of hope and joy,” he added.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief at The Times. She lives in Toronto.
A lot of Canadians want Pete Hoekstra gone
A petition to remove the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, from his role is gathering pace, collecting more than 160,000 signatures since it opened on the Parliament website three weeks ago. The petition claims that Mr. Hoekstra should be removed because he is detrimental to the relationship between the two nations and has inappropriately interfered in domestic Canadian affairs. Mr. Hoekstra has been a faithful messenger for President Trump’s aggressive stance toward Canada and has a history of getting in trouble for eschewing diplomatic convention, but business leaders said they valued his attentive and frank approach with them.
Read the full article.
Trump’s tariffs force Canadian manufacturers to think about moving south
Ian Austen, our correspondent in Ottawa, reported on Canadian manufacturers and their response to Mr. Trump’s 50 percent tariffs, which are expected to be applied to a wide range of products, worth $20 billion, beginning on Wednesday. Some companies have been working tirelessly to fill orders and warehouses in the United States before the tariffs take effect. Others are reluctantly contemplating a move south of the border in order to stay in business.
Read the full article.
The beavers are coming for Canada’s Arctic
Norimitsu Onishi, The Times’s correspondent in Montreal, traveled to Umiujaq, Quebec, to report on the migration of beavers into Canada’s sub-Arctic. Drawn by a warming climate, Canada’s furry national symbols are colonizing new territory, evading Inuit hunters and reshaping the world they find.
Read the full article.
Trans Canada
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The stunning cottage made famous by the TV series and Canadian cultural juggernaut “Heated Rivalry” is only one of Muskoka’s treasures.
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A Spanish health care company that pays people for their blood plasma is pausing operations in Canada months after two donors died in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Vjosa Isai reported.
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Shania Twain, the pop-country megastar, has long had immense appeal. But as Lizzy Goodman, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, reported, an unlikely generation is connecting with the Canadian singer’s music.
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An explosive wildfire in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley drove more than 20,000 people from their homes last weekend and left one person dead.
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A man was taken into custody in Nova Scotia after he communicated a bomb threat toward the U.S. Consulate in Halifax and flammable liquids were discovered in his vehicle in a nearby parking garage.
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Passengers aboard a Porter Airlines plane headed from Victoria to Toronto had to wait for a flight the next day after a toddler remained standing in a seat and would not get buckled in.
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A video of the Canadian pop singer Tate McRae using Neutrogena skin care products — with an ultralight touch — has led to a wave of parodies.
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