EDITOR’S NOTE: Manitoulin is being transformed with the influx of new residents and business owners who bring with them fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives that are enriching the area. Some individuals and families are still unpacking boxes, having only moved in the past month or two, while others made the move over the last few years and are now comfortably established in their new communities. Here are some of their stories.
At first glance, lifelong city dwellers like Audrey Jolly and Ed Horner might not seem to be a natural fit as rural folk. However, delve a little deeper and you quickly discover that Canadians’ love of nature, simplicity and tranquility course through the veins of people living in urban and remote areas alike.
Growing up in the High Park area of Toronto, country life was far from the norm for Ed. It was only after completing a business diploma at Humber College that he made his first foray into the great outdoors. His first job post-graduation saw him move across the country to Calgary, where he worked for five years in an outdoor camping and paddling business. Regular cross-country treks between Ontario and Alberta during those years led him to make a stop on Manitoulin in the early 1970s. “The only reason I came here was because I had watched Rainbow Country on television and was curious to see the area,” reminisces Ed. “I remember that it was so incredibly quiet and beautiful.”
Ed’s next major job, working as an accountant during an economic slowdown as it’s a recession proof profession, meant a permanent move back to Ontario. That position was followed up with work in another sporting goods store in Toronto that resulted in Ed becoming part of upper management at the city’s first Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC) store. After his time as MEC’s operations manager, Ed’s career did another major pivot when he was approached in 1980 by Lone Pine Publishing in Alberta to write a book about cycling in Ontario, as the publishing house was keen to expand into the Ontario market. An avid cyclist and outdoorsman, Ed eventually wrote three Bicycle Guides to various parts of Ontario before striking out on his own and establishing Canadian Outdoor Press. In the years since, he has published everything from family camping guides to books on Buddhism and he’ll soon publish his latest work, a detective novel.
In the midst of this activity, he worked concurrently in yet another sporting goods store in Toronto and opened up an expresso bar in the east end of the city before retiring. It was during this period that he met Audrey at an outdoor café in the Beaches neighbourhood. A long friendship eventually evolved over 20+ years into a common-law partnership once Ed’s grown-up daughter from a previous marriage moved out on her own.
Audrey had been raised in Regina, Saskatchewan where she initially attended the University of Regina. A year in, she switched to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon where she completed an education degree. That was followed by a master’s degree in psychology and dance at York University, where she was a teacher and performer. In between degrees, she squeezed in summer intersession teaching, offering university courses in Native Education delivered to Indigenous communities throughout Saskatchwan.
Audrey’s passion for the arts forged her career as a teacher, choreographer and movement coach at Ryerson University, University of Toronto and York University, where she taught actors and dancers over the next several decades. In addition to her faculty positions, she did temporary assignments with theatre companies across Canada, including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, as well as working internationally as a choreographer and movement coach. Her freelance jobs included co-directing Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, the play written by Drew Hayden Taylor and featuring several Manitoulin Island actors, from 1991 to 1993.
“What became apparent to me supporting actors and dancers was the huge emotional component to their work, which sometimes required therapy to understand so they could embrace their emotions and seize this energy in their performances,” explains Audrey. “That’s when I realized I should utilize my training as a psychotherapist and focus it on the creative process, which provides fuel for healing and is applicable to anyone.”
Since gaining her professional credentials as a registered psychotherapist in 2015, Audrey has served a cross-section of clients when she’s not producing paintings or writing books in her spare time. When the COVID pandemic struck, and her sessions all became virtual, she realized that it was no longer necessary to be physically in the same place as her clients to offer these services. This liberating discovery sparked a conversation with Ed about where they might live in their golden years so they could pursue their individual artistic interests in a peaceful and affordable location. Although they briefly considered locations from Atlantic Canada to the Muskokas, each had had at least one trip to Manitoulin previously and both remembered how much they had loved it.
“For me, it was a place that seemed so remote it was hardly even part of Ontario,” says Ed. “There was this huge island with so few people but so much beauty and just one little bridge to access it. I recall going into Gore Bay years ago and it felt so far away. But wherever I went, whenever I went, I was always struck by the Island’s natural beauty.”
“Even though we were city dwellers, my parents had grown up on a farm and lots of my relatives in Saskatchewan lived on the land, so I loved being out in nature,” adds Audrey. “When Ed suggested we see what housing was available on Manitoulin, I leapt at the idea.”
In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, they saw an online listing for a home on a rural road, drove up to Manitoulin, made an offer on the spot and had it accepted within 24 hours. The couple moved to Indian Mountain Road in Sheguiandah in July that year and has been relishing country living ever since. Audrey and Ed have used their quiet time to build Bird Tree Studio, where they display their paintings, handmade jewelry and wood carvings for sale. They’re getting to know their neighbours, exploring the rest of the Island, and savouring all the natural wonders it has to offer, which they cannot say enough good things about.
“I swam in Lake Manitou from mid-May to mid-September last year” exclaims Audrey. “My nickname has become ‘pinch me’ as I am so thrilled to be living here.” “I’m a paddler, hiker and snowshoer and there’s no better place to be for these activities than right here,” sums up Ed.
Heather Marshall and her husband worked as journalists and consultants in the National Capital Region for more decades than they care to admit before making their Sandfield cottage their permanent home. A lifelong learner, Heather loves discovering new things and people and relishes the opportunity to write about newcomers to the Manitoulin. If you would like to share your story or know of recent arrivals we should meet, send a message to HAMarshall@proton.me.
