Why Cochrane, Ontario is offloading roughly 1,500 residential lots for the equivalent of a single purple banknote
Several decades ago, when I was in middle school, I travelled 700 kilometres from Toronto by train with my school’s orchestra to perform in a small town called Cochrane, located about an hour northeast of Timmins, a mining capital. For city kids, spending a few days in that remote region was as foreign and exotic as a trip to another continent. The population of Cochrane has hovered around 5,000 for decades, during a period when the population of Canada overall has grown enormously. Peter Politis, Cochrane’s three-term mayor, sees an opportunity in those shifting demographics. He believes his town can help ease Canada’s housing-inventory crisis and would like to attract young families and skilled workers up to his area. His method? About a year ago, Cochrane announced plans to offload roughly 1,500 residential lots for just $10 each. A bit of a gimmick, yes, but it’s also a savvy plan for Cochrane’s growth. And it seems to be working: Cochrane has accumulated a 4,000-person list of interested parties (and developers) from across the country and around the world. Politis spoke with Maclean’s managing editor Katie Underwood about how he expects nearly-free plots of land will double Cochrane’s population and why he thinks Cochrane is making an attractive offer. —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief |
Bowen Island, B.C., 20 minutes from Vancouver by ferry, is home to just 4,000 people; it only got its first traffic light this past summer. And yet the island has an offbeat energy that seems to attract an outsized number of artists. The town was a perfect fit for Marian Bantjes, a graphic artist renowned for her intricate patterns, who bought a Swiss chalet–style home there in 2001. Inside the groovy, colourful haven that went on the market for around $1.1 million this summer. |
In only two years, online betting has changed the face of Canadian sports, lit up gambling addiction hotlines and siphoned billions of dollars from fans to industry and governments. It’s just getting started. Read our November issue cover story by Anthony Milton now. |
In his five-time-Tony-winning play, Italian playwright Stefano Massini looks behind the headlines of the infamous collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The full (and far more interesting) story spans 164 years, beginning in pre–Civil War Alabama, where the three Bavarian Lehman brothers establish themselves as humble cotton brokers. Over three generations, they enter into coffee and sugar trading, become venture capitalists, build the fourth-largest investment bank in America and, well, you know the rest. Through three acts and with just three actors portraying the Lehmans across generations, this Theatre Calgary play brings to life the dramatic rise and fall of a family that shaped the fabric of modern finance. —Rosemary Counter |
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