The Rural Boom: Virtual Work And Good Living

Young professionals are moving to the Watershed region in record numbers seeking a calmer lifestyle and greener surroundings – and a chance to be part of a community where they can make a difference.

Everybody knows the pace of the big city is go, go, go, whether it’s corporate headquarters competing for talent, frenzied real estate deals or the constant pressure to be two places at once.

While this may appeal to some go-getters, it may not work for them for their entire lives. More and more people are looking for a chance to drop out of the rat race, slow it all down and get closer to nature – not to mention closer to their neighbours. There’s a need to feel more grounded in a world that has become a little too loud and lofty.

Our part of southeastern Ontario, with its farm markets and friendly lakeside living, is drawing a new demographic from major centres, especially Toronto and the GTA. Young professionals and entrepreneurs, many who grew up in the city and thrived on the fast track, are relocating to rural communities that offer something more appealing for themselves and their families.

What exactly that “something” is depends on who you talk to, but there are benefits that likely check off a lot of the boxes on a dream-home checklist.

For one thing, housing is more affordable, even with recent price increases that seem stratospheric to long-time residents. Also, the schools and recreation centres have a lot going on for kids. And there’s all that fresh food that’s grown close to home, acres of farmland and forest trails for outdoor activities to boost your health. If you need a night out, there are all kinds of creative people in this region, too, so getting close to the arts doesn’t have to mean unaffordable tickets to a big show in downtown Toronto.

For many, the attraction of coming here means becoming a stakeholder in the community itself, offering talents, skills and passions – and sometimes discovering new ones. Finding a sense of place and community is the road to future-proofing economic growth and sustainability, says Cormac Russell, author and global community development consultant. What is critical, he writes, is “what we can do together, neighbour-to-neighbour, as we re-connect and reorganize to become the primary producers of our health, wealth and loving power. This is a journey everyone can join; everyone’s gifts are needed.”

The upswing in younger workers settling here, buoyed by remote work capabilities and plans for small business expansion, is a trend we’re excited to see. In Northumberland County, for example, 92 percent of companies are small businesses, from food processing to technology start-ups. Prince Edward County, Ontario’s fastest-growing viticulture region, also boasts one of Canada’s largest funding and innovation hubs for entrepreneurs.

So, we’re setting the stage for incredible growth, just as Statistics Canada’s 2020 population estimates show a record-breaking number of people leaving Canada’s cities, with Montreal and Toronto experiencing the highest losses to surrounding areas. The past few years have prompted people to re-invent their lives and livelihoods in different ways in quieter communities.

As Michael Haan, an associate professor at Western University and a demographer who studies internal migration, told Global News, “This is one of the most significant changes in migrant flows since the Industrial Revolution. It’s signalling the potential for a revitalization of rural Canada.”

That’s something we all can get behind!

We’d like to introduce you to some of the people who’ve made the move from the city to the country for new beginnings, quickly becoming local stakeholders themselves. They’re driving social, economic, environmental and political change, aiming to make their new home a better place for everyone.

JASON SCHMIDT | Port Hope

For a new Toronto lawyer, the city has a lot of opportunity to join established practices. But Jason Schmidt went a different route, taking a job in civil litigation in Port Hope back in 2010. He commuted for a while and then moved to town a year later.

“Being a lawyer in Toronto seemed like a lot, like you had very little control, and it was becoming apparent to me that perhaps I was really meant to be my own boss or at least have more control over my own professional career,” says Jason.

He hadn’t been to Port Hope, but it struck a chord when he came for the interview. “It was a May early afternoon and there was this beautiful golden glow on the downtown as I came down Walton Street.” Jason had lived in Kingston for law school, so the advantages of a smaller town appealed, like the friendliness and knowing the people that you see on the street or at the grocery, or just about anywhere you go.

Now he has his own Schmidt Law Legal Services in Port Hope and Cobourg, in offices that he’s redesigned to reflect the heritage architecture of the communities, with repurposed materials (he found most of the furniture on Kijiji). “I’m going to be sitting at this desk for the next 30 years, so it was important to me to have a nice office for my staff and for my clients.”

He and his husband, Miles Bowman, executive director of SONG, which offers free music education for kids, are well-connected to the community. Volunteering and serving on boards has been a way to give back and be a part of things. Jason has worked with Habitat for Humanity and chairs the local Humane Society, helping steer a redevelopment project for the facility.

The couple also has a son, Gus, 5, and Meryl, a beloved goldendoodle.

“What’s not to love?” he says of life in Port Hope. Miles’s mother moved to town and they’ve had close friends relocate as well.

“The development, the subdivisions, the influx of people from Toronto, and the turnover of the population as it ages and the younger families move in has created this vibrancy,” he adds. “The community has undergone this major shift and we’re riding it.”

TRACY AND JIMMY IOANNIDIS | Warkworth

For people from the 6ix and other urban centres, coming to a place that has one main postal code is a novelty, and cements the fact that it’s a rural destination with not many traffic lights or long lineups at the supermarket. It’s part of the charm.

When former Torontonians Tracy and Jimmy Ioannidis and their family moved to Warkworth two years ago, they decided to use the “K0K” of the postal code in the name of their new business they eventually bought to make it their own. The long established Our Lucky Stars café is now proudly known as the K•Okay Café. There’s both the postal code reference and the welcoming sentiment that stopping in for the homemade pastries, lunch or great cup of coffee (beans roasted by Jimmy!) is going to be a feel-good experience.

“It’s all about that sense of place and community, and fostering that relationship is paramount for us.”  JIMMY IOANNIDIS

“It really is such a gathering place. There’s a group of people who come here every Sunday, and they come sporadically throughout the week as well, but on Sunday they call it, ‘they’re going to church,’” Jimmy says. The group of 8 or 15, depending on who comes that day, pulls the tables together and sits for a few hours of food and conversation. “It’s all about that sense of place and community, and fostering that relationship is paramount for us.” Jimmy also plays Friday night hockey with the guys and Tracy is involved in endeavours like the Trent Hills Physician Recruitment group. And they love the impromptu chats with people on the porch swing of their main street house, just a quick walk from the café.

All in, their new life is exactly what they were searching for. They had moved east from Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood to Guildwood, but missed being connected to their neighbours. Then came Covid, their respective job losses in marketing, and months in isolation at their cottage up north. While their boys, Finlay and Hayden, were doing online schooling, the family decided to make a life overhaul – by happenstance, they looked at a house near Warkworth.

“At the time we were like, ‘oh this feels so rural, so far away from everything. We couldn’t,’” says Tracy. “But then we came to the village, we’re like, ‘oh my God, I love this place. We have to be here.’”

RACHEL MENDES | Frankford

What does it take to be one of the region’s topvoted pest exterminators? Rachel Mendes brings years of experience tackling rats and bedbugs in downtown Toronto, but she’s hit her stride running her own business, Last Call Pest Control, for people in Quinte West.

She’s also a certified entomologist, an insect expert, who is passionate about protecting the natural environment – something she says that sets her apart from others in the industry. Plus, she has a love for animals, bees, moths and most winged or crawling creatures, which you’ll see in her numerous tattoos.

“I have a scorpion, I’ve got a moth on my thigh and one on my throat. My whole right arm is bees and wasps. I’ve got a big cicada and a bug on my fingers. I love bugs,” says Rachel. Next is a rat tattoo on her stomach. So she isn’t shy about standing out in a crowd and being recognized as someone who didn’t grow up around the tiny community of Frankford. She lived in Ajax and later in Bowmanville before moving to a one-acre property with lots of room for her dog here in 2020. Now she plans on staying.

“I have a desire to do more than just spray for roaches. I want to get to the bottom of it. I want long-term solutions.” For rats, for example, she introduces trenching around buildings, proper sealing techniques and exterior bait stations to prevent reoccurrences. “I always try to do the most humane, kindest thing I can do while still understanding that pests are a public health concern and they need to be dealt with.”

Statistics Canada’s 2020 population estimates show a record-breaking number of people leaving Canada’s cities, with Montreal and Toronto experiencing the highest losses. The past few years have prompted people to re-invent their lives and livelihoods in different ways in quieter communities.

Although she didn’t like bugs or even playing in the dirt growing up in Mississauga, she has always been drawn to more unusual careers, at one point working at a funeral home with plans to become a funeral director. The black truck she drives looks much like a hearse, which is intentional for her advertising.

“The people are a lot calmer out here and so supportive. It’s definitely a slower way of life, which I prefer, and I like that people have realistic expectations. They want the problem to be solved.”

MARY AND BROCK WARNER | Picton

Like so many young professionals, Mary and Brock Warner had accepted the reality of the crazy Toronto real estate market and knew they would never own a home in the city. Still, they appreciated the amenities like easily accessible local restaurants and transit, but mostly it was their jobs and their friends that made them want to stay.

When the pandemic hit, everything shifted. But in all of the strangeness that came with it, they saw an opportunity to change how and where they lived. Both of their jobs went remote. Mary is the coexecutive director of the Toronto Renewal Energy Co-op, a non-profit that promotes green energy projects like solar roofing and the wind turbine at Exhibition Place, while Brock is a digital fundraiser who recently started his own business, Broccoli.

The family had recently gained some financial flexibility when their eldest daughter no longer needed before and after-school care, so they decided to take the leap and move to farm and wine country in pastoral PEC.

Mary grew up north of Toronto in Orangeville, but Brock was originally from Belleville and had spent summer nights camping at Sandbanks Provincial Park when he was a kid.

“This place that we’re in right now was on the market and was in our price range,” says Brock. “We saw it on a Monday and we hopped in the car on the Wednesday for a viewing, and they were taking offers on the Saturday, so it moved very quickly.

“Picton was not something we had had conversations about. But with the visit here and seeing the space and the potential, a lot of things seemed to fall into place.”

They moved in July 2021 and gained more than they expected, loving the charm, the people and the sense of possibility. Mary has joined the board of Baxter Arts Centre and Brock is volunteering with the Department of Illumination arts company and the Regent Theatre. He’s made bat houses for the Glenwood Cemetery. They say their two daughters, Emmylou, 10, and Stella, 7, have really taken to small-town life, with the whole family participating in the Milford Fall Fair parade.

“Picton is just such a great place,” says Mary. “There is a close-knit arts community. It feels like I see the same people all the time and they’re all doing great things.”

PHOEBE OLSZEWSKI | Picton

Sleep-deprived parents of babies and toddlers can get more than a little frustrated with day-to-day challenges. But a consistent bedtime routine and other tips from an expert like sleep consultant Phoebe Olszewski can be transformative. The former Toronto marketing executive went through the zombie phase herself until she got help from a professional and her baby started sleeping through the night.

It worked so well, Phoebe decided to get the certification and launch her own business, Slumber and Shine, happily making the most of the shift to online work during the pandemic.

She and her husband Patrick, whose job with a headhunting firm also went remote, bought a new house and moved to Picton in December 2020 – it was an impossible dream come true. Her twin brother had moved to Trenton a number of years ago to work at the Drake Devonshire in Wellington, managing the bar and creating cocktails, so there were many visits pre-kids.

“When we were young and wild and free, we’d stay at the Drake, go on winery tours…” she says of adventures before having Ruby, 4, and Jasper, 2. “I loved the area so much and it felt a little bit like a pipe dream to move here. We lived in Toronto, we owned a condo, we were both working at office jobs downtown for many years.”

Patrick commutes into the Toronto office one day a week while Phoebe counsels clients across North America and networks in person to support local parents.

Now her mom has moved to town, and city friends visit so often in the summer they’ve started calling their house “Airpnp” with “p” for Phoebe and Patrick! They’re just 15 minutes away from the beaches of Sandbanks Provincial Park, and enjoy lunch and the sandbox at Slake Brewing on Sunday afternoons. They’ve made friends with the other young families in their neighbourhood and Phoebe is one of the Average Moms of Curtis Street social group that hosts a book club and the occasional winery tour.

“When we were young and wild and free, we’d stay at the Drake and go on winery tours…” PHOEBE OLSZEWSKI

“Moving to the County and then deciding to go in headfirst and open this business have been two huge leaps of faith, but they are also the most profound and positive choices I have ever made,” she says. “It’s just a sense of community that I absolutely did not have before.”

HANNAH COWELL | Madoc

There weren’t a lot of girls out fishing when Hannah Cowell learned all about the sport growing up in Belleville fishing with her dad on the shore of the Bay of Quinte. She got her first rod when she was about four.

“I loved going out with my dad, it was our special time that we would just spend together. And I just loved being outdoors and fishing because none of my other friends really did it.”

Hannah was always a go-getter, following other pursuits like acting and modelling. She was in the Sears catalogue Wish Book when she was a kid, too, and being in the spotlight was something her parents supported to help her outgrow her shyness. And it worked! She went to Loyalist College and through a unique joint program with Florida State University spent six months in merchandising at Walt Disney World.

Now she says she’ll talk to anybody – which is an asset as an entrepreneur. She had moved to Oshawa to commute to a job with the Toronto Blue Jays’ Jays Care Foundation, a group that raises awareness about accessibility in sport. But a few months in, the pandemic lockdown ended her employment, so she decided to do something different. She set up Fish & Co. in the tiny community of Madoc where her parents have retired, and now Hannah and her husband Nick, a software engineer, have a house next door.

Fish & Co. is an online venture that sells fishing gear and décor and serves as a marketplace for local artisans. Hannah also has her own clothing lines, including one for girls and women called Pretty Li’l Angler with comfy T-shirts, hoodies and ball caps to promote fishing as a girls’ thing – with a lot of neutral colours. “I didn’t want it to be a pink-driven thing. I was never a pink girl,” says Hannah. She’s also written a kids’ book, Lucy Goes Fishing, about a girl who has the best day fishing with her parents.

Hannah’s also planning some summer pop-up markets. One thing’s for sure: she’s staying put to enjoy everything she knows and loves about country living.

“Being in this amazing small community is really about the people and that people know each other,” she says. “I went to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner and everybody there knew me.”

Newcomers can remind us how good things are in our neck of the woods. We’ve got wide open skies and possibilities and people who are ready to lend a hand. So if you want to have a conversation about nurturing communities and living the good life, just say hello to some of your neighbours. They may have stories that are similar to those of Mary and Brock Warner or Rachel Mendes, who’ve left the urban hustle for a quieter pace and a home with room to grow. They’ve found a different path for career and business success that has allowed them to enjoy the day-to-day more deeply.

The best part, though, could be getting to know them and joining in their efforts to be part of the community, sharing their talents and passions, for a fresh take on what the future holds.