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Niagara Falls
On 'good' taste!
TORONTO/Southam Newspapers
Guess who's lecturing us now... By RICHARD BRENNAN,
By RICHARD BRENNAN,
AS IF THE HELMS-BURTON LAW weren't enough for Canadians to stomach, Americans are now lecturing us on good taste. That's right, the country that brought you Las Vegas, Dolly Land, all-you-can-eat restaurants and darkened the landscape with golden arches says Canadians are a tacky bunch. The Buffalo News this week in a lead editorial condemned plans to build a gambling casino in Niagara Falls, Ont. saying it will be a commercial blight on the natural beauty of the Falls. "If they really care about the beauty of the falls, the [casino] designers and their client, the Province of Ontario, would put the glitzy gambling palace inland far enough so it would not be part of the view from the American side of the river," the newspaper said Tuesday. "The falls of Niagara should be respected," the editorial stated. The $150-million casino is opening sometime in December on the site of the abandoned Maple Leaf Village amusement park in Niagara Falls,Ont.
It seems the deep thinkers on the editorial board staff at the Buffalo News don't like the fact there will be a large illuminated sign advertising the casino that will be easily seen from the U.S. side. By the way, Buffalo is about 15 minutes upstream from Niagara Falls. "The lofty signs have no purpose other than luring bucks out of the United States - even as they help ruin the view for Americans," the editorial said.
Those poor Americans will now have to wear their shades and avert their eyes, I guess, as they line up for the tacky, trashy Niagara Falls casino. Now I'll take a lecture from Americans on landing a man on the moon, but I'll be damned if I'll sit back and take lecture from some U.S. newspaper on what is in good taste and what isn't.
If the truth were known, it bugs Americans to think the nicest part of the falls -- the Horseshoe Falls -- is on the Canadian side while their side is a pathetic trickle further belittled by fallen rock.
To me, America is synonymous with tacky. Everything about the land of home and the brave is gaudy and overstated.
Stop and consider for the moment that Las Vegas, the "jewel" of Nevada, is a shrine to tackiness. Nothing about it is understated. Lights blink on and off constantly like a cheap carnival.
What in the U.S. isn't bigger, bolder, better? It has the biggest and fastest planes and cars, the tallest buildings, the greatest singers including Barry Manilow, the smartest people and so on and so forth. If you don't believe me, just ask them.
Americans are more than glad to tell you they are the best, and they'll do it -- in a voice loud enough so everybody within a block can hear them.
It was only fitting the gaudy great finned cars of the 1950s came from American automakers. What other country in the world has billboards cluttering its landscape, extolling the virtues of smoking or some place called South of the Border. And don't forget it was Americans who brought you white patent leather shoes for men, polyester leisure suits both still popular in Buffalo - the Hair Club for Men and the Michael Jackson do-it-yourself plastic surgery kits. And without Americans we wouldn't have warehouses full of Avocado coloured refrigerators.
What is truly galling about the editorial is not even so much the potshots at the casino, but the rather pious tone about protecting the natural splendor of the falls. I guess the folks at the Buffalo News forget about Love Canal, in Niagara Falls NY. Home of one of the worst environmental disasters in this century (To be fair the Buffalo News did write some award-winning stories on Love Canal in the early 1980s.) 
Hundreds of people were forced from their homes in an area of the city -- called Love Canal because chemicals dumped over the years by great American companies were oozing up through the ground and posing a major threat to the health of the people in the area.
Niagara Falls, Ont. -- if you ignore some of Clifton Hill tourists traps -- is a beautiful place that has fallen on hard times. It has not really bounced back from the recession of the early 1990s. The good folks who live in The Falls are naturally hoping that a casino will help spark the economy and attract even more tourists to this natural wonder. And being good Canadians, they'll put out the welcome mat, apologize for the glitzy casino and remind Americans how beautiful their side of the falls is.
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