So much of Canada is dominated by waterscapes. They are the lifeblood of agriculture and the historic routes of exploration and development. Around them have grown up our centres of industrial and political power. Their waters harbour the power to sculpt the bordering lands. So we sink wells to tap it, build reservoirs to contain it, devise channels, aqueducts and pipelines to carry it, erect bridges over it, and harness it for agricultural and industrial developments.
Water also provides a focus for our play.
We swim in it, sail upon it, and frolic on the beaches it has created. In our part of the world, water is common property, rarely bought or sold at anything resembling its real worth. It is land, not water that we value-that we work, bargain and fight to own. We are terrestrial animals, dipping out toes and hoisting our umbrellas. Water seems unimportant compared with other resources-except in times of drought or flood, when it becomes so scarce or so abundant as to threaten our property and our lives.