On Ernie Margetson's Front Porch: Where Warblers and Mayoral Ambitions Meet

Yesterday afternoon, Ernie Margetson had been planting oak trees before I arrived for our chat. We sat on his front porch, with Consecon Lake peeking through the trees.

“I’ve noticed the warblers passing through just in the last few weeks, as they migrate from north to south again. And then I’ll see them again in the spring”, shares Ernie. 

At first, that seemed like small talk to me, and it was only later that I would understand how that simple statement reflects so much about him.

We eventually settled in for a discussion spanning family history, changing winters, economic opportunities, and what makes a good municipal council. Ernie was relaxed and comfortable taking his time with an answer, even when it travelled through a few seemingly unrelated subjects before transitioning from a process to a thoughtful package. 

Ernie was born in Prince Edward County, and his family has been on this farm for nearly eighty years. His parents bought it after the Second World War, he explained, when there wasn’t a house or barn on the property. Much of what’s here now is the result of his work over the past thirty years. His siblings still live nearby, so the family connection is a very local one, too. He’s travelled and lived elsewhere, yet he doesn’t sound conflicted about where he wants to be. This is his home, simple as that.

What caught my attention was how he understands owning something destined to outlast you. From his property to Prince Edward County as a whole, this isn’t just a place that Ernie enjoys spending his time, he sees it as stewardship… and the responsibility to continue taking care of it. He began talking about the old farmhouses people buy around the County, and all the lives that have passed through them. He regularly emphasized the passing of oneself through time, including what came before our part and what will come after it.

“You actually buy… different people’s lives, or what they’ve invested into a place like a farmhouse that’s 150 years old. It’s gone through all that time, and energy, and trees planted, and gardens, and fences, and so, you’re just kind of a caretaker for a certain period of time, and then it goes on and on”, Ernie reflects. 

I thought about those new oak trees.

Someone else will sit under their shade and admire them one day, though Ernie hadn’t presented them as a campaign metaphor. He’d simply been planting them before I showed up - much like the warblers, just passing through for a season, leaving the County to carry on after them.

So, I asked him whether being Mayor might feel like another opportunity to be a caretaker of the County, a steward of sorts. He thought it could. His experience, values, and understanding of this place, he explained, are things he’d like to put to use and pass along.

As a former Hillier councilor with a career in engineering and architecture, he believes he has knowledge that could help with the decisions ahead. His heritage and community work help explain why the County’s character matters so much to him.

But the County hasn’t stood still for eighty years, and neither can the people making decisions about its future - a reality that Ernie understands.

Plot Twist: Prince Edward County… Connected.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. You see, I hadn’t planned to end up on Ernie’s porch yesterday. 

That morning, council candidate Kate MacNaughton reached out to learn about PEC Connect. During our conversation, my “The Person Behind the Platform” series came up, and I had mentioned that I’d invited Ernie to participate too, but hadn’t heard back (understandable, no hard feelings). 

My chat with Kate moved on to, unsurprisingly, more County matters. At noon, Kate texted - it seems Ernie had agreed to meet, but the email didn’t make it to my inbox.

One quick call with Ernie and a very scenic fall drive to Consecon later, there we were sitting in the sun on his porch. This morning’s call with Kate helped revive the connection with Ernie… honestly, how County is that? (Thanks, Kate!)

Now, back to our (not so) scheduled discussion…

The County Has a Lot on Its Mind, and That’s Why Being Mindful Matters

I asked Ernie what people in the County disagreed about most. He considered it for a while, then suggested disagreement might not quite be the word. One resident worries about water bills, another about roads. Some want growth, while others fear what it might change. 

He sensed a wider anxiety, too, partly tied to uncertainties well beyond municipal politics. We talked about how it feels when decisions affecting your life seem beyond your control. Ernie brought us back to council, and to residents who feel their concerns aren’t genuinely acknowledged. The regional water infrastructure debate, he suggested, has left some people feeling that way.

I pushed him a little further: what would he actually do about it? He admitted he had given this quite some thought, and his answer began with councilor orientation. Before getting into regular business, he’d want to build relationships, make everyone feel included, and establish a tone of respect.

He’s thought about how he’d speak to councilors from the beginning, knowing that a difficult start can be hard to undo. To me, it seems like he wants to focus his efforts on starting off on the right foot, and Ernie acknowledges that recovery is a lot harder if that’s not accomplished off the bat.

Of course, residents still need to understand how their concerns were considered, and why a particular choice was made. When I asked who might be particularly unheard, he mentioned youth (meaning adolescents and young families). Council approved a Youth Engagement Strategy in September, but Ernie wants younger residents to feel they can participate in decisions, not simply inherit them.

That took us to housing, jobs and the managed growth he’d discussed at Mayoral Debate. Here was Ernie the systems thinker: he couldn’t separate new homes from employment, infrastructure, and the ability to build a life here… they’re all big ticket items that seem inherently interconnected to him - a perspective that I’ve heard many of my fellow neighbours also discussing in cohesion. And then, almost casually, he took us to… the internet.

“We don’t have that advantage, but that’s one of the things that makes it attractive here, too … we are off the beaten path, and we’re not a large industrial centre … I think having that high speed fibre could give us the chance or opportunity to have businesses that might want to locate here because they’re attractive for their workforce”, Ernie states.

He meant our distance from Highway 401. Businesses relying on trucking may see that as a disadvantage, but better digital connections could open opportunities for employers, remote workers, and home businesses that don’t depend on a warehouse beside the highway… but would get the benefit of working on our beautiful peninsula. 

As someone who works from home, I enjoyed that turn. Ernie was right, being digitally connected meant I could live, and work, in the County. All along, I’d thought about reliable internet as something we need (and obviously, enjoy as entertainment); Ernie was asking what employment it might make possible when all other paved paths may not be easily pointing to PEC. 

He’d given me a different angle to consider about what kind of businesses we could invite here, and what opportunities the internet offers to those who, like me, may choose to live here.

Ernie Margetson on Pensions and Peak Season in Prince Edward County

Growth also brought us to residents worried about being priced out of their own community. 

I asked about people on fixed incomes, watching municipal bills rise while their pensions struggle to keep up. Ernie didn’t promise that the council could make hardships disappear. He spoke about existing assistance and organizations, including the Prince Edward Learning Centre, that help residents access support. In fact, he named several supports that residents rely on.

Understanding what taking those away would mean, he confirmed that he’d want to maintain established commitments, but was not prepared to add major new discretionary programs without knowing how to fund them. There’s a difficult balance here, as both the financial obligations of the Municipality and its individual residents are increasingly more challenging.

Our conversation wandered toward the way County life has changed. Ernie remembers more farming families relying on one another through hard times, and wonders if some of those connections have weakened. 

Tourism and the arrival of wealthier residents, he suggested, may make the gap between financial security and hardship more visible, even as tourism supports livelihoods.

So I asked what sustainable tourism looks like to him. He spoke about managing the summer intensity that affects roads, beaches and residents, while spreading more business across the year. Too much pressure, he reasoned, can undermine the very place visitors want to enjoy.

“Tourism is pretty important here in Prince Edward County. It sustains a lot of businesses and a lot of people’s income and employment … it’s not that we want to get rid of tourism. We want to find that balance, which is sustainability, keep people coming back over years” Ernie says.

We touched on crowded roads, parking, and farmers moving equipment through summer traffic. For four months of the year, the County comes alive agriculturally and touristically, and that can understandably feel like… a lot.

The County already has a Tourism Management Plan, though the balance Ernie described goes beyond any one measure. I asked what frustrated residents and tourism-dependent businesses should understand about each other. He wanted both sides to recognize the real livelihoods and real inconveniences involved.

Naturally, understanding won’t clear a traffic jam, but it might make the discussion easier. And while we were talking about different ways of seeing the same County, a chipmunk caught Ernie’s eye. (Apparently, it had its own priorities that afternoon, none of which were politics.)

Warblers, Winters, and What We Notice

Later, I asked what he’d wished the campaign had explored more. Climate change, he answered, along with protecting the natural environment. 

Neither had received much attention at the public meetings he’d attended. We were looking toward the lake he’d once skied across in winter. He no longer trusts the ice the way he used to, he said, and notices the changes in snow cover. When he had pointed out warblers passing through earlier, he mentioned they were attracted in part by insects near the water. These weren’t abstract examples to him.

His parents encouraged that curiosity when he was young. It eventually led into engineering, architecture, and more than thirty years giving heritage tours. I asked which came first, the interest in nature or his chosen career. He confirmed it was nature. 

“I think my parents instilled the love of nature and the natural world with me, and it stuck with me… I also really like creativity and designing and that led me into the engineering part, and then into the architecture part, and then into the heritage", shares Ernie.

Teaching others about the County, Ernie added, has also deepened his own understanding of it.

“Anytime you get an opportunity to teach someone something, in this case, about the county, it really enriches your life, and it reinforces your own knowledge of the sense of the place by teaching other people about it.” 

He’d been surprised by some sharp online responses to his climate proposals, and we spent a while clarifying what he meant. I wondered if Ernie was intending to convey a holistic approach, but Ernie was more specific.

“I wasn’t looking for anything drastic. If there’s an opportunity for us, through procurement, or if we’re updating or adapting any buildings, if we can find ways to orient it so we can use solar collectors, or things that don’t necessarily increase our taxes… But on opportunities where we’re spending money anyway”, clarifies Ernie on his initiative to bring protections against climate change into the municipal discussions.

His point came from someone who’s spent much of his life learning about the natural and built environment, and has watched parts of it change. He wants that knowledge considered when the County makes choices. Looking ten or twenty years ahead, he hoped residents would keep appreciating the natural spaces and heritage that make this place special. Maybe more cycling, birding and nature tourism, too, with visitors understanding what the community values and respecting it.

And Four Years from Now?

For my final big question, I brought us back from that distant future to a single term of council. If we met in four years, what would he hope people said about his time as mayor? He didn’t reach for a ribbon-cutting or a flagship project. He talked about timely decisions, respectful collaboration, knowing the County’s liabilities, and preparing for costs ahead.

If elected Mayor, in 4 years Ernie hopes we’d look back and say “That was a good council. They worked well together. They made decisions, they didn’t procrastinate and sit on things, and they advanced the business of government … We’ve got our finances understood and in order, and we know what our liabilities are, but we’ve also forecasted what our future costs are going to be so that we know they’re coming, and we prepare for them.”

It’s a broad ambition, yet still, after a conversation about old farmhouses, changing landscapes and looking ahead, Ernie’s answer returned to what one group of people might leave for the next. And there was Ernie: thoughtful, matter-of-fact, and already looking towards the next cycle from his porch, with the lake glimmering beyond the trees. 

Monday will decide who leads the County next. And yet, for that autumn afternoon on Ernie’s porch, Election Day felt like miles away. All I could think about was how for a fleeting slice of time, we’re all just caretakers for the County in our own way.

What story are you leaving behind for others to continue? 

Thanks for the chat, Ernie!

-Andreea ☕

P.S. Visit our page for more articles on local matters, including information on the municipal election.

A Note from PEC Connect: PEC Connect is not endorsing any candidate in this election. Our goal in providing this coverage is through the lens of community involvement, offering insight so that residents may make their own informed decisions at the ballot box. 

We warmly invite your questions and engagement, and we encourage you to reach out directly to candidates to better understand them and their platforms.

We may not all agree on who the right person for the job is, and that is simply the nature of democracy and community. But differences of opinion should never discourage constructive criticism, healthy skepticism, and, above all, open communication.

We want to extend a sincere thank-you to Brad, Terry, and Ernie for their time, candour, and for sharing chat with us. We hope to continue these meaningful discussions going forward. 

And while we are not endorsing anyone, we do encourage everyone to get out and vote! You can find more about how to vote here.

A special thank you once again to Kate MacNaughton for helping Ernie and I connect, despite digital challenges ;)