Speaker Series 18: A Romance of Ferries

Join us November 18th at 7 pm for Speaker Series 18: A Romance of Ferries: 200 Years of Getting People to the Islands. Presented by Ron Jenkins.

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Toronto has always been a waterfront town, intimately connected to its spectacular Island retreat.

For nearly 200 years ferries have been integral to that connection. Ron will survey Toronto's fascinating story of ferries, past, present, and future, the romance of excursions across the harbour, and yes, also some frustrations, failures and small triumphs. 

Tuesday November 18, 2025 • 7:00 PM on Zoom

Biidaasige Walk: Long-buried Seeds Reborn

Native seeds buried under eight metres of soil when the foot of the Don was a marsh long ago are coming back to life at Biidaasige Park. Excavation and construction for the new park exposed ancient seeds to water and sun; they woke up and started growing again.

We learned about this amazing rebirth of native plants at our October 26, 2025 Walk/Talk led by David Stonehouse of the Waterfront Secretariat, with special guests forestry expert Steve Smith of Urban Forest Associates and landscape architect Netami Stuart of Toronto Parks and Recreation. The weather was perfect. It was a great day. Many thanks to our expert speakers, and to the many people that joined us for a scenic Sunday stroll.

Dystopian Dockwalls

Many of Toronto’s dockwalls and breakwaters are falling down! Luckily, there’s a plan to fix them eventually.

At our Speaker Series event on September 30, 2025, Merrilees Willemse of the Waterfront Secretariat and Jennifer Ogrodnick of Create TO gave a great talk on the City’s new process to fix these crumbing and sometimes dangerous structures, which in some cases are over a century old. Their slide decks are here and here.