Oh Hai
Well you've found me. I'm Cameron Walker as you should all know very well by now, if not, then this will be a challenge. Introductions are formulaic and repetitive and most don't care much for them. I imagine the odd bloke is dying to know the basics, so, to begin, I spent my childhood traversing the Canadian landscape; I was born in Pointe Claire Quebec, but due to at the time policies my only exposure to French was a 'potate' is actually a pomme de terre, which is actually a potato, which is actually a French fry waiting to happen. Funny how things reciprocate. Some fear the deternal darkness of the far north. Try living in Winnipeg, with eternal winters. Escaping further west, I became the only Athiest in Saskatchewan, where the only escape was the mystical land of Alberta or Ontario, the latter which we opted for. Somehow I ended up in Guelph for a decade, a city where by order of the 12 hour clock and grassroots culture, 4:20 occurs twice daily. With my non-conforming teen attitude in high school, I was surprised to find myself studying at WLU, having never owned a Polo shirt. When academic interests transcended the 4 year curriculum in Communication Studies, I entered the Masters program at Laurier. There you have it, 22 years in a paragraph.So just what compelled me to do graduate studies, you ask? The tale begins with a low-paying labourer position with an electrical contractor. In 2009 Kitchener, Ontario started cashing in on creative city trends that made places like Toronto popular stomping grounds for not only those in the art and design industries, but also to anyone wishing to assimilate themselves to the creative culture. This includes minimum-wage baristas, decked-out with scarves, iPhones, and a knack for howling three-chord progressions on their Ovation guitars. Maybe I sound sarcastic, oops, but something attracts young people to the urban core, and Kitchener had to have it. Combined private and public investment saw a 300,000 square foot factory known as the Lang Tannery get transformed into a creative centre for the city. Once a popular shoot-up spot for the 'economically challenged', the complex is now home to Google, Communitech, D2L, and an assortment of cookie-cut restaurants and coffee houses for the young experts in creativity. My job was to make this happen. We strung out the wires and cables and installed the lights which brought to life the Tannery District. Needless to say, it's done pretty well for itself over the past two years.
But with every action comes an equal and opposite reaction. The economic prosperity enabled by local policy changes and the urban revitalization projects means the cost of living in Kitchener's downtown goes up. We all can't afford expensive lifestyle which plays homage to grassroots culture. Who benefits, who suffers? What is the city's future vision, and how does it promote this to the public? As a so-called proletariat with wirty denim and a tool pouch-turned scholar, I want to answer these questions.

