Award-winning writer, speaker, and Officer of the Order of Canada Roy MacGregor will host “Tom & Winnie: Art, Mystery and Tragedy” at the Algonquin Threatre in Huntsville.
“It’s fascinated people for more than a century,” MacGregor says. “It just has mystery upon mystery.”
He repeatedly says he doesn’t have all the answers, what MacGregor’s presentation will go over is the theories behind what happened to Thomson, a renowned Canadian painter who died on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park in 1917. MacGregor says there are many unknowns about his death, including multiple theories about how he died.
Winnifred Trainer was involved in a romantic relationship with Thomson. MacGregor says he grew up living near Trainer, so he has personal stories about her and the relationship she had with Thomson.
He says his grandfather was formally a chief ranger at Algonquin Park and knew Thomson. MacGregor says, though, his grandfather didn’t like the famed artist. “He thought he was a lazy bum,” he says.
The event is a fundraiser for Community Living Huntsville with all of the proceeds from the event going to them. The tickets will cost $35. “Roy MacGregor, bless his heart, has generously lent his time for this,” says Jennifer Jarrett, Community Engagement Specialist for Community Living Huntsville.
The show is on July 19 at 8 PM.
She explains the money will support their transitional housing initiative, which supports young men with disabilities who have experienced periodic or chronic homelessness. She explains the initiative provides temporary housing and support services, so tenants can gain the stability, skills, and connections to find a permanent place to live.
“The housing crisis has openly depended over the past two years in our community, really globally,” Jarrett says, pointing out that rent prices are “through the roof.”
While housing, specifically affordable housing, is a problem all over Canada, Jarrett believes people living with disabilities are often forgotten. says people with disabilities often get forgotten. “People with developmental disabilities might not be seen as viable tenants,” she says, but adds that shouldn’t be the case. “It breaks my heart that more often than not they are overlooked”
“I don’t pretend I have all the answers,” MacGregor says. “I don’t pretend I know the truth.”
However, he says he wants to have an open discussion about a story and romance that Canadians have been talking about “for centuries.”