Niagara-on-the-lake

It’s off-season in this frozen-in-time neat-and-trim slice of Colonialism. Our guide says the Victorian hotel on the corner is mostly a new build. He points out where the Confederacy generals took refuge after Lincoln’s war, and what was rebuilt after the Americans razed everything in 1813.
     “If Brock had lived,” he muses. “He’d have kept his promises to his native allies.”
     Without pause, I reply: “Doubt it.”
     Have I grown too cynical? Are war, pestilence and wild fires too close for self-delusion now?
     Bedecked in Hallmark decorations, the town waits for that bright Christmas snow to make it picture perfect.

Inspired by my recent visit to NOTL. Image of the Prince of Wales Hotel hotel from TimeOut.