I recently read your column appearing in the Guelph Mercury.

I thought you had some good points, but the one angle you didn’t explore is the proximity of National Parks vs. Provincial Parks. Southern Ontario has by far the largest number of Canadians (approx. 10 million), yet very few National Parks are within any sort of reasonable driving distance. Ontario Parks on the other hand offers several options all within a few hours’ driving distance, Algonquin being the most notable. It would be interesting to see some numbers for park visits to Ontario Parks. My experience in the past few years has been extremely busy parks with very few if any campsites available. If the federal government truly wants Canadians visiting National Parks, perhaps they should establish a few parks closer to the majority of Canadians, in Southern Ontario. Better yet, take over operations of some provincial parks and save our cash-strapped province some money.

Tyler Phillips
Elora, ON