by Rob Shields
Originally published in Thousand Island Life, June 2026. The exhibition was on display at Gananoque Public Library from Sept 3 to Nov 6 2026.
CBC Interview: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-112-ontario-morning/clip/16235526-new-exhibit-shows-50-years-life-along-thousands
“Will that be an Americano or a Canadiano?”
Borders appear in everyday activities in the funniest ways.
They are where the contradictions of our time are lived out acutely. People in the Thousand Islands are no strangers to changing border regulations, and a changing environment and River. But community and family ties across the banks of the St. Lawrence are an enduring reality. From River Rats to today, residents always lived the reality of the River and the Islands. Residents have looked for the best of the United States and Canada to build a unique culture along the border.
When the United States marked its 200th anniversary in 1976, the Government of Canada published Between Friends/Entre amis, a lavish coffeetable book celebrating harmonious Canada-U.S. relations through images of community life on both sides along the border.
Fifty years later, a team of researchers from The University of Alberta is now spending the summer documenting how life on the Canadian side of the border is changing for residents and visitors. Our Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded study echoes Between Friends/Entre amis, Canada’s gift to the United States on its bicentennial. Now, residents on both sides of the river are navigating a changing cross-border relationship. From what we hear in the news to kitchen table conversations, everyone is talking about changes that are reshaping tourism and everyday expectations.
Between Friends at 50
I grew up along the Rideau River near Kars in the township of North Gower, on the Rideau River, am now Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Research Chair at University of Alberta. I am leading the study in Gananoque and the Thousand Islands. With funding from the University of Alberta and Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, we are asking people about their experience and stories of the border, crossing back and forth, and relations across it over the last 50 years since Between Friends/Entre amis was published.
Over summer ’26, our team will be taking photographs at events. The photographs hope to capture a sense of the “borderscape” to compare with the 1976 book. Our photography will be the basis of an exhibition at Gananoque Public Library starting September 3rd and running for 2 months.
At the same time in Alberta, other researchers, under the direction of Professor Andriko Lozowy, will do the same photography work. They will collect comments, memories and local histories in Coutts Alberta, a small town which even shares its water supply with its American twin, Sweet Grass Montana. Coutts found itself the focus of national attention when trucks blockaded one of Canada’s busiest border points during Covid in April 2022.
Your help
As part of the project, we are (still) also asking for reactions and making a comment book about the images. Stories about the border will be recorded and contributed to a community history project at Gananoque Public Library and archived locally.
The Thousand Islands and St. Lawrence are well photographed. We would love to reshoot some of those images of the 1970s, updating them to how the places look now to let us think about where we are going with changes and what local communities value.
Do you have family photos of the border in the past? We’d love to hear your stories. To get in touch with the project, contact me at: rshields@ualberta.ca
-Rob Shields (Univ. of Alberta)