FERGUS – Fergus is in the spotlight for an upcoming TVO documentary series airing soon.
The town was featured in season two of Crossroads: Beyond Boom and Bust a documentary series exploring the stories of small towns across Ontario that are undergoing change.
Fergus is no exception to this change with its rich historical landscape contrasted by rapid housing and population growth forecasts.
“It’s an interesting point in time for Fergus and I think there’s obviously a lot up for discussion at the moment,” said Joanne Virgo, executive producer of the episode, in a phone interview. “That’s the point of the show, right? Crossroads is where are small towns going to next and obviously Fergus has been a pretty successful town.”
Virgo said the series challenges the perception of Ontario being homogenous when in reality if you dig below the surface there’s a lot of diversity in storytelling.
“One of my absolute favourite pieces of history that we found out about Fergus was about the Richard Pierpoint settlement that predated any of the white settlements and the Scottish settlements that became Fergus,” Virgo said.
She explained the episode contains a countless number of interviews over an hour long episode ranging from local historians like Pat Mestern and Al Koop, Mayor Shawn Watters, those involved with the Scottish Games like Jamie and Warren Trask and many other community members.
“In each of our episodes we try to follow an event that the community takes part in at the same time as telling the story,” Virgo said, in this case it was the 2023 Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games.
Virgo, herself growing up in a series of small towns in England, finds small towns in Ontario to be fascinating and enlightening.
“They're all so unique, full of personalities and characters, very distinct communities and I think it gives you an insight into what Canada is as a country as opposed to just the largest cities … I always think that you really get to know a country by its small towns,” Virgo said.
The show will be available streaming online starting March 26 at 9 p.m.
