The small town of Collingwood is the best place to live in the world, according to long-time resident Greg Twigg.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Twigg, 62, Collingwood Yacht Club commodore and teacher at Georgian College.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: I’ve lived here since I was six months old.
Q: What brought your family to the area?
A: My father was a teacher. He taught at CCI (Collingwood Collegiate Institute) for many years.
I went to St. Mary’s in Collingwood, the original one on St. Paul St behind the Catholic church and I attended CCI. I actually had my father for a teacher.
Q: Where did life take you after that?
A: After high school, I started a college course to get into a tool and dye-making apprenticeship, which I did. I worked as a tool and dye maker for quite a few years.
Then, I went back to school to get my engineering degree from Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University).
I worked for a good part of my career for a company in Barrie while living in Collingwood. I worked there for 20 years. Then the plant shut down, so I went into teaching.
So now, I’m teaching at Georgian College.
Q: You’re the commodore for the Collingwood Yacht Club. What is a commodore?
A: The Collingwood Yacht Club is a working club for sailing. We do as much as we possibly can through work hours. There’s a board of 10 directors that run the club. The commodore leads the other nine directors.
Q: Have you always had an interest in boats and sailing?
A: When I was in high school, I was in sea cadets. I was the chief petty officer of our sea cadet core here in Collingwood. Again, my father was an officer there as well.
My father and I were pretty much best friends.
I did a fair amount of wind surfing when I was younger.
About six or seven years ago, an opportunity came up for me to buy a boat and join the club. I was fortunate. The club is really community-minded. The member who sold me my boat basically took me by the hand and taught me how to sail.
Q: Are you passionate about sailing?
A: I would say I’m very passionate about it, yes.
There are highs and lows. The lows are very tough like when the weather is bad. The highs are when the weather is beautiful and you’re out there.
We live in an area that is probably bar-none the best fresh-water sailing in the world. There are areas that are just unbelievably gorgeous. Sailing has lots of life lessons, I think. It teaches you about being methodical. It’s a very enjoyable sport.
Q: The club was recently consulted on the Terminals redevelopment proposal. What are your initial thoughts on the revitalization?
A: We don’t know a whole lot more than what was announced through the town. We’re looking forward to working with Dream and Streetcar on the development. They look to be a world-class company and have done a lot of work that looks amazing. We’re looking forward to seeing how it pans out. It seems very positive.
Q: Do you have any other hobbies you’re like to talk about?
A: During the winter, I ski. That’s more to pass the winter because I’m more of a summer person.
Before I started sailing, I used to spend a lot of time with motorcycles and biking around Ontario and Quebec.
I keep fairly active. Outside of teaching I also do design work for product development.
Outside of that, I don’t have a lot of spare time.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: I grew up here.
I think Collingwood is, in my mind, the best place to live in the world.
It has a fast pace for a small town, but at its heart, it’s a small town.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we speak with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature runs on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
