Morning Update: Selfie security at Peggy’s Cove

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Jones, Atlantic reporter for The Globe filling in for Danielle Groen. September brings all the best things. Crisp air. Tomatoes. Kids going back to school. And – to many people’s relief – fewer tourists. More on that below, plus a look at Canada’s biggest and baddest invasive species and a surprising Canadian rental market downturn. But first:

Today’s headlines

• The Bank of Canada delivers its latest interest rate decision today
• Ukraine’s foreign minister Kuleba resigns a day after one of the deadliest Russian attacks since the war began
• Government and industry failures made Grenfell Tower a ‘death trap,’ says the final public inquiry into the fatal 2017 blaze at the London high-rise
• Accused serial fraudster Arash Missaghi, who was gunned down in his office this summer, left behind a murky web of companies and no will, his lawyer says

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Tourism

But first, let me take a selfie

I, like many in the world, am celebrating the end of hot summer crowds, especially the hordes of tourists who sometimes do irritating things. They range from mildly annoying – stopping in the middle of the sidewalk in front of you for a selfie, to the European mob tourism that many blame for degrading the character of beautiful old cities. This summer, Barcelona locals were so enraged by the onslaught of tourists they used water guns to spray them and carried signs that said “Tourists go home.” My colleague, European bureau chief Eric Reguly, recently wrote about how short-term rentals are ruining Rome’s historic urban centre.

There’s even a term now for the phenomenon – “overtourism.”

I experienced a taste of it this summer at Acadia National Park in Maine which was so packed with tourists – including me and my family – that there were traffic jams in the parking lots with exhaust fumes spewing into the spruce-fir forest, and whole shelves in the town’s one grocery store wiped clean of food. At the top of Cadillac Summit, tour buses deposited eager beavers who were literally tripping over each other to take panoramic selfies of what I’ve coined The Banff of the East Coast. It was stunning and, of course, brings dollars to the town, but everywhere I turned I was getting in the way of someone’s carefully choreographed Instagram story.

So I found it particularly interesting that my colleague Dakshana Bascaramurty zeroed in on this tension at a famous tourist site in my home province. In her story, she reports on how the desire for the best selfie has lured visitors past the warning signs onto the dark granite outcrops at the foot of the iconic Peggy’s Cove lighthouse. It’s a dumb move many tourists have made over the years, in some cases leading to deaths or near drownings, but Dakshana skillfully peered into the tourism faux pas through a modern social media lens.

I asked her a few questions about it.

Where did you get the idea for this story?

This spring, as I’ve done with so many visitors, I brought a friend to Peggy’s Cove and noticed security patrolling the rocks – something I hadn’t seen before. The guard blew his whistle at people wandering onto the black rocks, almost all of them taking selfies, and every time he did, I noticed people talking amongst themselves about it. There have been signs warning of the dangers of the black rocks and rogue waves for a long time, but it seemed like a big deal that there were now people there in fluorescent vests, delivering this warning in person. I wanted to know why, but also to explore how people were reacting.

Why are people so obsessed with getting the perfect vacation selfie?

We have billions of photos of the world’s most beautiful places at our fingertips and it feels like in order to prove you went somewhere you need to be in the photo too. Getting the shot that no one else has, where no other tourists are cluttering the background is the ultimate flex – and some people will do pretty risky things in search of it. I think people are always aware of these dangers but something about being on vacation also makes them feel invincible.

What made it worth writing about for you?

It’s a favourite pastime of Nova Scotians to mock or roll their eyes at visitors who go on the black rocks at Peggy’s Cove – all of whom are assumed to be tourists. I knew this story would be something locals would be interested in. But more than that, as we experience all this post-COVID lockdown “revenge travel,” there are more tourists than ever and increased conflicts between tourists and locals. Staffing Peggy’s Cove with security guards obviously isn’t as extreme as what you’re seeing in a lot of the European countries who are facing a major backlash to tourism, but still gets at that tension and I wanted to explore it.

The Shot

‘In some cases it’s not eradication, it’s mitigation’

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Canada has long labelled phrag, also known as Phragmites, our worst invasive species. You’ll find them lining almost any country road or highway in Southern Ontario, and flourishing in wetlands and coastal marshes.

Ontario unveiled plans to spend $16-million over the next three years on invasive species. The Minister of Natural Resources, Graydon Smith, said the recent money comes on top of $6-million a year that the Ministry of Transportation is spending to attack phrag along highways.

Given the scale of the problem, the influx of cash is still not enough for some critics.

The Wrap

What else we’re following

At home: Canadian university cities are facing a surprising rental market downturn. Rental property observers point to the cap on international students as a significant factor behind the drop.

Abroad: As the economy deteriorates in northern Nigeria, mass demonstrations are complicating the conventional narrative about the Russian surge in Africa.

Back to school: Alberta says it’s moving ahead with legislation that would require parents to opt in, rather than the usual practice of opting out, for their children’s sex education.

Back to business: Two years after China lifted a ban on Canadian canola imports, Beijing is launching an anti-dumping investigation into the crop, after Ottawa’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.