Breathe through the nose, Brockville...

OK, Brockville, take a breath. Deep, and through the nose. Before you sink us back to 165th.

I know Brockvillians already have a reputation as a snarling bunch, a reputation we try hard to smash to pieces by pointing out locals' generosity, community spirit and Upper Canadian respectability.

And I know it's been a long, hard winter, by Upper Canadian standards, and yesterday brought back the very worst of it.

But, really, all the snarling on Facebook about Brockville's MoneySense ranking being undeserved because it is too high for this dull, stagnant mortuary of a town is a little too defeatist for my taste.

A small sampling of said Facebook comments:

From Dave Dargie, a known community booster most of the time: “145 might be a little generous given our lack of growth and no intentional movement toward success!”

From Doug Warren: “Very generous of them! “

And from a user going by the name of Romak Worldpeace, the humour prize for the following: “At first I thought the study said average age in Brockville was 145.”

Add to that the poll results on our online story, which show readers agreeing with the low rank by a score of 103 to 24 as of this writing, and it's hard to disagree with our commenter who goes by the name limestone3: “We would probably rank in the top ten if bitc&%$g was counted.”

Geez. You'd think it was Riverfest or something.

I have my own reasons for finding at least some grains of truth in the low MoneySense ranking, which I will deal with in tomorrow's city column.

But in previous years, the community could be counted upon, if not to dismiss this low ranking with indignation, at least to question its significance as Mayor David Henderson does.

The fact this year, they are eager to join MoneySense in a full-on flogging of their own city's name is – although admittedly entertaining – more than a little disturbing.

If we are to turn things around, regardless of these MoneySense surveys, surely the first step would be to get a little bit more upbeat about our home?

At the moment, I'd be a little worried if I were running for re-election on council.