From Orillia, Ontario
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot is perhaps the most accomplished and well-known singer/songwriter to ever come out of Canada.
Born in 1938 in Orillia, Ontario
Died in 2023
- “For Lovin’ Me”,
- “Sundown”,
- “If You Could Read My Mind”,
- “Early Mornin’ Rain”,
- “Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald”.
His songs have been covered by such music giants as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Glen Campbell and Don Williams.
Gordon Lightfoot on how he writes a song, 1967, CBC Archives
Bob Dylan Inducts Gordon Lightfoot into The Canadian Music Hall of Fame (1986)
Gordon Lightfoot in The Strombo Show
Orillia is a city in Simcoe County, Ontario, between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe.
The village of Orillia was incorporated in 1867 (sharing the same birth year as Canada), became a town in 1875, and was designated a city in 1969.
Known as the “Sunshine City”, the city’s large waterfront attracts many tourists to the area every year, as do a good number of annual festivals and other cultural attractions.
In Stephen Leacock’s 1912 book Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Orillia was used as the basis for the fictional town known as “Mariposa”,
While the area’s largest employer is Casino Rama, the overall economic activity in Orillia is a mixture of many different industries including manufacturing, government services, customer service and tourism.