Ontario legalizing clotheslines

by Keith Stewart

Clothesline bans are a relic of a time when using lots of energy was a sign that you had ‘made it.’ Many post-war suburban housing developments included a ban on clotheslines as part of the contract, so that only ‘the right kind of people’ (i.e. those who could afford the then-new technology of electric dryers) got into the neighbourhood and so that it would have a certain look (i.e. no fluttering sheets). This was, of course, the same period when Ontario Hydro had a “Live Better Electrically” ad campaign that encouraged electricity use on the grounds that the more we used, the cheaper it would become.

The humble clothesline was seen as hopelessly outdated and lower-class.

But now it’s making a comeback.

It’s part of The Good Life – one of the things that you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

And now Ontario is proposing to override all clothesline bans contained in restrictive covenants for houses and townhouses. They’re still thinking about what to do about highrises –you can give them your thoughts via the Environmental Bill of Rights posting. 

Kudos go out to Aurora Mayor Phyllis Morris, who has spearheaded the ‘Right to Dry’ movement, Ontario’s Chief Energy Conservation Officer Peter Love for keeping the pressure on, and Ontario’s new Energy Minister, Gerry Phillips, for doing the right thing.

Hopefully action on the rest of Peter Love’s eminently sensible recommendations on how to conserve energy will follow soon.