My name is Tyse Theysmeyer. I am from Hamilton Ontario and my waterbody is Lake Ontario. And in fact, it is the head at the western tip of Lake Ontario basically where the escarpment and Lake Ontario come together is a magical spot called Cootes Paradise Marsh. This is a place that is inset into the Golden Horseshoe and its a place where you can capture what the Great Lake used to be in the Golden Horseshoe. Going there both inspires me and inspires many other people and we hope we can keep it.

Do I have a specific memory… well, I would say that I actually have two that really jump out for me - I actually work there too so its a little unfair. Of course I visited it first when I was perhaps 2 years old, I’m sure I was younger actually but I can only remember to 2. I was walking along the shoreline because it has visitor trails and there was a garter snake which at the time actually sort of freaked me out so I had to run when I was 2. But I always remember it and I remember the place. And certainly in my later years the most recent one that really jumps out for me is Cootes Paradise is part of a massive restoration project, of course it held the title of one of the more polluted places in the world and just the other year it had come so far that if you were in your canoe, and if you visited it in a canoe you would actually think you are in Algonquin Park and that transformation was just incredibly powerful because you are in the middle Golden Horseshoe - formerly in one of the most polluted places, and there you are in a sustainable environment. So that's my story.