Maine
Reality intrudes on a magical slice of Maine | Opinion
In 1991, my father-in-law purchased a modest three-bedroom bungalow in Kennebunk Beach, Maine, as a 60th birthday gift to himself — a retirement haven nestled 470 kilometers from Westmount, Quebec. It was, and still is, the closest ocean to Montreal. The dollar was almost at par. The drive south, winding through New Hampshire’s rugged Dixville Notch State Park, was as much a part of the journey as the destination itself. The mountains were the overture to the sea.
The driving route traces a dizzying map of backroads, crossing the border at a ramshackle outpost between Canaan-Hereford Road in Vermont and Saint-Herménégilde, Quebec. There, the Canaan Line House, a sagging two-story relic straddling the international boundary, stands as a monument to a bygone era. Its splintered walls once buzzed with Prohibition-era revelers — Americans slipping through the internal door to the Canadian side for a legal drink, then back again, smuggling laughter and liquor under the radar. A century later, the building’s decay has elevated it to folklore, its warped floors, broken windows and sagging roofline whispering secrets of bootleggers and blurred borders.
Back then, crossing into the U.S. felt like stepping into a neighbor’s kitchen. A driver’s license — or a Bloomingdale’s card, or a grocery receipt scrawled with your name — was passport enough. No one scrutinized the apples in your trunk for forbidden stickers, or asked about firearms, or cared how long you’d stay. The trust was implicit, the camaraderie effortless. But on June 1, 2009, the rules tightened. After passports became mandatory, the line between “us” and “them” thickened like a fog rolling in off the Atlantic.
Kennebunk itself is a study in contrasts. A few miles from our bungalow, the Bush family estate, Walker’s Point, juts into the sea, all granite rock and New England grandeur — a symbol of generational wealth. Yet our corner of the cove near Mother’s Beach clings defiantly to its unpretentious charm, sheltering working artists, lobstermen and families who call it home year-round.
Reid Hannaford
Wherever you find yourself, sandpipers dart through tide pools, bald eagles circle above and periwinkles cling to rocks untouched by manicured hands. The garden in front of our house mirrors this duality, a steadfast contrast to the ocean’s restless expanse: a collection of fairy houses, dozens of bird feeders and rosa rugosa battling invasive bittersweet. At the entrance, two hand-painted wooden birdhouses stand sentinel: one adorned with a Canadian maple leaf, the other with American stars and stripes. By the water, a flagpole flies both nations’ colors — the U.S. flag always higher, a nod to geography, though the Canadian one dances just as fiercely in the salty wind.
When my father-in-law passed away, we inherited more than a house. We inherited the garden: a borderless bird sanctuary for all to enter. We also inherited sand dollars scattered like porcelain coins at low tide, a little deck where we’d watch storms roll in, and the rhythms of a town where neighbors still share clambake recipes and spare keys. Kennebunk’s soul lies in its volunteer garbage removal on Gooch’s Beach, its lobster boats chugging home at dusk, its annual debate over the price of a lobster roll. People are kind. They drop off cookies, haddock soup and tomatoes from their gardens. They lend wheelbarrows. We’ve never been separated by our nationality. Yet even here, change gnaws at the edges.
Reid Hannaford
For years, I told myself the garden’s magic — its defiant whimsy, its binational birdsong — was immune to politics. The flags, after all, had fluttered in harmony through decades of diplomatic spats. But lately, the world beyond the cove feels unmoored.
When border agents began rifling through phones, when “America First” curdled into hostility toward old allies, when President Donald Trump took aim at Canada — tariffs, insults, the unraveling of a century’s trust — I felt the ground shift. “Governor” Trudeau was an unforgivable slight. I’ve never been more proud of our former Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He united us all when, hand over heart, he said, “Canada will never become the 51st state.”
But uncertainty is no longer confined to politics; it seeps into the air, the water, the land itself.
And so that little sandpiper — a newly endangered species — once a metaphor for resilience, now seems an omen: a creature scuttling from encroaching tides and climate change, its habitat vanishing, never certain where the next wave will break.
Yet the little ocean garden persists.
The fairy houses still gather moss, Elmira Gulch’s red bicycle rusts poetically in the shadows by the woodpile, and the bittersweet claws its way through every crack, speaking the language of invincibility. Maybe borders, like shorelines, are not fixed but negotiated — day by day, storm by storm. I can still sprinkle pixie dust in the wishing well and plant another rugosa, its thorns a quiet promise: roots run deeper than fences. The flags still fly. The eagles still circle. And somewhere in the Canaan Line House, a loose floorboard still creaks beneath the weight of history, a reminder that even the most rigid lines can, in time, bend.
Tears blur these words, the saltwater kinship with the sea. Deep down, I feel it — the fracture, the cracks, irreversible, like a sand dollar shattered beneath a boot. Yet here I stand, clinging to love’s stubborn algebra, its relentless proof that fractions can still become whole. They must. To paraphrase Hemingway, we need to find our power in the broken places. For what else can we plant in the cracks but seeds of belief, seeds of trust, seeds of love?
When BDN shines a light, policymakers act. Make a gift to help our reporters keep Maine’s leaders informed. Make a donation now.
This story will be updated.
The Maine Department of Transportation is moving to slash up to $400 million in projects from its agenda, a shocking and abrupt cutback that is rattling the state’s construction industry at the start of building season.
Roughly $50 million across six pavement projects have already been delayed, according to a memo exclusively obtained by the Bangor Daily News. The agency plans to cut or delay another $150 million in bridge, highway, intersection and multimodal projects later this month. A further $200 million or more in cuts are planned in the next three-year work plan.
Those figures were outlined by Transportation Commissioner Dale Doughty in the May 18 memo to Gov. Janet Mills that has since circulated widely in the transportation sector, which has been getting drip-by-drip details on the wide scope of the cuts over the past three weeks.
It comes at the beginning of the state’s relatively narrow construction season. Companies have hired workers and ordered materials for projects they expected to begin this summer. The severity of the transportation budget problems was not raised to lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session.
Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, called the shortfall “deeply troubling” in a statement.
“We stand ready to work with policymakers, stakeholders, and industry partners to identify both immediate and long-term solutions,” Flagg said. “Maine cannot afford to fall further behind.”
Insiders saw this first.
This story was broken in Maine Politics Insider, the BDN’s daily premium newsletter for the most ardent political news followers. If you are a new BDN subscriber, you can sign up here. Current subscribers can contact our customer service team to upgrade.
The cuts stem from a structural funding gap of at least $130 million in the state’s current work plan, according to Doughty’s memo. Losses are magnified because state money from the gas tax and other revenue sources is matched by federal funds. Lawmakers have long grappled with politically difficult long-term problems with the state’s transportation budget.
A Mills spokesperson said Wednesday morning that the administration was working on a response to questions from the BDN. The department says it needs roughly $240 million more in state capital funding annually to maintain the existing system, and that anything less than $200 million will erode it over time.
Doughty’s memo the only near-term solution is a series of bonds beginning as soon as possible. Lawmakers would have to return to Augusta to authorize that if one is going to appear on the November ballot.
The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Michael Capeci is the former chairman of the Bangor GOP.
Let’s be honest about Maine’s current state.
For many families, the cost of living has become unsustainable. Housing is out of reach for many young people. Energy bills keep rising. Many small businesses are struggling under taxes and regulations that make it harder to grow. Rural hospitals are under strain and despite years of increased state spending, the results are not showing up in people’s daily lives.
Concurrently, Maine continues to lose young workers to other states. That is not a statistic, it is a warning sign.
To me, the question in this Republican primary for governor is not about slogans. It is whether we continue with a political approach that has failed to reverse these trends, or whether we nominate someone with new ideas. I think that someone is Owen McCarthy.
Owen is not a political insider. He is an entrepreneur from Patten, a small town where opportunity is not assumed, it is built. He grew up in a working-class family, became the first in his family to graduate from college graduating from the University of Maine, and founded MedRhythms, a healthcare technology company focused on neurological treatment.
He didn’t just talk about opportunity. He built it. That distinction matters, because Maine’s problem is not a lack of debate it is a lack of results. We have seen the trajectory: higher costs, slower growth, and a steady outmigration of young workers. I believe Owen McCarthy represents a break from that pattern.
His Maine 2040 plan focuses on creating 50,000 new jobs in sectors where Maine has real advantages — maritime and defense, advanced forest products, and life sciences. These are export-driven industries tied directly to Maine’s workforce, geography, and institutions. What sets Owen apart is not only what he proposes, but how he approaches governing.
He prioritizes modernizing permitting so projects do not stall. He supports using technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency. He focuses on making it easier to build, hire, and expand in Maine.
That same practical mindset extends to healthcare. Expanding telehealth, strengthening EMS systems, improving provider flexibility, and shifting toward earlier intervention are not abstract reforms. They are system upgrades designed to improve access while controlling costs.
Maine voters consistently respond to competence. They reward candidates who understand problems and present plans to solve them. I believe they are tired of rhetoric that does not translate into results, and skeptical of politics that prioritizes messaging over execution.
Owen’s approach is grounded in solving the issues that shape daily life — affordability, healthcare access, job creation, and government efficiency. That is not just policy positioning. It is a governing model that speaks directly to voters.
Some will point to his lack of political experience. But I believe Maine’s core problems are not the result of insufficient political experience; they are the result of policies that have failed to deliver measurable improvement. Experience inside a broken system, by itself, is not a solution.
If Republicans want to win, this primary must be taken seriously. From my perspective, it is not about choosing a nominee for governor who can energize the base. It is about selecting someone who can compete in a broader electorate that is frustrated and looking for change.
That requires a candidate who can speak beyond the base, not by abandoning principles, but by demonstrating competence and a credible plan to address Maine’s challenges. I believe Owen McCarthy offers that combination. He represents a shift away from managed decline and toward economic execution.
This is not just another primary. It is a decision about whether Republicans position themselves to win Maine or whether they remain trapped in a cycle of repeating the same strategies and expecting different outcomes.
If Republicans want to compete for Maine’s future, they cannot afford to nominate a candidate who only motivates part of the electorate. They need someone who expands it.
I believe Owen McCarthy is that candidate.
And if the goal is to win Maine, then the choice should be unmistakable
The only notable change in the top-seven of the Varsity Maine baseball poll is that Gorham now has eight first-place votes, two more than last week. The order of the seven teams is identical. In fact, the only change in the top-seven over the past three polls is the swap at the top after Gorham’s win over South Portland on May 19.
Furthermore, Gorham, South Portland, Oxford Hills, Cheverus, Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Fryeburg have been ranked in the top seven for four straight weeks, and six of those squads have been among the top seven in every poll this spring.
Meanwhile, Scarborough is ranked for the first time since May 5, and Ellsworth and Thornton swapped spots.
The Varsity Maine baseball poll is based on games played before June 2, 2026. The top 10 teams are voted on by the Varsity Maine staff, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points.
1. Gorham (8) 89
2. South Portland 79
3. Oxford Hills (1) 75
4. Cheverus 55
5. Bangor 42
6. Mt. Ararat 41
7. Fryeburg Academy 30
8. Ellsworth 27
9. Thornton Academy 25
10. Scarborough 12
Also receiving votes: Washington Academy 8, Monmouth Academy 4, Cony 4, Leavitt 2, Falmouth 2.
-
Washington, D.C4 minutes agoNurses at Washington D.C.’s largest hospital call on leadership to reverse planned cuts to maternal health
-
Cleveland, OH11 minutes agoAll Future Cleveland Cavaliers Draft Picks in 2026, 2027 & Beyond
-
Austin, TX14 minutes agoHighly pathogenic virus found in herd of Texas dairy cows
-
Alabama19 minutes agoIs Tommy Tuberville an Alabama resident? GOP candidate challenges status
-
Alaska26 minutes agoUniversity of Alaska names U.S. Army commander as new UAF chancellor
-
Arizona29 minutes agoDiamondbacks Fans Can Now Vote for Arizona’s All-Stars
-
Arkansas34 minutes agoArkansas DFA Agents seize illegal products in Corning
-
California41 minutes agoCalifornia may take weeks to finalize primary results. ‘This is normal’
