Along the Mississippi River in the North Frontenac area of Ontario, we visit 19-year-old Leah Hughes and her family. We're there to install the Cinderella Comfort incineration toilet, which is the prize she won in our summer competition: Vote for Ontario's ugliest cottage toilet.
During the summer of 2020, Cinderella Canada wanted to name the worst toilet solution in Ontario and asked contestants to submit their entry and photo in a Facebook campaign. The contestants also had to tell us exactly why their contribution should win the contest. The contributions were held to a vote, and the one who got the most votes was Leah's ugly toilet! Leah was named the winner of the competition and the prize was her very own Cinderella Comfort Incineration Toilet, installed by our distributor in Ontario.
We visit Leah and have a little chat:
So, Leah, why did you join our competition this summer?
– We needed to move our outdoor toilet again for the third time, and we hoped to place it closer to the cottage, Leah answers. – We have nowhere else to put it because we have so many rocks on our property, so I just HAD to win a Cinderella!! I hate my outhouse so much, I literally wanted to cry every time I used it.
– Our cabin is my Happy Place, Leah continues, – and it was becoming really sad here. After using the nasty outdoor toilet ever since I was little, I am really ready for a new and better solution, which is also environmentally friendly.
The outdoor toilet Leah tells us about is a relatively simple building that we helped to move and install electricity in connection with the Cinderella-installation.
Can you tell us a little more about the cabin and the property, Leah?
– The cottage is located in the North Frontenac area of Ontario right on the Mississippi River. Our property was originally purchased by my great-grandfather in the 1800’s almost 150 years ago. Over time, it’s been divided into five plots where each of the siblings and their families used the property along the river during holidays and weekends. From 1993, we camped down by the river, and in 1998 we decided to build a small cabin and the original outdoor toilet.
You got over 600 votes in the competition, much more than the others who participated, how did you manage that?
Hehehe, Leah chuckles, – Yes this was a bit of a job, but it was really worth it in the end. I texted all my friends from high school, saying get your brother to vote, get your sister to vote. We also have a big family network. I sent an SMS to everyone I knew, with a link to the voting page in the competition and wrote "I NEED this incineration toilet, I hate my outdoor toilet! Please help me win !!!"
– Every hour I was checking the votes to make sure I was in the lead.”
Where did you first hear about Cinderella Incineration Toilets?
– My aunt saw them a year ago at a trade fair in Toronto, Leah tells us, – and she saw them demonstrated by the people who worked there. Since then, we have followed Cinderella on social media and read a bit online and in brochures.
– Since we first had to move the original outdoor toilet and add electricity, the project became too big for us and we were forced to wait. Luckily, the competition was posted, and I'm overjoyed that we won!
– Now we look forward to every time we visit! And not a single tear is shed over having to spend a few moments in our new "old" toilet anymore either, Leah concludes, beaming with joy over her brand new Cinderella.
