Winter on the island is when you learn who your neighbours are. Summer brings tourist and new homebuyers, but it’s in the winter when you can’t get your snowplow out of the ice, or your car slides softly into a snowdrift, that you discover just what islanders are made of. Evenings on the island are not isolating in the least. Your neighbours become your friends, and many times a week you’ll see a couple navigating the drifts with their iPhone flashlights, plates of food, beer and wine balanced on palms or in totebags. We have dogs. Dogs also introduce you to the best and worst of humanity. Living in Toronto,…