If a were a song, this one might be If You’re Happy and You Know It — and not just because the song was made famous by Canada’s children’s troubadour, Raffi Cavoukian, the owner of the home that is listed for sale.
It might be because the home is located on Salt Spring Island, on eight acres of land — four of which are pristine woodland.
It might be because the expansive floor-to ceiling windows overlook the Salish Sea where orcas frolic — no baby belugas, unfortunately — and where bedrooms and kitchen tiles are a shade of sky blue that, like a perfect day, sets spirits soaring.
It might also be because the place has been Cavoukian’s home for the last 16 years, and it was his happy place. He chose it for its view, one he has said “feeds me daily” in interviews.
Cavoukian, who was born in Cairo to Armenian parents, has often spoken of marvelling at nature. He spent the first 10 years of his life in Cairo, by the river Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea where that blue desert sky might have first captured his soul.
Cavoukian moved to Toronto, where his parents frequently took him and his two siblings up north to view the stunning colours of fall foliage.
As a child he said he learned to marvel. As an adult, he became an early and outspoken advocate for nature and beauty, who wanted others to remember how children see the world.
Cavoukian, now 76, came of age in the 1960s and ’70s to become first a folk singer, then a beloved children’s entertainer. It was in 1979 when he met Kavna, a beluga whale in captivity at the 91原创 Aquarium.
It’s hard not to think of Baby Beluga, his love song to Kavna (“Baby beluga in the deep blue sea / Swim so wild and you swim so free”), or his commitment to the environment and its stewards — children — when clicking through the photos of the $1,995,000 Salt Spring property he has listed.
The property offers sweeping panoramic views of Ganges Harbour, Active Pass, the North Shore Mountains and Mount Baker, and features four bedrooms as well as a “treezeebo” and an arbutus grove.
But, said Cavoukian, , “life is change.”
We don’t know exactly where Raffi is going. We do know that it will be a kinder, happier place once he gets there.
