For Better or For Worse - Key Storylines

Key Storylines

The fictional suburban town of Milborough is located near Lake Simcoe. On the For Better or For Worse website, Milborough is described as being about a 45 minute to one hour drive from Toronto and resembling Newmarket or Etobicoke, and a location map places the town on Highway 12 near Cannington and Beaverton in the northernmost part of Durham Region. The family's house is located on Sharon Park Drive.

In the comic's quarter century, the strip has featured a variety of storylines, as the characters and their friends age. These include Elly's return to the paid work force, John's mid-life crisis, the birth of a friend's six-fingered daughter, friends' divorces, the coming out of Michael's best friend Lawrence Poirier, child abuse (perpetrated by Gordon's alcoholic parents), the death of Elly's mother Marian Richards, and Elizabeth's experience with sexual harassment and assault at the hands of a co-worker.

The strip has presented a relatively diverse portrayal, albeit not in a high-handed, preachy manner. Although the Pattersons themselves are a fairly typical middle class white anglophone family, there have been recurring characters of different backgrounds, including Caribbean immigrants, Asian, Latin American, Franco-Ontarian and First Nations cultures. The different ethnicites are presented as a result of geographic means and without fanfare, as opposed to tokenism or showing off minorities. Elizabeth's favourite high school teacher, who inspired her to study education herself, was paraplegic.

Other issues are also addressed. During her second year at college, Elizabeth moves in with her boyfriend, Eric Chamberlain, insisting that she will maintain her own bedroom. Elizabeth later breaks up with Eric when she finds out he is cheating on her. Storylines sometimes concern the Pattersons dealing with difficult acquaintances such as Thérèse, the ex-wife of Elizabeth's friend Anthony, who resents Elizabeth's presence, or Deanna's squabbling parents, Wilfred and Mira Sobinski.