Editorially speaking...
I must be getting cynical in my old age.
There was a photo on the front page of the Times Colonist this week showing workers finalizing the moving of the tall obelisk on the B.C. Legislative grounds that honours our founding father, Sir James Douglas.
The 8.2 metre high monument has been moved a few metres because it was being obscured by a large sequoia tree. In the not so long ago bad old days, the solution would have been quicker, simpler and cheaper: chop the tree down. How heartening it is that the government opted to keep both landmarks for posterity.
So why am I cynical? My first reaction to the photo was to breathe a sigh of relief that the Douglas obelisk is safe within the parliamentary precinct and not under the domain of the City of Victoria. Its revisionist council probably would have deemed Douglas to be historically wanting and placed him in storage alongside Sir John A. Macdonald until—if—they decide what to do with it.
On another positive note, the Nanaimo Historical Society (nanaimohistoricalsociety@shaw.ca) has a new feature on its Facebook page: Into the Mist asks contributors to submit stories and stories about buildings or sites that are “on their last legs or have already disappeared”. I’ll have to send them the accompanying photo of the old log cabin next to Buckerfield’s at the southern entrance to Duncan. Said to be 100 years old, it bit the dust two weeks ago after it fell into total disrepair after its previous owner died several years ago.
It wasn’t a Nanaimo building but it certainly was a landmark beside the Trans Canada Highway just south of the Silver Bridge. I can remember, when still living in Saanich in the 1960s, driving my mother who was an avid collector of carnival glass and women’s things, to the cabin which was operated as a silversmith and antique store.
Speaking of Nanaimo, readers may be interested in a new podcast, Hintertales: Stories From the Margins of History by Rachel Dunstan Muller (www.racheldunstantmuller.com). The Nanaimo writer and storyteller has posted a story about Robert and Lillian Booth, as told to Muller by their daughter Thelma Bradbury. The grand piano in the Port Theatre was purchased with funds from the Robert and Lillian Booth Memorial Fund. This particular podcast is entitled He Was the Ears; She Was the Eyes.
Ms. Muller doesn’t confine herself to Nanaimo history; March 5, she’ll “zero in on a dramatic incident on Triple Island, a lighthouse on the north coast of B.C.”
I told you recently of the City of Duncan’s new program to give several prominent downtown streets Hul’qumi’num (Cowichan First Nation) names. Well, Central Saanich has picked up the idea and is going to add traditional WS’ANEC’ names to municipal road signs after a unanimous vote by Council.
What a great way to remind us of our Indigenous forebears who—we seem to have difficulty remembering this—were here long, long before us.
On a grimmer note, the CEO of the Royal British Columbia Museum has resigned because of a scandal over the institution’s “problem with systemic racism,” to quote the TC. It’s not only sad that events have turned out the way they have but also ironic. I mean, the RBC is supposed to be the champion of preserving and honouring our Indigenous past. How—how—could it ever have become a toxic workplace for Indigenous employees, particularly in this age of increased enlightenment that we term Reconciliation, the result of the Residential Schools travesty? Go figure...
Back to happier news:
I told you recently that the mayor of Oak Bay, Kevin Murdoch, was casting about for a ‘new’ office desk. He wanted something with character and provenance to replace his 1980s government surplus desk and he has it—the desk, ca 1944, formerly used by revered NDP party leader and Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas. It was Murdoch’s choice of 40 offerings, proving the power of publicity.
After Douglas the desk was used as a potting table in a solarium and, most recently, as a folding table for laundry! It’s good to know that it’s about to resume its intended role as an office desk used in the course of public administration.
That’s it for this week.
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