Unreal! As of a week ago when nominations were closed, the Bank of Canada had received no fewer than 18,000 names of Canadian women as candidates for having their picture on a new banknote.
From War of 1812 (and chocolate) heroine Laura Secord they include civil and women’s rights activists, politicians, poets, journalists, at least one pioneering aeronautical engineer and a host of others who, I would hope, have already been duly recognized and honoured for their achievements and contributions to the nation.
But it’s way past time for one—or, better yet, more—of them to share the stage with the ‘old white guys’ who, besides kings and queens, have graced our currency from the beginning. I and, I’m sure, many Canadians are curious to see who of those 18,000 nominees gets the envelope. And glad I am not to have the job of trying to winnow down that list let alone having to decide the actual winner(s).
(If only we could get Canadians to respond so enthusiastically to other equally good causes that involve recognizing and honouring our pioneers, male and female, and our heritage/history.)
As today’s Chronicle is a grab bag of items that relate to or follow up on previous columns, let’s turn to the ongoing saga of the rebuilding of the famous schooner Bluenose II whose predecessor, Bluenose, has long graced our dime and whose story I told you two years ago.
In short, it’s been a debacle for the Nova Scotian government.
Plagued by technical problems, the project has soared past $25 million and fallen four years behind schedule. “This was terribly managed out of the gate,” Nova Scotia Transportation Minister Geoff MacKellan told the Canadian Press. The reality is that so much of the ship has had to be rebuilt that the term restoration no longer applies. And, as noted, it has been expensive—almost twice as much as originally estimated.
Perhaps the most flagrant example of the project’s management, or lack of same, is the Bluenose’s new steel rudder which weighs more than 10 times the wooden original. It’s so heavy that a more muscular hydraulic steering system had to be installed for a further $700,000. It’s so danged heavy, in fact, that if it isn’t replaced it will “change the shape of the vessel and shorten its lifespan”!
That said, I wish Bluenose II and the Nova Scotia government well; may she soon be back to work as a seagoing goodwill ambassador and sole surviving representative of “one of the most notable [sailing ship] designs of the early 20th century”.
I’ve also told you about God’s Acre, the picturesque veterans’ cemetery in Esquimalt since 1868. So small that it was faced with having to discontinue burials, it has a new lease on life thanks to a deal having been worked out with the neighbouring Gorge Vale Golf Club.
It’s one of only three veterans’ cemeteries in Canada that allows veterans’ spouses to be interred with them, which no doubt hastened its reaching the saturation point. In February it was reported that Veterans Affairs and the golf club were about to complete negotiations to allow the cemetery to be expanded by 0.62 acres.
I should point out that the term ‘God’s Acre’ is rhetorical; the existing cemetery, originally a farmer’s turnip field, and which really covers 2.7 acres, presently contains 2,500 military veterans and their families from all branches of the services. Interestingly, although this can’t be confirmed, its first occupant wasn’t a veteran but the wife of an army sergeant. Because it was initiated when Esquimalt was a naval base for the Royal Navy, the cemetery contains both British and Canadian service personnel—even a lone Japanese naval midshipman who died on his ship during a visit in the 1920s.
To this day, delegations from visiting Japanese navy ships pay homage to his memory by visiting Veterans Cemetery.
The tiny, picturesque chapel which was designed by famous Victoria architect Edward Mallandaine was constructed with woods from various parts of the British Empire. Non-denominational so as to allow its use by all faiths, it’s often used for weddings and christenings.
As retired admiral Robert Yarrow told the Times-Colonist, Veterans Cemetery isn’t just a final resting place for veterans, “It’s also for the public to visit. If you walk through there and look, every tombstone has a history to it. If you add them all together, it’s quite a tapestry.”
Isn’t that what history is all about?
www.twpaterson.com