725 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

Probably best to keep it quiet so the Council post October can make a rational decision.

 

I would bet that City staff won't be able to locate it.

[On the Level]

I would bet that City staff won't be able to locate it.

 

If I was to win the lottery, I would open up a pub downtown called Sir John A. MacDonald's  

[Nparker]

If I was to win the lottery, I would open up a pub downtown called Sir John A. MacDonald's  

How about Sir John A's Colonial Cafe

[On the Level]

How about Sir John A's Colonial Cafe

 

Start a paper called the "Times Colonist"?

[Victoria Watcher]

Before first light at 5 a.m. four years ago, this scribe witnessed a work crew assemble in front of Victoria city hall and spirit away the statue of gin-loving Sir John A. Macdonald. Without doubt our first prime minister and an MP for Victoria had a very mixed historical legacy of nation-­building and was an architect of the residential school system.

But, instead of supporting the city’s important reconciliation efforts with First Nations, the action seriously undermined trust within council and damaged credibility with residents.

The autocratic handling of the decision without adequate ­public consultation was a stunning act of manipulation and failed municipal governance. Despite indications to the contrary, the outgoing council has still not made a decision on what to do with the statue.

https://www.timescol...-govern-5666472

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 August 2022 - 12:58 PM.

[Nparker]

...The autocratic handling of the decision without adequate ­public consultation was a stunning act of manipulation and failed municipal governance...

Not unlike almost every other significant decision this council has made.

[Victoria Watcher]

This council is the worst in over 150 years.

[Nparker]

And with the exception of perhaps 2 named candidates, those seeking council positions this fall would have us see 4 more years of the same. The cycle must be broken.

[Victoria Watcher]

Boxed up and locked away in a secure location in Victoria for four years, the controversial statue of Father of Confederation Sir John A. Macdonald could soon taste freedom before once again being locked away in a secure location on the mainland.

 

Next week, city council will consider a motion from Mayor Lisa Helps to return the statue, removed from the front steps of city hall in 2018, to the Sir John A. Macdonald Historical Society, the group that donated it in the first place.

 

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Helps, noting the city worked collaboratively with First Nations and the society on the issue. “The process has been really good and I think that it’s something that I imagine council and the public will support as well.

 

“The society has been very respectful of the reconciliation process and didn’t want the statue to become a lightning rod.”

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...society-5834115

[Nparker]

"The process has been really good". She probably even believes this. Worst. Mayor. Ever.

[grantpalin]

That's rich coming from her, seeing as she shanghaied council into removing the statue in the first place.

[Victoria Watcher]

A sweeping and aggressive plan is taking shape in the City of New Westminster to change street names, remove monuments, defund festivals, and erase the City's significant connections to the history of British Columbia, all without meaningful public engagement.

 

 

https://www.newwestt...c01ca8b35a.html

 

 

As New Westminster City documents and other sources reveal, New Westminster’s recent, no-consultation removal of the ancient moniker “Royal City” from its branding is just the start of a zealous crusade to cleanse the City of everything deemed “harmful” according to the dogma of those in charge.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2022 - 03:08 AM.

[LJ]

[aastra]

One day they're tearing down statues and renaming things. The next day they're deifying monarchs and venerating the customs and traditions of the long-established establishment (the same authorities that give them their daily marching orders). And the day after that they're tearing down statues and renaming things again.

Anybody who notices the inconsistencies is probably a terrorist. And probably also the kind of person who would observe the inconsistency when hordes of strangers slobber over one another at a celebrity's funeral, even though most of those same individuals opted to skip small private funerals for their own loved ones because congregating was just too darned dangerous. But it's no longer dangerous. Except it is still dangerous. Except it isn't.

 

And so forth. Because their guiding principle is turning things upside down, over and over again.

 

Next thing you know they'll be proclaiming peace by launching war. Wouldn't it be absolutely crazy if they do that? But maybe that's what it would take to wake people up to the falseness of it all?*

 

*no, they've been claiming war is peace from day one and people STILL fall for it, every single time

[Victoria Watcher]

They take down Columbus statues and install George Floyd (convicted felon that pointed a gun at the abdomen of a pregnant woman while robbing her) ones. It’s crazy alright.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 October 2022 - 09:39 AM.

[Nparker]

George Orwell told us this more than 70 years ago. Unfortunately, many people choose to think of "1984" as a how-to manual rather than a social satire.

[dasmo]

Let’s not forget about the peaceful protests in the US where people were killed, buildings were burned, and mass vandalism took place while in Ottawa where no one was harmed, the homeless were fed, and any property damaged was fixed by protesters was a violent occupation…

[Victoria Watcher]

Patrice Dutil: Six ways to erase Sir John A. Macdonald in time for his 208th birthday

 

 

 

Against the will of Canadians, only two statues of Sir John A. Macdonald still stand, and his name is quietly being removed from school programs. The two monuments are under 24/7 police surveillance (one on Parliament Hill and the other at Queen’s Park in Toronto). Until a few years ago, there were ten.  As the 208th birthday of Canada’s first prime minister was on Wednesday, it’s worth taking stock of the ways that were used to erase him from the country’s cityscapes.

 

 

https://nationalpost...obox=1673522601

 

__________________________

 

Mayors and city councils grew terrified to be associated with Sir John A. Macdonald. In Victoria, B.C., it was the mayor who led the charge in 2018 to remove the statue that had been erected in 1982. The general wave of statue busting that swept North America in the summer of 2020 claimed more Macdonalds. That June, the councillors of the Township of Wilmot removed the recently sculpted Macdonald statue that stood in front of township offices in Baden, Ont., near Kitchener.

 

In August, the monument to Macdonald and Sir George-Etienne Cartier that greeted arrivals to the Ottawa airport was also removed by the managers of the terminal and quietly hauled into storage.

 

In 2021, Kingston, the place Macdonald called home, the Mayor and city council had the statue taken down. Charlottetown, PEI — which long prospered on spinning the tale about the Charlottetown meeting of 1864 (that was given all its significance by Macdonald) — removed its statue of Macdonald. In none of the cases were hearings held or public debate on the question heard.  The decisions were all made internally.

 

Perhaps the most tragic case was the one in Picton, Ontario. After years of fundraising and awareness-building, a citizens group had convinced the town in 2015 to place a new monument to honour the site of Macdonald’s first court case. Five years later, it was placed in storage. At one point, the council of Prince Edward County voted to reinstate the statue, and then proposed to place it in a museum. The pro-Macdonald activists consider the compromises to be insulting and have so far refused the offer.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 January 2023 - 07:20 AM.

[Nparker]

We live in bizarre times.

[FawltyVic]

It won't stop either.

 

Once you allow one statue to come down without a fight, soon they'll come for them all.

 

There's a Churchill statue supposed to be unveiled in Calgary in the spring, I don't think that'll happen now.

 

Wilmot Township started with the removal of John A. McDonald from their tourist attraction of the Prime Ministers Path, now every single PM statue they had in place (including Kim Campbell) were removed for causing offense.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...moved-1.6092787

 

If this were a removal of people with troubled pasts, the removal of statues would've been limited. Adding plaques to tell the good and not so good about each person would've been a nice compromise, but this doesn't appear to be about compromise. It's not about teaching history either.

 

So who is next I wonder?

 

I've read recent news articles and read social media posts. There is more names of statues people want down.