Posts with the Library and Archives Canada tag

Barris Beat

Getting close to a prime minister

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
John Turner when justice minister in Pierre Trudeau cabinet

When they talk about brushes with fame, I consider a morning at Sidney Airport on Vancouver Island, among them. It happened in the early 2000s. I’d arrived for my flight to Toronto early. I’d gone through security and arrived at my gate, when there sat John Turner, the former prime minister of Canada, reading a newspaper and waiting for the same flight.

Never intimidated by celebrity and always attracted to political figures, I sat down near him and said something like, “I’ll bet, since your retirement, trips back East are a whole lot less stressful than when you were prime minister.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Turner said with a smile. He turned to me and added, “but they’re still awfully long.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Let your fingers do the walking

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It was a last-minute thing. Normally, I’d have left it until I got to the airport, for the ticket agent to handle. You know, like the old days. But then I thought, what if there’s a real line up at one of those dreaded airline kiosks? What if it takes me longer than normal to get my baggage checked? So, instead, I decided to face the demon now, instead of later. I keyed in the airline name and began the clinical, faceless, robotic process of self-check-in.

“Check in from your computer and print your boarding pass,” the prompt said. “No printer? No problem. Print it at the self-serve kiosk when you get to the airport.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Ronnie’s moment of fame

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Ronnie Egan wears her beret and Women’s Royal Navy Service identification in May 2015.

About a month ago, a CBC television reporter from Nova Scotia emailed me with a request. Being sufficiently old-fashioned about these things, I decided to phone him to offer a verbal (rather than texted) answer. He said he and a camera operator had just returned from an assignment in downtown Halifax. He said they had just shot video of the demolition of the Discovery Centre. I didn’t immediately get it.

“You’d more likely remember it as the Zellers store,” Dave Irish said. “It’s a building with much history. … I’m hoping to speak to you about Ms. (Ronnie) Egan saving it.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Via VIA

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120px-Edinburgh_Waverley_station_viewed_from_Edinburgh_Castle_2005-06-17_02
I remember a train trip from London to Edinburgh in the U.K. once; after about six hours en route, when we pulled into Waverley Station in Edinburgh two minutes late the conductor apologized profusely.

They issue tickets on the internet now. Unlike at the airport, there’s no window overlooking the tracks to see the trains arriving and departing. In fact, even at Union Station in Toronto – perhaps the busiest passenger rail terminal in the country – you can barely hear the clatter of wheels on steel or feel the rumble of the locomotive in the station. They don’t even blow a whistle on departure anymore. And yet VIA Rail’s slogan still reads:

“There is nothing quite like seeing Canada by rail.”

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Barris Beat

Cost of lighting the way

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Courtesy Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site.
Courtesy Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site.

On Nov. 16, 1860, George Davies made history. The lighthouse keeper climbed the newly constructed, 15-metre-high, conical tower of Fisgard Lighthouse at the entrance to Esquimalt naval harbour on Vancouver Island. His appointment not only helped the British claim sovereignty of the Pacific Coast, it also made a statement about public investment in literacy. In addition to his salary for the nightly lamp lighting atop Fisgard, keeper Davies received a $150 stipend to purchase magazines and books.

“It is of the utmost importance to the interests of the Lighthouse Service,” the Governor of Vancouver Island stated at the time, “that the minds and intellects of the lighthouse keepers should not be allowed to stagnate in their isolated and … desolate stations.”

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