Bring the artifactory to the boonies

as published by The Guardian - Mar 13, 2007
by Marian Bruce, Murray River

Editor:
This is in response to ‘The victor gets to write — and house — history’ (The Guardian, March 10, 2007).

Well, hurray for Alan Holman for finally putting some perspective on the most overblown issue on the Island in the past 20 years — the proposal to build an artifactory in (gasp!) Murray River. You would think Premier Binns was threatening to trash Province House.

It’s so weird to see the intelligentsia wringing their hands over the prospect of a government-funded building 40 miles (imagine!) from the Island’s fountainhead of culture and good taste. Do they think they can’t trust us snaggle-toothed fellas not to burn the place down? Do they think we have no trainable volunteers? Or do they suspect that we can’t understand anything beyond Larry the Cable Guy?

Well, shucks, folks, we just might be able to dig up a few warm bodies that might be capable of helping out with heritage-type stuff. Let’s see, now. How about the volunteers who have just won a heritage award for restoring and maintaining the Wood Islands lighthouse? Or the fellows who got another award for saving an historic church? Or the men and women who keep the Murray Harbour Community Centre humming, year after year? Or the volunteers who organize concerts and auction sales in the Murray River Hall — raising, so far, $108,000 for a hospital in far-off Charlottetown?

By the way, folks, we’ve now got the pavement out here. And the lights. Oh, and many of us manage to travel 40 or 50 miles for work, for university and vocational training, for entertainment, for shopping, for medical care, and for sightseeing along beautiful University Avenue. And yes, the road to Charlottetown goes both ways.
I say, bring the artifactory to the boonies, and a provincial museum, too. Way to go, Premier Binns. Git ’er done!