Newfoundland historical stars

Just back from a short visit to Newfoundland, and I'm tempted to say, "What are you doing just sitting there? Get yourself off to Newfoundland."

Rather than going on about it, let me just draw attention to two superb and thought-provoking historical attractions on the island. I may come back to them in more detail later.

Historically-minded travellers should not miss the Colony of Avalon, at Ferryland, now probably the better known of these two. A large archeological project going on around the town of Ferryland on the Avalon peninsula, it deserves the praise lavished on it, both for the quality and interest of the presentation itself and for the way that Jim Tuck and a handful of others connected to Memorial University's Archaeology department have created a really significant cultural tourism asset out of what might have been little more than some holes in the ground. Link to Colony of Avalon.

Don't miss Trinity either. Instead of dwindling away into a nearly vanished community on the western shore of Trinity Bay, Trinity is consolidating its reputation as THE historical/cultural destination in Newfoundland. That's almost entirely because the local historical society and a few others gradually persuaded the community to make heritage an asset rather than something to be bulldozed. For me the best part of Trinity was Kevin Toope's two hour walking tour. Brilliantly presented, fascinating, charming. Here's Kevin's walking tour site.

Caledonia, Rule of Law

I've been on the topic of Caledonia and the rule of law earlier. My current column on the subject in the legal periodical Law Times has been getting some attention. It is available at the Law Times website.

Message from the blogmaster

Yeah, yeah, we are all wired and 24/7 and the blog can come from everywhere. But just because you can doesn't mean you have to. I'm taking a holiday and ain't planning to post before August 30. Enjoy the late summer.

This Week's Fresh Idiom Prize: Ibbitson

John Ibbitson assumes there are one or two serious contenders in the Liberal leadership race. The others: they are the peleton. Nice. Course it makes you wonder what illegal stimulants they are all using...

PropRep Follies

Know how the Proportional Representational wonks are always hyping PR as the solution to low voter turnouts? Here's Amos Elon in the New York Review of Books of June 22, 2006 on the most recent Israeli election:

"In a country where as a rule some 80 percent vote, abstention reached an all-time high, almost 40 percent; the abstainers were thought to have mostly been young people fed up with the vacuity and all too frequent corruption of politicians in recent years and by the glaring defects of Israel's proportional electoral system. [emphasis added]"

Then there's Turkey, one of the middle east's few democracies, also saddled with proportional representation. Like most PR countries, it has a threshold to prevent really minor parties from getting seats. In a recent election, there were so many crackpot factions running that only two got more than the threshold. Result: the party with 30% of the vote got 60% of the seats, and the party with 20% of the vote got the other 40%. Yeah, fair voting, right. No wonder New Zealanders want to go back to first-past-the-post.

History Foundations spat

Val Ross reports in a Globe & Mail story on the rivalry among Historica, Canada's National History Society, and the Dominion Institute -- mostly over who gets first grab at the taxpayers' money.

What a shame. Historica got $50 million from the philanthropy of the Bronfmans and Red Wilson. CHNS has the Hudson's Bay Foundation behind it. The Dominion Institute is much more an independent start-up, but it still has some substantial private supporters.

By-law #1 at these places should be "We are independent and private. We will never take one dollar from governments."

Problem seems to be, too often these organizations think they are not really about history, they are really about Saving The Country. And their strategy for saving the country is mostly about ramming history down the throats of young people via the education system.

But the education system is simply too big to be changed by private philanthropy. Give the education system $50 million one morning and it will say: "Thanks, and how much have you got for this afternoon?" That's why the schools have to be a public responsibility. When these private foundations march in to re-order the schools, the first thing they learn is they need a government-sized budget.

Historica above all really needs to rethink its priorities. It's about history, not politics. It's about appreciating culture, not saving the country. It's for Canadians, not children. It's private, not public.

And I say this as a friend and admirer of these organizations, someone who thinks the arrival of Historical NGOs has been a real boon to Canada and Canadian history. Seeing them become tied hand-and-foot to the Ottawa bureaucrats is sad.

One for the Courts

In June we noted here the $10billion lawsuit launched by Platinex, a mining promoter, against the KI First Nation of northern Ontario because the KI were asserting their treaty rights. Good to see that Mr Justice Patrick Smith of the Ontario Superior Court tossed the claim out. The Globe & Mail reports that he told Platinex it was “the author of its own financial misfortune by understating to investors its problems gaining access to the drilling site.” The judge also harshly criticized the Ontario government for abdicating its responsibilities.

Good to see an Ontario court that grasps the reality of our treaty obligations.