More lightning for you, Liam
I am in full agreement with Ed Hollett's suggestion that the Colonial Building, the former Newfoundland legislature, would make a great, well, legislature, not only because it's a great idea on its own merits, but because I (independently) proposed the same thing in another forum, what seems like a lifetime ago...
Although Labrador was never represented in the old pre-Confederation legislature, the Colonial Building was the place where Labrador's first elected representative, the Rev. Lester Burry, sat in the National Convention.
The other provinces have their historic legislatures, and, in the case of the three Maritime provinces, they are just as cramped and antiquated. That's what makes them such wonderful little buildings, and what makes the Confederation Building, with its vintage 1960s high-school architecture, so abyssmal.
Now, who's for resurrecting the Legislative Council? ;)
posted by WJM @ 12:38 AM
3 Comments:
Would anyone care to name a single democracy that has existed in the Western world since at least 1800 (I'll add a few years to the total) that has a "surplus" legislature or even a former legislature that they are looking to dispose of in some fashion?
God knows that I can't think of one.
The Scots just built one but since Scotland had been ruled from London from the time of James 1 or before, they really needed a building.
In PEI the legislature meets in the same building where Confederation discussions took place in the 1860s.
Quebec still uses the same building (as far as I know)
Just the very notion that we have discarded the historic seat of government built at taxpayers expense strikes me as an embarrassment on the face of it.
That we would propose to let the national parliament building be converted to space for wedding photos and as offices for some not-for-profits (again at taxpayers expense) while at the same time more energy is being devoted to resurrecting a St. John's flag as the "national" emblem strikes me as bizarre.
*raises glass*
Well, I'm pleased to find myself in agreement with you two on something!
Saves me typing and graphics. LOL.
Flags aside, I have already written my representative on this matter.
Would anyone care to name a single democracy that has existed in the Western world since at least 1800 (I'll add a few years to the total) that has a "surplus" legislature or even a former legislature that they are looking to dispose of in some fashion?
Other than the Bonn Bundstag? ;)
Quebec still uses the same building (as far as I know)
The Quebec National Assembly building was built in the 1870s and 1880s, so it's not quite the original, but then again, neither are any of the "old" legislatures, whether in atlantic Canada, Toronto, or Victoria. I'd also assume that the three Prairie legislatures sat somewhere other than their current (wonderful) buildings in the early years.
That we would propose to let the national parliament building be converted to space for wedding photos and as offices for some not-for-profits (again at taxpayers expense) while at the same time more energy is being devoted to resurrecting a St. John's flag as the "national" emblem strikes me as bizarre.
More to the point: while the institution that inherited the mantle of the ones that sat in the Colonial Building, now sits in what looks like a beefed-up 1960s-vintage high school... of the same architectural style that is now getting torn down all over the continent (with good reason.)
5:34 PM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home