History lessons

Barb Sweet writes for The Telegram today on a report on the future of the Colonial Building, a report which The Most Open And Accountable Government In The Galaxy has yet to release to the public. (TMOAAGITG now has 30 days or fewer in which to do so, or else risk breaking a solemn 2003 campaign promise, again.)

According to Sweet's account, there are lots of interesting suggestions on how to turn the Colonial Building into a propoganda tool to advance the current administration's crypt-separatist agenda an educational experience outlining the political history of "Newfoundland":

Another display would allow visitors to vote for or against Newfoundland’s independence, as if they were back in the day.

“People would be presented with arguments pro and con and asked to vote. They would drop tokens into clear plastic tubes so that all could see the tally,” the report states.

A low-tech version of the VOCM Question of the Day, in other words. Wonder how the upper floors of Confederation Building will engineer the stacking of that "tally"?

And, in the interests of historical accuracy, instead of a plastic-tube simulation of the 1948 referendum, it ought to be a plastic-tube simulation of the Confederation Election of 1869, complete with a big, stern notice: Labrador Residents Do Not Have The Right To Vote.

Sweet's article concludes with a final quote from the unreleased report, the report which the province, according to the 2003 PC election campaign platform, has 30 days or less to release to the public on the internets:

“No other province in Canada has a former legislature building that provides this sort of opportunity. No other place in the province is so central to Newfoundland and Labrador’s political heritage and identity,” the report says.

That might well be because no other province in Canada has an extant former legislature building.