Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III

Dear Editor,

God Save the Queen, Elizabeth II!

This was a common phrase in my life as a child in Quyon in the 1950s. My father and Uncle Joe were members of the Loyal Orange Lodge, and were, by this alone, Monarchists.

I attended the annual July 12 festivities in Beechgrove, Bristol or Shawville with them, God Save the Queen was sung as the National Anthem (O Canada wasn’t made official until 1981), and my father flew the Union Jack (the Maple Leaf was chosen only in 1965) on the flagpole in front of our house on Clarendon Street on special holidays like May 24 (not yet Victoria Day and still on May 24), and July 1, Dominion Day. These are memories without specifics, as are, I think many young childhood memories.

One set of memories, however, has much more detail. They surround the Coronation on Monday (I googled this), June 2, 1952. I was seven. There was a gathering for Pontiac at Shawville Fairgrounds, with band (probably Orange Lodge bands) music, athletic sports, food, ice cream, horse activities and fireworks, very late at night on a long summer day and a parade.

I remember the Quyon Women’s Institute had a float that portrayed the visit to Quyon by Edward, Queen Victoria’s son, the Prince of Wales, in 1860 when he stayed at Mrs. Mary Bean’s Stopping/Resting House. My mother portrayed one of the rivermen transporting the prince.

The ceremony was widely viewed on TV in the United Kingdom. The medium was very new in Canada and I don’t recall if we saw it on TV in Quyon. If we did, it would have been on the set in the window of Bob Manary’s hardware store, as he had the first set in town. Within a few days, we were able to see the ceremony in colour, better than TV, in the newsreels and magazines like the Star Weekly and Life.

I saw the Queen four times in person, the most memorable time being five years later, in 1957, when I was 12. She came to Canada to open the 23rd Canadian Parliament on Thanksgiving, 1957. This was the session of Parliament following John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative Party election victory. (Mr. Diefenbaker and the PCs were just a half step below the Royal Family for respect in the Steele family.) A school trip came from Quyon and we stood on the lawn on Parliament Hill waiting for the stars to appear. The Queen, wearing a tiara and a white dress, much like the one on the cover of the recently issued Platinum Jubilee stamps and Mr. Diefenbaker, in a tuxedo, soon appeared on a stage to receive rapturous applause. The other three sightings were much more mundane.

In the early 1960s, we lived near the Driveway along the Rideau Canal and my mother and I walked over in the twilight one evening to watch her being driven from the airport to her hotel. It was a very quiet drive-past. I have seen her in person twice in Calgary, many years later, the last occasion being the Alberta Centennial celebration in 2005.

Charles III is King. Times change, people change, countries, including Canada, change, the world changes, everything changes. As the Queen’s subjects prepare to say goodbye and look forward to the reign of Charles III, I feel, as a senior adult, very different than my parents did when Elizabeth II succeeded George VI.

I feel no personal connection to King Charles, a man from a different country and class who is essential to government in Canada as head of state and commander in chief but that is all. Some Canadians want him and his family gone from these roles. I don’t necessarily support them now, but I can see a future time, most likely not in my lifetime, when the majority of Canadians want to make this change and it will be made.

Until then, though, God Save the King, Charles III.

Bob Steele

Calgary AB

Terry Fox 2022

Dear Editor,

The 2022 Terry Fox Run is on the horizon. The date is Sunday, Sept. 18 at Pontiac High School. Registration is at 1 p.m. and the event begins at 2 p.m.

Participants can run, walk, bike, roll or stroll the 10 km course with the normal water stations and the course patrolled by the QPP.

Registration outside worked will last year so organizers again hope for a clear day as the community laces up for its 41st consecutive year at PHS. To highlight the event the Lions Club put on a barbecue last Friday at Valu-mart. Monetary results of the barbecue are not known at the time of writing but a bright, sunny day brought smiles and laughter to the hungry crowd.

A much awaited highlight of the 2022 event is the coming of Peter has been very pleased with the efforts of PHS students and he wishes to laud their efforts for a job well done.

Terry Fox would be in his 60s now so its not easy to bridge the gap with the youth of today. Peter stood in front of the students of PHS in 2003 and introduced Betty Fox, Terry’s mom. Betty spoke passionately about her son and his dreams. From there the first run at PHS was born and it has continued to strengthen through the years thanks to the amazing caring, encouragement and support from PHS staff and administration.

The Terry Fox Student Run is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 23 and is now embraced fully by both staff and students. Their money raising efforts have also been superb and this has not gone unnoticed.

Terry’s mom in 2003 repeated Terry’s hope of making an impact on people’s lives, of making a difference.”

Hats off to the Pontiac Community for continuing his efforts. Congratulations to the students of PHS for keeping his dream alive.

See you at the starting line on Sept. 18.

John Petty

Rick Valin

Shawville, Que.

I’d like to complain

Dear Editor,

I’d like to complain about the way the Quebec government is intent upon making the entire province pretend to be one culture. It seems to me that people around here feel more a part of the Ottawa Valley than a neglected corner of a nation within a nation.

There are some important differences between us and Ontario, but that’s why they put a river there. When it comes to fiddling, singing, dancing, horse pulling, demolition derbying and other cultural activities, we’re next door neighbours.

Our community hospital used to be run locally and most people liked it that way. Sure, specialized diagnostic and treatment facilities need to be centralized but the ongoing, hands-on care, which has a lot to do with recovery, could best be served locally. I can cite several instances where the insistence upon centralization and the lack of communication between medical bureaucracy and patients, has led to heartbreaking trials of travel and missed appointments for patients.

In planning for a residual waste disposal plant, there is a scaling issue, so that for a facility to be viable, our waste streams would have to be integrated with that of Ontario. That brings negotiations to a grinding halt, but how different is Ontario waste from Quebec waste? Not so much that stringent guidelines and quality control couldn’t sort it out.

With the upcoming provincial elections, it behooves us to choose a representative who can recognize our need to relate to our valley neighbours and resist the province’s march to institutionalize an imaginary common culture.

Robert Wills

Shawville and Thorne, Que.