[ISL] Five #PEI links: pets, diaspora, tourism, UPEI, Lawrence MacAulay

• A highly-publicized campaign to get Islanders to return to PEI failed to produce significant results, many arguing the government did nothing to create conditions for a return. CBC PEI reports.
• Tourism numbers have continued to grow on the Island, with 1.58 million recorded visits estimated by the end of this year. CBC PEI reports.
• Overall enrollment has continued to grow at UPEI, with particularly large spikes in international student enrollment. CBC PEI reports.
• Landlords on PEI can keep tenants from bringing their pets with them, sadly. (The contrast with other provinces is noteworthy.) CBC PEI reports.
• CBC PEI notes the political career of long-time Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay, who has served for three decades.

[ISL] Five Prince Edward Island notes: polling, obituaries, UPEI, Charlottetown, Victoria-by-the-Sea

• The Guardian reports that polling reveals the three leading parties of Prince Edward Island–the Liberals, the NDP, and the Greens–are too close to call.
• CBC’s As It Happens reports on the confusion caused readers by the fact that, one day, the Journal-Pioneer of Summerside had no obituaries.
• More international students studying at UPEI have stayed and found jobs locally on the Island, CBC reports.
• Vacation rentals seem to be cutting significantly into the stock of housing in Charlottetown. CBC reports.
• The small community of Victoria-by-the-Sea has apparently passed effective legislation to discourage vacation rentals and encourage year-round settlement in its housing stock. CBC reports.

[ISL] Five Island links: Mi’kmaq UPEI, old-style boats, economic split, global warming, LGBTQ

• CBC reports how the Mi’kmaq flag now flies high, and permanently, above the campus of UPEI. Well done!
• An eastern PEI shipbuilder is creating an old-style wooden boat using traditional methods. CBC reports.
• The division of PEI into two zones for employment insurance purposes, between greater Charlottetown and the rest of the Island, can be unfair to people in Charlottetown. It also reflects real economic divisions in the province. CBC reports.
• When Atlantic Canada’s summers become as hot as Ontario’s thanks to global warming, I wonder what Ontario’s will be like? Global News reports.
• A recent conference in Charlottetown featured long-standing Island activists Jim Culbert and Nola Etkin, explaining their queer lives in the province. The Guardian reports.

[ISL] Five Prince Edward Island links

• News that lobsters experience pain when lowered into boiling water will have implications for the Island. CBC reports.
• The National Post reports on a Legion hall in Tignish that shamefully refused a Sikh man entry on account of his headdress.
• Happily, shipments of The Globe and Mail’s Saturday edition to Prince Edward Island have resumed. CBC goes into detail.
• The Prince Edward Island government has contracted with three companies to grow three million grams of marijuana for local sale. CBC reports.
• The University of Prince Edward Island will be offering a two-year Master’s program in tourism. CBC reports.

[ISL] “UPEI, Holland College should merge, NDP says”

This NDP proposal, as reported by the CBC News’ Shane Ross, does not appeal to me. Universities and colleges are different kinds of institutions, after all, to say nothing of my loyalties to UPEI.

The NDP in P.E.I. has asked the province to examine the possibility of merging UPEI and Holland College into one one post-secondary institution.

“We are a small province of a population a little over 145,000 people, we cannot continue funding both institutions at the rate we are,” said NDP Leader Mike Redmond in a written release Friday.

Because UPEI and Holland College are exempt from Freedom of Information Legislation, Redmond said, the public doesn’t see where their tax dollars go. The institutions have been “political patronage dumping grounds” for decades, he said.

“It is unacceptable for both these institutions to continue to go hat-in-hand to government for more money every year, just as it is unethical that our provincial government uses post secondary institutions to hire friends and families of their respective political parties,” he said.

[ISL] “Wade MacLauchlan announces P.E.I. Liberal leadership bid”

CBC Prince Edward Island shares the news that UPEI’s former president, Wade MacLauchlan, is running for the leadership of the PEI Liberal Party and hence the premiership.

Wade MacLauchlan, law professor, author, and former president of the University of Prince Edward Island, announced his bid to lead the P.E.I. Liberal Party Friday.

MacLauchlan made the announcement at a news conference in York, just outside of Charlottetown. If he is successful, MacLauchlan will automatically become P.E.I.’s next premier.

Current Liberal premier Robert Ghiz announced on Nov. 13 he would step down pending a leading convention, which has since been scheduled for Feb. 20-21.

MacLauchlan took the stage with the majority of the Liberal caucus standing behind him, including prominent cabinet ministers who were rumoured to be interested in the leadership. Finance and Energy Minister Wes Sheridan, Health Minister Doug Currie, Innovation and Higher Learning Minister Allen Roach, Education Minister Alan McIsaac and Agriculture Minister George Webster were all on the stage.

Transportation Minister Robert Vessey introduced MacLauchlan, and announced his candidacy.

[PHOTO] Photos of old: Charlottetown PE, September 2002

Over at Facebook I’ve an album featuring some photos that I took around Charlottetown, capital of Prince Edward Island, in 2002. They were digitized after I took them, but these images are very, very, low-resolution. We’re talking about pictures that amount to dozens of kilobytes at most.

Below are a few of the most notable images, with brief explanations.

Me, in front of Province House
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Province House
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Province House is the seat of Prince Edward Island’s provincial legislature, and a major historical site as the place where the founders of Canada met in a conference in 1864.

Veterans’ memorial
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

This monuments commemorates veterans of the First and Second World Wars, as well as of the Korean War.

The Confederation Centre of the Arts
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

The Confederation Centre, built in typical blocky 1960s style, is a combined art gallery and theatre complex, the last hosting the famed musical Anne of Green Gables.

Victoria Row
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Victoria Row is a short stretch of Richmond Street that’s a small pedestrian mall in summer, with upscale cafes and craft shops.

Boer War memorial
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

This commemorates the Prince Edward Islanders who died on behalf of Empire in the Boer War’s 1900 Battle of Paardeberg. I blogged about it at length here last year.

St. Dunstan’s Cathedral
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

This imposing building, located just south of Province House, is the centre of Roman Catholicism on Prince Edward Island.

Looking at Charlottetown harbour’s moorings
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Looking north along the harbour
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Charlottetown’s harbour can be quite photogenic.

Ceremony in front of UPEI’s Main Building
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

I don’t know what the ceremony was for, but I do know that the Main Building houses the English, Anthropology, and History departments which provided me with the skills necessary to eventually win my degrees.

A stubbly field
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Still inside Charlottetown city limits and across from my home, this field exists, regularly farmed and annually rotated.

The rest of the album is hosted on Facebook, and is open to the public. Come, see!

[BRIEF NOTE] My alma mater’s nerve broke

My first alma mater, rather.

At the University of Prince Edward Island, a student newspaper became one of the first Canadian papers to reprint the incendiary editorial cartoons when it published them in its Wednesday edition.

The drawings were included in 2,000 copies of the UPEI Cadre that were distributed on campus. University administration promptly ordered the papers taken off the stands, however.

Ray Keating, the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, defended his decision to print the cartoons. He said they were published along with commentary to provide the information people require to make an informed decision.

“We decided that prefaced with our comments, showing the cartoons for what they are was the only way to allow people to have their own opinion on the matter (of) whether they’re offensive or not,” Keating told CTV Newsnet.

“So many people seemed to be ready to condemn the cartoons and say it was a terrible thing based on the events that were happening in Syria. But most of the people, if not all of the people we spoke to had never seen the cartoons.”

The university’s administration took a strong stance against the publication of the cartoons, calling it a “reckless move,” and defending the decision to pull the newspapers.

“The administration has taken this action on grounds that publication of the caricatures represents a reckless invitation to public disorder and humiliation,” said a statement. “The university acknowledges the debates about press freedom and responsibility generated by this matter.”

My thanks to london_calling for calling this news item to my attention. I’m just sorry that this news item didn’t cover the school administration’s straightforward defense of The Cadre.

More on this later.