Comeback kids V.I. Raiders benefit from big plays against Broncos. PAGE 30
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2015
VOL. 27, NO. 29
Royal mail has arrived for Laurie Gourlay, president of the Vancouver Island and Coast Conservation Society, with a message from the Queen on the 150th anniversary of Vancouver Island’s flag.
TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
Queen acknowledges flag’s anniversary
I
NOT KNOWN if flown in colony’s early history.
BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
Vancouver Island’s flag has attracted royal attention. Royal mail arrived at Cedar post office in June for resident Laurie Gourlay, offering best wishes from Queen Elizabeth II for a “most successful and enjoyable year” marking the 150th milestone of Vancouver Island’s flag.
“It was like, wow,” said Gourlay, president of Vancouver Island and Coast Conservation Society, who sees the flag as a “unifying” symbol and a way to reflect on our history. The flag, a blue ensign with the Union Jack in the left corner and the Colony of Vancouver Island crest, has roots stretching back 150 years, when Vancouver Island had a government independent of B.C. The colony was authorized to make a flag in December 1865 by the British colonial secretary in London, but a year later it merged with B.C. It’s not
believed the flag was ever flown. It wasn’t until 1988 that researcher Michael Halleran found the correspondence about a flag that one was created based with the seal of the Colony Vancouver Island, according to Royal B.C. Museum’s curator of history Lorne Hammond. Historians still debate whether a blue ensign would ever have been flown. Blue is for merchantship discovered colonies, while red is for naval, and the Island already had two flags. The navy flew the Union Jack and the Hud-
son’s Bay Company had a red ensign with the letters of the company sewn into the middle. But the flag Halleran created is based on real instructions with the legal seal of the colony. It’s an imagined flag but has “real roots” and is a great story, Hammond said. While he cautions we have to be careful about reconstructing our history, he also sees the flag as a lens to explore the 1860s. “The flag is a symbol that draws people to exploring who we are and you have to respect that.” See ‘FLAG’ /4
Mayor seeks support for investment trip BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
Nanaimo’s mayor wants to head to China on an $11,000 trade mission to advance investment discussions, including for the proposed Hilton hotel. Mayor Bill McKay proposed a trip to Shanghai and Beijing to further investment talk for the Hilton hotel project, which is currently seeking financing. A city agenda showed the mayor had planned to ask council to authorize his trip Monday, but the request could now be postponed. The bid to go overseas comes just a year after Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation went to China to meet with investor groups for the Hilton and conference centre hotels. According to a report authored by the mayor, there has been ongoing communication between the economic development corporation and various parties from that first mission and a request has been received for a small delegation to visit Shanghai and Beijing to further current advancement discussions and establish new introductions. McKay told the News Bulletin the request came from Charles Koo, owner of Insight Holdings, the company behind the Hilton hotel project. He sees it as “very important” to go to China and called it a question of whether a community should promote itself. “I find it hard to believe that there would actually be people within the community that would be concerned that we would spend $11,000 going on a trade mission to China to promote our city,” he said. But Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, doesn’t believe taxpayers should go to help private corporations and called the report “flimsy” on what the actual return on investment would be for taxpayers. “If you have private businesses in your community that are paying taxes there now, if you use some of that tax money to fund or benefit their competitors, that’s an unfair advantage and that’s government picking winners and losers,” he said. “That’s not right.” news@nanaimobulletin.com
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