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Even losers must celebrate Upper Fort Garry

By: Gordon Sinclair Jr.

2/06/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 14

HOW TO BE POOR LOSERS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE "RICH" ...It's been the shivering spring of our discontent. But the sun was shining and the temperature was summer-like at noon Monday when Premier Gary Doer stood in front of the Upper Fort Garry gate to make a surprise announcement that brought a warmth all its own.

The premier and millionaire businessman Hartley Richardson had met in Calgary with Petro-Canada president Ron Brenneman.

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And, Brenneman had agreed to sell the Petro-Canada station at the corner of Broadway and Main Street, which will remove an eyesore and open up the Main Street view of the gate and the rest of the proposed Upper Fort Garry Provincial Park.

Coincidentally, the Friends of Upper Fort Garry were announcing the city had officially turned over ownership of the land that represents the post-colonial cradle of Manitoba.

Finally, the premier had concluded his bid to create a green belt along Main Street, from the Red River's edge all the way to Broadway.

And, the Friends of Upper Fort Garry -- a collection of the province's business and political elite who carried on a fundraising campaign to save the province's symbolic birthplace from being overshadowed by an apartment development -- had finally secured all the park property they'd dreamed of acquiring for the citizens of Manitoba.

It should have been a time to celebrate.

And it was.

Until the premier was casually asked whether there are plans to tear down the only building still standing on the historic city block.

The century-old Manitoba Club, symbolic home of the city's business and political elite.

The premier laughed.

As he should have.

After all, many of the business and political elite who spearheaded the campaign to save the historic property for the citizens of Manitoba are also members of the Manitoba Club.

Without their passion and persistence we wouldn't be planning a downtown provincial park on the land where the Hudson's Bay Co. once ruled most of northwestern North America and where the "Father of Manitoba," Louis Riel, declared a provisional government that led to the creation of Manitoba.

More importantly, though, the stately Manitoba Club is also part of our history.

It's not a corner gas station.

But there are elements in this city that will always be sniping at the rich and/or the successful.

Envying, instead of celebrating success, is an ugly attitude that seems to define us as a city.

But the reclamation of the Upper Fort Garry site isn't simply a success story for the Friends.

It's a success story for all of us.

Even those who don't and didn't support it.

Even for the losers of the Battle of Upper Fort Garry.

"ö "ö "ö

MORE HAPPY NEWS TO REPORT... Homeless hero Faron Hall is homeless no more as he has now moved into his new digs in a Manitoba Housing apartment in St. Boniface.

"ö "ö "ö

CIRCLE THE CALENDER... The Free Press is publishing a new book. Bite-Sized Doug is a collection of critter-themed columns by Free Press funnyman Doug Speirs. You know stories about pigs that glow in the dark, dogs that break his arm, and flatulent bovine.

Bite-Sized Doug launches June 16 at 8 p.m. at McNally Robinson Grant Park. And you're all welcome.

"ö "ö "ö

THE LAST LAUGH... I was speaking with lawyer Hymie Weinstein recently, telling him how proud I am of his son. Josh Weinstein is working -- at no cost -- to overturn the city's panhandling bylaw.

Hymie seemed pretty proud of his son, too, but for another reason. Josh has just become a partner in his father's firm.

But, Hymie couldn't resist sharing something else father and son have in common: size 16 feet.

That, Hymie suggested, is what you call really following in your father's footsteps.

 

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 2, 2009 B1

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14 Commentscomment icon

I think if this new park is going to be classified as a Provincial one... then the Manitoba Club should be reopened as an interpretative centre OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. It's the only move that makes sense.

I'll be starting a fundraising campaign from the huddled masses of Winnipeg to make it happen.

Remember north portage, unfortunately my satirical post went over your head. The Manitoba club will not be part of the historic site.

I'm all for preserving and remembering our heritage, but in case you didn't notice, Upper Fort Garry is GONE. I really wish our city had done a better job of preserving it, but they didn't.
If you want a beautiful example of a preserved fort, the Citadel in Quebec City is a real treasure. Heck, all of Quebec City is a treasure - because they preserved their old buildings.
But the very best kind of preservation isn't in museums and historic sites - it is everyday, still-functioning, in-use heritage buildings. New York, Montreal, Paris -these are entire cities chock-a-block with heritage buildings. For them, heritage doesn't belong in a museum - it is lived every day.
What also makes for great cities is mixed-use, densely-populated neighbourhoods. Our downtown badly needs more residential development to make it safer and more vibrant. That is what the quashed condo plans would have brought to the former Upper Fort Garry site. My fear is that the UFG park and museum will be empty and moribund most of the time.
I wish all the energy that went into getting control of the UFG site had gone into preserving some of our endangered heritage structures (actual heritage!) that are hanging on by a thread. Or how about getting some of your pals in government to use some of their political capital to challenge the car-centric "planning" that has led to so much destruction in Winnipeg in the last 50 years? [Edited]
But hey, as you say, we lost the argument. Just as new urbanists do in all third-rate cities.

i guess the Free Press is shaking in their boots now that Winnipeg Parking is going to withdraw his massive cash infusion to the paper. If only they had Known that he was just about to send his subscription in, they could have done something. I guess his only choice now is to buy the Sun. We should really start up a new paper called Winnipeg Parking News.

Good point. Do property taxes for the Manitoba Club go up or down now that it'll be located within the boundaries of a provincial park?

Yes, in fact, the elites planned this out way back in 1904 when they built the Manitoba club. It was their master plan to first encourage the demolition of the fort, and then its replacement by the regional office of shell oil, then a city works yard,then a curling club, to be followed by a Petro-Canada station. Yes, each step of way, their evil plan has rolled out just as they envisioned. Those crafty elites! I can't think what else one can do but move out of the city before they create any more provincial historic sites.

wow, I have my subscription renewal in an envelope ready to drop in a mail box but do I really want to subscribe to a newspaper that employs an brown nosed hack and refers to their customers as losers. uh, journalists are supposed to ask questions not deride people for doing so. oh well, saved me 100 bucks and one less stop on saturdays for the paperboy. I expect a recant and an apology tomorrow or you lose a customer.

"But there are elements in this city that will always be sniping at the rich and/or the successful.
Envying, instead of celebrating success, is an ugly attitude that seems to define us as a city."

[Edited] Methinks Gordon has been listening to a certain radio show and now takes swings at its host in his column.

Losers, eh? You'd know what one of those looks like.

So the Manitoba Club gets to be the only building allowed in a provincial park?

Hmmmmm....

So, in one day both Goodhand and Sinclair have to put a dig in their blithering rants about the bad attitude of the citizens? Translation: "You're a bunch of whiny losers. We know better than you." My reply: "don't worry, be happy....go F yourselves."

What is wrong with people like Goodhand and Sinclair and the new "hey Winnipeg, your attitude sucks!" bandwagon jumpers? I'm all for rallying behind something positive. Who wouldn't be? There's not a lot of payoff to disagree with something just because you're a cranky [edited] having a bad day.

People are smarter than that. I agree that there's always been a crappy attitude but don't mix it up with the intelligent questions, or the expectation to be consulted if it's going on in the city for which you pay all of that freaking tax money! Every city has its crappy attitude. That's normal. But they want to make it out to be especially bad here. It's just as bad in Calgary; it's just as bad in Toronto; it's even bad in Seattle, if the comments on The Seattle Times website (in the thousands) are any indication.

It's about how this city PLANS and EXECUTES. Crappy planning that still goes on to this day (IKEA location, Assiniboine Ave "greening", Disraeli fiasco, just to name three!) and reliance on the overtaxed to pony up for 99.99 percent of projects. AND NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO ASK QUESTIONS OR VOICE ANY CONCERNS WITHOUT NOW HAVING TO BE CALLED LOSERS AND SELF-DEPRECATING, (in other words INSULTED!!) BY THE [edited] JOURNALISTS, as if overnight they've become the city's biggest cheerleaders, full to overflowing with blind positivity.

Count me as one of the "losers" who thinks this whole exercise has been a way for the millionaires at the MB Club to get the taxpayers to pay for a nice green space off their back yard. [Edited]

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