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Written by: Allan W Janssen
Tags: perspective, spotlight, turks and caicos
‘Canada needs a Hawaii’: Conservative MP pushing for Turks and Caicos to become 11th province as island’s premier visits Ottawa!
Jason Fekete, Postmedia News
The premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands is in Ottawa on Monday promoting economic ties, but it’s the hope of some politicians to annex the island as Canada’s 11th province that has many dreaming of a truly Canadian tropical beach getaway.
Turks and Caicos Premier Rufus Ewing met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other parliamentarians Monday in Ottawa to promote tourism and trade connections with Canada, before heading to Toronto to officially open a new tourism office.
Ewing didn’t exactly say the Turks and Caicos, an archipelago of 40 islands located east of Cuba, was gunning to join Canada.
But “I’m not closing the door completely,” he told reporters after the meeting on Parliament Hill.
There have been at least three attempts over many decades to have the
sun-splashed British overseas territory officially join Canada.
However, those attempts have been repeatedly rebuffed either by Canadian
or British officials.
But if Conservative MP Peter Goldring gets his way, the archipelago would be Canada’s 11th province.
Goldring has been the head cheerleader over the last decade in calling for Turks and Caicos to join Canada, and he notes Ottawa is actually closer to the islands (in kilometres) than his Edmonton riding.
“Canada really needs a Hawaii. The United States has a
Hawaii. Why can’t Canada have a Hawaii?” Goldring said Sunday in a
telephone interview from Ukraine, where’s he’s helping election
observers.
Ewing indicated his priority was not having the Turks and Caicos join Canada.
“It is my mandate to see Turks and Caicos have sustainable economic growth and development, and development of our people, with a free will and a strong democracy,” he said.
“And we look to Canada, who has shown by example of being a very strong democracy and manages fiscal responsibility. So I’m looking for that kind of support from Canada.”
The dream of somehow directly linking Canada with Turks and Caicos dates back almost a century, when then-prime minister Robert Borden first suggested in 1917 that Canada annex the islands.
But Canadians can certainly still dream of having a tropical getaway to call their own, especially after what was a particularly brutal winter.
The islands (only eight of which are inhabited) have more than 300 kilometres of beachfront, are home to approximately 30,000 full-time residents and attract more than 200,000 tourists annually.
(A handout photo showing the luxurious COMO Parrot Cay resort in the Turks and Caicos.)
The average temperature ranges between 29C and 32 from June to October, and 27 to 29 from November to May.
Canada is the second-largest source of tourists to Turks and Caicos, and has the greatest number of foreign direct investment flowing to the islands.
Goldring believes there’s much more to be gained than simply a holiday hot spot if Turks and Caicos were to become a Canadian province one day.
The islands would prove to be valuable representation for Canada in the region and also act as a gateway to South America, he said, and potentially be a great base for military support, including parts of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
“Let’s see where it goes,” he said.
Canada “is not in the business of annexing islands in the Caribbean,” said an exasperated Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird on Monday after Ewing suggested a “period of courtship” could one day see his country become Canada’s 11th province.
The premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands is in Ottawa on Monday promoting economic ties, but it’s the hope of some politicians to annex the island as Canada’s 11th province that has many dreaming of a truly Canadian tropical beach getaway.
Turks and Caicos Premier Rufus Ewing met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other parliamentarians Monday in Ottawa to promote tourism and trade connections with Canada, before heading to Toronto to officially open a new tourism office.
But “I’m not closing the door completely,” he told reporters after the meeting on Parliament Hill.But if Conservative MP Peter Goldring gets his way, the archipelago would be Canada’s 11th province.
Goldring has been the head cheerleader over the last decade in calling for Turks and Caicos to join Canada, and he notes Ottawa is actually closer to the islands (in kilometres) than his Edmonton riding.
“Canada really needs a Hawaii. The United States has a
Hawaii. Why can’t Canada have a Hawaii?” Goldring said Sunday in a
telephone interview from Ukraine, where’s he’s helping election
observers.
However, he acknowledges the latest mission to Canada would see Turks
and Caicos officials focus on strengthening tourism, social ties and
trade relations. The annexation debate is likely on the sidelines, at
least for now, he said.
“They have come to Canada three times to ask to join and have been
turned down. There is a sense they don’t want to come again and be
turned down again,” Goldring said.Ewing indicated his priority was not having the Turks and Caicos join Canada.
“It is my mandate to see Turks and Caicos have sustainable economic growth and development, and development of our people, with a free will and a strong democracy,” he said.
“And we look to Canada, who has shown by example of being a very strong democracy and manages fiscal responsibility. So I’m looking for that kind of support from Canada.”
The dream of somehow directly linking Canada with Turks and Caicos dates back almost a century, when then-prime minister Robert Borden first suggested in 1917 that Canada annex the islands.
But Canadians can certainly still dream of having a tropical getaway to call their own, especially after what was a particularly brutal winter.
The islands (only eight of which are inhabited) have more than 300 kilometres of beachfront, are home to approximately 30,000 full-time residents and attract more than 200,000 tourists annually.
(A handout photo showing the luxurious COMO Parrot Cay resort in the Turks and Caicos.)
The average temperature ranges between 29C and 32 from June to October, and 27 to 29 from November to May.
Canada is the second-largest source of tourists to Turks and Caicos, and has the greatest number of foreign direct investment flowing to the islands.
Goldring believes there’s much more to be gained than simply a holiday hot spot if Turks and Caicos were to become a Canadian province one day.
The islands would prove to be valuable representation for Canada in the region and also act as a gateway to South America, he said, and potentially be a great base for military support, including parts of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
“Let’s see where it goes,” he said.
Canada “is not in the business of annexing islands in the Caribbean,” said an exasperated Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird on Monday after Ewing suggested a “period of courtship” could one day see his country become Canada’s 11th province.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/26/canada-needs-a-hawaii-conservative-mp-pushing-for-turks-and-caicos-to-become-11th-province-as-islands-premier-visits-ottawa/
(OK FOLKS, MAYBE WE SHOULD GET REALISTIC AND MAKE THE TURKS AND CAICOS A “TERRITORY” FIRST! -Ed.)
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Oh, in case ya haven’t heard, the Perspective Naked News
Department has one of our staff on tour with the Pope as he visits the
Middle-East!
First thing on his agenda this morning he issued invitation to the
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli president, Shimon
Peres, to join him in Rome to meet and pray together for peace – an
unprecedented papal intervention in the stalled peace process.
He then toured the “Wall of Separation that divided Israel and Gaza,
and stopped to pray and put a small note in a crack in the wall, as is
the custom in those parts!
When asked by reporters if he was getting any results from his prayers…………., he was overheard by our a Perspective Naked News staffer muttering: “I feel like I was talking to a fucking wall!”
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