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following.
Doug
Thursday » June 12 » 2003
Canada urged to create a 'sunshine province'
Turks and Caicos
Mary Vallis
National Post
Thursday, June 12, 2003
CREDIT: CanWest News Service
The Turks and Caicos Islands are famous for their powder-white beaches
and scuba diving.
With winter a fading memory, two Ottawa men have started a campaign
urging Canada to reconsider annexing the idyllic Turks and Caicos
Islands so the Caribbean paradise can become a "sunshine province" for
snowbirds.
"Canadians deserve a place in the sun," said Richard Pearson,
vice-president of regional sales for a mutual fund company, who is
helping to organize the initiative. "I think we'll have tons of
support."
He and Brad Sigouin, an investment advisor, say Canada should revisit a
failed 1987 idea to bring the archipelago under Canadian rule.
The Turks and Caicos are a British territory about 900 kilometres
southeast of Florida. Offshore banking is the largest revenue source
after tourism. The islands are famous for their immaculate beaches and
scuba diving.
Mr. Pearson said the issue has been on his mind for years. His parents
stopped wintering in Florida because the cost of medical insurance
spiked and the Canadian dollar plunged.
And with international security reaching new heights since the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Canada's snowbirds would welcome
the chance to head south without leaving Canada, he added.
The pair have registered a Web domain, aplaceinthesun.ca, and are
hoping to meet with the people who were involved in the issue during
the 1980s to pinpoint what went wrong. They also plan to approach
business leaders and form a formal board of directors to strengthen
their lobbying efforts.
"Governments, especially in the last 10 years, have been very
managerial. There haven't been projects," Mr. Pearson said. "I think
people are thirsting for a vision, thirsting for a project that can
bring people together."
He is hoping to meet with government officials on the islands to
discuss the idea during a trip south this year.
Mr. Sigouin envisions more hotels and restaurants on the islands and
five or six direct Air Canada flights every day. In exchange, the
estimated 20,000 island residents would have more jobs, medicare and
the opportunity to travel to Canada, he said.
"I think we have a great way of life here," he said. "Isn't this the
best Canadian way, we help other people? Isn't that what we're known
for?"
Canadians certainly seem ready to take up the issue. After the issue
was discussed on Global Sunday, 92% of those informally polled on
canada.com (a Web portal owned by CanWest, publisher of the National
Post) said Canada should offer some sort of special territorial status
to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
"It would be great for the tourism industry in this country," one
viewer wrote. "We already have some of the best scenery in the world in
this great land of ours, but it seems the only thing missing is a
tropical place for us Canadians to go and spend Canadian dollars rather
than going to some other island and having to exchange our hard-earned
cash for that of the almighty greenback of the U.S.
"Think about it, thousands, possibly millions, of tourists from around
the world travelling to a remote island, exchanging their currency for
the great Canadian dollar, spending Canadian cash, on Canadian
products, with the benefits going to the Canadian people. I know where
my next vacation is heading...."
Canada rejected the idea of annexing the islands twice, in 1974 and in
1987.
mvallis@...
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