On the way, across a field, an elementary public school named after John Diefenbaker came into view: Ecole John G. Diefenbaker. I thought to myself “merci”, thank heavens for the accordion cases, and sat down. Time to take a bit of a breather and think back a "couple" of years to the 1960s.
It didn’t seem all that long ago, hearing Diefenbaker speak at the old forum at the P.N.E. exhibition grounds in Vancouver. His vocal delivery resounded with a timbre of a Sir Winston Churchill and an equally meaningful and dry Canadian sense of humour.
Both would likely also have been steadfast in that public education is a sacred, not private, trust for all that is deeply immersed in our history, going back to Confederation and the homesteading era. (Diefenbaker himself had been a public school teacher for a number of years). There could never be a tampering with this trust, for that was the fibre from which our nation was conceived.
Anybody out there in senior land still remember that song , "A Farmer In The Dell?" It was a melody some skipped to at recess back in the 1950s. It inspired the following song about Vancouver’s Alcazar Hotel.