First of all, thanks for coming. I'm extremely impressed with the material in front of me, and I'll tell you why. The spirit in the late 1960s was something I was fascinated with. When I saw it on TV and reflected on it, there was a spirit that I think sparked all things Canadiana for the next 10, 15, 20 years, at least, if not more.
When I see the material that comes from that year, I'm impressed with how it was handled and the enthusiasm in the 1960s. Obviously the enthusiasm that was sparked from the year 1949, when Newfoundland joined Canada.... I may call for a vote on that pretty soon.
Anyway, what I like about this is there's this implicit challenge to ask people to become a Canadian, to challenge people to realize what they already know. We had a similar experience in 1997, in Newfoundland. We celebrated our 500 years of existence—when John Cabot discovered Newfoundland—and during that celebration we realized what kind of history we had. We realized the legacy was within the children in the schools, who now know far more about Newfoundland and Labrador than we did growing up in the 1980s.
I do like this because it says, “Carry it. Fly it. But above all, use it.” In the book—I haven't read your book, but I thank you again—there is a great ad that says “What can I do for centennial?” It suggests, “Fly my flag. Have a family reunion. Paint my house. Support local projects.” There's that impetus for people to actually do something, which I think Mr. Jackson was alluding to, about giving back to the country, but at the same time receiving.
One thing I do recall about the centennial, and it has stuck in my memory over the years.... We have about seven or eight Newfoundlanders playing in the NHL, and one of them won the Stanley Cup last year. They learned how to play hockey in the smallest of towns, in arenas that were built in 1967. So there's no limit to the legacy.
You mentioned a UFO landing. There's a small town in my riding by the name of Happy Adventure—I kid you not. It would be a good place to have a UFO landing, really.
But when you were deciding how to use these legacy projects, like arenas, structures that kids can use, how did you start? Where did you say we're going to build arenas, we're going to build town halls? What was the genesis of that?