I'm going to pick up on some of the points that Mr. Thorsell made, but I would like everyone to weigh in on this as well.
Several years ago--and I won't say how many, because it gives away my age--I was an air cadet and went on a trip to Alberta. There were two kids from each province and we were on a survival course in the woods. I met someone there who became a dear friend of mine. He was from Quebec City. He barely spoke English and I barely spoke French. The relationship we struck was based on our similarities. First and foremost, we didn't like the Montreal Canadiens—but there you go. Beyond that, for our living spaces and our ancestors, the same narrative was there. The only thing that separated us was language. I bring that up only because of the points you make, Mr. Thorsell, about mixing up with others. I think we underestimate what a fantastic experience that is in nation-building.
We see the kids who come here with Encounters with Canada . It's an amazing program. I would like Encounters to happen in every province. If it has to be in a provincial capital, so be it.
The demand for national conventions in St. John's, Newfoundland is phenomenal. When I go there and I speak to people from far-flung areas of the country, I ask them whether this is their first convention in Newfoundland. They tell me that everybody wants to go there. The experience is so different from their own that they are just amazed it's their own country.
So I buy into what you're saying, and I think I probably had the same heart palpitations as Mr. Benskin. You're speaking to a narrative that we have to encapsulate. All the things that feed into this, like the social media, are going to enhance this as an extension of ourselves. Not to get too McLuhanistic with everybody, I suppose the medium is the message in a big way.
One of the things you mentioned and one of the things I seem to have a hard time wrapping my head around is the idea of the legacy. Personally I think the interpersonal relationships, the mix-up you talked about, is going to be that intangible legacy.
When it comes to the concept of having a pedestrian bridge, I think that's a fantastic idea, because the symbolism is rich and the experience is much richer. But giving $50 million to each province and territory would enable them to create some sort of a legacy project. Thank you for bringing that up.
I'd like to ask each of you, if you were to running this program and could tell each province you were going to give them $50 million, would you be asking them to show you what they've got, or would you be asking them how they can enhance the national narrative? I don't know if that question makes sense, but what I'm asking is, what do you see as the permanent legacies left over?