Vancouver Island

November 2013 News

The November meeting of the Vancouver Island Branch was held as usual at the Berwick Royal Oak in Victoria. A superb luncheon was enjoyed in the English Pub by 21 attendees. Guests included Colonel James Hammond (ret’d), private secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, Her Honour Judith Guichon; David Petitpierre, former two time chairman of RCS Canada; John Treleaven , former Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines and his wife Beverly and Arthur Fraser, former Canadian Trade Commissioner to Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.  Regrets were received from 7 members.

The branch was treated to a very informative talk on “ why it matters for Canada to continue to be a member of the Commonwealth,”  given by former interim Ambassador to Afghanistan, David Collins. David served as a Canadian diplomat for over 30 years, as High Commissioner or Ambassador in Romania, Pakistan, Malaysia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

The Vancouver Island branch Christmas Luncheon will be held on Dec 19th at the Berwick Royal Oak in Victoria. Guest speaker will be Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada and Federal MP for Saanich and Gulf Islands.

Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Vancouver Island Branch was joined by members of BC Mainland Branch, (Vancouver) on June 2nd at Government House, Victoria, to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. A film of the Coronation was shown in the Ballroom of Government House which preceded a garden party in the grounds. Vancouver Island Branch monitored the Commonwealth Flag Identification  Game which was won by Richard Toporoski. A surprise visitor was Colonel Moody, aka Rev David Spence. Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon hosted the event, accompanied by regal music and brilliant sunshine.  A beautiful day to remember.

 
150th Victoria Highland Games
 
In April 2013 at a meeting at  Government House, the Vancouver Island Branch of RCS was invited to have a promotional table at the 150th Highland Games to be held in Victoria BC. HRH the Duke of York would be in attendance as Games Chieftain.
 
In preparation for the Games, May 18-19,  the Vancouver Island Branch chair made a  display board featuring the flags and names of the 54 Commonwealth Countries. This became the ultimate challenge for attendees visiting the table to match a flag to its’ country. As the branch had limited funds to purchase trophies and certificates, our branch chair invested in a button making machine and made 300 buttons displaying bagpipes in the centre of the RCS logo, selling them for $1 each.  287 buttons were sold which covered the expenses and will also help to sponsor students to the annual Commonwealth Forum in Ottawa.  A generous gift from an RCS VI Branch friend went toward the purchase of an RCS banner.
 
Both days started at 6:30 am setting up the tents and tables. It was early, but friends were made as exhibiting societies helped each other to erect the tents.
 
The Commonwealth flag was included in the opening ceremonies parade.
 
The table was manned all day, both days, as the flag challenge game continued non-stop. It was a wonderful way of educating the student participants, while couples and families were intrigued by the game  which had been thought up by one of our branch  members. The London Office and Commonwealth of Learning supplied a variety of informative ‘hand-outs’. A trophy was awarded to the winner each day with runner up certificates. The best performance was 52 correct answers (we suspect with the aid of an Iphone!). On the second day the best result was 42 correct matches with no electronic assistance. Many visitors from Australia ,New Zealand, UK, S Africa and the US stopped to take part.
 
Although there was little time  time to watch the highland competitions, bagpipes filled the air and the mass bands were quite close to our tents.  Sadly, HRH the Duke of York, although 10 paces from our tents, did not venture to the societies. We did have a good visit from Her Honour Judith Guichon, the Lt Governor of BC.
 
The activities on site went on until 5:00 PM both days. It was a very rewarding experience and a perfect way to promote the RCS to an attendance record of over 25,000.
 
June 2nd is the first anniversary of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and the VI Branch has been asked to take the game of matching flags to their countries to Government House for the Garden Party. It is an Open House, so if you are in Victoria at that time, please stop by and see the promotional work of the Vancouver Island Branch.