By Dave Johnson, The Tribune
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum education program co-ordinator Sebastian Habjan, left, and Port Colborne-Wainfleet War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee chair Brian Heaslip hold a proclamation signed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The two men are hoping U.S. President Barack Obama will sign the local document that was also sent to him.
PORT COLBORNE – Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed its proclamation of peace and friendship.
Now the Port Colborne-Wainfleet War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee needs a signature from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Brian Heaslip, chairman of the 1812 committee, said a Conservative MP took the proclamation made by Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum to the prime minister, who personally signed it.
The wording of the proclamation was kept as politically neutral as possible, but it does congratulate the Third Regiment of the Lincoln Militia which helped preserve Sugarloaf Settlement and it remembers Isaac Brock and his efforts in the war.
The document will be used as part of the museum’s 1812 travelling display, Heaslip said.
The idea to send the proclamation to the prime minister came from longtime museum volunteer Bonnie Johnston.
The proclamation came forward two years ago, when the museum’s Sebastian Habjan, the education program co-ordinator, was a summer student.
“I worked on it and had help with the wording from Don Anger,” said Habjan.
Anger has written a number of books on the history of Port Colborne and his wife, Virginia, at one time was the museum’s curator.
Habjan said the proclamations were featured at an 1812 booth during Canal Days and are now keepsakes for people. Five hundred were printed up and the museum has gone through a couple of hundred.
While Heaslip and Habjan were pleased the prime minister signed the proclamation, they’re hopeful Obama will sign it, too.
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