To the editor:
This is an open letter to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Welcome to British Columbia, I heard Canada’s Governor General David Johnston say.
I was greatly pleased to hear your reply in turn, recognizing the traditional lands of the First Nations you were on, your message resonating with the healing and reconciliation we’re looking forward to here in British Columbia and Canada in 2017.
As you flew over the Salish Sea to land in Victoria, you and your family passed over a unique inner sea, hosting some 3,000 species and shared by eight million people and three nations – the United States, Canada and the First Nations.
In your remarks, you expressed a wish to be informed about the interest of Canadians in the environment, and I am also pleased to say the Salish Sea is one such place we love and take great pride in.
And it’s natural, cultural and historical significance is of such outstanding universal value that many of us would like to gift it to the world, to keep it healthy and protected forever as a World Heritage Site. At the recent invitation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, all Canadians were encouraged to recognize and submit such applications to UNESCO. It will be our honour to do so for the Salish Sea as Canada [celebrates its 150th anniversary of confederation]. I hope that in your travels to and from southern British Columbia you may also have time to appreciate the beauty, biodiversity and heritage embodied in the Salish Sea.
And should you get the chance, that British tradition we all indulge in here to pull up our pants (trousers) and slosh across the sands of a beach in our bare feet as the tide’s coming in, is a super natural B.C. experience that you and your family would no doubt cherish as a wonderful memory of your time here on Canada’s West Coast.
Laurie Gourlay
Nanaimo
