So Manfred, what do you think would be a proper charge, firstly to get on the grounds, and then the ‘rink? Who stays put to collect?

T’was there I’d seen Epiphiny
And she herself had ‘deed seen me
That twa’ we’d frolic
Midst the oldsters
Ne’er wiser they than us the Goldsters!

An off the shelf fountain? Przt. Better yet, name the park after Susanna Moodie. And make a statue of her.

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Susanna Moodie (nee Strickland), born December 6, 1803 at Bungay, England, was the youngest daughter of Thomas Strickland and Elizabeth Homer. The Stricklands were a literary family. Susanna Moodie, her brother Samuel Strickland, and her sister, Catharine Parr Traill, were all well-known in Canada. Susanna began to seriously pursue her literary career in 1818 after the death of her father. In 1831, Susanna moved to London, England were she became associated with the Anti-Slavery Society. While working in London, she met her future husband, John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie. They were wed April 4, 1831. In July 1832, Susanna, John, and their eldest child emigrated to the Cobourg region of Upper Canada.

In British Columbia the Doukhobors erected a statue of Leo Tolstoy. In an Oakville park is a statue to Ukrainian national poet, Taras Shevchenko. In Toronto’s High park is a statue of a Ukrainian woman poet, and in Allan Gardens is a statue of Robbie Burns. Stratford has a statue of Shakespeare, Niagara-On-the-Lake has a statue of George Bernard Shaw and Fredericton has a statue of Longfellow.

I have been in several European cities which have statues of their creative poets/authors/composers/artists. Additionally, streets, parks, blocks, subway stations are named after such people. By comparison, Canadians couldn’t care less about their own cultural icons.

Look at the pathetic example of Canadians ignoring the films of Canadians, preferring instead the films of foreigners. The pathetic fawning of Canadians for multiculturalism has led Canadians to ignore their own creative peoples. What a sick situation when a country puts the cultures of foreigners on a more exalted level than it own.

In Cobourg there allegedly are artists, writers, poets, who appear to have an impoverished imagination when it comes to promoting Canadian culture. The small parkette in Cobourg which will be ruined for decades by a dreary off-the-shelf fountain and concrete landing pad is a case in point.

Here is an opportunity for something unique – a Poet’s Park. Imagine if you will a plinth bearing a bust of Margaret Atwood, Irving Layton, bpNichol, etc. The money for the frink could be set in a trust fund accumulating enough interest to pay for a new Poet Plinth every 4 or 5 years. The erection of the plinth could be accompanied with the presence of the poet, if it is a living one.

Cobourg’s library in conjunction with high school English Departments could use the event to enhance appreciation of Canadian literature, perhaps host a fine dinner in Victoria Hall to celebrate the poet, and encourage a poetry reading performance. All of this could be supplemented with the assistance of the Canadian League of Poets, Ontario Council for the Arts, and Canada Council.

Cobourg is no further away from the Megalopolis than is Stratrford or Niagara-On-the-Lake. Surely a weekend in late April (Poetry Month) set aside for poetry performances in the park would entice cultural cogniscenti to Cobourg.

This is just a rough suggestion. In all the criticism of the frink (of which I have contributed), I failed to notice any alternative suggestions for the park. Well here is one such suggestion.

Although Ben is worried about skateboarding, I believe that the new lighting will be a major complaint. There were supposed to be strings of low-intensity LED lights to illuminate the skating surface gently. They have been replaced with floodlights on poles.

Either way I agree with you John it is GD awful and the complaints won’t be about the concrete they will be about the ugly devices sprayed around the place designed to foil the skateboarders.