Canada recognizes 11 new people, places and events of national historic significance

EAGLE STAFF

The invention of the Morris rod weeder, the RCMP Musical Ride and Saskatchewan photographer Everett Baker are among 11 people, places or events recently designated as being of national historic significance.

Others on the list, issued by Cabinet Minister Steven Guilbeault, include William Kennedy, who was born in Cumberland House in 1814 and advocated for provincial status for Manitoba; Mohawk nurse Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture, who served with the United States in the First World War; women’s rights pioneer Mary Two-Axe Earley from Ontario; rural electrification; the Klippert case of 1967; the Miramichi fire of 1825; First World War training at Sarcee Camp near Calgary; and Seven Oaks House in Winnipeg.

“For almost 50 years,” the Morris rod weeder, invented by George Morris in Bangor, east of Melville, “represented farming innovation in Canada’s agricultural sector and demonstrated how individuals, using their personal experiences, spurred the industry,” a Parks Canada document says.

The force’s first musical ride was performed in 1887 in Regina. The annual ride began in 1961, and officers chosen to perform now serve a three-year term, touring Canada and abroad from May to October before returning to regular police duties, a Parks Canada document says.

Baker promoted the co-operative movement as a “field man” for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool from 1937 to 1957 and “took over 10,000 colour slide photographs, illustrating the social fabric of everyday life in rural and small-town Saskatchewan and in Indigenous communities,” another Parks Canada document says.

Historic designations “ensure that the stories of the people, places and events that have shaped our nation are remembered, so future generations know who we are and where we come from,” said a statement from Guilbeault, whose responsibilities include Canadian identity and culture.