Make Borden-Carleton great again
Recently, I ventured down to the pier in Borden-Carleton. I stopped at the Railway Museum Building part way down. This is where the tour buses come to let people disembark to view the bridge, a close vantage point.
Inside two hours, five buses arrived and let passengers off. The museum is closed and has been for a few years, no coffee shop or refreshment.
No newsstand. No provincial tourist representative. Nothing in the form of tourist information. Just a plaque, with misspelled tourist information stands on the platform.
The bus passengers were asking the bus driver questions that he couldn’t answer.
It’s uncanny how colloquial we are in operating some tourist departments. There was absolutely nobody at that tourist stop to assist passengers in their quest to see the sights of Borden-Carleton and to view the bridge. There should be a guide stationed there, the museum should be restocked and Straight Crossing should have a guide explaining the history and details of the bridge.
I’ll bet that not one MLA will read this letter much less do anything about it. We can’t expect to lay the onus on the Town of Borden-Carleton. The first couple years, after the bridge opened, we had a fully stocked museum in this building that stands empty now. The museum held artifacts dealing with the ferries and the ‘gateway’ area.
It was an amazing array of antiques and appreciated by all who visited.
I’m sure Heritage P.E.I. has a truckload of nautical antiques in storage, gathering dust, but never to be destined to the gateway area.
Today there is nothing in this forgotten town.
If this was anywhere else in the province the Railway Park would be an astonishing tourist attraction, but because we’re Borden-Carleton the government doesn’t see fit to put people to work assisting the travelling public.
I know they would in Cavendish. Cavendish wouldn’t put up with this kind of neglect. Give some school kids a summer job, get the community involved. I don’t want to sound like Mr. Trump, but ‘make Borden-Carleton great again’!
Ralph MacDonald, Borden-Carleton