Antique auto tour on P.E.I.

A cross-Canada tour of 108 antique vehicles is driving into P.E.I. this weekend.

The National Association of Automobile Clubs of Canada tour, which left Victoria, B.C., in June, will set up a car show in Marco Polo Campground in Cavendish Sunday.

The show will include a display of the tour participants’ cars as well as vehicles from the P.E.I. Antique Car Club. Other local auto enthusiasts and car collectors are encouraged to participate in this car show and put their cars on display, 4-7 p.m. There is no registration fee, and admission will be by donation with all proceeds going to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and the Prince County Hospital Foundation.

As well, the Prince Edward Island Antique Car Club will host a supper for the visitors and PEIACC members. Later in the evening there will be entertainment in the Marco Polo Land Hall.

On Monday, the drivers will participate in tours of the Island, one going to the O’Leary area to visit the Canadian Potato Museum and MacAusland Woolen Mill, while a second tour will visit the eastern end of the Island, stopping at Rossignol Winery in Little Sands, as well as Montague and the Myriad View Distillery in Rollo Bay. The evening will be finished off with a meal at Fisherman’s Wharf Lobster supper in North Rustico.

On Tuesday, Aug. 15, participants will be visiting the Farmer’s Bank Museum and Green Gables in the morning. In the afternoon, they will visit a local dairy farm in Irishtown and a potato operation on the Graham’s Road. In the evening, some members of the tour will attend a performance of “Anne of Green Gables-The Musical” at Confederation Centre, while others will take in Old Home Week races.

On Wednesday, the tour departs for Nova Scotia.

Island tour co-ordinator Rudy Croken of Kensington says it is fitting for the tour to come to P.E.I. during the 150th anniversary for Canada and the 50th anniversary of the first Coast-to-Coast Antique Vehicle Tour in 1967.

Croken says Prince Edward Island and the Rustico area played an important role in several important events in early automotive history in Canada. Father Georges-Antoine Belcourt of Rustico was the first Canadian to buy a car, the first Canadian to import an automobile into Canada and the first Canadian motorist in 1867, when he drove his horseless carriage at the St. Jean de Baptiste Day celebrations in Rustico.