AATTA-4

Chapter 4

The Birth of a Province

In the blink of an eye, the twins and Jasper were in the past. Family Day Ray still had his fists clenched from grabbing hold of the buffalo bones and shouted, “Wow, what a rush!” He remembered the stopwatch, set it for two hours as his uncle had told him to do, and pushed start.

The twins glanced around the hotel room and noticed that the television and telephone had disappeared and, instead of electrical light fixtures, stylish oil lamps lit the room. They had little doubt that the time machine had worked, but just to make sure, they proceeded out of their room to the balcony. As they looked around, they noticed three things that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were now back in 1905. Below them were mostly horses and buggies on the dirt road; there were no tall buildings in sight; and the large metal flagpole, which had been flying both the Canada and Alberta flags, was no longer there. In its place was a tall, white, wooden flagpole flying only one red flag. The flag had a Union Jack in the top left corner and the Alberta coat of arms beside it. Roxy told Ray that it was the flag of Edward VII, Canada’s monarch at the time.

“The modern Alberta flag wasn’t flown until June 1, 1968,” she added.

The twins wandered back into their room. Roxy noticed a newspaper lying on the bed and picked it up. It was the Edmonton Bulletin, first published in 1880 by Frank Oliver. The headline blared an invitation: “come on down and celebrate the birth of the province!”

Smaller print informed readers that the inaugural parade would start at 10:30 am. It would commence on Jasper Avenue and finish at the Edmonton Exhibition Grounds. At the front of the parade would be the Flag and Escort Band of Calgary, followed by the mayor and council, and the Imperial Medalists’ Association. The official swearing-in ceremony for the first premier and the creation of the province would take place shortly thereafter.

Ray heard the sound of a loud steam train. He looked out the window and saw it approaching. “Hey, Roxy,” he shouted, “there’s a northbound train coming our way and I bet you it will take us close to the exhibition grounds!”

The twins and Jasper ran down the three flights of stairs in the hotel and hurried across the street to the station. Sure enough, the train that they boarded was the 11:03 Edmonton Yukon and Pacific Railway (EY&PR) train, heading north to Edmonton. The town of Strathcona did not become part of Edmonton until 1912, Roxy mentioned.

The twins pulled into the Rossdale station at 11:23 and walked over to the exhibition grounds. A crowd of close to 12,000 people was already gathered. It took some effort, but they managed to nudge their way to the front to see Alberta history unfold.

Close by, a young kid wearing baggy pants and a cap yelled, “Programs! Get your official, inaugural souvenir programs! Only one penny!” Ray went up to him and handed him a loonie. The surprised kid gave Ray a dirty look and said, “Excuse me, guy. Is this a joke? There’s some strange lady with a crown on the back of this weird-looking coin. That’s certainly not King Edward!”XXX XXX

A very festive occasion.

Official 1905 program.

“Oops,” Ray said as he reached into his other pocket, which held the vintage money. He handed the boy a 25-cent bill and told him to keep the change. “Wow, I had you all wrong, mister. Thanks a lot. That 24-cent tip will buy me four ice cream cones and a big bag of candy!” And off the boy ran.

Ray then came up with an excellent idea. He would climb the stairs of the ceremonial platform and get Prime Minister Laurier’s autograph on his official program. But this was easier said than done. As soon as Ray started up the stairs, two burly North West Mounted Police constables grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. “Excuse me, kid. Where the heck do you think you are going?” one of the constables asked.

“I’m a huge fan of the prime minister, and I was about to ask for his autograph,” Ray said.

“I don’t think so!” the Mountie said. As they escorted Ray down the stairs, a hand of authority rested on one of the officer’s shoulders. When he turned around, it was none other than the prime minister himself.

“Excuse me, officers. I overheard the boy and I would be delighted to sign his program on this very special day.”

Ray was thrilled with the prime minister’s autograph. It was almost as exciting as getting the autographs of Team Canada after they’d won gold at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics!

Before the swearing-in ceremony, His Excellency Governor General Earl Grey, who had come from Ottawa, inspected the 200 North West Mounted Police. It was an amazing sight with all of the men in their scarlet red tunics, standing at attention while the 15th Light Horse Military Band from Calgary played.

Just before noon, Mr. McGee, chief clerk of the Privy Council announced the appointment of the Honourable George Bulyea as lieutenant-governor of the new province of Alberta. Mr. Bulyea then took the oath of office, after which, Alberta was officially made a province.

To celebrate the declaration, a loud 21-gun salute was sounded. Everyone in the cheering crowd loved it, except for Jasper. He hated the loud noise of the guns being fired and tried to cover his ears.

The mayor of Edmonton, Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, then came to the microphone to address the crowd.

The speeches.

“To His Honour George Headley Victars Bulyea, the first lieutenant-governor of the province of Alberta, it is with the greatest of pleasure that the mayor and corporation of the city of Edmonton congratulate you on having been chosen to represent His Majesty and we desire to express our confidence that under your guidance the affairs will be managed wisely and well.”

After the lieutenant-governor acknowledged the mayor and crowd with a wave of his hand, the mayor took his seat. It was now time for Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh prime minister of Canada, to say a few words. He told the crowd that, on February 21, 1905, he was very proud to have been the prime minister who introduced Bill 69 in the House of Commons in Ottawa, which led to the creation of Alberta. He then congratulated the people of the province and concluded with a welcome to the thousands of new Albertans.

The third and final speaker of the day was Governor General Earl Grey. “I thank you, Mr. Mayor, and your colleagues who represent the city of Edmonton for the welcome with which you received me in my capacity as representative of His Majesty the King. The pleasure I had from last night’s entertainment at the inaugural party was itself sufficient to make me wish to visit again. This day marks the addition of a new self-governing province to the Dominion of Canada and thus to the galaxy of the self-governing states whose combined brilliance makes the constellation of the British Empire the brightest the world has ever seen.”

While the governor was still speaking, Ray looked down at his stopwatch and couldn’t believe that they had already been in 1905 for 90 minutes. “Holy saddle sore, Roxy! It’s almost 12:30. If we don’t catch the 12:39 train south to Strathcona, we won’t make it back to the future!”

The twins hurried toward the station, and just when they thought they had a few minutes to spare, they realized that Jasper was nowhere in sight. Roxy shouted to Ray, “Quick, give me your binoculars.” She scanned the crowd and saw Jasper sitting on the side of the stage.

She realized almost immediately what had happened. The governor general had mentioned the parade on Jasper Avenue at the end of his speech, and Jasper thought he was being called to the stage.

“Ray, Jasper’s on the stage. We have to go back!”

Ray said that there wasn’t enough time, but Roxy ignored him. She loved her dog more than basketball, trick roping and Alberta history combined, and she was not about to leave him behind. She untied a nearby horse and jumped up onto the saddle.

Over her shoulder she yelled to Ray, “Don’t let that train leave!”

Ray raised his eyebrows. “What am I supposed to do to stop it?”

“Whatever it takes!”

Roxy’s horse galloped to the exhibition grounds. She avoided the large crowd by riding to the area behind the stage. Luckily, Jasper had good ears and came running as soon as he heard Roxy whistle.

She jumped off the horse and, with Jasper at her heels, took off running back to the train station. But by the time they reached the exit of the exhibition grounds, hundreds of people were leaving and the exit was as plugged up as a kitchen sink.

Roxy had no time to lose. She shouted, “Move over, I’m going to be sick to my stomach!” Thanks to her quick thinking, the crowd allowed her through and, within moments, she and Jasper were sprinting down the street.

Family Day Ray’s train delaying song.

It was 12:39 and the 147 southbound train was about to pull out of the station. Ray was in an absolute panic, which contributed to his decision to do something very foolish. “Yo, conductor, watch me!” he yelled and climbed onto the front of the train.

I’ll be lucky if I don’t get arrested, he thought as he started to break dance and sing a hip hop version of “Happy Birthday, Alberta” at the top of his lungs.

The conductor was fuming mad and shouted up to Ray, “You have less than one minute to get your butt down here or you’ll spend the next two weeks in jail eating nothing but mouldy old bread and water!”

Much to Ray’s relief, an extra minute was all it took for an exhausted Roxy and Jasper to show up.

By the time they finally sprinted from the train station to the hotel, and then up the stairs to their third-floor hotel room, the relieved twins had less than 30 seconds to spare! Ray looked at Roxy and said, “Thank goodness I didn’t stop to tie up my shoes or—” He didn’t have time to finish his sentence.

Zap, boom, bang! They were off on their next time travel adventure!