I wish to commend MacBride Museum for their effort to honour the history of the opening of the Canol Refinery back in April 1944 with their recent fundraising dedication dinner.
This brought memories back as I was at the event back in ‘44, escorted by a handsome US Army officer. The officer’s mess was located under the escarpment and was full of army brass for the event. Major “Wally” Parsons Jr., area engineer for the Canol project, was the MC. Music and dancing followed.
This was held when the rest of the country was on wartime rations; the Westmark Hotel duplicated the lavish meal. As one whose family was in the hotel business for years, I must congratulate them for their exceptional job. The Canucks and Hank Carr made the event complete.
I especially would like to thank Leighann Chalykoff of the MacBride Museum for cheerfully organizing such a fantastic event. I really enjoyed seeing the amazing footage of Richard Finnie’s Canol movie, made for the contractors Bechtel-Price-Callahan. Everyone should see it.
As the dinner was held downstairs in the museum, I found it difficult to manage the stairs. I would like to see an elevator installed so more events could be held in the lower facility. It is important to remember that many visitors are elderly. Perhaps the government could take an interest and the museum could put in an elevator soon.
Goodie Sparling
Whitehorse