Digging deeper into Prince Edward Island’s Comprehensive Development Plan, I’ve come across The Prince Edward Island Development Plan: Ten Days in September, a 1969 National Film Board film. The filmmakers set down on Prince Edward Island for 10 days in September of 1968 and filmed the players involved in the Development Plan, and what emerges is both a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the plan’s mechanics, and an uncommonly rich look into late-1960s society on the Island.
You can order a DVD of the film from the National Film Board; it’s also in the media center at the Robertson Library. It’s a very well-made film, and required-viewing for anyone who wants to understand more about that era.
Here are some clips to whet your appetite; first, a look at the research process behind the plan:
Lincoln Dewar, from the PEI Federation of Agriculture, talks a Island agriculture:
Hon. Alex Campbell introduces Del Gallagher, the man hired to shepherd the Plan:
Comments
This is fascinating stuff, Peter; thanks for posting it. Only forty years ago, and no running water in the house! Mind you, my father (who was born in ‘44) remembers his mother, in Alberton, cleaning the kerosene lamps when he was a child. I checked to see if the film was available via the NFB’s iPhone app, but no luck, so I’ll have to try the library system or order the DVD.