Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton is working hard to keep the SS Keewatin in its home port.
Stanton hosts a Facebook Live event Monday to elicit support and provide information on the Edwardian-era ship that's in imminent danger of being moved from Port McNicoll to Kingston.
“We will talk about the importance of this last Great Lakes passenger steamer and how to Keep Keewatin Home,” Stanton said, noting he’ll be joined during the event by local historian Dan Travers and Friends of Keewatin curator Fred Addis.
“The Keewatin is a touchstone of our rich history and a sole remnant of Port McNicoll’s place in the settlement of Canada in the early 1900s and of the early passenger steamships on the Great Lakes.”
Besides the Facebook town hall that kicks off at 7 p.m., Stanton also has a petition outlining the ship's historic significance to the region.
“At the moment, the owner is looking toward removing the SS Keewatin from its home berth and donating it as a Canadian cultural property to a museum in Kingston – something that requires the concurrence of the Minister of Heritage,” Stanton said.
“The Friends and community supporters have a vision to keep her in Port McNicoll to ensure she can be visited by generations to come – to tell the epic story of steam passenger vessels on the Great Lakes.”
The e-petition is open until April 9.
“Once certified, I will present our petition in the House of Commons for a response by the government within 45 days,” he added.
Travers, meanwhile, has been intimately involved with both a petition to keep the ship in Port McNicoll and a sign campaign that allows area residents to display their hopes the vessel continues floating in Georgian Bay rather than Lake Ontario waters.
The sign campaign evolved from the work of a public-action group that’s also created a twitter feed and website, which was spurred on in part by a story in November that outlined how the ship’s owner Skyline Investments had given its approval to a project headed by a Kingston museum to move the vessel there.
Travers, who's a college professor and the author of two books on public history, has also penned an open letter to Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault calling on the federal government to reject any attempt to move the ship to Kingston, and instead work with the Friends of Keewatin to keep the ship in Port McNicoll.
“When the Kee was brought to Port McNicoll in 2012, residents rejoiced not only for the arrival of this treasured piece of history, but because of the economic and employment benefits the ship might create," Travers said, who noted that while the vessel operated out of Port McNicoll for over 50 years, Kingston, Ontario has absolutely no historical connection” to the ship.
Considered the only Edwardian-era passenger steamship in existence, Travers said the Keewatin is part of the physical and heritage landscape of North Simcoe.
In his letter to Guilbeault, Travers noted that by considering a move to Kingston, Skyline Investments and the federal government are also failing to deliver on the promises made to area residents.
“When the Kee was brought to Port McNicoll in 2012," he said, "residents rejoiced not only for the arrival of this treasured piece of history, but because of the economic and employment benefits the ship might create.”
