*2023/11/13 More recent shifting so the hint has been slightly changed.
*2021/02/17 The shelves have been shifted so, though hint remains the same, the hiding spot is a bit more exposed. Try to be sneaky!
*2020/12/14 note change to hiding spot and hint. Check building's website for hours during COVID.
This cache has been placed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Burnaby Public Library's Tommy Douglas Branch in 2019!
Prepare yourself to read and, perhaps, learn about Tommy Douglas (and, to a lesser degree, Bill Pritchard).
Hours for this cache are:
- Monday to Friday:10am-9pm
- Saturday: 10am-6pm
- Sunday: 12pm-5pm
Legend has it that the CO currently haunts the location most Mondays and Friday afternoons/evenings and all-day Saturdays. Feel free to say hi if you spot him.
Please make sure the log fits snugly in the cache container and be aware of muggles as they often gather near the hiding spot.
Background:
From 1962 to 2009, the Edmonds community was served by the Kingsway Branch just down the road, on 7252 Kingsway (near the Hall St. intersection).
In the summer of 2008, ground was broken for a new branch that was designed with ‘green’ architecture in mind.
Features include:
- Construction Materials - building’s cement is supplemented with recycled materials
- Green Roof - reduces storm water discharge and uses rain water to help cool the building
- Lighting - daylight sensors and automatic dimming controls
- Heating - 225-foot deep ground source heat exchange system that draws thermal energy from the earth
- Ventilation - displacement ventilation system that heats fresh air coming into the building
- Water - rain collected in underground cistern used for south-side water feature and the site’s landscape irrigation
[You can read more about the building's features here]
Although the goal was to get silver-level recognition from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, the library was awarded a LEED Gold Certification!
After a ‘soft opening’ the previous Monday, the branch was officially opened to the public with a grand opening celebration on November 21, 2009. Over 700 residents and local dignitaries attended.
A 10th anniversary celebration was held on November 21, 2019. Cupcakes, speeches, a tech showcase, and a makerspace were all part of the agenda. Many of the people who were instrumental in promoting, developing, and administering the new branch were in attendance.
(The CO was there for both the branch opening and the 10th anniversary!)
The library branch is, of course, named after the celebrated politician who, according to a national CBC contest in 2004, is ‘The Greatest Canadian’.
Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, PC CC SOM (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Canadian social democratic politician and Baptist minister. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He left federal politics to become the Saskatchewan CCF's leader and then the seventh Premier of Saskatchewanfrom 1944 to 1961. His government was the first democratic socialist government in North America, and it introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care program.
After setting up Saskatchewan's medicare program, Douglas stepped down as premier and ran to lead the newly formed federal New Democratic Party (NDP), the successor party of the National CCF. He was elected as its first federal leader in 1961. Although Douglas never led the party to government, through much of his tenure, the party held the balance of power in the House of Commons. He was noted as being the main opposition to the imposition of the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis. He resigned as leader the next year, but remained as a Member of Parliament until 1979. During that time he served as an MP for British Columbia’s Nanaimo—Cowichan—The Islands and Burnaby—Coquitlam districts.
Douglas was awarded many honorary degrees, and a foundation was named for him and his political mentor Major James Coldwell in 1971. In 1981, he was invested into the Order of Canada, and he became a member of Canada's Privy Council in 1984, two years before his death.
Douglas passed away on February 24, 1986 and is buried at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, Ontario where important Canadian figures are interred.
[Credit to Blueperch’s ‘The Greatest Canadian’ cache [GC665HY] for this bio's original version.]
Questions:
Find the answers to these Tommy Douglas-related questions to get a clue to the cache’s hiding spot!
[#1-4 can be answered at home; answers for #5 can be found at the waypoint]
1. Tommy Douglas’ illustrious political career is associated with two 3-letter political parties. They are, chronologically, the CCF and the NDP.
Un-abbreviate these two parties’ names and convert the letters to their numeric value to work out the solution below. Ignore special characters like hyphens when calculating the total number of characters in a word.
(7th letter of the longest word overall) - (8th letter in the longest word in the second party) + (6th letter of the shortest word in the first party) = G
2. Tommy Douglas was an MLA and MP for Saskatchewan's Weyburn district. In 2010 a statue was erected in along Weyburn's riverfront boardwalk. One of Douglas' famous descendents was at the event. (The sculptor, Lea Vivot, was not impressed by this appearance.)
Add the total number of letters in this famous person's first and last name together; the digital root of this total = D
3. Toward the end of his political career, Tommy Douglas represented two separate British Columbian electoral districts federally in the House of Commons. Interestingly, he was the last representative from these ridings since both were dissolved and reshaped after his term.
Figure out the first BC riding in which Douglas served as a Member of Parliament. Label the year his term began as abcd and the year his term ended as efgh.
Solve: (d x g x 13) / ( c + h x f ) - a = O
4. There is a special bronze bust of Tommy Douglas in the rotunda of a Canadian province/territories’ legislative building. What makes the bust special is that it is wearing a real pair of glasses worn by Douglas!
Find the relevant province/territory’s 2-letter postal abbreviation. Convert the second letter to a numeric value and then determine its digital root.
The digital root = U
(Hint: The legislative building also contains the Confederation Table, Douglas' Order of Canada medal, and very beautiful interior marble.)
5. [You'll need to head to the virtual waypoint #1 to find the following]
William "Bill" Pritchard is another figure of Canadian socialist politics with ties to Burnaby. He was an active member of the Socialist Party of Canada and served as the editor on the party's Western Clarion newspaper. During the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, a key moment within Canada's labour history, Pritchard was one of the strike leaders who were arrested and found guilty of 'seditious conspiracy'. From 1928-1930 he served on Burnaby's Council and from 1930-1932 he was the Reeve (or mayor, essentially) of Burnaby.
You can read more about Bill Pritchard and his connection to Burnaby here or at the virtual waypoint.
Heading to the co-ordinates, you will see an information plaque titled 'Troubled Times'. Look the codes for the image mentioned below:
- Image of 'Prichard' = CBA ijk-lmn
- Image of a different type of 'Co-operative' - HV opq.rs.t
- Image of a building formerly located at the nearby intersection - CBA uvw-xyz
Digital root of l+m+p+t+x+y = T
THE HIDING SPOT HINT = TDO.UG
From this number, 1 shelf down and 2 shelves left.
Image Credits:
Ross, Martha. "Kingsway Branch." City of Burnaby Archives, Item No. 556-403, 22 Sept. 1976, search.heritageburnaby.ca/permalink/archivephoto79726.
"Tommy Douglas Library Conceptual Design." Burnaby Public Library, 2008, www.bpl.bc.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/images/general/tommy-douglas.png.
"Tommy Douglas is elected to Parliament, 1935." Saskatchewan Archives Board , R-A5739-3, URL currently unavailable. [Background Image]