SaltWire E-Edition

‘Nova Scotia in my heart’

Anita Anand thanks Annapolis Valley for welcoming her family to region in 1960s

JASON MALLOY ANNAPOLIS VALLEY REGISTER jason.malloy@saltwire.com @JasonMa47772994

Canada’s minister of national defence thinks back fondly on her childhood growing up in the Annapolis Valley. Anita Anand was born at the Blanchard Fraser Memorial Hospital in Kentville, lived in town and graduated from Kings County Academy before moving to Kingston, Ont., to attend Queens University.

She spoke to about 125 people during a Kings-Hants Liberal Association fundraiser June 24 at Lightfoot & Wolfville.

“I have Nova Scotia in my heart and that’s why being here is so special,” she said. “I feel a great sense of nostalgia.”

Her parents, doctors Saroj Ram and S.V. Anand, moved to the Annapolis Valley from Nigeria in the mid-1960s. S.V. Anand was charged with finding a place in North America for the family to live. He landed in Halifax, rented a car and drove to the Valley, deciding Kentville would be their home.

“It has been a wonderful, wonderful life because I grew up here. And

I’ll never ever, ever forget … the magnanimous

way in which my family was welcomed here and (became) part of the community, even though we did not look like many other families in our neighbourhood. That didn’t matter – we were part of the community, and that made all the difference,” Anand said to a round of applause. “Thank you so much, not just for tonight, but for a lifetime of happiness, which this community has provided to my family.”

Anand, who was accompanied on the trip by her husband, John Knowlton, said she still gets back to Nova Scotia as the family has a cottage in Chester.

PROUD

June Jain beamed with pride as she watched Anand deliver her speech.

“I am just so proud of her,” said the Coldbrook resident, who taught Anand in Grade 5. “When she was speaking there, it was hard to keep the tears back.” Anand called Jain an inspiring teacher. “She really had high standards for her students, and we knew that in Grade 5,” she said.

Anand remembers Jain having the students memorize all the countries in Africa as well as making a map out of dough and painting it with all the countries on it.

“It had such an impact on me as a student.”

When Anand was about five years old, Ram was always saying things to her daughters like, ‘you should run for office

know lots of people have. But, as a farmer, we don’t have much time in the summer to take off and go to those things. So, we never had the pleasure of going down to see it when it was actually set up.”

He said the train looks to be in good shape, but they hadn’t started it. They need to do some electrical work and are in the process of having a civil engineer draw up a plan for the tracks and acquiring the appropriate permits to operate the train.

“Assuming everything comes together, we expect to begin construction on the track in the next few weeks,” he said, “and we’re hoping to have it up and running by our busy season.”

He called it a “fun project” to be involved with and anticipates people will be visiting the business to relive some childhood memories, noting there is a lot of “goodwill” associated with the train.

“It’s already started,” he said. “We’ve had many people specifically mention that they were coming to see the train even though it’s not actually running yet. But we do have it set up on display.”

Upper Clements Park was built by the province for $23 million. It opened in 1989 and closed due to financial difficulties in 2019. The Municipality of the County of Annapolis agreed to buy three parcels of land from the

Upper Clements Park Society in 2020 with plans of hosting a location for the Gordonstoun private boarding school. It transferred land to a developer, but the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia later ruled the resolutions were illegal as they were passed by the former council after the 2020 municipal election in which six members were defeated.

The county put some of the items up for sale and started to clean up the site. Council gave the Middleton Railway Museum the 115-year-old steam locomotive.

Alex Morrison, who is the county councillor for the area, said once the decision was made that resulted in the closing of Upper Clements Park, the county put in place a process to dispose of the assets.

“A notice was issued to the public and bidding was invited.”

He was pleased to hear the train will be put to good use across the border in Aulac.

While Trueman didn’t disclose the purchase price, he said it was “substantial.” The company is hoping to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony when the train is put back into service. Word started to spread about the farm’s recent addition following its announcement on Facebook.

“I’m so happy she’s found a home,” wrote Chad R. MacDonald, who played Clyde the conductor on the Evangeline during the first three seasons of Upper Clements Park.

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2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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