By Suzanne Coulombe and Peter Anderson, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, June 26, 2019
Let’s get behind the botanical garden
Re: Let’s (finally) get behind a botanical garden for Ottawa, June 18.
Bravo, Randall Denley, for promoting the idea of a botanical garden in our city.
When visiting my daughter in Montreal, I would spend half-days in the wonderful atmosphere at the Botanical Gardens there. To find this oasis of clean air and esthetic appeal without having to drive out of the city presents a unique opportunity for both residents and tourists.
(...)Why a new botanical garden is a bad idea
As I wrote in the Citizen almost three years ago, the Central Experimental Farm’s original botanic garden still exists in the form of the Dominion Arboretum. Randall Denley offers almost nothing new in the debate.
Canadensis has attempted on multiple occasions to carve away the southeast corner of the Central Experimental Farm – effectively privatizing public land – ignoring that in Ottawa, our garden was always focused on trees. Even more so, the land Canadensis is eyeing would displace isolation breeding plots and land used to provide fodder to the Agriculture Museum’s herd. These would have to be squeezed on the remaining portions of the farm if displaced.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/todays-letters-on-a-new-botanical-garden-and-the-westboro-bus-crash