By Gary MacDougall
Managing Editor
The Guardian
Before Island soldiers marched off to fight in the Boer War at the turn of the 20th century, The Guardian was here.
It was the same a decade and a half later when a much greater number of innocent young Islanders set off for the First World War. The Guardian was here.
Long before the world marvelled at news the Wright brothers had conquered the skies in 1903, or that the Titanic had met tragedy on its maiden voyage in 1912, the Guardian was here.
The Guardian, in one form or another, has been published on Prince Edward Island since 1887, which means the newspaper is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2012.
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| First edition of The Island Guardian |
“In this day and age of multiple media platforms, and rapidly changing technology, we think it is quite an achievement to reach a landmark anniversary like 125 years and we are very proud of that fact,” says publisher Don Brander.
He is one of a number people who have guided the fortunes of the newspaper since it was created by Rev. W. R. Frame and Joseph W. Mitchell. Frame was the editor and Mitchell was the manager.
Brander says no doubt Frame and Mitchell had high hopes for their enterprise, but it’s doubtful they thought their newspaper would still be publishing 125 years later.
The newspaper began as a weekly and went by the name ‘The Island Guardian’. That paper was succeeded by the Daily Guardian in 1890.
Through the decades there have been other variations on the name, such as Morning Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian and Guardian of the Gulf. There have also been a number of newspaper locations in the capital city, each new one built after the previous one burned, not an uncommon occurrence in the old Charlottetown dominated by wooden structures.
But regardless of the name, the one constant is that a Guardian has been published and loyally read by residents of the province for the past 125 years.
It’s not that The Guardian was the first paper in the province by any means.
A hundred years before The Guardian came into existence, indeed back when the Island was still a colony, The Royal American Gazette and Weekly Intelligencer of Saint John was published in 1787. The paper existed for less than two years but it kicked off the colourful history of the newspaper industry on P.E.I. Over 100 different titles have been published on the Island since then.
Harry Holman, a former provincial archivist, says The Guardian has always played an important role in P.E.I.
“For me, The Guardian has been for 125 years the record of our province,” said Holman. “And as our province has evolved and changed, The Guardian has evolved and changed.”
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| Copies of a 2011 edition of The Guardian run along the gripper. |
There was a time when The Guardian, like most newspapers of the day, was fierecely partisan and reflected the interests and biases of its owners. Almost every major event of the day was interpreted through a particular political lens and many newspapers were just mouthpieces of political parties or institutions.
“There was a time when people only read newspapers that agreed with them,” said Holman.
He says times have changed and so has The Guardian in terms of impartiality. As an example, he cited the election of 1935 that saw the Liberals win 30 seats and the Conservatives none. The headline in the next day’s Guardian read: ‘Island Votes For Liberal Dictatorship’.
“As The Guardian has played more of a neutral role, it has actually become more important in shaping public opinion. Because no longer is the newspaper only a vehicle for seeing opinion that you agreed with, or facts interpreted in a way that you agreed with.”
Another long-time reader of The Guardian is Island historian Catherine Hennessey.
“Although I am an ardent daily reader of The Guardian, I have to say that it is my reading of the old newspapers that has had the greater impact on my life,” she said this week.
“For someone who has spent hours and hours reading the old newspapers — a year at a time — I can truly say that there is no more enriching way to capture an impression of our history than that day-by-day review,” she said.
While one of the benefits of a newspaper is that it provides clear hindsight on issues, the industry is certainly not standing still, nor can it afford to, says Brander. He said it must look ahead rather than backwards.
Advances in technology allow today’s newspapers to expand into areas few people could even dream of a few years ago, such as providing news and information throughout the day on the Internet, or via smart phones and other digital devices.
The new technology also expands the services a newspaper can offer its advertising customers, Brander said.
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| @PEIGuardian on Twitter |
Like every newspaper, he said, The Guardian’s future depends on it being able to maintain its traditional base and also reach out and embrace the future.
“It’s a challenge but it’s an exciting challenge,” he said.
Beginning with the first newspaper of the year on Tuesday, Jan. 3, The Guardian will be running daily lookbacks on P.E.I. events, both important and trivial, that have been recorded in our pages during the past 125 years. A more indepth series of articles examining historical events will run throughout the year on our Opinon page.
In addition, a special 125th commemorative edition of the newspaper will be published in the fall of the year. Other special events are being planned and will be revealed as the year progresses.
It is hoped that some of the newspaper’s colourful history will be brought back to life during the anniversary year, as well as much of the province’s history, such as the time The Guardian took to dropping newspapers from the sky to answer a transportation challenge in Prince County in the 1940s.
The newspaper is also extending an invitation to readers to send in their recollections of events and happenings involving The Guardian, which we will then share with other Islanders.
When many people think of The Guardian they think of the motto on the front page, which says, “Covers Prince Edward Island like the dew.”
Holman, who is the director of culture, heritage and libraries with the P.E.I. Department of Tourism and Culture, is fond of that motto but says he was always quite fond of a Latin quotation The Guardian once carried on its masthead which translated as “The strongest sword is weaker than the weakest ink.”
He thinks it’s a very appropriate one for a newspaper.
Frame and Mitchell didn’t use the quotation when they launched their newspaper in 1887, but no doubt it was a motto they would have agreed with. It would have been appropriate then, just as it is now.
Much of the early information about The Guardian and other P.E.I. newspapers comes from a document produced by Heather Boylan for the Public Archives of Prince Edward Island. It is entitled Checklist and Historical Directory of Prince Edward Island Newspapers 1787-1986.
