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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Port Dalhousie chosen as set of “Anne” because St. Catharines is a “twin city” to Port of Spain

 

Port Dalhousie is currently hosting a large film crew who have turned the small St. Catharines port into what looks like a tropical island.

The crews are filming of the second season of the television show Anne with an E, which airs on CBC and American Netlflix.

Alix Pokol, the show’s location manager, told Niagara Now that the reason Port Dalhousie was chosen is because it is a “twin city” of Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago.

That isn’t to say the two cities were built to resemble each other. They weren’t.

The city of St. Catharines website says the idea of “twinning” the two cities came in 1965, when Trinidadian Philip Atteck came to deliver an “informative lecture about Trinidad & Tobago” to the mayor, city councillors, and many other local contributors.

While he was here, Atteck toured the city and saw many similarities between St. Catharines & Port of Spain. For instance, both were port cities which had a population of about 120,000, both were surrounded by agriculture, both had a university, and both had radio stations operating on the same frequency.

The idea was proposed to the mayor of St. Catharines of the time, Mackenzie Chown and an official twinning ceremony took place on Oct. 4, 1968 in Port of Spain.

There are five other “twin” cities of Port of Spain: Atlanta, Georgia (United States), Georgetown (Guyana), Lagos (Nigeria), Morne-à-l’Eau (Guadeloupe, French West Indies) and Richmond, California (United States).

Renee Pye, publicist for Anne, said filming has been “excellent.”

“Depicting (Anne) will be great,” said Pye.

“It’s a great cast, a professional group of people. All female writers.”

Public reaction has also been positive and welcoming, she said.

“It’s a good community, people sit there all day, they’re friendly, interested and when filming has to be silent, everybody stops talking.”

Filming is scheduled to finish on Saturday.

The episodes filmed in Port Dalhousie are set to air in spring.

With files from Richard Harley.

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