Meet our twin city: Port of Spain, Trinidad

Twin cities are a strange thing. Wikipedia describes them as "a concept whereby towns or cities in geographically and politically distinct areas are paired, with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural links between their inhabitants." I suppose there's some truth to this. As a child I remember our whole class being set up with penpals in Port of Spain. Still -- that doesn't make the idea any less bizarre.

And why Port of Spain? Other twin cities seem to have a genuine connection to each other. Toledo, Ohio shares a name with it's twin city, Toledo, Spain. Vancouver and it's Ukranian twin city of Odessa established their link through wartime aid. But St. Catharines and Port of Spain? What could have possibly happened there?

Thankfully there's a site that has all the answers you might ever want and then some. Twinning.ca offers up an extensive history on relations between the two cities, including vintage photographs and scans of important documents in the history of our twinning.

It's a great read, but I can't help but join the throngs of doubters who feel twinning it little more than an excuse to send city officials somewhere warm on our dime. Prove me wrong, McMullan!

Image

TAGS: Heritage, History, Port Of Spain, Stcatharines, Twin City