There aren't a lot of small post offices in equally small communities which bear a large bronze plaque proclaiming their grand opening, but this one does. The plaque has been mounted on the outside front wall, just above the Boylston Post Office sign.
This post office was built in 1968 and had an official/grand opening on June 17, 1968, with The Honourable Allan J. MacEachen, Minister of National Health and Welfare, doing the honours. It is a little semi-rural post office in a little community that stretches a short way along Highway 16.
A native Nova Scotian, Allan MacEachen had a long and successful national political career. He is probably best known as the Minister responsible for getting the Medical Care Act passed in 1966.
The plaque reads as follows:
This building was
erected by the
Department of Public
Works and officially
opened June 17, 1968
by The Honourable
Allan J. MacEachen, P.C. M.P.
Minister of National
Health and Welfare
While photographing the post office we noticed that they had hung a hummingbird feeder on the front of the post office. Quite fortuitously, a hummingbird not only made an appearance, but also alit on the bush in front and posed for us while patiently awaiting our departure so he could get back to the business at hand.
Allan J. MacEachen
Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia in 1921, Allan J. MacEachen is a scholar, educator and politician. He graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a B.A. in 1944, and from the University of Toronto with an M.A. in Political Economy in 1946. He taught at St. Francis Xavier University from 1946 to 1948 and later became head of the Department of Economics and Social Sciences. During this time he continued his studies in economics at the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MacEachen’s remarkable political career began in 1953, when he won election to Parliament from a Cape Breton riding. Although he was re-elected in 1957, he lost his seat in 1958 and then became a special assistant and consultant on economic affairs to Lester Pearson. MacEachen won re-election in 1962, remaining a Member of Parliament until 1984.
Although he held many important Cabinet posts during his parliamentary career, one of the most influential was that of Minister of National Health and Welfare (1965–1968) during the creation of medicare. Like Judy LaMarsh, MacEachen was strongly committed to medicare and credits his academic background, his experience as Pearson’s special assistant and his skill as a parliamentarian for getting the Medical Care Act passed in 1966.
Read more at The History Museum of Canada