This year, the Peninsula News Review celebrates a milestone, one that few people and even fewer newspapers will ever see.
This year, your community newspaper turns 100.
What started as the Sidney and Islands Review in 1912 was integral to the development of the Peninsula. At the time, the streets of the settlement on the north end of the Saanich Peninsula were unpaved, the sidewalks barely existed and many buildings didn’t have electricity.
In fact, the paper was the voice that for decades pushed the provincial government to incorporate Sidney as a town. It pushed for rail lines to run through Sidney. Later, the Review advocated for ferry service to Vancouver Island and made sure B.C. Electric Co. provided electricity to light the streets of the village.
To this day, the paper strives to be a member of the community, just as much as its other residents and businesses.
Through different incarnations of the paper’s name – the Saanich Peninsula and Gulf Islands Review, the Peninsula Review, and now the Peninsula News Review – the goal has been the same: to deliver stories about the people, events and issues that matter to the Saanich Peninsula.
The first edition of the review was printed on Dec. 13, 1912 and was a four-page publication. The only copy of that first paper still hangs in the News Review’s office on Second Street and serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come over the past century and that our roots are truly grounded in this community.
For the next year, you’ll notice a special element on our paper’s front page flag – a design borrowed from the paper’s flag in the 1950s. We’ll also publish, on a weekly basis a section called This Week in History, which you can find on our letters to the editor page every Wednesday.
Later this year, the News Review will host a celebration to commemorate the century gone by and the role we’ve played in the community’s progress. We’d be happy to hear any suggestions you would like to provide for how that celebration might look.
Most of all, we’d like to thank our loyal readers and advertisers for supporting community news on the Peninsula these past 100 years. Without you, we certainly wouldn’t have made it this far.
Here’s to 100 years of history on the Saanich Peninsula, and to the next 100 years. Who knows what they will bring.
editor@peninsulanewsreview.com
Be a part of our history
Tell us your thoughts on the Peninsula News Review’s 100th anniversary or send ideas about what kind of public celebration you’d like to see. Email editor@peninsulanewsreview.com or comment on this story online, at peninsulanewsreview.com.