Theoklitos Farmakidis (born Theoharis Farmakidis; ; 1784–1860) was a Greek scholar and journalist. He was a notable figure of the Modern Greek Enlightenment.

Biography
He was born in 1784 in Nibegler (Νιμπεγλέρ) near Larissa, in the Thessaly region of northern Greece. He studied at the Phanar Greek Orthodox College and the Princely Academy of Iași. After Anthimos Gazis he continued the publishing of Hermes o Logios with his partner Konstantinos Kokkinakis. He joined the Philiki Etaireia and became an admirer of Adamantios Korais, supporter of Greek independence and critic of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Greek Revolution
After the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, he approached Dimitrios Ypsilantis. In August 1821, in Kalamata he started publishing the Greek newspaper Elliniki Salpinx ("Greek Bugle"). He took part at the National Assemblies of Epidaurus and Astros and later he taught in the Ionian Academy (1823-1825).

Thought
He was a supporter of the English party and Alexandros Mavrokordatos. During the reign of Otto, he was advisor on ecclesiastical/religious matters and supporter of the establishment of the Church of Greece. He was liberal and tolerant to the different dogmas and became friend with Jonas King, the controversial Protestant missionary in Greece.

A strongly pro-West supporter, he was against the Greek involvement in the Crimean War.

Selected works
 Elements of the Greek language, Athens, 1815
 Apology, Athens, 1840
 The Synodal Tome or About the Truth, Athens, 1852

Sources
 Βγένα Α. Βαρθολομαίου, Η δίκη του Θεόκλητου Φαρμακίδη (1829-1839), Μνήμων 4 (1974), σελ. 172–214.

1784 births
1860 deaths
19th-century Greek philosophers
Greek theologians
Greek scholars
Greek people of the Greek War of Independence
People of the Modern Greek Enlightenment
Members of the Filiki Eteria
Greek Eastern Orthodox priests
19th-century Eastern Orthodox priests
Enlightenment philosophers
Age of Enlightenment
People from Larissa (regional unit)

Theoklitos Farmakidis


The Progress Party (; ; ), commonly abbreviated as FrP, is a right-wing political party in Norway. The FrP has traditionally self-identified as classical-liberal and as a libertarian party but is generally positioned to the right of the Conservative Party, and is considered the most right-wing party to be represented in parliament. It is often described as right-wing populist, which has been disputed in public discourse, and sometimes described by academics as far-right. By 2020, the party attained a growing national conservative faction. After the 2017 parliamentary election, it was Norway's third largest political party, with 26 representatives in the Storting. It was a partner in the government coalition led by the Conservative Party from 2013 to 2020.

The Progress Party focuses on law and order, downsizing the bureaucracy and the public sector; the FrP self-identifies as an economic liberal party which competes with the left to represent the workers of Norway. The party has officially opposed Norwegian membership in the European Union since 2016, after having been neutral on the issue before. The Progress Party calls for a strict immigration policy, integration of immigrants and for the removal of illegal immigrants or foreigners who commit crimes. During its time in coalition government from 2013, the party oversaw the creation of a Minister for Integration and increased the process of deporting failed asylum seekers or migrants with criminal convictions. It has been described as anti-immigration; nevertheless, the FrP also supports free migration to and from the European Union through the European Economic Area as well as helping refugees through the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Progress Party has been positive to receiving the Ukrainians who became refugees due to the conflict.

The Progress Party was founded by Anders Lange in 1973 as an anti-tax protest movement. Its development was greatly influenced by Carl I. Hagen, the party's long-standing leader between 1978 and 2006. Siv Jensen served as the party leader between 2006 and 2021, when in February 2021 she announced that she would be stepping down at the next party convention in May. She was succeeded by her deputy leader, Sylvi Listhaug on 8 May 2021.

History

Anders Lange's Party

The Progress Party was founded at a meeting at the movie theater Saga Kino in Oslo on 8 April 1973, attended by around 1,345 persons. An address speech was held by Anders Lange, after whom the party was named the Anders Lange's Party for a Strong Reduction in Taxes, Duties and Public Intervention, commonly known as the Anders Lange's Party (ALP). Lange had some political experience from the interwar era Fatherland League and was part of the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War. Since the end of the war, he had worked as an independent right-wing political editor and public speaker. Lange held his first public speech as chairman of ALP at Youngstorget in Oslo on 16 May the same year. ALP was to a large extent inspired by the Danish Progress Party, which was founded by Mogens Glistrup. Glistrup also spoke at the event, which gathered around 4,000 attendees.

Originally, Anders Lange wanted the party to be an anti-tax protest movement rather than a common political party. The party had a brief political platform on a single sheet of paper that on one side listed ten things the party was "tired of", and on the other side ten things that they were in favour of. The protest was directed against what Lange claimed to be an unacceptable high level of taxes and subsidies. In the 1973 parliamentary election, the party won 5 percent of the vote and gained four seats in the Norwegian parliament. The main reasons for the success has later been seen by scholars as a mixture of tax protests, the charisma of Anders Lange, the role of television, the aftermath of the 1972 European Community membership referendum and the political development in Denmark. The first party conference was held in Hjelmeland in 1974, where the party established its first political conventions.

Progress Party and Carl I. Hagen
In early 1974, Kristofer Almås, Deputy Member of Parliament Carl I. Hagen, along with some others, broke away and formed the short-lived Reform Party. The background for this was a criticism of ALPs "undemocratic organisation" and lack of a real party program. However, in the same year, Anders Lange died; consequently Hagen stepped in as a regular Member of Parliament in Lange's place. As a result, the Reform Party merged back into ALP already the following year. The party adopted its current name, the Progress Party, on 29 January 1977, inspired by the great success of the Danish Progress Party. The Progress Party performed poorly in the 1977 parliamentary election, and was left without parliamentary representation. In the 1978 party convention, Carl I. Hagen was elected as party chairman. Hagen soon started to expand the political program of the party, and built a conventional party organisation, a step which Lange and some of his followers had opposed. The party's youth organisation, the Progress Party's Youth, was also established in 1978. Hagen succeeded in sharpening the image of the party as an anti-tax movement. His criticism of the wisdom of hoarding billions of dollars in the "Oil Fund" hit a nerve owing to perceived declines in infrastructure, schools, and social services and long queues at hospitals.

1980s: establishing the party

While the Progress Party dropped out of parliament altogether in 1977, it returned in the following 1981 parliamentary election with four representatives. In this election, the political right in general had a great upturn, which garnered the Progress Party increased support. The ideology of the party was sharpened in the 1980s, and the party officially declared that it was a libertarian party at its national convention in Sandefjord in 1983. Until then, the party had not had a clearly defined ideology. In the campaign for the 1985 parliamentary election, the party attacked many aspects of the Norwegian welfare state, and campaigned for privatization of medical care, education and government-owned enterprises as well as steep cuts in income tax. In the election, the party lost two of its four members of parliament, but was left with some power as they became the kingmaker. In May 1986, the party used this position to effectively throw out the governing Conservative-led government after it had proposed to increase gas taxes. A minority Labour government was established as a result.

The first real breakthrough for the party in Norwegian politics came in the 1987 local elections, when the party nearly doubled its support from 6.3% to 12.3% (county results). This was largely as immigration was for the first time seriously taken up as an issue by the party (although Hagen had already in the late 1970s called for a strongly restrictive immigration policy), successfully putting the issue on the national agenda. Its campaign had mainly been focused on the issue of asylum seekers, but was additionally helped by the infamous "Mustafa-letter", a letter read out by Hagen during the electoral campaign that portrayed the future Islamisation of Norway. In April 1988 the party was for the first time the second largest party in Norway in an opinion poll with 23.5%. In September 1988, the party further proposed in parliament for a referendum on the immigration policy, which was regarded by political scientists as the start of the party's 1989 election campaign. In 1989, the party made its breakthrough in national politics. In the 1989 parliamentary election, the party obtained 13%, up from 3.7% in 1985, and became the third largest party in Norway. It started to gain power in some local administrations. The first mayors from the party were Håkon Rege in Sola (1988–1989), Bjørn Bråthen in Råde (1990–1991) and Peter N. Myhre in Oslo (1990–1991).

1990s: libertarian-wing schism and consolidation

The 1993 parliamentary election halved the party's support to 6.3% and ten members of parliament. This drop in support can be seen as the result of an internal conflict within the party that came to a head in 1992, between the more radical libertarian minority and the majority led by Carl I. Hagen. The right-libertarians, or simply libertarians, had removed the party's focus on immigration, declaring it a "non-issue" in the early 1990s, which was heavily punished by voters in 1993 as well as 1991. Social conservative policy platforms had also been liberalised and caused controversy such as accepting homosexual partnership. The party's unclear stance on Norwegian membership of the European Union also contributed greatly to the setback, by moving the focus away from the party's stronger issues such as during the 1994 Norwegian European Union membership referendum.

While many of the libertarians, including Pål Atle Skjervengen and Tor Mikkel Wara, had left the party before the 1993 election or had been rejected by voters, the conflict finally culminated in 1994. Following the party conference at Bolkesjø Hotell in Telemark in April of that year, four MPs of the "libertarian wing" in the party broke off as independents. This was because Hagen had given them an ultimatum to adhere to the political line of the party majority and parliamentary group, or else to leave. This incident was later nicknamed "Dolkesjø", a pun on the name of the hotel, with "dolke" meaning to "lit. stab (in the back) /betray".

These events have been seen by political scientists as a turning point for the party. Subsequently, the libertarians founded a libertarian organisation called the Free Democrats, which attempted to establish a political party but without success. Parts of the younger management of the party and the more libertarian youth organisation of the party also broke away and even tried to disestablish the entire youth organisation. The youth organisation was however soon running again, this time with more "loyal" members, although it remained more libertarian than its mother organisation. After this, the Progress Party had a more right-wing populist profile, which resulted in its gaining electoral support.

In the 1995 local elections, the Progress Party regained the level of support seen at the 1987 elections. This was said largely to have been as a result of a focus on Progress Party core issues in the electoral campaign, especially immigration, as well as the party dominating the media picture as a result of the controversy around the 1995 Norwegian Association meeting at Godlia kino. The latter particularly gained the party many sympathy votes, as a result of the harsh media storm targeted against Hagen. In the 1997 parliamentary election, the party obtained 15.3% of the vote, and for the first time became the second largest political party in Norway. The 1999 local elections resulted in the party's first mayor as a direct result of an election, Terje Søviknes in Os. 20 municipalities also elected a deputy mayor from the Progress Party.

2000–2001: turmoil and expulsion of populists
While the Progress Party had witnessed close to 35% support in opinion polls in late 2000, its support fell back to 1997 levels in the upcoming election in 2001. This was largely a result of turmoil surrounding the party. The party's deputy leader Terje Søviknes became involved in a sex scandal, and internal political conflicts came to the surface; Hagen had already in 1999 tried to quiet the most controversial immigration opponents in the parliamentary party, who had gained influence since the 1994 national convention. In late 2000 and early 2001, opposition to this locally in Oslo, Hordaland and Vest-Agder sometimes resulted in expulsions of local representatives. Eventually Hagen also, in various ways, got rid of the so-called "gang of seven" (syverbanden), which consisted of seven members of parliament. In January 2001, Hagen claimed that he had seen a pattern where these had cooperated on several issues, and postulated that they were behind a conspiracy to eventually get Øystein Hedstrøm elected as party chairman. The seven were eventually suspended, excluded from or voluntarily left the party, starting in early 2001. They most notably included Vidar Kleppe (the alleged "leader"), Dag Danielsen, Fridtjof Frank Gundersen, as well as Jan Simonsen. Only Hedstrøm remained in the party, but was subsequently kept away from publicly discussing immigration issues.

This again caused turmoil within the party; supporters of the excluded members criticized their treatment, some resigned from the party, and some of the party's local chapters were closed. Some of the outcasts ran for office in the 2001 election in several new county lists, and later some formed a new party called the Democrats, with Kleppe as chairman and Simonsen as deputy chairman. Though the "gang of seven" took controversial positions on immigration, the actions taken against them were also based on internal issues; it remains unclear to what degree the settlement was based primarily on political disagreements or tactical considerations. Hagen's main goal with the "purge" was an attempt to make it possible for non-socialist parties to cooperate in an eventual government together with the Progress Party. In 2007, he revealed that he had received "clear signals" from politicians in among other the Christian Democratic Party, that government negotiations were out of the question so long as certain specific Progress Party politicians, including Kleppe and Simonsen (but not Hedstrøm), remained in the party. The more moderate libertarian minority in Oslo, including Henning Holstad, Svenn Kristiansen and Siv Jensen, now improved their hold in the party.

2001–2005: Bondevik II years
In the 2001 parliamentary election the party lost the gains it had made according to opinion polling but maintained its position from the 1997 election, it got 14.6% and 26 members in the parliament. The election result allowed them to unseat the Labour Party government of Jens Stoltenberg and replace it with a three-party coalition led by Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik. However, the coalition continued to decline to govern together with the Progress Party as they considered the political differences too large. The Progress Party eventually decided to tolerate the coalition, as it promised to invest more in defence, open more private hospitals and open for more competition in the public sector. In 2002 the Progress Party again advanced in the opinion polls and for a while became the largest party.

The local elections of 2003 were a success for the party. In 36 municipalities, the party gained more votes than any other; it succeeded in electing the mayor in only 13 of these, but also secured 40 deputy mayor positions. The Progress Party had participated in local elections since 1975, but until 2003 had only secured a mayoral position four times, all on separate occasions. The Progress Party vote in Os—the only municipality that elected a Progress Party mayor in 1999—increased from 36.6% in 1999 to 45.7% in 2003. The party also became the single largest in the counties of Vestfold and Rogaland.

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the party again became the second largest party in the Norwegian parliament, with 22.1% of the votes and 38 seats, a major increase from 2001. Although the centre-right government of Bondevik which the Progress Party had tolerated since 2001 was beaten by the leftist Red-Green Coalition, Hagen had before the election said that his party would no longer accept Bondevik as Prime Minister, following his consistent refusal to formally include the Progress Party in government. For the first time the party was also successful in getting members of parliament elected from all counties of Norway, and even became the largest party in three: Vest-Agder, Rogaland and Møre og Romsdal. After the parliamentary elections in 2005, the party also became the largest party in many opinion polls. The Progress Party led November 2006 opinion polls with a support of 32.9% of respondents, and it continued to poll above 25 percent during the following years.

2006–2021: Siv Jensen

In 2006, after 27 years as leader of the party, Hagen stepped down to become Vice President of the Norwegian parliament Stortinget. Siv Jensen was chosen as his successor, with the hope that she could increase the party's appeal to voters, build bridges to centre-right parties, and head or participate in a future government of Norway. Following the local elections of 2007, Progress Party candidates became mayor in 17 municipalities, seven of these continuing on from 2003. Deputy mayors for the party however decreased to 33. The party in general strongly increased its support in municipalities where the mayor had been elected from the Progress Party in 2003.

In the months before the 2009 parliamentary elections, the party had, as in the 2001 election, rated very highly in opinion poll results which however declined towards the actual election. Earlier in the year, the Progress Party had achieved above 30% in some polls which made it the largest party by several percentage points. With such high gains, the election result was in this case relatively disappointing. Before the election the gains continued to decrease, with most of these losses going to the Conservative Party which had a surprisingly successful campaign. The decline in support over a longer period of time can also be seen as the Labour Party was since 2008 accused of "stealing" policies from the Progress Party. The Progress Party did, regardless, achieve a slight gain from the 2005 election with 22.9%, the best election result in the party's history. It also for the first time got represented in the Sami Parliament of Norway in 2009, with three representatives. This made it the fourth largest party in the Sami parliament, and second largest of the nationwide parties. In the 2009 informal school elections, it became the largest party in Norway with 24% of the votes.

While other parties before had refused the Progress Party's efforts to join governing coalitions at the national level owing to concerns about the party's alleged populism and positions on immigration issues, after the election the Conservative Party stated they wanted to be "a bridge between the Progress Party and the centre." The position arose as the Progress Party vowed to not support any government coalition that it itself was not a part of, while centrist parties rejected participating in a government coalition together with the party.

Since early 2010, opinion polls regularly showed a majority support for the Progress Party and Conservative Party together. The Progress Party however saw a strong setback for the 2011 local elections. The party lost 6% in vote share, while the Conservative Party gained 9%. According to political scientists, most of the setback could be explained by a low turnout of Progress Party supporters.

In coalition with the Conservative Party, the party won the 2013 parliamentary election and helped form its first ever government, the Solberg's Cabinet, although the Progress Party itself lost seats and is now the third largest party instead of the second largest. The parties won renewed support for the government in the 2017 parliamentary election, which was expanded to include the centrist Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic Party in 2018.

The Progress Party withdrew from the government coalition in January 2020. The cause of the withdrawal was repatriation to Norway of a Norwegian citizen who volunteered in the Islamic State. The position of the Progress Party was that no such person should receive assistance to return to Norway. The Solberg cabinet undertook the repatriation despite the protests from the Progress Party, over what they considered humanitarian considerations.

2021–present: Sylvi Listhaug
In February 2021, Jensen announced that she would stand down as party leader. She was replaced by former deputy leader and immigration minister Sylvi Listhaug in May 2021. Listhaug had previously been endorsed as a potential future leader by both Jensen and former chairman Carl I. Hagen.

Ideology and political positions
The party officially identifies itself in the preamble of its platform as a liberal (liberalistisk; "liberal", "libertarian") party, built on Norwegian and Western traditions and cultural heritage, with a basis in a Christian understanding of life and humanist values. Its main declared goal is a strong reduction in taxes and government intervention.

Many within the party reject the description of the party as liberal. The party has a wing that identifies itself as economically liberal or libertarian, and a wing that identifies itself as national-conservative and focuses strongly on anti-immigration politics. According to scholar Anders Ravik Jupskås, the national conservative faction has been gaining ground in the 2010s; while members of the party leadership tend to identify as liberals or libertarians, the national conservative wing has strong support among the membership. The party's largest chapter, the Oslo chapter, adopted a resolution that calls for the party to declare itself as national conservative and to replace liberalism with a "Norway first" policy aiming at making Norway a "patriotic beacon" in Europe, with a focus on anti-immigration politics and rejection of the scientific consensus on climate change, that includes "a complete ban on non-western immigration" and a referendum on immigration; the Oslo chapter's MP Christian Tybring-Gjedde said that "very few people agree" with the stated ideology of liberalism in the party programme because "liberalism in its extreme form means open borders" and because "liberalism is a dead ideology." Former party leader Carl I. Hagen has supported this initiative, stating that liberal values do not belong in the Progress Party and arguing that the party should become national conservative instead of "liberal extremist". The Progress Party has often been described by academics as right-wing populist, to the disagreement of the party and some observers, including former Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Some academics have also described the Progress Party as far-right.

The core issues for the party revolve around immigration, crime, foreign aid, the elderly and social security in regards to health and care for the elderly. The party is regarded as having policies on the right in most of these cases, both fiscally and socially, though in some cases, like care for the elderly, the policy is regarded as being on the left. It has been claimed that the party changed in its first three decades, in turn from an "outsider movement" in the 1970s, to American-style libertarianism in the 1980s, to right-wing populism in the 1990s. From the 2000s, the party has to some extent sought to moderate its profile in order to seek government cooperation with centre-right parties. This has been especially true since the expulsion of certain members around 2001, and further under the lead of Siv Jensen from 2006, when the party has tried to move and position itself more towards conservatism and also seek cooperation with such parties abroad. The party values are officially focused on civil liberties, individualism and limited government. A local group within the party, centered around Oslo, expressed a desire for a more nationalistic policy, inspired by the Centre Party. They emphasize patriotism and openly prioritize the interests of Norway and the Norwegian people in a "Norway first" policy. They also promote a complete halt to non-western immigration, and express support for climate change denial. The party has often criticised and called for a reduction of Norwegian foreign aid. The program of the party considers humanitarian action abroad to be preferable, when possible, to receiving refugees from affected areas.

Health care
The party has for decades been a proponent for shortening wait times for hospital treatment in Norway. 270,000 Norwegians were waiting for medical treatment in 2012–13. In the OECD publication Health at a Glance 2011, Norway had among the longest wait times for elective surgery and specialist appointments among eleven countries surveyed. Since 2013, the Solberg Cabinet has been successful in reducing the average wait times for hospital care.

Economy
The party aims to reduce the power of the state and the public sector. It believes that the public sector should only be there to secure a minimum standard of living, and that individuals, businesses and organisations should take care of various tasks instead of the public sector, in most cases. The party also generally advocates the lowering of taxes, various duties as well increased market economy. The party also notably want to invest more of Norway's oil wealth in infrastructure (particularly roads, broadband capacity, hospitals, schools and nursing homes) and the welfare state. This position, that has used a sense of a welfare crisis to support demands to spend more of the oil fund now rather than later, is part of its electoral success.

The party wants to strongly reduce taxation in Norway, and says that the money Norwegians earn, is theirs to be kept. They want to remove inheritance tax and property tax. The party advocates increased spending of Norway's Oil Fund on investments in infrastructure and aims to eliminate the existing budgetary rules which set a limit on such spending.

Society
The party regards the family to be a natural, necessary and fundamental element in a free society. It regards the family to be a carrier of traditions and culture, and to have a role in raising and caring for children. The party also wants all children to have a right of visitation and care from both parents, and to secure everyone's right to know who their biological parents are. The party opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2008, questioning how children would "cope" with the law. In schools, the party wants to improve the working environment for teachers and students by focusing more on order, discipline and class management. The party wants more individual adaptation, to implement grades in basic subjects from fifth grade, open more private schools and decrease the amount of theory in vocational educations.

During the national convention in May 2013, the party voted in favor of both same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption. The party has for several years been a proponent for legalizing blood donation for homosexuals.

The party believes that artists should be less dependent on public support, and instead be more dependent on making a living on what they create. The party believes that regular people should rather decide what good culture is, and demands that artists on public support should offer something the audience wants. It also wants to abolish the annual licence fee for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and privatise the company. Otherwise, the party wants to protect and secure Norwegian cultural heritage.

Since the party distances itself from discrimination and special treatment based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, the party wants to dissolve the Sami Parliament of Norway, which is based on ethnic classifications. The party wants to uphold Sami culture, but wants to work against any special treatment based on ethnic origin regarding the right of use of water and land.

The party is also a proponent of a ban on wearing the burka and niqab in public spaces, schools and universities, first proposing the idea in 2010. This policy for schools and universities was ultimately achieved in 2018.

Law and order

The party supports an increase in police forces, and more visible police on the streets. It wants to implement tougher punishments, especially for crime regarding violence and morality offences. The party also wants to establish an ombudsman for victims and relatives, as it believes today's supportive concern focus too much on the criminals rather than the victims. It wants the police to be able to use more non-lethal weapons, such as electroshock weapons. It also does not accept any use of religious or political symbols with the police uniform, and wants to expel foreign citizens who are convicted of crime with a frame of more than three months imprisonment.

Immigration

From the second half of the 1980s the economic and welfare aspects of immigration policy were mainly a focus of Progress Party criticism, including the strains placed by immigration on the welfare state. During the 1990s the party shifted to focus more on cultural issues and conflicts, a development which can also be seen in the general public debate, including among its political opponents. In 1993, it was the first party in Norway to use the notion of "integration politics" in its party programme. While the party has made numerous proposals on immigration in parliament, it has rarely received majority support for them. Its proposals has largely been rejected by the remaining political parties, as well as the mass media. Although the party's immigration policies have been compared to those of the Danish People's Party and the Sweden Democrats, leading party members have rather chosen to compare its immigration policies with those of the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Danish , when those parties were in government.

Generally, the party wants a stricter immigration policy, so that only those who are in need of protection according to the UN Refugee Convention are allowed to stay in Norway. Progress Party MPs have also stated that high levels of immigration combined with poor integration leads to both Norwegian and broadly Western values such as tolerance, freedom of speech and democracy being undermined and that politicians on the political left have enabled social issues through relaxing immigration policies. In a speech in the 2007 election campaign, Siv Jensen claimed that the immigration policy was a failure because it let criminals stay in Norway, while throwing out people who worked hard and followed the law. The party claims the immigration and integration policy to be naïve. In 2008, the party wanted to "avoid illiterates and other poorly resourced groups who we see are not able to adapt in Norway"; which included countries as Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The party opposes that asylum seekers are allowed stay in Norway on humanitarian grounds or due to health issues, and seeks to substantially limit the number of family reunifications. The party has also called for a referendum on the general immigration policy. In government, the party supported creating a Minister for Integration in the cabinet and a zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration combined with deportation of illegal immigrants and non-citizens who had committed serious felonies. Some commentators noted that Norway deported a record number of failed asylum seekers and illegal residents during the period when the party provided support to the Conservatives from 2013 to 2021.

The Progress Party is also opposed to repatriating Norwegian citizens who leave the country to join terrorist organisations such as Islamic State and withdrew their support to the Solberg cabinet in January 2020 over the government's decision to repatriate a Norwegian national on humanitarian grounds who had escaped to join ISIS.

A poll conducted by Utrop in August 2009 showed that 10% (14% if the respondents answering "Don't know" are removed) of immigrants in Norway would vote for the Progress Party, only beaten by the Labour Party (38% and 56% respectively), when asked. More specifically, this constituted 9% of both African and Eastern European immigrants, 22% of Western European immigrants and 3% of Asian immigrants. Politicians with immigrant background are increasingly active in the party, most notably Iranian-Norwegian Mazyar Keshvari and former leader of the youth party, Indian-Norwegian Himanshu Gulati.

Foreign policy

The Progress Party was for many years open to a referendum on Norwegian membership of the European Union, although only if a majority of the public opinion was seen to favour it beforehand. The party eventually grew to consider membership of Norway in the European Union to be a "non-issue", believing there to be no reason for a debate of a new referendum. In 2016, the party officially adopted a position against Norwegian membership in the EU.

The party regards NATO to be a positive basic element of Norway's defense, security and foreign policy. It also wants to strengthen transatlantic relations in general, and Norway's relationship with the United States more specifically. The party considers its international policy to "follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher."

Of all the major political parties in Norway, the Progress Party has shown the strongest support for Israel. Recently, it has supported the right of Israel to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas, and was the only party in Norway which supported Israel through the Gaza War. The party has for many years also wanted to relocate the Norwegian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The party sees the most viable form of foreign aid policy to be for developing countries to gradually manage themselves without Western aid. It believes that free trade is the key for developing countries to gain economic growth, and that "the relationship between aid and development is at best unclear." The party is strongly critical of "forced contribution to government development aid through taxation", which it wants to limit, also as it believe this weakens the individual's personal sense of responsibility and generosity (voluntary aid). The party instead supports an increase in support for global health and vaccination initiatives against global epidemics such as HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis, and to increase the support after emergencies and disasters.

International relations
The Progress Party does not belong to any international political groups, and does not have any official sister parties. Historically the party has not compared itself to other European parties, and has sought to rather establish its own identity. An international secretary for the party in the same year said that the party had been connected with a "misunderstood right-wing radical label", partly because people with nationalistic and "hopeless attitudes" had previously been involved in the party. Such persons were said no longer to be involved.

The Progress Party was originally inspired by its Danish counterpart, the Progress Party, which ultimately lost parliamentary representation and fell into the fringes of Danish politics. In recent years, the Norwegian party has rather considered Denmark's Venstre to be its sister party. Although Venstre formally is aligned with the Norwegian Liberal Party, some politicians of the party has voiced support for the Progress Party. The party has been compared by some journalists to the Danish People's Party while others such as political scientist Cas Mudde has regarded the Progress Party to be somewhere in between these two parties. Some prominent individual Progress Party politicians. including former Justice Minister Per-Willy Amundsen and Christian Tybring-Gjedde support an official partnership with Sweden Democrats (SD), although historically the party at large has not supported such collaboration. In 2022, party leader Sylvi Listhaug stated that she welcomed the SD's growth in votes and supported the party during the 2022 Swedish general election, but has stated that while her party has common ground with the Sweden Democrats on immigration and law & order, differences in economic policy prevent the Progress Party from considering the SD as a sister party and that the Progress Party as a whole was not looking to build any international alliances.

While the party has been compared by some commentators to European populist parties ranging from the French National Front and the Dutch Pim Fortuyn List, the Progress Party has often distanced itself from parties on the extreme right and has turned down offers of alliances from other European far-right parties. In 2009 the British Conservative Party invited party leader Siv Jensen to hold a lecture in the House of Commons, which was seen as a further recognition of the party internationally.

In the United States, the Progress Party generally supports the Republican Party, and was in 2010 called "friends" by the Republican Party chairman as he said he looked forward to the "continued growth of the party and free market conservative principles." The party has also been described as Reaganite. Party leader Siv Jensen attended the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2018, parliamentary members Christian Tybring-Gjedde and former Minister of Justice Per-Willy Amundsen nominated President Donald Trump for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Trump was nominated due to his historic summit in North Korea and due to his work for "disarmament, peace, and reconciliation between North and South Korea."

Party leadership

Party leaders

Parliamentary leaders

Deputy party leaders

First deputy leaders
 Bjørn Erling Ytterhorn (1978–1982)
 Eivind Eckbo (1982–1984)
 Helge N. Albrektsen (1984–1985)
 Anne Beth Moslet (1985–1987)
 Pål Atle Skjervengen (1987–1991)
 Tor Mikkel Wara (1991–1993)
 Ellen Wibe (1993–1994)
 Lodve Solholm (1994–1999)
 Siv Jensen (1999–2006)
 Per Sandberg (2006–2018)
 Sylvi Listhaug (2018–2021)
 Ketil Solvik-Olsen (2021–2023)
 Hans Andreas Limi (2023–present)

Second deputy leaders
 Eivind Eckbo (1978–1980)
 Hugo Munthe-Kaas (1980–1982)
 Tore Haaland (1982–1985)
 Hroar Hansen (1985–1991)
 Jan Simonsen (1991–1993)
 Hans J. Røsjorde (1993–1995)
 Vidar Kleppe (1995–1999)
 Terje Søviknes (1999–2001)
 John Alvheim (2001–2005)
 Per Arne Olsen (2005–2013)
 Ketil Solvik-Olsen (2013–2019)
 Terje Søviknes (2019–present)

Election results

</div>

See also
 List of Progress Party (Norway) MPs
 Fatherland League
 Democrats in Norway
 Politics of Norway

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

  Progress Party (FrP) – official website
 Progress Party (FrP) – official website in English
  Official programme (in Norwegian)
  Youth of the Progress Party (FpU) – official website

1973 establishments in Norway
Anti-immigration politics in Norway
Classical liberal parties
Climate change denial
Conservative liberal parties
Conservative parties in Norway
Eurosceptic parties in Norway
Liberal parties in Norway
Libertarian conservative parties
Political parties established in 1973
Right-wing parties in Europe
Right-wing populist parties

Progress Party (Norway)


Henry Mason (1573? – August 1647) was an English clergyman and theological writer.

Life
He was a  younger brother of Francis Mason, archdeacon of Norfolk, and was born at Wigan, Lancashire, about 1573. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford as a servitor in 1592, and was elected Humphrey Ogle's exhibitioner on 2 November 1593. He graduated B.A. in January 1594, and M.A. (from Corpus Christi College) in May 1603. He had previously taken holy orders, and became chaplain of Corpus Christi College in 1602. He proceeded to the degree of B.D. in June 1610, and in the following year was collated to the vicarage of Hillingdon, which he resigned in 1612, when he became rector of St. Matthew's, Friday Street, London.

John King, bishop of London, appointed him his chaplain, and on 14 February 1613 he was collated to St. Andrew Undershaft with St. Mary Axe, London. In 1616 he was installed prebendary of Willesden in St. Paul's Cathedral. This prebend he resigned in March 1637, retaining the rectory of St. Andrew until 1641. When the presbyterians became dominant, he resigned his rectory, and retired to Wigan, where he died early in August 1647, and was buried in Wigan churchyard; he had during his lifetime (in 1632 and 1639) bestowed £240 in trust for the relief of the poor of Wigan. He also gave his library to the grammar school, and made other benefactions to the town.

Theology
Henry mason was an Arminian.

Works
His writings include:

 'The New Art of Lying, covered by Jesuits under the vaile of Equivocation, discovered and disproved,' 1624, 1634.
 'Christian Humiliation, or a Treatise of Fasting,' 1625, 1627.
 'Epicure's Fast, or a Short Discourse discovering the Licenciousnesse of the Roman Church in her Religious Fasts,' 1626, 1628.
 'Tribunal of the Conscience,' 1626; 2nd edit. 1627; 1634.
 'The Cure of Cares,' 1627, 1628; 3rd edit. 1634.
 'Contentment in God's Gifts,' 1630, 1634.

Letters of his appear in Dr. Thomas Jackson's Works, i, 600, and Joseph Mede's Works, p. 767, and some of his pieces occur in Samuel Hoard's God's Love to Mankind, 1653. He left a folio volume of theology in manuscript to Gilbert Sheldon.

References

Citations

Sources

1573 births
1647 deaths
16th-century English writers
16th-century male writers
17th-century English Anglican priests
Arminian ministers
Arminian writers
English male non-fiction writers
English religious writers
People from Wigan

Henry Mason (priest)


George Esquivel is a shoe designer and craftsman. He is the founder, president and design director for Esquivel Designs, a southern California design company that makes custom shoes and leather goods.  The company was founded in 2001, but Esquivel began making shoes in his garage in the mid-1990s, where he designed and made shoes for Orange County musicians and for celebrities and has always believe in God no matter what. Also he has been a target individual erroneous by his beliefs.

Shoes
Esquivel focuses on custom and made-to-measure shoes.  His customers include a variety of actors, artists, entrepreneurs, and athletes. Some stores carry ready-to-wear Esquivels.

Esquivel's shoes range from US$650 to 2,500. Esquivel also designs the mid-range Joe's Garb brand.

History
Esquivel's original styles were inspired by music and cars. He designed shoes for the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2002.

In 2009, he was a Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund nominee and finalist.

Esquivel's 2010 collection was inspired by the workers who built the Empire State Building. His 2011 collection was inspired by architecture and the art of Frank Gehry., and his 2012 collection was inspired by Egon Schiele, the Austrian protégé of Klimt.

In October 2011, he exhibited at the "Americans in Paris" initiative, sponsored by Tommy Hilfiger and Vogue magazine. The show featured emerging American designers. Esquivel was among the past CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund designers that were selected to participate in the shared space.

Esquivel was contracted to redesign the American collection for Italian shoe company Fratelli Rossetti, and has consulted to a number of other brands.

References

External links
Official Esquivel Shoes website

Living people
Shoe designers
Year of birth missing (living people)

George Esquivel


Torbjörn Anders Nilsson (born 9 July 1954) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Considered one of the best Swedish footballers of all time, he is best remembered for his time with IFK Göteborg with which he won two Swedish championship titles, the 1981–82 UEFA Cup, and reached the semi-finals of the 1985–86 European Cup. He also represented PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and 1. FC Kaiserslautern in Germany during a career that spanned between 1971 and 1990. A full international between 1976 and 1985, he won 28 caps for the Sweden national team and scored nine goals. He represented his country at the 1978 FIFA World Cup and was the 1982 recipient of Guldbollen.

Playing career
Nilsson was born in Västerås on 9 July 1954, and raised in Hallstahammar. He and his family (father Göte, mother Daisy, the brothers Rolf and Bosse and sister Rose-Marie) moved to Partille, outside Gothenburg, before he started school, and he began his footballing career in Jonsereds IF at the age of seven or eight. Nilsson joined IFK Göteborg for the 1975 season, and helped the club climb back to the top tier of Swedish football, Allsvenskan, by winning Division 2 in 1976. He tried his luck abroad with PSV Eindhoven, but returned to IFK after only one season. He then helped the team to a treble in 1982, the Swedish championship (IFK won both Allsvenskan and the title-deciding play-off), Svenska Cupen, and the UEFA Cup. He was awarded Guldbollen, the Swedish footballer of the year award, for his heroics.

Nilsson moved to Kaiserslautern in Germany, where he played two seasons, and was about to move to Benfica when his former Göteborg manager Sven-Göran Eriksson left that club. Instead, Nilsson moved home to Gothenburg and his former club. When he ended his playing career after three seasons due to knee problems, Nilsson had led the club to another Swedish Championship, and nearly a European Cup final in 1986. IFK was eliminated by FC Barcelona after having won the home leg 3–0. They lost the away match by the same score. Nilsson still regrets not taking a penalty in the ensuing penalty shootout, which forced two young and inexperienced players — Roland Nilsson and Per Edmund Mordt — to the spot. Both missed their penalties.

It is a mystery to a lot of Swedes how Nilsson with all his talent never really made it big when playing for PSV and Kaiserslautern, but according to himself he was too shy to make it in those rougher top club environments.

Despite Nilsson's so-so stays abroad, and his short career in the Swedish national team – for whom he played only 28 matches and scored nine goals – he is considered to be one of the greatest Swedish footballers of all time. He declined to play for the national team for four years in the early 1980s when he was at his prime, the most important reason for this was that Nilsson not felt comfortable in the national team and the coach Lars Arnesson, who mixtured a lot with different formations, which did not suit the playing style that Nilsson liked. He instead concentrated on his club team, but made a comeback in the national team in 1984, scoring a goal in the 3–1 win against Portugal in the 1986 World Cup qualification. Nilsson was elected to the Swedish football Hall of Fame in 2003.

In a Sky Sports interview, March 2020, Sven Goran Eriksson said that Nilsson was the best striker he had ever managed.

Coaching career
After ending his professional playing career, Torbjörn Nilsson acted as playing manager for his youth club Jonsereds IF, before becoming manager of Örgryte IS, then in Division 1, in 1991. The club was relegated to Division 2, but managed to advance two divisions into Allsvenskan the next year, thanks to the Swedish league system at the time. The luck did not last, however, and Örgryte was relegated from the highest league in 1993. Nilsson moved to IK Oddevold from Uddevalla, and brought the club to Allsvenskan for the first time in its history in 1995. He left his job after the season and did not take a new one for a year.

He then took the job as manager of Västra Frölunda IF in 1997, and for the third time coached a team to a promotion to Allsvenskan. He stayed as manager for Västra Frölunda for two seasons and led the club to a fifth and seventh place, the two best seasonal results the club has enjoyed. He took another one-year break before starting his fourth spell as manager for a Gothenburg club, BK Häcken, in 2001. He only stayed for one year, not being able to keep the club in the highest league. Instead he became the manager of the Sweden under-21 team, leading the team through a successful qualification to the 2004 UEFA U-21 Championship, where the team narrowly lost the semi-final and third place matches after penalty shootouts and extra time, respectively. He did not coach any team between 2004 and 2008, but then resumed his managerial career in Gothenburg's best women's team, Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC.

Career statistics

Club

International

 Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nilsson goal.

Honours
IFK Göteborg

 UEFA Cup: 1981–82
 Swedish Champion: 1982, 1984
Svenska Cupen: 1978–1979, 1981–82

Individual
Guldbollen: 1982
Allsvenskan top scorer: 1981
European Cup top scorer: 1984–85 (7 goals, shared with Michel Platini), 1985–86 (7 goals)
UEFA Cup top scorer: 1981–82 (9 goals)

Notes

References

External links

Swedish men's footballers
Swedish expatriate men's footballers
Allsvenskan players
IFK Göteborg players
PSV Eindhoven players
1. FC Kaiserslautern players
Bundesliga players
Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands
Expatriate men's footballers in Germany
1978 FIFA World Cup players
Swedish football managers
Örgryte IS managers
BK Häcken managers
Footballers from Gothenburg
Sportspeople from Västerås
1954 births
Living people
Sweden men's international footballers
IK Oddevold managers
Men's association football forwards
UEFA Cup winning players
UEFA Champions League top scorers

Torbjörn Nilsson


A virtual school library is a PreK-12 library that is a subunit of a virtual school—using the same telecommunications network to provide equitable access to electronic resources and communication designed to support the school's curriculum.

According to Watson and Ryan, PreK-12 virtual school enrollments in the United States were growing at a rate of 50% annually in 2007.

Additionally, Darrow cites the development of virtual spaces, which have been developed in the traditional school library across the United States, as the models for the newly developed virtual school library concept. He identifies how such existing sites as "Kathy Scrhock's Guide for educators", the Springfield Township High School Virtual Library, and the Wissahickon High School Virtual Library which have been modeled to create PreK-12 virtual school libraries such as the Florida Virtual School Virtual Library. Other similar libraries include Stephanie Bucalo's "Virtual School Library", designed to address general literacy and inquiry-based learning by highlighting books, information sources (search engines, etc.) and information/evaluation best practices and strategies and Linda Bertland's "Virtual Middle School Library", a collection of online resources, book reviews, parent/teacher resources and teacher-librarian information targeted specifically to the U.S. middle school population.

Furthermore, Darrow also cites the need to have licensed teacher-librarians involved at several levels—instruction, inquiry, and curriculum development—in order to effectively utilize the wealth of resources (and their associated processes) available to virtual education students. According to Darrow, if a virtual school library is void of such "customization and personalization" as well as other degrees of human intervention, the resources may prove to be under-utilized or not used at all.

One of the key components in the virtual school library is the development of virtual school library communication portals where students may interact with teacher-librarians and other educators—sharing student/educator-generated book reviews, student/educator-produced videos, participate in online polls, and/or attend online reference service podcasts designed to teach students how to use a particular library database or tool. Loertscher confirms Darrow's assumptions and describes a process that goes beyond merely integrating online tools on a website. He describes the idea and functionality of a "virtual school library commons" during a Second Life presentation where he created an iGoogle page and an accompanying blog to facilitate the delivery of RRS (i.e. z/OS)-based library services to students and fellow educators.

References

Online schools in the United States
Virtual learning environments
American digital libraries

Virtual school libraries in the United States


Victoria Park is a station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway system. It is located at 777 Victoria Park Avenue, one block north of Danforth Avenue in Scarborough. The station can be accessed by pedestrians directly from Victoria Park Avenue; by way of an unmanned entrance from Albion Avenue; through an automated entrance from Teesdale Place; and via a walkway that leads to the nearby Crescent Town area. A City of Toronto bicycle station is located adjacent to the main Victoria Park Avenue entrance, providing a paid secure indoor bicycle parking area.

History

Victoria Park station was opened in 1968 in the Borough of Scarborough, but the access footbridge across Victoria Park Avenue, built in the 1970s, extended into the Borough of East York.

Until 1973, the buses and the subway trains serving the station were in separate fare zones, and so the turnstiles and collector booths were placed between the bus bays and the subway platforms.  When the zones were abolished, the layout was reconfigured to bring the buses inside the station's fare-paid area.

The station underwent a large-scale, $36million renovation between 2008–2011. The original bus terminal with indoor platforms was demolished and replaced with a new, accessible outdoor bus terminal. New station entrances were built, an indoor bicycle station for parking was opened, and a green roof was added. Interior and exterior finishes were updated, and environmentalist and designer Aniko Meszaros was commissioned to create a permanent art installation, entitled Roots. The station became fully accessible with the addition of elevators.

In November 2021, the city government announced that an agreement had been reached with a developer to build over 500 new homes on the existing 173-space commuter parking lot at the station.

Architecture and art

Upon opening in 1968, Victoria Park station's interiors continued on the Bloor–Danforth subway line's design theme of practical simplicity with minimal creative flourishes and no public art. Most overtly, the station's interior walls are clad with the pattern of simple tiles shared with most other stations on the line. The tiles are smooth and unadorned grey block tiles with a narrower row of similar tiles in black meeting the ceiling at platform level. The original signage uses the Toronto Subway Font, with the station name sandblasted onto the walls in large type and painted in the same colour as the strip of black tiles by the ceiling. The flooring is the same basic pattern of terrazzo that appears at most Bloor–Danforth line stations: repeating grey squares separated by strips of aluminum.

Victoria Park station consists of a concourse at grade where fare control takes place, elevated platforms for subway trains, and a large outdoor bus transfer area. The present bus terminal was completed in 2011 by Stevens Group Architects, with Brown and Storey Architects, landscape architect Scott Torrance, and the TTC's internal design department on the 2008–2011 renovation of the station. It replaced the original enclosed bus terminal, which was an oversized concrete structure with a series of bus bays sheltered by arched roofs. This transfer area is a plaza with a pedestrian walkway that is sheltered by a massive concrete canopy which arches out of a central row of columns. The canopy is perforated with circular openings in certain places for a whimsical effect of lightness, breaking up its shadows on sunny days.

Where the circular holes are cut deeper through the canopy, they are clad with stainless steel inside and contain artwork by designer and environmentalist Aniko Meszaros, as part of her installation entitled, Roots. Meszaros' artwork in this part of the station consists of intricate stainless steel screens akin to filigree with an organic, root-like design. These screens were cut by laser and meant to allow the sun to cast interesting shadows onto the walkway below. The canopy extends beyond the bus transfer area and even the station's prominent glazed entrance on Victoria Park Avenue (also part of the 2008–2011 renovation) to a prominent column on the pedestrian plaza, wrapped with a rounded bench. The eastern edge of the bus transfer plaza is marked by a concrete retaining wall textured with a root motif. It holds up a landscaped slope.

The bus transfer plaza connects with the station's original concourse at surface level. The 2008–2011 renovation introduced the station's prominent glazed entrance on Victoria Park Avenue, which was previously a windowless brick and concrete wall. This entrance consists of a large doorway, with a minimalist glass facade around it accentuated by panes of pink-red glass, including a coloured glass entrance canopy. Above the entranceway, vertical metal trusses are visible behind the glazing. This entrance opens onto a small but functional pedestrian plaza with benches, trees, newspaper boxes, and the entrance to the station's indoor bicycle storage area. The concourse also received contemporary porcelain tiles on certain walls and clear glass mosaic tiles on columns in the renovation. Its ceiling was refinished to include a series of inwardly-sloped sections for visual interest.

Victoria Park's original platform area is an open hall with two side platforms. Unlike most Bloor–Danforth line stations, it has no pillars between its two sets of tracks. Its series of beams running perpendicular to the platforms holding up the roof is a unique aspect of the station's architecture. Though this part of the station is above ground, windows were only introduced in the 2008–2011 renovation. Natural light now pours in through large windows which also allow views of the walkways to the station, the green roof added in the renovation, and the neighbourhood around the station. The green roof consists of low-maintenance sedum plants, whose floral colour changes with the four seasons. The north facade on the other side of the platform wall was also enlivened with a series of large metal panels painted yellow.

In addition to the intricate metal screens in the bus transfer area canopy, Aniko Meszaros designed several other works of art that were integrated into the station in the renovation as part the Roots installation. At platform level, the walls are adorned with a work in which the word "community" is written in different languages over images of the globe depicted as a system of roots. These circular images appear in groups. Large murals on the station's original tiles in the stairwells from the concourse to the platform depict stylized trees from their roots to their branches, along with the poetic statement "Toronto, a city where those with diverse roots can grow and intermingle into a complex and exciting multicultural garden." The concourse features a large wall mural of tree rings.

The underlying concept of the installation alludes to the varied cultural backgrounds of people living in the surrounding neighbourhood and city in general, whose ethnic backgrounds or "roots" colloquially, can be traced to different parts of the world. It also references the green roof and the lush areas surrounding the station.

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

Subway trains travelling eastbound towards Victoria Park station from Main Street station exit the tunnel at the Thyra Portal several hundred feet from Victoria Park into an outdoor section of track. Then, a short section of the line is elevated through the station. Continuing east after the station, the track returns to ground level and angles northeast, diagonal to the street grid. Warden Woods Park, a city park that is mostly covered in forest with a central trail, is located on the northwest side of the tracks (on the left side of a train travelling eastbound). The scenery is thus relatively unique—subway trains travelling through forest, particularly when lush trees conceal the neighbourhood on the other side of the tracks in the summer with their leaves.

Nearby landmarks

The stark, unadorned brick towers of the Crescent Town neighbourhood stand to the northwest of the station and are connected by an enclosed pedestrian walkway, which is elevated over Victoria Park Avenue. The Dentonia Park Golf Club is located immediately to the north of the station and is visible through the windows of the westbound platform. The four apartment towers of Teesdale Place stand immediately northeast of the station. They appear similar to Crescent Town but are wider in profile. Cambridge Place at 30 Denton Avenue is a massive apartment building that towers just east of the surface transfer plaza. A significant belt of forested green space with walking paths is located north of the station, passing from the southwest corner of Warden Avenue and St. Clair Avenue East (across the street from Warden station) to the Don Valley at the foot of Don Mills Road. Shoppers World Danforth in Danforth Village is located southwest of the station at Victoria Park and Danforth avenues.

Surface connections

TTC routes serving the station include:

See also
 Royal eponyms in Canada

References

External links

 City of Toronto Victoria Park station Land Use Planning Study

Line 2 Bloor–Danforth stations
Railway stations in Canada opened in 1968
Transport in Scarborough, Toronto

Victoria Park station (Toronto)


The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, with a capacity of 2,500. The current capacity is 1,416. The title "Shaftesbury Theatre" belonged to another theatre lower down the avenue between 1888 and 1941. The Prince's adopted the name in 1963.

The theatre, the last to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue, was originally intended to house popular melodramas, but has presented a wide range of productions, including Shakespeare, farce, opera, ballet and revue. Companies based at the theatre for London seasons have included the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the Ballets Russes, Sadler's Wells Opera, Sadler's Wells Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet and the dance companies of Uday Shankar and Pearl Primus.

The theatre has presented many musicals that premiered on Broadway, from Funny Face in the 1920s to Pal Joey and Wonderful Town in the 1950s, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hair in the 1960s, and more recently Hairspray, Memphis, Motown and Mrs Doubtfire.

The theatre was at risk of demolition in the early 1970s to make way for new roads or for commercial development, but the Save London's Theatres campaign rescued it, and it was given listed building protection in 1974. The actor, playwright and impresario Ray Cooney led a new organisation, The Theatre of Comedy, backed by a substantial group of actors and writers, which leased and then bought the theatre as a home for British comedy. The Theatre of Comedy remains (2023) the owner of the theatre, but the emphasis of programming has shifted from farces and comedies to musicals.

History

Early years
The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911, the last new theatre to open in Shaftesbury Avenue. The site, at the junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and High Holborn, had previously been what the theatre historians Mander and Mitchenson call "a maze of derelict property". It was originally named the New Prince's Theatre, becoming the Prince's Theatre in 1914. The original capacity of the auditorium was 2,500. The exterior is faced in terracotta and brick stone with a three-tier façade of vertically aligned windows, topped by a pillared cupola above the entrance. The New Prince's was London's first entirely steel-framed theatre, with no supporting pillars in the auditorium to obstruct the view. The original colour scheme of the auditorium was cream and gold.

The Brothers Melville, who were already running the Lyceum Theatre, London, intended to continue their policy of staging popular melodramas. Early shows at the New Princes included Carlton Wallace's The Apple of Eden (1912), Arthur Shirley and Ben Landeck's Women and Wine (1912) and Walter Howard's romantic drama The Story of the Rosary, (1913), In 1913 the theatre presented a comedy, Brewster's Millions, and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Frank Cellier as Shylock, but reverted to melodrama with On His Majesty's Service (1914), When London Sleeps (1915) and For England, Home, and Beauty (1915), which ran for a hundred performances.

In December 1916 Seymour Hicks took over the management, opening with a revival of Bluebell in Fairyland and then reviving The Catch of the Season (February 1917), followed by other popular favourites in his repertory. In 1919 C. B. Cochran succeeded Hicks in the management of the theatre, and in April it had a critical and box-office success with André Messager's romantic opera Monsieur Beaucaire, starring Maggie Teyte; it ran for 221 performances. From September of that year the theatre presented a sell-out eighteen-week season of Gilbert and Sullivan operas by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, returning to the West End for the first time since 1908. During the season the company presented ten Savoy operas including the first revival of the 1884 work Princess Ida.

1920s
From February 1920 Pretty Peggy, a musical, ran for 168 performances. In 1920 the perennial favourite Charley's Aunt played at the Prince's for the Christmas season. In April 1921 Sarah Bernhardt appeared in the title role of Daniel in a play by Louis Verneuil, and Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes presented a season including Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Les Sylphides, starring Lydia Lopokova.

D'Oyly Carte returned in October 1921 for a 27-week season during which Ruddigore was seen in London for the first time since the original 1887 run. There followed Lucien Guitry, Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps in a season of French plays; a musical called The Cousin from Nowhere (1923); The Return of Sherlock Holmes starring Eille Norwood; a comedy, Alf's Button, by W. A. Darlington (1924); and José Collins in a musical play by Franz Lehár (1925).

There were two further successful D'Oyly Carte seasons in 1924 and 1926; the latter attracted widespread notice for controversial new designs for The Mikado  by Charles Ricketts. Sybil Thorndike appeared in Macbeth with Henry Ainley (1926), and Diaghilev's company returned for a season in 1927, with a programme that included the British premiere of Nijinska and Poulenc's Les biches (under the title The House Party). In December 1927 George Robey presented his revue Bits and Pieces. The following year Fred and Adele Astaire starred in the Gershwins' musical Funny Face, with Leslie Henson. The run was interrupted by a gas explosion in High Holborn not far from the theatre, but after the reopening the show completed a run of 263 performances. The last major production of the 1920s was a farce, A Warm Corner, starring W. H. Berry; it ran for 238 performances from December 1929.

1930s
In 1930 Berry had another substantial run of 195 performances in another farce, Oh, Daddy. For the next few years short runs and revivals predominated at the Prince's. In 1933 Charles Macdona revived Victorien Sardou's Diplomacy with an all-star cast that included Gerald du Maurier, Lewis Casson, Basil Rathbone, Margaret Bannerman and Joyce Kennedy.

During the 1934 season the Prince's featured a revival of Edward German and Basil Hood's comic opera Merrie England, which ran for 187 performances. It was followed by a revival of Sullivan and Hood's The Rose of Persia the following year – the first professional staging of the piece since the original London run in 1899–1900. It did not achieve the success of the revival of Merrie England, closing after 25 performances. In 1935 there was a rare venture into the classics, with a revival of The Alchemist. Two of Ian Hay's adaptations of Edgar Wallace stories followed: The Frog (1936, 483 performances) and The Gusher (1937, 137 performances).

A 1938 success, with 260 performances, was Wild Oats, described as "a song and laugh show" with music by Noel Gay and words by Douglas Furber. In March 1939, aiming to attract a new, younger, audience to the theatre, J. B. Priestley arranged to have his comedy When We Are Married – which had run successfully at the St Martin's Theatre at normal West End prices – transferred to the Prince's with tickets at half the usual price. Sitting Pretty (1939) was a comedy starring Sydney Howard. Towards the end of the year, Firth Shephard launched a topical revue, Shephard's Pie.

1940s

Productions during the Second World War included another Shephard revue, Fun and Games (August 1941, with a cast including Sydney Howard, Carol Raye and Richard Hearne); Wild Rose (August 1942, a revised version of the 1920 musical Sally, starring Jessie Matthews); Old Chelsea (February 1943, starring Richard Tauber), and Halfway to Heaven (December 1943, a comedy starring Howard and Bobby Howes).

Sadler's Wells Theatre being closed for the duration of the war, its opera and ballet companies toured, and in 1944 based themselves at the Prince's for London seasons. The opera season included The Bartered Bride, La bohème, Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte; the company was led by Joan Cross, and included Peter Pears, Owen Brannigan and Rose Hill. The ballet season presented twelve works, including Coppélia, Swan Lake, Carnaval and the premiere of Miracle in the Gorbals, with choreography by Robert Helpmann and music by Arthur Bliss; the company included Helpmann, Margot Fonteyn, Alexis Rassine and Moira Shearer.

In 1945 Evelyn Laye starred in Oscar Straus's operetta Three Waltzes, and later in that year Merrie England was revived in a radically revised version by Edward Knoblock, with a cast including Heddle Nash and Dennis Noble. In 1946 the theatre staged another Shephard revue, The Shephard Show, with Hearne, Arthur Riscoe, Douglas Byng and Marie Burke. In 1947 the Prince's came under the direction of Bertram Montague though, according to Mander and Mitchenson, "the new productions were not so successful as the ballet seasons from many parts of the world and the annual pantomimes".

1950s
The next play to achieve a long run was His Excellency, a comedy by Dorothy and Campbell Christie, starring Eric Portman and Sebastian Shaw; it opened in May 1950 and ran for 452 performances. In 1951 the theatre presented seasons of dance by Uday Shankar and his Indian Dancers, Pearl Primus and her African Dance company and the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Montague's management ended in 1952. The freehold of the theatre remained in the Melville family until 1961; between 1957 and 1961 the theatre was directed by Andrew Melville.
Mander and Mitchenson record that after Montague's withdrawal the theatre was "more often closed than open, though occasional seasons had their successes". The successes included Maurice Chevalier in a limited season in 1952 (presented by Jack Hylton, who had become the lessee of the Prince's) and Antony and Cleopatra from the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, with Michael Redgrave and Peggy Ashcroft in 1953. Two musicals that premiered on Broadway, Pal Joey (1954) and Wonderful Town (1955), ran for 245 and 207 performances respectively. Summer Song, a musical about and reusing music by  Antonín Dvořák ran from February to June 1965. The D'Oyly Carte Company returned in 1956 and 1958, for 13-week seasons on each occasion, launching a new production of Patience during the first.

1960s

D'Oyly Carte made its last Prince's appearances in 1960–61, a nine-week season, presenting ten operas. In the early 1960s the ownership of the theatre changed hands several times. In June 1961, Hylton, who had been the lessee since November 1951, bought the theatre and adjoining property. The following August he sold the freehold to Television Wales and the West, which sold it on to Charles Clore. In September 1962 it was confirmed that a new partnership between Clore and EMI was to control the theatre. At the same time plans for renovating the theatre were announced. For two years the theatre was more often closed than open. The Stage said that the theatre had "become rather shabby, possibly because success seemed to elude it for long periods, when it remained dark and neglected". King Kong, a South African musical, ran from February to October 1961, and there were what Mander and Mitchenson describe as "several uneventful productions" until Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opened in August 1962. It was still running (and moved to another theatre) when the Prince's closed for reconstruction in November 1962.

The name "the Prince's" was dropped and replaced by "the Shaftesbury". The new owners felt that the old name was too similar to those of two other West End theatres: there were the Prince of Wales and since 1962 a new Prince Charles theatre. The old Shaftesbury Theatre, further down Shaftesbury Avenue, had closed in 1941, reduced to a ruin during the Blitz, and the owners of the Prince's adopted its name for their theatre. The old raked stage was replaced with a horizontal one, and lighting equipment described as "the last word in modernity" was installed; the seating capacity of the renovated auditorium was 1,470.

As the Shaftesbury, the theatre reopened in March 1963 with the American musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying which ran for 520 performances. A musical version of J. M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, called Our Man Crichton, with Kenneth More in the title role, played from December 1964 till June 1965.

The Shaftesbury reopened on 20 November 1965 with Twang!!, Lionel Bart's musical version of the Robin Hood story. The Times later described it as the most expensive flop in West End history to that date. The critic J. C. Trewin described the first night as "a rout" with "some fairly general booing". The show closed after 43 performances, after which the theatre was closed until October 1966, when success returned with a farce, Big Bad Mouse, originally written by Philip King and Falkland Cary, but extensively and successfully ad-libbed through by its stars, Eric Sykes and Jimmy Edwards – "two comedians abounding in their own exuberance" according to Trewin. It ran for 634 performances to April 1968.

Theatre censorship ended in Britain on 26 September 1968, and the following night the musical Hair opened at the Shaftesbury. Described as an "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical", the show contained profanity and scenes of nudity unthinkable until then. It had an exceptionally long run and was just short of its 2,000th performance when part of the theatre ceiling collapsed and the house had to be closed.

1970s

In 1973 the theatre was at risk of demolition, faced by proposals by the Greater London Council for a massive road-building programme and by a plan to build an office block on the site. Nearly twenty years earlier a campaign to preserve the St James's Theatre from demolition and commercial redevelopment had failed, despite high-profile support led by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, but in the 1970s the campaign "Save London's Theatres" rescued the Shaftesbury (and other theatres). In March 1974 the theatre was protected by being given official grade II listed building status.

After the necessary internal repairs the theatre reopened with a well-received revival of West Side Story in December 1974. Other productions in the 1970s included a musical stage version of the BBC television series Dad's Army, starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn (October 1975 to February 1976). In September 1978 the theatre presented a revival of Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's 1920s dramatisation of Dracula, starring Terence Stamp, with scenic designs by Edward Gorey; it ran for three months.

1980s
They're Playing Our Song (1980–1982) starring Tom Conti and Gemma Craven was produced by the actor and writer Ray Cooney. After the end of that run and a nine-month closure Cooney presented his farce, Run For Your Wife with Richard Briers, Bernard Cribbins and Bill Pertwee. This was the first play under the banner of the Theatre of Comedy, founded by Cooney, who said, "We have the finest comedy talents in the world in this country, both performers and writers, and I could never understand why we could not create our own theatre of comedy". The Theatre of Comedy became the lessee of the Shaftesbury, and later bought the building. The company was funded by a founding group of well-known actors and authors. The intention was for the Shaftesbury to have a programme of British comedy showcasing existing and new talent.

Substantial runs in the 1980s included Shaw's Pygmalion (1984) with Peter O'Toole, Jackie Smith-Wood and John Thaw; Two into One, another Cooney farce, starring Donald Sinden and Michael Williams, and described by The Stage as masterly (1984–1986); Saturday Night Live, a revue starring Rowan Atkinson (1986), of which the reviewer in The Stage wrote, "One leaves the theatre genuinely weak from laughter"; Osborne's The Entertainer starring Peter Bowles (1986); Sondheim's Follies with an all-star cast in a 645-performance run (1987–1989); and M. Butterfly starring Anthony Hopkins (1989).

1990s
Sinden and Williams starred again in a Cooney farce, Out of Order, in 1990, which won the Olivier Award for best comedy in 1991. In 1992 the American television executive Donald L. Taffner, a shareholder in the Theatre of Comedy since 1986, became the majority shareholder and chairman of the company. Shows at the Shaftesbury in the 1990s included Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1992–93) with Chita Rivera, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello, and Eddie Izzard in his show Definite Article (1995), of which the reviewer in The Stage wrote, "you will laugh, laugh again and continue laughing until you feel considerable physical pain. I did." A revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel ran from September 1993 to March 1994, with choreography by Kenneth MacMillan; the sets, by Bob Crowley, were, in the view of The Times "the biggest star in Nicholas Hytner's lavish production".

In 1996–97 the theatre staged Tommy, a musical by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff (1996–97), with Paul Keating in the title role. The production showcased the Shaftesbury's advanced technical facilities: The Stage called the production "a unique theatrical experience, with scenery that falls faultlessly into place, up, down and sideways ... superb lighting ... wonderfully balanced sound ... and immaculate projection". The musical itself was less well liked: in his Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre (2001) Kurt Gänzl comments, "London gave it the thumbs down in 11 expensive months". From May 1998 to October 1999 the Shaftesbury was host to the musical Rent, which, following a recent fashion for musicals borrowing the plots of Puccini operas, drew on that of La bohème; it starred Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Jermaine Heredia and Jesse L. Martin from the original Broadway cast. It was predicted that, reflecting the spirit of the 1990s as Hair had that of the 1960s, Rent might emulate the long run of the earlier show, and there was some disappointment that it ran for less than 18 months.

2000s
A series of short-lived musicals was a feature of the first part of the decade. These included Lautrec by Charles Aznavour starring Hannah Waddingham (March to June 2000), Napoleon (September 2000 to February 2001), and Peggy Sue Got Married starring Ruthie Henshall (August to October 2001). Umoja: The Spirit of Togetherness was well received on opening in November 2001, but noise complaints from the inhabitants of the flats near the theatre resulted in the closure of the show three months later. Further short runs followed for Thoroughly Modern Millie (21 October 2003), starring Amanda Holden and Maureen Lipman; Bat Boy: The Musical (27 August 2004) by Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe, starring Deven May; and The Far Pavilions (14 April 2005), starring Kulvinder Ghir; it was described by The Stage as "a galumphing great Asian white elephant of a musical".

They were followed by Daddy Cool (21 September 2006) by Frank Farian, starring Michelle Collins, Javine Hylton and Harvey Junior, and Fame: The Musical (4 May 2007) by Jacques Levy and Steve Margoshes, starring Ian Watkins and Natalie Casey of which The Times commented, "It really is difficult to find a kind word to say about Karen Bruce's production of this shockingly clumsy spin-off".

The theatre then had a long run with Hairspray: The Musical, which ran from 30 October 2007 to 28 March 2010. It was written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman; the original cast starred Michael Ball, Leanne Jones, Mel Smith and Tracie Bennett. Later in the run Brian Conley and then Phil Jupitus succeeded Ball in the lead role.

2010s

During the decade the external façades of the theatre were renovated, and the original early-20th-century canopy was uncovered and restored. The auditorium was reconfigured, air conditioning and ventilation updates, and a fly tower with increased technical capability was constructed.

A dance production, Burn the Floor (21 July 2010), starring Ali Bastian, was followed by another musical, Flashdance (26 September). After that there was a magic show, Derren Brown – Svengali (8 June 2011). The theatre returned to musicals with Rock of Ages (27 September 2011); that was followed by a second run of Burn the Floor (6 March 2013), which was succeeded by a new musical by Tim Rice and Stuart Brayson, From Here to Eternity, (30 September 2013).

A revival of The Pajama Game (13 May 2014), which transferred from the Chichester Festival, was notable for being the first West End show to be crowd funded. It was followed by Memphis, starring Beverley Knight (22 October 2014); After a short season by a touring "magic spectacular" The Illusionists – Witness the Impossible (14 November 2015), Motown, presented the story of the Motown record label founder Berry Gordy (March 2016).

On 20 November 2019 a new musical & Juliet opened at the Shaftesbury. The run was interrupted when the COVID-19 pandemic forced West End theatres to close on 16 March 2020.

2020s

The theatre reopened on 30 June 2021 with the musical Be More Chill (30 June 2021), after which & Juliet resumed its interrupted run in September. Another American musical, Mrs Doubtfire, opened on 12 May 2023, with music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick and a book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell.

Notes

References

Sources

1911 establishments in England
Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden
Grade II listed theatres
Edwardian architecture in London
Theatres completed in 1911
Theatres in the London Borough of Camden
West End theatres

Shaftesbury Theatre


A Hilbert space is a mathematical concept covering the extra-dimensional use of Euclidean space—i.e., a space with more than three dimensions. A Hilbert space uses the mathematics of two and three dimensions to try and describe what happens in greater than three dimensions. It is named after David Hilbert.

Vector algebra and calculus are methods normally used in the two-dimensional Euclidean plane and three-dimensional space. In Hilbert spaces, these methods can be used with any finite or infinite number of dimensions. A Hilbert space is a vector space that has the structure of an inner product that allows length and angle to be measured. Hilbert spaces also have to be complete, which means that enough limits have to exist for calculus to work.

The earliest Hilbert spaces were studied in the first decade of the 20th century by David Hilbert, Erhard Schmidt, and Frigyes Riesz. John von Neumann first came up with the name "Hilbert Space". Hilbert space methods made a big difference to functional analysis.

Hilbert spaces show up a lot in mathematics, physics, and engineering, often as infinite-dimensional function spaces.  They are especially useful for studying partial differential equations, quantum mechanics, Fourier analysis (which includes signal processing and heat transfer). Hilbert spaces are used in ergodic theory which is the mathematical basis of thermodynamics. All normal Euclidean spaces are also Hilbert spaces. Other examples of Hilbert spaces include spaces of square-integrable functions, spaces of sequences, Sobolev spaces made up of generalized functions, and Hardy spaces of holomorphic functions.

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Other websites

 Hilbert space at Mathworld
 245B, notes 5: Hilbert spaces by Terence Tao

Calculus
Quantum mechanics

Hilbert space