Robbie:
Conraua goliath, the goliath frog can be found in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Species can grow up to 12.6” in length and weigh up to 7.17 lb. The goliath frog is the largest frog on Earth, not the Coleman Frog.
Once upon a time, young Fred Coleman fed a frog at Killarney Lake whiskey, buttermilk, rum and bread. Fred’s frog friend, who is nameless, then grew to be 42 pounds and stand 5 feet tall on his hind legs.
One day in the 1880’s fishermen went down to the lake and fished with dynamite. The poor frog was killed in the blast! Devastated, Fred Coleman took that frog to the best taxidermist in Maine and had the frog restored. And that’s the tale of the Coleman frog kids, goodnight!
Wait a second. We’re not kids, you’re not my real mom, this isn’t bedtime and that frog is painted!
The centerpiece of the York-Sunbury museum is a fraud, not a frog.
Supposedly painted because of damage to the original skin, and too delicate to allow experts to verify, the museum sticks to its story. But there is conspiracy hopping all over this tale. Fact: Fred Coleman owned a hotel at Killarney Lake and used the frog to promote business.
While some may find the story charming, I hypothesize that it will inspire underage drinking, animal cruelty and a terrible Fredericton remake of Night at the Museum. Some stories are worth telling: Shrek 2, Twilight, The Princess and the Frog. Others should be tossed in a lake. The Coleman Frog is like an Easter Bunny who doesn’t lay chocolate eggs.
The York-Sunbury museum has a lovely staff and is full of interesting artifacts, but they are weighed 
down by that monster.
Fredericton! You must, like Little Red, cut yourself from the belly of the beast! This story is irrational and only propagates a stereotype of New Brunswick small-mindedness!
Matt:
Russia has the bear. Spain has the bull. Egypt has the penguin. Yet nothing, not even America’s bald eagle, can match the historic might of Fredericton’s Coleman Frog.
Ordinary frogs already occupy a famed, pedestaled position in the animal kingdom. The lion may be the king of the jungle, but the frog can become a human prince with a quick kiss. Human princes can poach lions. Frogs win.
The Coleman Frog isn’t just any old frog. He’s a 42-pound behemoth. He only ate whiskey and whey, the staple university diet. He combusted via dynamite and was precious enough to deserve to be glued back together one webbed organ at a time. We’re talking about a god amongst mortals.
The Coleman Frog makes Fredericton the bastion of the modern world. This frog is the central attraction to the York Sunbury Museum and who could blame them? Mayor Mike O’Brien is reportedly contacted biweekly by the British Museum as they grovel to take the Coleman Frog into their care.
Is the story embellished? Sure it is. Maybe 42 pounds is pushing it. Maybe pretending a paper maché frog is the corpse of a real self-combusted frog is overkill. Maybe inventing the whole story was a bit excessive. But Mr. Robert Lynn is proposing to kill the myth entirely. Didn’t the frog die enough the first time? America has the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act 1940 – does Fredericton need the We Heart Coleman Frog Act 2017?
Aristotle wrote in the Poetics that “Homer, more than anyone else, taught poets the right way to tell falsehoods.”
Combining this with freedom of thought, belief, and opinion in s.2(b) of the Charter does nothing but destroy Lynn’s case. The Coleman Frog is the morally and constitutionally proper way to tell a falsehood. We must keep the spirit of Fredericton alive. We must keep the Coleman Frog alive.
