Lögberg-Heimskringla - 02.09.1994, Page 6

6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 2. september 1994
George Johnson to receive Order of Canada
Gimli, Man. — The
most honored man
in Manitoba was
strolling down the Lake
Winnipeg dock here Sunday
night.
A car carrying three rough-
looking men suddenly stop-
ped and a quite tipsy fisher-
man leaped out. “Hey,
George!” he yelled. “You
brought me into this world.”
Dr. George Johnson73,
brought 1,219 babies into the
world during the eight years
he was a family doctor in the
district. A Iady here the other
day said she was fed up with
all the incomprehensible
tragedies, from Rwanda to
Quebec to O.J. Simpson, and
was going to start a
“Goodnews” scrapbook. Only
stories that fell into the good
news category would make
George Johnson squeak in.
He’s the kind they don’t make
any more, whose entire life
has been devoted to others.
Of good Icelandic stock, he
was in his final university
class in May 1941, when the
professor, a stem Englishman,
said “ how can you sit here
when Britain is under fire?”
Twelve of the class marched
down to the Winnipeg recmit-
ing centre. Young Johnson
had been reading First World
War history decided he didn’t
want to die of tetanus in some
trench in France but would
rather drown instead. He
joined the navy. The recruit-
ing ofGcer, fed up with young
men detailing their knowl-
edge of daddy’s yacht, asked
him what he knew about
ships. Nothing, replied
Johnson. You’re in was the
quick response. He was
shipped to Royal Roads
College in Victoria, where
Mr. Kidder, father of Margot,
hid his liquor supply in the
fountain in the chapel, the
chaplain unknowingly bless-
ing it at each service.
He spent the war as an
officer on corvettes in the
cold North Atlantic, chasing
submarines. He didn’t drown.
After school, he delivered
up to 165 babies a year
around Gimli, the Icelandic
capital of Canada 90 minutes
north of Winnipeg. In 40
below winter weather, he
drove the gravel roads to
remote farms, and charged $1
a housecall.
When they built a new
school in Gimli, somenone
had the bright idea of letting
the children name it. So it
became the George Johnson
Elementary School — some-
what natural since he deliv-
ered almost all of them.
Premier Duff Roblin
induced the progressive doc-
tor into his Conservative gov-
ernment in 1958. He served
12 years in the cabinet, as
Health minister introducing
medicare to Manitoba, and as
education minister.
He went back for further
medical studies at McMaster
University. He returned to
Sterling Lyon’s Tory govern-
ment as deputy minister of
health in the late 1970’s.
He served as the prov-
ince’s Lieutenant-Governor
from 1986 to 1992.
His wife of 50 years, Doris,
three decades ago was named
one of the youngest Fjalkona-
Maid of the Mountain-at
Gimli’s annual Icelandic festi-
val, a heraldic honor given to
distinguished women in the
community. She was 40.
Between them, they have
produced six heirs, all over-
achievers. One son runs the
largest Canadian-owned gov-
emment cosulting firm in the
country. Another son is
founder and director of
Manitoba’s Special Olympics.
One daughter is a leading
obstetrician and gynecologist
at Toronto General Hospital.
One daugher has a master
degree in educational psy-
chology. One daughter writes
and illustrates children’s
books. One daughter is a
member of the Senate.
Johnson has received most
every honor one can imagine
along with his war medals.
He’s an honorary admiral of
the Canadian navy.
He’s in the Citizens’ Hall
of Fame in Winnipeg. Iceland
has awarded him its highest
honor, the Order of the
Falcon.
On October 19 in Ottawa
he will be made an officer of
the Order of Canada, by a dif-
ferent party from the one that
made him Iieutenant-gover-
nor.
We at L-H join everyone in
congratulating George John-
son — an old-fashioned breed
of man!
byAllan Fotheríngham, Ottawa
Submitted by DN

i TO A FRIEND Over mountains
And snowclad peaks
By Bragl 10-10-93 Streams and golden meadows On across the sea
Let us drink to starlit nights WFipn snncK; arp <;pt tn hpllnw Embrace her for me
Sunny days and worthy fíghts With your songs And kiss her On the cheek
This true and tried good fellow
TOJENNA LIBERTY
By Bragl 10-10-93 By Bragl 10-10-93
I ask you song-birds While men live in servitude
On wings so swift But neither you or me
Catch the gentle breezes It does not seem credible
And huny to my love That we be truly free.
EINAR’S ANECDOTES
lcelanders and marríage
Drifting through Olafur
Thorgeirson’s Almanac and
other publications reaching
back to the era of emigration from
Iceland to this country, it becomes
quite apparent that the underlying
forces placed pressure on young
women to enter into holy matrimo-
ny only if the spouse was of
Icelandic origin. This created emo-
tional tensions. We octogenarians
can recall in our own mind these
tensions, for we lived in part during
the years when immigrants were
middle age and their offspring
reaching maturity.
Our people were essentially farm
or fisher folks or both, and the
women basic rural persons experi-
enced in domestic farm home living.
The home setting had been self suffi-
cient in regards to habitations
including food and clothing. Farm
husbandry was an important skill for
survival. This was especially true in
North American rural communities
where the virgin land, wild game and
lakes with fish were to be had for the
asking under the Homestead Act.
Give an Icelander land, hay and fish
with wooded areas for log habita-
tions and fuel, he could exist
in the remotest of areas, such
as the original hinterland in
the Interlake Districts.
The young Icelandic
women were the wage eamers
whether it be as domestics, sales
clerks or dressmakers. In many
instances this was the source of
much needed cash in the rural
Icelandic penny poor homes. This
took girls out of their homes into
direct contact with young men of
other nationalities particularly of
British background. The young men
assisted with the rural home chores.
If they did go out, they found
employment in the building trades,
construction, or on grain farms in
the southem parts of Manitoba. The
non Icelandic, Anglo-Saxons tended
to segregate these husky fair haired
fellows, originating from an island
Arctic Country somewhere North of
the British Isles.
What did our boys have to offer,
mainly life on an isolated farm which
involved domestic drudgery and
milking cows. What did the non
Icelandic city slickers have to offer, a
spin around town in a brand new
Model T Ford, or a movie
when it was too cold to drive
in a car, with a canvas top and
flopping side curtains. This
was tough competition for our
boys at the time which only
tme love could overcome.
In spite of these obstacles,
our people did very well and
soon acquired the ubiquitous Model
T Fords and even ventured as far as
Winnipeg in them to visit with rela-
tives and friends.
Now this has all changed and the
question is not if the spouse is
Icelandic and owns a car but
whether he or she is Canadian.
Give me land fish and hay,
A log shaclc not too far away
And I will show them who I am
An Icelander from a distant land.
The question has often arisen as
to why Icelanders had a penchant
for settling on second rate land.
What they looked for was, what
they had grown up with in Iceland.
There they were accustomed to hay
land areas, pasture lands for grazing
and the ocean waters which provid-
ed fish. When they came here, they
were attracted to areas with similar
resources they had known and
grown up with in their native
Iceland.
They did not know how to grow
grain and originally missed out on
grain farming. When you read
through the historical articles you
will find that an area with hay and
pasture land made them feel at
home. A lake with fish in it was an
added bonus. It is the first genera-
tion born here who were really suc-
cessful in grain farming for they had
acquired these skills through work-
ing for grain growing farmers of
other than Icelandic origin.
One of the amazing achievements
of Icelanders is their academic skills
of learning and achievement to
become world famous such as
Vilhjálmur Stefansson and our
Baldur Stefanson with his Canola
discoveries that have revolutionized
crop production, not only in
Western Canada but much further
afield. Both these men of world fame
come from frugal beginnings in the
Interlake Area.
We can hold our heads high to be
of the same people as these two
world figures as well as the academ-
ic success of our people as a whole.
Invariably their beginnings were fru-
gal but their achievements outstand-
ing.
Pat yourself on the shoulder,
perhaps we should be doing more
in reviewing the success of our peo-
ple.