Lögberg-Heimskringla - 27.08.2004, Blaðsíða 11

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 27. ágúst 2004 • 11

From Riverton
to Parliament Hill
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Ottawa, ON
Until recently, Laura Ole-
sen was the Director of Parlia-
mentary Affairs for the Cana-
da’s Minister of Health. But at
the end of August, she is taking
over as the Director of Parlia-
mentary and Cabinet Affairs in
the Department of Foreign
Affairs. “It is an exciting job
and certainly in the centre of
many important issues to Cana-
da,” she says about her new
post.
Laura has worked on Parlia-
ment Hill for almost five years,
and for Minister Pierre Petti-
grew since 2001. She says that
she had always been very much
involved in politics and a part of
the Liberal Party for many
years, before Ron Duhamel, MP
for St. Boniface in Winnipeg,
convinced her to move from
Edmonton to Ottawa. “One day
he said: ‘Laura, I think you
should come and work for me.’
It was an exciting opportunity to
come and work in Ottawa and
contribute to public service.”
Her parents are professor
Brian Oleson and Marjorie Ole-
son and her stepmother is
Joanne Gudmundson. Her
mother is of Dutch descent but
her father’s roots are in Iceland.
He is from Riverton, Manitoba,
but Laura grew up in Winnipeg.
“Being Icelandic was
always very important, and my
parents’ closest friends were of
Icelandic origin,” Laura recalls.
“My amma and aft were also
very important people in my
life. My afi Kari Oleson was a
fisherman on Lake Winnipeg
and he and my amma Emily
spoke Icelandic all the time.”
Politics was an important
issue at Laura’s home in Win-
nipeg. “It seemed to come from
the Icelandic community,” she
says. “Politics was something
that everyone enjoyed speaking
about and that everyonc was
involved in. We were always
very proud of Icelanders that
had taken up public office, peo-
ple like minister Eric Stefanson
in Winnipeg, MP John Harvard,
and Senator Janis Johnson. My
aunt Charlotte Oleson from
Glenborough was a minister
under Manitoba Conservative
premier Gary Filmon and I
remember finding her life really
exciting, but I chose the Liberal
Party when the time came for
me to choose a political party. I
think that my father and my
mother had inore Liberal ten-
dencies and that’s how I was
brought up, but you still respect-
ed people from other parties and
it provided for exciting debate.”
Laura says that she mainly
works with people from the
province of Quebec and says
that they find the Icelandic cul-
ture very interesting. They do
not have a lot of experience with
it but are surprised when told
about the vibrant Icelandic com-
munity in Manitoba. “Look at
what you have got if you look at
the group of people that .came
out of Riverton and went to uni-
versity 40 years ago,” she says.
“We have got doctors, lawyers,
polilicians, university profes-
sors, and so on, and most of
these people came from parents
who were farmers and fisher-
men. It is astounding and I
attribute it to the fact of how
well-read and how well-educat-
ed our grandparents were, even
though they did not go to
school. My grandmother did not
have a full high school educa-
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tion but she read enormously.
She was very well informed
about what was going on in the
community and in politics and I
really attribute that to what they
brought from Iceland. I think
that they brought with them this
desire for knowledge and cul-
ture.”
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