The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1954, Síða 17

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
15
Later my mother came to Canada as
an immigrant from Iceland, worked
in Winnipeg, moved on to Victoria
where she met and married my father.
I have purposely given you this sketch
of my background so you will under-
stand—at least to the extent that I can
find words to express it, why I am so
proud of the fact that I am a Canadian.
In May of 1951 I was privileged to
attend Convocation at the University
of British Columbia, and to hear a
distinguished Canadian, Bruce Hutch
inson, an outstanding Canadian auth-
or, Editor of the Victoria Times, and
I believe a contributor to the Winni-
peg Free Press, give the convocation
address. Speaking of Canada he said,
in part, “I do not mean the obvious
resources, wealth, and economic op-
portunity of this country. They alone
could not begin to provide an estate
to satisfy the needs of an educated
man. No, your heritage is something
too large to be measured in money,
and among the nations on this contin-
ent it is unequaled and unique.
“Like all important things it has no
name, it is quite intangible, and must
endure forever unalterable in your
heart. But indefinable and nameless
as it will remain, we may call it the
chance to take a new country, as yet
molten in an unshaped mould, and to
shape it in a fashion never seen among
men before. At the world’s present
age that is a chance granted to few and
granted to none with such rich op-
portunity and wide scope as to Cana-
dians.
“What is this Canadian thing? Half
a continent of treasure, a high stand-
ard of living—that most unreliable of
all measurements-itwo races demon-
strating that men of different origins
may live in peace together? All that
but so much more. Then what is this
thing we call Canada”?
One can rightly ask the question,
What is this thing we call Canada?
If I think out loud for a few mom-
ents they will be the thoughts of a boy
the son of parents who were im-
migrants, as he attended Sunday
School, public school, played with
other youngsters on sand lots . . . and
play fields, took part in group games,
played on the school football, lacrosse
and basketball teams, and later repre-
sented his city in its rugby, lacrosse,
baseball and basketball teams. What
did this boy experience in his grow-
ing years? He experienced a deep re-
spect for the people of the community
in which he lived—a tolerant people
whose main object in life seemed to
be to do everything they could to as-
similate into the life of the community
all those who came into it to live,
whether they be Jew or Gentile, Negro
or Asiatic, Protestant or Roman Cath-
olic. This trait of the Canadian people
—brought to our country by pioneers
who sought liberty and freedom, which
was an inherent part of their beings,
and also the opportunity to improve
the position of themselves and their
families, in keeping with the effort
they put into their task, is, as I see it,
the main foundation, or cornerstone
of this thing we call Canada. A God-
fearing, tolerant, law-abiding, and
hard-working people built a solid
foundation on which we see the Can-
ada of to-day being reared. And now,
looking back over fifty years, I can say
that the foundation so well laid by
those who pioneered our Canada is
still intact, and even though our coun-
try is passing through the greatest
industrial expansion of its history, we
Canadians go on our way taking in our
stride the tremendous development