The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1964, Blaðsíða 12

10
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1964
EDITORIAL
The Icelandic Celebration: 75
The seventy-fifth Icelandic Cele-
bration is now history. It was a suc-
cess.
Seventy-five years may seem a short
time by Old World standards but it is
relatively a much longer period in the
annals of the New World. In America,
seventy-five years have seen virgin
lands settled and villages become
metropolitan cities. Seventy-five years
ago, in 1890, Sir John A. Macdonald
was Prime Minister of Canada and the
1st Icelandic church in Winnipeg had
been built only three years previously.
Pioneering events have a special
significance, but further ito that the
first Icelandic celebration, held in
Victoria Park in Winnipeg, was a
memorable occasion. The day began
with an impressive procession from the
starting point at the corner of Ross
and Nena (Sherbrook) to the Victoria
Gardens, east of Main Street. The
Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, Sir
John Schultz, was a guest of honor,
and the American, Danish, and Ger-
man consuls, and other dignitaries,
were invited guests. There was a long
and varied program, with speeches,
singing, original poems, and a variety
of sports. The Icelandic community
in Winnipeg was at that time relatively
much larger than it is now, and
furthermore there were numerous
visitors from the Icelandic com-
munities in rural Manitoba and North
Dakota; the procession was one of the
most impressive that the city of some
twenty thousand had as yet witnessed,
and the event attracted attention; it
was fully and favorably reported in the
Winnipeg dailies.
At the seventy-fifth celebration, held
at Gimli, there was an impressive pro-
gram. The Prime Minister of Iceland,
Dr. Bjarni Benediktsson, was the guest
of honor and the main speaker.
Greetings from the Government of
Ganada were conveyed by Hon. Wil-
liam M. Benidickson; from the Gov-
ernment of Manitoba by Hon. George
Johnson, and from the City of Win-
nipeg by Mayor Stephen Juba. His
Honour, Errick F. Willis, Q.C., Lieut-
enant Governor of Manitoba, follow-
ing the pattern set by his predecessor
of 1890, gave the toast to Canada.
There were visitors hailing from North
Dakota, Vancouver, and Alaska.
The Prime Minister in his address,
paid tribute to the contribution of the
Icelandic people in America ito Iceland.
He recalled from personal knowledge
a stream of visitors from America ever
since the days of his youth, naming
several prominent persons. From Am-
erica there had been a contribution
of practical and technical knowledge,
as in the development of hydro-electric
power, and ithere had been a vitally
important contribution in the launch-
ing of the Icelandic Steamship Com-
pany in 1914. The Icelandic people
in America, he said, had opened a
window for Iceland on the great out-
side world.
Referring to present day association
between Iceland and Canada, Dr. Ben-
ediktsson recalled that he and the pre-
sent Prime Minister of Canada, Hon.
Lester B. Pearson, had signed the
NATO paot on behalf of their respec-
tive countries. NATO he called a
shield of freedom.