The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1967, Side 26

24
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1967
steady support ever since the Centen-
nial planning started.
To me, and I am sure to others, it
is often a matter of wonderment that
such a small ethnic group—represent-
ing about 25,000 out of the 5,000,000
Canadians who are neither French nor
English in their origins—have made
such a deep impression on Canadian
life.
It is difficult to discuss this without
seeming to he flattering the Icelandic
people. But it is true, in my experience
at least, that one seldom if ever hears
of an Icelandic person who is not a
worthy citizen; that Icelandic people
have become notable in the records of
our parliaments, our courts of justice,
our educational institutions, and our
professional and commercial life gen-
erally.
And those of Icelandic origin who
make their careers on the land, the
water, in the forests and in develop-
ment of our mineral resources, usually
are as good as any farmers, fishermen,
woodsmen or miners in the world.
I choose to believe that the Icelandic
people possess, probably more strong-
ly and deeply imbedded in their fibres,
the qualities that urged the British
and French people when they came to
the unknown hardships and risks of
this vast and to them unknown coun-
try more than 300 years ago.
They and their descendants, and
those who came after them in the next
two or three centuries, built a great
and modern nation, the founding of
which we are celebrating this year.
Those French and British were not
weaklings else they would have re-
mained in the comparative comfort
and safety of the old world. They were
people of intelligence, resourcefulness,
courage, determination, and a vast
faith in their belief they could build a
better life in the new world.
Icelanders have shared this task of
nation building in almost the whole
of this century of Confederation our
Centennial celebrates.
The first major settlement of Ice-
landers was at what is now Gimli on
the western shore of Lake Winnipeg
and it is still the centre of the largest
settlement of Icelandic people in Can-
ada. They came there in 1875 and every
August the founding of Gimli is cele-
brated fittingly.
So Icelandic people have been a part
of the history of Canada under Con-
federation, and an amazingly import-
ant part considering their small num-
bers.
Icelanders are in the House of Com-
mons, the Senate, the high courts and
the University faculties. And they are
in the leading ranks of our literary and
artistic personalities.
A little over 1,000 years ago Norse-
men settled on the largely desolate and
volcanic island on the fringe of the
Arctic circle they called Iceland. They
did not like conditions at home and
had the courage to brave a new land.
Nearly a hundred years ago con-
ditions in Iceland were not satisfactory
and so a small group set out across the
western ocean to the land their great