The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1968, Blaðsíða 24

22
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1968
he said in a visit to the settlement of
Gimli in 1877:
"Not only will your future .prove
bright and prosperous, but it will be
universally acknowledged that a more
valuable accession to the intelligence,
patriotism, loyalty, industry and
strength of the country has never been
introduced into the Dominion.”
Icelandic-Canadians through suc-
cessive generations, spawned from this
noble seed, have lived up in full
measure to this prophecy.
Even the "Manitoba Free Press”, a
paper not always famous for its ac-
curacy of prophecy or unbiased wis-
dom, particularly in political matters
—displayed a rare streak of accuracy
when it noted of the first settlers:
“They are a smart-looking, intel-
ligent and excellent people and a most
valuable acquisition to the population
of our province.”
Who in looking over this impressive
assembly today — and in particular
who in noting the Icelandic-Canadian
ladies — could deny the fidelity to
truth of that comment.
Almost a century separates us from
those early exploits of the pioneer Ice-
landic settlers — a century in which
settlement has added a countless
thousand fold to our numbers from a
rich heritage of European and world
races — a century in which Divine
Providence has been extremely gener-
ous to this land and its people.
Today, while we pay homage to the
past, it is equally an imperative that we
take stock of the present and look to
the future of this Canada of ours.
We . are now 20 million in number
— we have the second highest standard
of living of any nation in the world-
next to our great American neighbors.
We live in a land of bountiful re-
sources and one in which there is still
the opportunity — rare in any coun-
try — for personal achievement, gain
and enrichment limited only by our
ability and our toil.
To hundreds of millions of souls on
this earth who still scratch out a bare
existence we must truly appear to be
“God’s chosen people.”
Certainly we have a unique heritage
and enviable status among men — a
nation vast in physical proportions —
so thinly populated — occupying with-
out fear the northern half of this
continent in amicable relationship
with the most powerful and affluent
nation in world history.
All of these global conditions im-
pose their own imprint and demands
on our national character and out-
look. And as with all things in life,
some of these characteristics are good
and others bad and potentially harm-
ful if allowed by drift or indecision
or lack of purpose to propagate and be-
come imbedded in our national life.
What then would I wish for Can-
ada, for my sons and daughters and
yours as today I ask you to join in a
toast to our homeland?
I would wish first for a re-affirm-
ation of spiritual faith among our
people. National character and
strength are largely a collective reflec-
tion of the individual citizen’s moral
and spiritual worth. Under wise leader-
ship, this collective richness of char-
acter can have a meaning beyond our
imagination in a world so needful of
moral strength today.
Secondly, I would wish for a temper-
ing of the permissive attitudes which
today and in the future could lead to
an undermining of the fundamentals
of good national, character. An order-
ly, decent and civilized society is not
the product of-the “God is dead” phil-
osophy — nor of the philosophy of any-
thing goes, the hippie or beatnik at-
titude of opting out of life. These are
not the broad paths along which our
people must travel to keep in sight