The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Page 6

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #1
Editorial
by J. Timothy Samson, Q.C.
It is a distinct pleasure to be asked to
write the editorial for this issue of the
Icelandic Canadian Magazine. My connec-
tion with the Magazine goes back to its
very beginning in 1942. My father, John V.
Samson worked in those days as a linotype
operator for Viking Press, the publishers of
Heimskringla and the printers for the first
issue, and many subsequent issues, of the
Icelandic Canadian Magazine. So my father
would have set the type for that first issue
and for many of the following issues. Later,
in my teens, when I worked for the print-
ing business then owned by my father and
my uncle Ed Goodmundson, who then
printed the magazine, I actually participat-
ed in its production.
It was my work as a teenager in the
printing plant and my later involvement in
the Icelandic Canadian Club that brought
me into contact with Judge Walter Lindal
the mainstay of the Magazine at that time.
Judge Lindal was passionate about there
being a publication that could speak to
young people in the English language, and
an organization, the Icelandic Canadian
Club, that could serve those young people.
Judge Lindal was always free with his
advice and the telephone ringing at around
midnight often heralded a call from Judge
Lindal with mandatory suggestions for the
Icelandic Canadian Club.
Walter Lindal and his contemporaries
who founded this Magazine believed
deeply in keeping the connections among
the descendants of the pioneers from
Iceland alive and vital so that the commu-
nity they knew could continue. These
founders of the magazine could envision
the situation where young people not only
lost a facility with the Icelandic language,
but also lost their interconnection with the
other descendants of those pioneers. The
Icelandic Canadian Magazine and the
Icelandic Canadian Club stood for keeping
those non-Icelandic speaking descendants
connected to and a part of the community.
Today, we have an Icelandic National
League and a newspaper, Logberg-
Heimskringla, whose proceedings and
publication are in the vernacular. This has
allowed the Icelandic Canadian Magazine
to concentrate on cultural, historical and
biographical material written by a multi-
plicity of authors some professional and
some amateur, but all for the benefit of the
communities and individuals it serves.
It is my view that the various institu-
tions of our community, including the
Icelandic Canadian Magazine, must stand
together to keep the collective memory of
our cultural background alive and to pass it
on to yet another generation of young
North Americans who can count a pioneer
from Iceland in their family tree.
Iceland’s interaction has become a vital
part of this picture. The Snorri Program is
an example of what can be done to inspire
the interest of young North Americans in
our community and in their Icelandic ties.
Participants in the Snorri Program general-
ly return from Iceland vitalized and, ready
to participate in the cultural life of our
community and connected with young
people of similar backgrounds from other
communities.
I like to imagine Walter Lindal and his
contemporaries meeting for a discussion
with the likes of those involved in 2004 in
the Icelandic Canadian Magazine,
Logberg-Heimskringla, the Icelandic
National League, the Icelandic Festival, the
Snorri Program, and the Icelandic presence
at The University of Manitoba, to name
just a few. I can’t but think that they would
be satisfied with the results of the direc-