The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Qupperneq 12

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #1
Lenore Berscheid, and we both agreed that
after sixteen years of me going to Ottawa,
and with me being sixty-six years of age,
that this presented a sterling opportunity
for me to finish off my public career. So, I
indicated to the Prime Minister that yes, I
would be willing to make this change. Mr.
Murray had some concerns handling his
own affairs; I never spoke with Mayor
Murray. A month later he cleared his deck,
and on 27 April 2004 I agreed to become
the lieutenant-governor. Of course I was
surprised! Does anybody contemplate such
a thing? How does one go about forming a
strategy to become the lieutenant-gover-
nor? It is one of those appointments where
all of the stars have to fall in line. If Mr.
Liba’s term had not ended for another year,
or had ended a year earlier it would not
have happened to me, it would have hap-
pened to somebody else. There is always
luck in life. Sure you have to have talent,
you have to bring certain things to the
table, whatever the table is, but life does
have its luck. Conservatives refer to Robert
Stanfield as the greatest Prime Minister
Canada never had! Why was he not Prime
Minister? Because Pierre Trudeau was
there. He ran against Pierre Trudeau three
times, and he lost three times. Stanfield had
bad luck. It was not a comment on his tal-
ent, but here was this formidable man
Trudeau. I had luck, but I am humble
about it.
Kevin: You are the second Icelandic-
Canadian to hold the office of lieutenant-
governor of Manitoba; His Honour, Dr.
George Johnson was first. How do you like
the job so far?
Mr. Harvard: I love it so far. Today I
approach the end of my third week, at the
beginning of the learning curve, but I plan
to enjoy it, because I believe in it! People
need their collective expression; the state
needs its collective expression. You can
express the people’s voices through an
office like the lieutenant-governor’s; this
job can very often accentuate the positive.
In this office you look for achievement,
you look for success; you offer kudos and
congratulations. Partisan politics is adver-
sarial, competitive; nothing wrong with
that, we need that. Sometimes it gets rough.
My role now is much different, and, I
think, necessary. Government has an
extensive ceremonial side. If you did not
have the monarchy, as we know it in
Canada, who would do this work? It
would fall to the Premier. The Premier is a
very busy guy already. The monarchy
offers a clear division between the head of
government and the head of state; this posi-
tion is non-political, as it should be.
Partisan politics coloured my past, but no
longer; nothing in me would cause me to
show favouritism to one person or group
of people because of their politics. I have
purged myself of partisan politics. When
you are a member of parliament, yes you
are a partisan person, but when it came to
case work - a tax problem, a pension prob-
lem, some problem with respect to govern-
ment, not policy so much as just an indi-
vidual case, I never asked them whether
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