The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Page 13

Vol. 59 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
11
they belonged to this party or that party. A
person is a constituent - end of question.
As lieutenant-governor, I want to serve all
Manitobans.
Kevin: The former lieutenant-gover-
nor, His Honour Peter Liba, travelled
widely through the Province. Do you also
plan to travel?
Mr. Harvard: Definitely! While a little
more than half the population lives in
Winnipeg, we have a lot of outlying com-
munities. I will make my first trip outside
of Winnipeg on Thursday to open the
Manitoba Indigenous Summer Games in
The Pas. The day after I will go to Portage
la Prairie, because some people are being
inducted into the Manitoba Agricultural
Hall of Fame. The day after that, I will go
to Morris for the opening of the stampede.
1 want to make absolutely sure that I visit
as many villages, towns and cities outside
of Winnipeg as possible. All Manitobans
are equal, whether they live here or six or
eight hundred miles north of here, or west
of here, or whatever.
Kevin: I have read that the aboriginal
people enjoyed it when His Honour Peter
Liba greeted them in their native language.
Mr. Harvard: I want to do the same
thing. In my speech in The Pas, in a couple
of days, I have included an aboriginal
greeting and farewell. One of my favourite
words is inclusiveness. One has to reach
out, one has to embrace all of the people;
neither colour, gender nor any such differ-
ence matters. We are all equal. I reject
exclusion.
Kevin: I would like to end on a more
general, philosophical note. People of
Icelandic descent are often characterized as
realistic optimists. Would you characterize
yourself as a realistic optimist?
Mr. Harvard: Yes, I think so. Many
problems and challenges face us in this
world, but I want to look at the world
through a glass half full, not half empty.
You want to believe that tomorrow will be
a better day. Despite the most strenuous
effort, problems will persist. It keeps you
going. You have to have faith, even though
I realize that some problems are
intractable, even permanent. One needs an
unshakeable belief in one’s fellow human
beings. This country has come a long way;
quite primitive one hundred and thirty
years ago, Canadian society has more
recently taken immense strides democrati-
cally, economically and technologically.
Today we are a modern, rich country. I
said it in remarks at the Order of Manitoba:
this is no fluke; this is no accident. Decades
of hard work, from people who have come
from all around the world, has made
Manitoba strong. Only a special type of
person or family is willing to pick up stakes
and move thousands of miles to another
country; that is the story of Canada. People
picked up stakes and left Iceland; they left
Germany; they left Japan; they left China,
and they came here. These were coura-
geous people. They came to a country with
no money, with only their hands or brawn
to offer. These special individuals showed
In December 1981, John Harvard was the sub-
ject of an interview in Winnipeg magazine.