The Icelandic Canadian - 01.05.2008, Blaðsíða 18

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 61 #2
for Iceland in Washington serving as the
Icelandic Ambassador to Canada as well as
the US and a multitude of other countries
in both North and South America . I had
worked with Einar on a number of projects
here in Manitoba, and had introduced him
to the Icelandic communities both in
Manitoba and in North Dakota. Birgir
Bryjolfsson, our Icelandic Consul was in
failing health at the time. Upon Birgir retir-
ing from his post as Consul, I was made
Honorary Consul General for Iceland in
Manitoba. The following years brought
much excitement as the Icelandic Foreign
Ministry desired to strengthen ties between
Iceland and Canada.
At the time I was heavily involved with
Logberg-Heimskringla and the HIP com-
mittee to raise funds for the Department of
Icelandic at the University of Manitoba and
the Nordic House. In 1994 I met Atli
Asmundsson, the Press Secretary in the
Foreign Ministry, and we formulated a
three pronged strategy to establish an
Icelandic Embassy in Ottawa and a
Canadian Embassy in Reykjavik; to con-
vince Icelandair to fly direct flights out of
Winnipeg as the Midwest gateway to
Europe; and lure a major Icelandic corpo-
ration to establish roots in Winnipeg. We
now have the Embassies in place,
Landsbanki, the largest bank in Iceland
with branches worldwide, has a branch
office in Winnipeg and we hope that direct
flights from Winnipeg to Iceland will begin
in 2009.
In 1997, President Olafur Ragnar
Grimsson asked me to establish a commit-
tee that would formulate a major initiative
to celebrate the Millennium. I gathered a
group including Tim Samson, Senator Janis
Johnson, Heather Ireland, David Gislason
and many others to meet with Olafur, ask-
ing David to act as Chair. The Millennium-
125 was inaugurated on that occasion
which put together a plan that would see
200 major Icelandic events in Canada in the
year 2000 from L’Anse aux Meadows to
Victoria. The Prime Minister of Iceland,
David Oddsson, and Prime Minister of
Canada, Jean Chretien, celebrated the
1000th birthday of Snorri Karleifsson, the
first born European child in North
America, the son of Gudridur
Thorbjarnadottir, the remarkable woman
who became our rallying figure for the
Millennium-125 initiative.
To ensure the success of such a major
endeavor, the Foreign Ministry placed a
career Consul General in Winnipeg to over-
see such an extraordinary initiative, our plan.
Svavar Gestsson and his wife Gudrun arrived
in 1999 and took up residence on Wellington
Crescent with a Consular office on Donald
Street. The move aimed to prepare the way
for establishing an Embassy in Ottawa but a
title was necessary in the interim and the title
of Consul General was given to Svavar.
My station was terminated without cere-
mony and on a later occasion, I was re-estab-
lished as the Consul General for Iceland sta-
tioned in Gimli. In the year 2000, the
Governor General of Canada greeted the
President of Iceland in Winnipeg, only the
second time in Canadian history such an
honour was given a visiting head of state, the
first being Charles de Gaulle, in Quebec
where he uttered the now famous line “Vive
Le Quebec Libre.”
The Icelandic Embassy opened the fol-
lowing year and a succession of Career
Consul Generals settled in Winnipeg along
with three successive Icelandic Ambassadors
in Ottawa. Feeling the redundancy of my
post as Honorary Consul General in Gimli,
and during the term of Ambassador Halldor
Hannesson or Consul General Kornelius
Sigmundsson, I resigned my commission in
2003. Since that time, I have enjoyed a close
and mutually beneficial relationship with
Atli Asmundsson fulfilling the strategy we
put in place in 1994.
Any diplomatic or political career has its
rewards and drawbacks and certainly my
career as Honorary Consul General had its
ups and downs. If I were to single out one
highlight it would be receiving a phone call
from Lloyd Axworthy telling me personally
of the decision of the Canadian Foreign
Ministry to place an Embassy in Reykjavik
knowing how hard I worked for such to hap-
pen. The lowest moment was being
informed, by a visiting member of the
Foreign Ministry, that I was being removed
as Honorary Consul General of Iceland in
Manitoba to leave the position open for a