The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2010, Blaðsíða 8

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ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 63 #1
some suggested that those who described
themselves as Icelandic Canadians
weren’t “true” Icelanders at all, express-
ing a sense of real betrayal by those who
had come to see themselves as Canadian
citizens of Icelandic ancestry, rather than
“Western Icelanders.”
In its second issue, The Icelandic
Canadian identified five purposes for its
existence, which Paul A. Sigurdson later
summarized, quite succinctly, as the
desire “to preserve, in print, the best of
our Icelandic heritage, and weave it har-
moniously into the strands of the
Canadian fabric.” Among its stated pur-
poses, the magazine sought to increase
awareness of the Icelandic heritage
among children of mixed marriages, stim-
ulate the virtues of citizenship among
Icelandic Canadians, and present “the
position” of Icelandic Canadians to the
people of Canada. Each of these objec-
tives is best understood as imperatives
facing the era in which the magazine was
founded but the remaining two seem
more timeless—“to assist in making the
things of value in our Icelandic heritage a
living part of ourselves” and “to provide a
means whereby Canadians of Icelandic
extraction can become better acquainted.”
Substitute people for Canadians and you
pretty much have the primary mission of
our magazine as it has been lived out ever
since.
It was quite natural that its founders
chose to call their new quarterly The
Icelandic Canadian, since they were, in
the words of Will Kristjanson, “a new
generation. Canadians of Icelandic
descent, sharing the wealth of two cul-
tures.” In the beginning, the magazine
commenced publication as a project of
the Icelandic Canadian Club in Winnipeg,
which had been organized four years ear-
lier, so its name originally reflected the
identity and aspirations of its sponsor.
Most of the original subscribers were
members of this club. However, it is
impossible to overestimate the influence
of then-prevailing attitudes in the larger
Canadian society. This was wartime, after
all, and foreign speakers were viewed
with suspicion by many. Before the out-
break of hostilities, for example, the
Icelandic ministers in Manitoba were
sometimes invited to broadcast services
in Icelandic over the radio; during the
war, these services were subject to
screening by censors and they eventually
ceased altogether. So there was a strategic
value to the term Icelandic Canadian—
the noun being a declaration of citizen-
ship and patriotism, while the adjective
proudly identified ancestry and heritage.
Still, there was opposition in the Icelandic
community: one correspondent, writing
in Logberg, suggested the magazine was
launched, at least in part, to encourage
enlistment in the armed forces. It wasn’t
long, though, before the initial quarrels
subsided and The Icelandic Canadian
began to attract subscribers south of the
border and even across the sea. By the
1960s, one-quarter of our subscribers
were found in the United States, some of
them expatriate Canadians who had
moved south for work or retirement.
When we look back over the years,
we realize that we have had several loyal
American subscribers and we have often
published materials about the Icelandic
community in the United States as well as
in Canada. In fact, we have devoted
whole issues to Icelandic American top-
ics, ironically (and insensitively) wrapped
in a cover bearing the name of The
Icelandic Canadian. We aspire to be more
genuinely inclusive—not only of our