ORDERS OF THE DAY

Hon. Jim Ernst (Government House Leader): Madam Speaker, as I intend to call for condolence motions as the first item of business this afternoon, I wonder if there is a will in the House to waive both private members' hours this afternoon in order to continue with condolence motions.

Madam Speaker: Is there leave to waive both private members' hours this afternoon to continue through till 6 p.m. with condolences? [agreed]

Mr. Ernst: In the interest of those members wishing to speak, the order of motion would be for Mr. Hutton, Mr. Groves, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Wagner and Mr. Jobin. Would you call condolence motions, Madam Speaker.

Motions of Condolence

Gilbert Eugene Hutton

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): I move, seconded by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism (Mr. Downey),

THAT this House convey to the family of the late Gilbert Eugene Hutton, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty in a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, Gilbert Eugene Hutton served as a member of this Legislative Assembly from June 8, 1953 to June 16, 1958. He was a member of the Social Credit Party, and he represented the electoral division of Minnedosa.

Gilbert Eugene Hutton was born on April 24, 1908 in Bethany, Manitoba. He attended Bethany School attaining his Grade 11. In 1936, Bunty, as he was called, received his journeyman's electrician certificate. He and his brother Art worked in the electrical business from 1947 until 1952 when he and brother Vernon opened H&H Electric and Appliance store in Minnedosa. The business was sold in the 1970s when Bunty went to Estevan, Saskatchewan, to work for the co-op.

He also served as a member of the Minnedosa town council and a member of the board of directors for the Children's Aid Society. He was a member of the Manitoba Elks Foundation and a life member of the Royal Canadian Legion 138. A very distinctive honour was bestowed upon him for his contribution to community life when he was made the recipient of the prestigious Heart of Gold Award presented by Air Canada.

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Music and dancing were a big part of Bunty's life, and he was known to call square dances at Bethany on many occasions. The Minnedosa Merry Minstrels, a musical group, was begun in 1975 with Bunty as an important part of the orchestra playing his violin every Friday afternoon.

He was also known as a volunteer chauffeur who had a great sense of humour and many cheery quips as he chauffeured people around in the community.

Bunty will be remembered fondly by his wife, Agnes, of Minnedosa, his daughter, Pat MacGillivray and grandson, Ian, four brothers and three sisters.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of all members of the Legislature, I want to extend our sincere condolences to his family, our sympathy in their loss and our thanks for a life lived in the service of his fellow people of Manitoba.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, I want to add a few comments to the words of the Premier (Mr. Filmon) in passing condolences from this Legislature to the Hutton family.

As the Premier has indicated, Mr. Hutton was elected and was an MLA from 1953 to 1958, a Social Credit member from the community of Minnedosa, and, as the Premier has indicated, he had a very active role and full role in his Minnedosa community. We have been informed and I have been informed that he had a great deal of credibility with the people in the Minnedosa community.

Even after he was not re-elected to this Legislature, he went on to continue to work for his community and for communities that he lived in, and he went to work in Saskatchewan on co-ops. He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and he received a number of volunteer awards that recognized his tremendous contributions to his fellow mankind.

As the Premier has indicated, he liked music and dancing and he used to call out the square dances. For those of us who have watched the square dances from time to time, it has always amazed me how they can move in such quick directions, with the call of the person calling it out, and not bump into each other. In fact, it is quite amazing to watch.

We, too, want to pay our tribute to the Hutton family and pass on our wishes to them and our condolences on his death this year.

Hon. Harold Gilleshammer (Minister of Culture, Heritage and Citizenship): Madam Speaker, I, too, would like to pass on my condolences to the Hutton family.

When one becomes a member of this Legislature, it is quite natural to look back on previous members who served within that constituency, and while I did not know Bunty when he was a member of the Legislature, I certainly got to know him as a member of the Minnedosa community.

As has already been mentioned, he was born and raised in the Bethany area, part of a large family, many of them still residing in the area. He did serve the Minnedosa constituency with distinction, and after his career as an MLA, continued to serve the wider community as a member of the town council, a member of the Children's Aid Society, as well as belonging to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 138.

Probably in his latter years, he was best known as a community volunteer who was always there to support other people, to drive them to important events and one who loved to socialize. Mention has already been made of his love of music.

So, Madam Speaker, I would like to add my voice to give condolences to the Hutton family, a man who is well remembered and well revered in the Minnedosa area. Thank you.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Some Honourable Members: Agreed.

Madam Speaker: Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate their support for the motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

Fred Groves

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Minister of Environment (Mr. Cummings),

THAT this House convey to the family of the late Fred Grovesy, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty and a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, the late Fred Groves was a member of this Legislative Assembly from the time of his initial election on June 16, 1958, until the general election of 1966, having been re-elected in the general elections of May 14, 1959, and December 14, 1962.

Fred Groves was born in Winnipeg in 1924 and attended Daniel McIntyre Collegiate and the University of Manitoba. He was known to many as a chartered accountant, having operated his own chartered accountancy practice in Winnipeg for many, many years. He also, like many of us, served in public life initially as a member of the St. Vital City Council from 1951 until 1956. He served in this Assembly as the member of the Legislature for St. Vital, and after his retirement from this Assembly, he served as provincial director of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party from 1962 to 1966.

He was certainly active in many community activities throughout his life, working with the Windsor Community Club, St. Stephen's Broadway United Church, Windsor Lodge, and the YMCA. He took considerable pride in his membership in the Scottish Rite and for many years was in charge of the disabled patrons of the Shrine Circus.

I had the good fortune of meeting Fred Groves, having been introduced to him by a good friend of mine, the late Robert Steen, who had sat with him briefly in this Legislature, and Bob Steen having first introduced us, we then met at a number of public events, and I know that he remained active in the community throughout his period of time.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of all members of the Assembly, I certainly want to extend our sincere condolences to his wife, Betty, his children, as well as his eight grandchildren, his brother and his sister, and express to them our thanks for a life that Fred devoted to public service on behalf of the people of our province.

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Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): I rise to join with the Premier (Mr. Filmon) in paying tribute to the late Fred Groves and wish to pass condolences to his family.

I did not know Mr. Groves, but in reviewing his political career and his public life, you can observe that he was truly a dedicated citizen to his fellow community members. He spent a life of volunteer activity on behalf of citizens of this province.

As the Premier has indicated, he was a chartered accountant and then became a councillor in the community of St. Vital, and went on to be elected in this Legislature from 1958 to 1966.

He was active in his community club as a volunteer at the Windsor Community Club, was active in his church and he was active as a member of the YMCA. I am not sure whether that was the St. Vital Y or whether that Y was built after--I cannot remember the dates--or whether it was the downtown Y.

Madam Speaker, the Premier has noted that he was also a member of the Scottish Rite organization, and I am sure he would be proud of the resolution passed in this Chamber dealing with people of Scottish heritage and the recognition this Chamber has extended to that very involved part of our province.

He had also been involved in the Shrine Circus, as I understand.

On behalf of the New Democratic Party, we want to thank Mr. Groves for his contributions to his province, to his community, and pass on our condolences to his wife, Betty, to his children and to his grandchildren.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt this motion?

Some Honourable Members: Agreed.

Madam Speaker: Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate their support for this motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

William Walter Jenkins

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer),

THAT this House convey to the family of the late William Jenkins, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty in a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, the late William Walter Jenkins was a member of this Legislative Assembly as a New Democratic Party representative for the electoral division of Logan, having been elected on June 25, 1969, re-elected in the general elections of June 28, 1973, and October 11, 1977, and serving until the general election of November 16, 1981.

Mr. Jenkins was born November 10, 1921, in Manitoba, was raised and educated in the Souris region. He joined his father's regiment in the Winnipeg Rifles and later transferred to the Canadian Scottish Regiment. Bill served his country and was wounded in action during the D-Day invasion.

Following his recuperation in England, he met and married his wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Ineson, in Lancaster, England. Together, in 1946 they returned to Winnipeg to begin raising their family. Bill attended the University of Manitoba and later became a journeyman carpenter working for the CPR.

As a member of Jubilee Lodge No. 6, he served as financial secretary, education officer, and president of the union local. He was elected and served as a member of the Winnipeg School Board No. 1 from 1962 to 1969 where he was chairman of the building committee. In 1969, of course, he was elected to this Legislature, serving with the Schreyer administration for 12 years. He had the privilege of serving here as chair of the House committee, Deputy Speaker and, I believe, latterly, as Whip. That is the role in which I recall Bill Jenkins when I was first elected to this Assembly in 1979.

I recall Bill Jenkins to be a very dedicated person, a very serious person, but nevertheless a friendly individual, one whom I often chatted with. He took his responsibilities here in this House seriously. He understood the importance of the office that he held. I respected him a great deal for the way in which he conducted himself as a gentlemen.

I ran into him from time to time after that, after his leaving this Assembly, because he retained a cottage in the Loni Beach area of Gimli, and, as a matter of fact, had a beautiful stained-glass window that my wife admired. We stopped in. I did not realize that it was his cottage and that was the first time that we stopped in and chatted and then from time to time ran into him.

I recall Bill fondly and well and certainly want to pass along sincere condolences to his wife, Betty, to his daughter, Linda, sons, Ross and Terry, and grandchildren, and express to them our thanks for the public service that Bill was engaged in throughout his life.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): I want to join the Premier (Mr. Filmon) in paying tribute to the life and contributions of William or Bill Jenkins to the people of Manitoba and to our great province.

Madam Speaker, as the Premier has indicated, Bill Jenkins was born in this province; I think it was Inwood, Manitoba. He served his country prior to being elected to this Legislature with his participation in the Canadian armed forces and the invasion of D-Day. He was wounded, as the Premier has indicated, and ultimately returned to be involved in his community in Winnipeg.

He was employed by the CPR and he was very involved in his union. He was always considered, I think by all of us who knew him, as a friend of working people, a friend of his neighbours in the community where he was ultimately elected, the Logan constituency.

As the Premier has indicated, he first got elected in public life to the school board in 1962. He was subsequently elected in '69, '73 and '77, three terms, 12 years in this Legislature. In 1981 he did not seek re-election, but, of course, the tremendous roots that he had set down in the Logan community, the tremendous credibility that he had displayed as a representative for that community, have lived on with those neighbours.

Even today we hear people--I have gone door to door in other elections, I think notably the federal election, in areas that were formerly of Logan and heard tributes from neighbours and constituents of Bill Jenkins, a person who always returned his phone calls, always had enough time for the people who elected him, a person who always cared about their problems. No constituent issue was too small for him to act and to take up their cause as their elected representative.

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Madam Speaker, three terms are a long time in this Legislature, 12 years, a lot of one's life to be elected to this great place. As the member for Lakeside (Mr. Enns) has often said before, only 57 people are privileged enough out of over a million people in the province to be elected to this Chamber, something that none of us should ever take for granted. It is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity and privilege. Bill Jenkins received that privilege from his constituents on the three occasions.

He was, as the Premier indicated, a very friendly person, a person who was very, very easy to get along with and a person who had warmth and integrity that is remembered by all of us who knew him. He was in this Chamber a chairman of a House committee and a Deputy Speaker and he was appointed, subsequent to his legislative job, to the Manitoba Rent Review Board in 1981, which had a fairly major task, as I remember, with the rent challenges that were facing consumers and renters at that time.

Madam Speaker, the timing of those elections that Bill served were very exciting times for his party. I am sure the member for Brandon East (Mr. Leonard Evans) will recall those times because, of course, it was the first election of an NDP government here in Manitoba, in 1969. It was an election that was never predicted. Some never expected it, and they were very exciting times for people like Bill and other members of his caucus. I know that he and many others who were elected in that election have very, very interesting stories to tell about the ultimate June election of the Schreyer government and the many good people who were elected including Bill Jenkins at that time.

As the Premier has indicated, Bill was married 48 years to Betty. He has a daughter, Linda, and a son Terry and a son Ross. At the funeral on March 11, Ross wrote a two-page note, and it was his eulogy, Madam Speaker, and I would like to read some of the words from it if I might.

What makes one person unique from all the rest? It is many things, but mostly it is the small and personal things that define who we are and who we were. I want to share with you the personal remembrances that define Bill Jenkins, my father, as a unique, gentle, kind, caring and generous person that we, his family, knew.

Many of you will know Bill from his public life and, while his public life was a reflection of him as a person, he was at heart a very private man. As children, my brother, sister and I remember Dad as the crossword puzzle king. No word was too obscure for him to ferret out. He also loved to play card games--up the river, cribbage, hearts and bridge. He had a playful streak and never was that more important when he played a game of charade with family and friends. His snowy owl rendition was a family classic.

He could always laugh at himself and enjoyed a good joke. He entertained us for hours and he talked about the eccentric people who worked at the CPR Weston yards. Having worked there for one summer, I can attest to the fact that there were a lot of interesting people who all had nicknames at the Weston shops.

He had a passion for cooking and he would provide many interesting dishes that Ross has outlined. He was a carpenter and he often lived in older homes. He was always doing one renovation project or planning the next one. Projects were always taking shape. Of course, that is very fitting for the Logan community, which depends so much on revitalizing the older housing stock for those constituents.

When his grandchildren began to arrive, he had a brand new audience for his stories, jokes and games, and his nieces Brenda and Deanna remember all kinds of stories and tales that his father would tell them.

He had endearing passion for photography; home and still movies were his repertoire. He loved the cottage at Gimli. He became a birder. He became an expert on birds and their habitat and how he was delighted with his purple martins.

He was generous, he was tolerant, he was forgiving. As a servant to the people of both the Winnipeg School Board and the Manitoba Legislature, he touched the lives of many people. To the end of his days he remained true to his principles and lived by them.

I think that Ross, in the eulogy, has expressed what many of us have experienced about his father.

On behalf of the New Democratic Party and the predecessor CCF, I want to thank Bill and his family for the tremendous contributions to the constituents of Logan and to the people of this province, and I want to, on behalf of our party, offer our sincerest condolences to Betty, to Linda, to Terry and Ross and all the grandchildren and members of the family. Thank you very much.

Mr. Leonard Evans (Brandon East): Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity to join with the Premier (Mr. Filmon) and the Leader of the official opposition ( Mr. Doer) to say a few words about an old friend, a former colleague, Bill Jenkins.

Most of the detail of Bill's life has been given by the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition. But I think one does quickly come to the conclusion that Bill Jenkins led a very busy life in the community--a veteran of World War II, active with the trade union movement, active on the school board and, of course, elected as an MLA in 1969, where he served in this Assembly for 12 years.

I know his wife, Betty, well, and I know his family. He and Betty raised a very fine family after he returned from Europe, where he had been involved in the D-Day invasion of Europe.

Bill was a very kind man, a very good family man, very serious but very tender, very kind, very loving, a great sense of humour.

I first met Bill when he became elected, as I did, in 1969 to this Legislature, and I had the privilege of serving with him throughout this period until he retired in 1981. As the Leader of the Opposition stated, they were very exciting times, very busy times. Autopac, Pharmacare, social housing, many programs that are well established today that we take for granted were being formulated then, and Bill was in the thick of things contributing to the decision making, making a very important contribution to the policies that were evolved at that time.

Bill Jenkins, without question, was a man of very great principle, held very strong beliefs. He was imbued with ideals of social justice. He often talked of people like J. S. Woodsworth and Tommy Douglas. He was certainly concerned about the welfare of his fellow working man and woman, and I recall many a time he would be asking questions, when we were in the opposition, of the then-Minister of Labour--I believe it was Bud Sherman--about minimum wages, about raising the minimum wages or improving the wage situation in the province for people who were underprivileged.

He was also concerned about people on social assistance, and you can read back in Hansard where he made many statements about helping people on welfare and, of course, giving people jobs. He was very concerned that job programs be made available for those on social assistance.

I will never forget the time that we were in one of the legislative committees on Consumer Affairs where, at that time, the proposals were being made by the business community to eliminate prices from merchandise in stores. You might recall, it had been compulsory to put prices on merchandise. Of course, now with the computerized cash registers and so on, we can avoid that, but there was a great concern that consumers were going to be ripped off. I recall sitting with Bill Jenkins seemingly for hours, Bill standing up for consumers, being very, very concerned that nothing was going to happen that would somehow or other undermine protection for the consumers of Manitoba. So he took his job very seriously, and he represented the citizens of Manitoba very effectively in these many ways.

As was said, he served as Deputy Speaker. He was Chair of at least two legislative committees, Law Amendments and Industrial Relations. Of course, he had the unenviable task for some years of being Whip as well. That is one of the most difficult jobs, I think, of any of the members in a Legislature. So he did give of his very best to people of Manitoba and to his constituents. They were very well represented. The people of Manitoba were very well served.

I regret that he died so quickly. My wife and I visited Bill Jenkins in Misericordia Hospital when he was ill, the last few days dying of cancer, but we were very shocked and saddened that he passed along so quickly.

I would join with others, Madam Speaker, in the Assembly in extending my sincere condolences to Betty Jenkins and her family.

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Mr. Doug Martindale (Burrows): Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the late Bill Jenkins, MLA for Logan from 1969 to 1981. I want to express my condolences to his wife, Betty, his daughter, Linda, his sons Ross and Terry, and all members of their family.

I did not know or meet Bill Jenkins, but I did visit Betty in her home and I want to thank her in person, since she is here today, for sharing parts of his life with me. I also requested all his Throne Speech Debates from the Legislative Library and read them. I have only a slight secondhand knowledge of Mr. Jenkins and regret that I never met him. His former constituents in Logan, some of whom are now in Burrows constituency, remember Bill and speak fondly of him.

Mr. Jenkins was a workingman who identified with workers and felt strongly that he was in the Legislature to represent the interests and concerns of the working class. He was employed as a carman at the CPR Weston Shops from 1951 until his retirement in 1981.

During his 12 years here he frequently raised in debate the need to raise the minimum wage, better information for injured workers on their rights and benefits, and was a great defender of organized labour. He was never shy when it came to naming the principalities and powers who oppressed working people, the poor and pensioners and others on fixed incomes, nor their influence on Liberal and Conservative governments. He spoke up for people in Logan constituency who were having their homes expropriated by the City of Winnipeg but without fair compensation, in his view.

Although Bill was a dedicated trade unionist, he did not slavishly defend everything that unions did, but had the intellectual honesty to criticize them too as he did in his speeches.

According to Bill's family, he was a loyal member of the CCF and NDP since he became of voting age. He was old enough that he remembered and mentioned in a speech the slogan of the CCF, which was Humanity First, which he believed to be still a relevant and guiding principle for his political party, the NDP.

Bill loved the English language, the plays of William Shakespeare, and excelled at crossword puzzles. His speeches contain some wonderful phrasing. He once referred to a minister and his bill by wondering whether he is going to be the lord high executioner or the chief mortician when they bury this bill.

Bill's sense of humour came through in this place even in debate. He once said, in 1973, that the Minister of Mines and Natural Resources is a pretty tough character, but he does not scare me. For a person who is accused of being a person who stifles and scares people into silence, he is doing a pretty poor job. I will have to speak to him about it. On another occasion he said, there is one unfortunate thing about political jokes--sometimes they get elected.

Some things never change in this Legislature and in our province. There are more references to the member for Lakeside (Mr. Enns), the same member for Lakeside, and more interruptions by the member for Lakeside than by any other member in his speeches. I get the impression that Bill enjoyed these verbal sparring matches.

In 1973, Bill criticized the members of the Unicity council for their lack of a broad outlook of their members, something that is still said about today's City Council. Perhaps it was because he was Deputy Speaker and the chair of House committee for a while that Bill felt strongly about the democratic process. He was proud of the fact that Manitoba is unique in having almost all bills go to committee where public representation is invited.

For most of us here, our time in elected office is short and we are soon forgotten by our constituents, but our families will never forget us and I know that Bill Jenkins' family will always have fond memories of their husband, father and grandfather.

Mr. Dave Chomiak (Kildonan): Madam Speaker, I would also like to rise as well and offer my condolences to the family of Bill Jenkins--wife, Betty, daughter, Linda, sons Ross and Terry--and just add a few comments.

I had the unique opportunity of having Bill Jenkins become a constituent of mine upon being elected to the Legislature in 1990. I just want to add two small anecdotes to that. I recall both Lily and Ed Schreyer saying to me upon being elected, do not worry, Bill Jenkins lives in your constituency; you can talk to him and find out what to do. I think that is very much a credit.

I am only sorry that, in my shyness, I did not consult Bill more often in terms of some of the early times when I was elected. In fact, I want to make mention of another time during one of the more difficult debates. I give Bill credit, as someone who had been a member for 12 years, watching a rookie as myself stumble and fumble in the early going of the Legislature. He could very well have been highly critical but was not and must have been tempted on many occasions to phone and contact me and say, hey, Chomiak, what are you doing? But to his credit I think he was that kind of a man that he did not.

But there was an occasion, and it was the occasion of the Charlottetown Accord, that he discussed it with me quite strongly and took the opposite position from that that I was taking together with my party and argued very, very strongly, frankly. And, frankly, he was right, and I was wrong. To his credit he did not hold it against me but simply passed it on to me. It was something that I learned, and it was an experience for me. For that I am thankful.

With those few words, I again wish condolences to the family and to honour the gentleman who sat in this Legislature for 12 years and served his constituents well. Thank you.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Some Honourable Members: Agreed.

Madam Speaker: Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate their support for the motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

Douglas L. Campbell

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Minister of Justice (Mrs. Vodrey),

THAT this House convey to the family of the late Douglas L. Campbell, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty and a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, I know that many members of the Legislature will want to speak to the passing of Douglas Lloyd Campbell who was a member of this Legislature for 47 years of continuous service.

He served in fact in this Assembly between 1922 and 1969 as a Liberal Progressive member for Lakeside constituency. He was re-elected continuously in nine successive elections after his initial victory. That was a record for the British Commonwealth at the time of his retirement for this Assembly, and I believe a record that is unlikely to be matched ever again in this Legislature.

Douglas Lloyd Campbell was born May 27, 1895, at Flee Island, Manitoba, in the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie. He was educated at Flee Island School, No. 527, Portage la Prairie collegiate and Brandon college. In 1920 he married Margaret Gladys Victoria Crampton.

Madam Speaker, Douglas Campbell was not only a member of this Assembly for 47 years continuously, but he served in cabinet in a variety of portfolios including, of course, agriculture, and he was the Premier of Manitoba for 10 years, from 1948 to 1958. So he is well-known to all Manitobans. In fact, as I was gathering my thoughts about Douglas Campbell, I certainly recognized that he was the Premier of the province in my formative years between ages six and 16, and so my memories were very vivid of this individual. Fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to come to know him over the years.

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I want to just share a couple of things that were said about him, rather than going into an extensive history of an incredible commitment of service to the people of Manitoba and this Assembly. I know others will talk about his devotion to the Masonic Order. Others will talk about his prodigious memory for people and his tremendous ability to know families and relationships and friendships over the years. Even after he had lost his sight, just a few seconds of discussion and he would recognize the individual and begin to talk about many different relationships.

I particularly appreciated the tributes that were paid to him at his memorial service earlier this year at Westminster United Church, particularly those that were shared by his successor as Leader of the Liberal Party in this Chamber, Gil Molgat. In addition to that tribute, Gil did rise in the Senate on May 25 of this year and put a few words on the record about the record of service of Douglas Lloyd Campbell.

Of course, he referred, as I did in speaking with others at the time of D.L.'s passing, to the fact that we were in the process of preparing a very large birthday party here that was scheduled to be here in this building on the 25th of May which would have been his 100th birthday. Many will probably have recalled that we celebrated his I believe it was 90th birthday in the building, and we were going to make special note of that very significant occasion in, of course, the year of our 125th anniversary as a province, but Gil Molgat said that Mr. Campbell during his period as Premier and as a minister did many things for his province. He was known by many Manitobans in the post-war period for a great project of rural electrification. As a result of that project, every farm and home in Manitoba was serviced with electricity ahead of any other province.

He regarded a number of things as being significant contributions of Mr. Campbell to Manitoba and one was the establishment of the independent Electoral Boundaries Commission, the first in Canada, whereby the choice of boundaries was removed from the hands of politicians and put into the hands of an independent commission. Ottawa, of course, followed this practice many years later.

Another significant contribution of Mr. Campbell, which is lesser known, but, in Mr. Molgat's view, of equal importance, was the establishment of his scrutiny of regulations committee, a committee to review and deal with regulations, a very democratic course of action.

He also was given credit for other significant contributions that he regarded as highlights of his career, not the least of which was that he continuously brought in a balanced budget to this Assembly and the more equitable provision of rural and urban seats in this Assembly. Both of them were things that Mr. Campbell took pride in.

My first meeting with D.L. Campbell took place actually at the funeral of a mutual friend, the late Robert Steen; we were both honorary pallbearers at that funeral. As I said, I not only had this tremendous sense of respect for Mr. Campbell as the person whom I first knew as Premier of this province in terms of public coverage during my formative years, and certainly I had this sense of reverence, respect, even awe for him, I was pleasantly surprised to find him friendly, down to earth and, indeed, very approachable.

From that point forward, when I would run into him at public events, which were many, he would just say, oh, hello, Gary, good to see you. We would have chats in those days about some of his passionate interests, which, of course, continued to be this Assembly and the work of government. Hydro was a big issue that sort of captured his attention and his interest throughout all of his life.

I know that Liberal members opposite will certainly know that his philosophy was much closer to ours than probably it is to theirs. He was quick to point out, I might say, in my discussions and chats with him that he really was not a Liberal. He said he came to coalition governments and the label eventually became "Liberal," but he never really regarded himself as a Liberal. Of course, that became more apparent as his small "c" conservative views, as the years went on, led to him to ultimately support the Reform Party.

He would call me from time to time throughout the latter years because he lived in my constituency, he often had a word of advice. He certainly was engaged in the issues of the day and very well informed; despite his loss of sight, he certainly paid attention to all of the issues through the electronic media.

I always suspected that he probably voted for me more than once. I am certain, given his sense of loyalty, that he voted for his grandson, Campbell Wright, who ran against me in 1990, but I would not doubt that I might have received his vote from time to time.

A few years after my initial meeting with D.L., he met Janice, because Janice served as a judge for the Douglas L. Campbell debating award at St. Paul's High School. He was there at the presentation of the award, and the two of them met and chatted. From that time forward, after his initial greeting to me, his next question was, how is Janice? He would want to talk about Janice; as he did with everyone, he would want to talk about their families and all of the people that he knew throughout this great and wonderful province.

I would just share a couple of small anecdotes that I think are the measure of the man when we talk about, with great reverence and with great fondness, Douglas Lloyd Campbell.

Very shortly after the 1990 election, he phoned me on a Monday morning and he said that he had been watching a provincial affairs program on television on Saturday night, to which I said, well, you must have been one of the two dozen I think who watch it, Mr. Campbell. He said, you know, I heard this young woman speaking on behalf of your party and she was very effective. He said, I know that television is a medium that I could never relate to; thankfully I did not have to because in my day we did not have that kind of close scrutiny with television when I was Premier, but he said, I know it is very difficult to come across with a good solid message on that medium. He said, this person really did a wonderful job for you.

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With a few other words of explanation, I immediately realized that it was our newly elected member for St. Vital (Mrs. Render). He said, now, I am not sure I caught her name, but was it Render? I said, yes, it was indeed. He said, would she be related to Ernie Render? I said, absolutely, that is her father-in-law. He used to be with Manitoba Hydro. He said, of course, I knew that. He said, Ernie Render drove me around throughout this province during the days of rural electrification. He was with the Manitoba Power Commission, as it was known at the time. He said, would he still be alive? I said, yes, and in fact I know that he lives over on Dorchester.

I said, while we are chatting I will just look up his phone number and give it to you. I did that and also he asked for Shirley's phone number, and I gave him both. Of course, within days I had heard back that he had not only called Ernie but had renewed acquaintances, had made arrangements to meet him for lunch and that he had called Shirley and passed along the same congratulations as he had to me.

My next favourite memory took place about a year later, 1991. We were celebrating in Lakeside the twenty-fifth anniversary of the member for Lakeside's (Mr. Enns) service here in this Legislature, and many of us attended. In fact, I think in tribute to the member for Lakeside, there were people from all political parties there who spontaneously got up to speak at the invitation of Mr. Enns's family who had prepared the event. With a little bit of prompting, I do not think it was too much, D.L. Campbell got up from the audience and began to speak and was without question the most popular speaker at the event, stole the show, obviously had no notes and just spoke in a real typical stump speech about his recollections, not only of the member for Lakeside but of the people of Lakeside, the Manitoba Legislature, the political process, with great humour, self-effacing humour in large measure.

He told his recollections of service in the Legislature and of course he related the absolutely incredible statistic at that time which was that Lakeside constituency had had only two representatives in its 69-year history up until 1991, still has had only two representatives, that is Mr. Campbell and his successor, the current member of the Legislature for Lakeside, Mr. Enns. He said something to the effect that those voters in Lakeside are loyal; when they get a representative they like, they do not give him up easily. It was really remarkable.

He was an absolutely astounding individual, so many fine qualities of integrity, of service, of dedication, a friendliness and a warmth that is found in very, very few people.

I want to just borrow from a couple of the things that were said by Mr. Molgat at his memorial service because I think they so aptly capture the essence of the man.

In May 1961, over 1,200 people attended a testimonial dinner in Winnipeg to honour Mr. Campbell. The Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson told that gathering: Mr. Campbell's achievements are recorded in the homes and workplaces of Manitobans. They are measured by the standards of public life in this province, of integrity and quiet competence, of issues which he did so much to strengthen and sustain. The atmosphere which pervades public life today is of crucial importance for our democracy. Few men indeed have contributed so much to make the atmosphere clean and healthy as Douglas Campbell. Campbell, of course, of such accomplishment, remained a humble, self-effacing man.

Mr. Campbell said that he regarded his family, his wife and children, as the highlights of his career: The best thing about me is my family. I myself am just sort of a connecting link between two outstanding generations, my parents and my children--such incredible modesty from an individual who did so much for this province.

We are all blessed to have had somebody of the calibre and commitment of Douglas Lloyd Campbell to have served this province as a member of this Legislature and as Premier.

I could say much more, but others I know will contribute to the tributes to this outstanding Manitoban and Canadian.

To his children and his grandchildren, we certainly extend our sincere condolences as we mourn his passing, but we certainly celebrate his life and his contributions to the building of this wonderful province of ours.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, joining with the Premier in the tribute to the life and contributions of Douglas Lloyd Campbell and passing condolences to his family is indeed a very, very humbling experience because of the tremendous contributions this individual has made over the 99 years of his life, 99 years and 11 months, Madam Speaker.

He was not a New Democrat, as the Premier has indicated. In fact, I sat beside Preston Manning at the memorial service that the Premier spoke of in recognition of his life and contributions, and I found the memorial service almost a history of Manitoba because of the tremendous, long history of D.L. Campbell and his views and contributions to our history.

I remember getting a call from a former Premier trying to locate another former Premier about the 100th anniversary party, and I was so much looking forward to it, to have all those former premiers and former cabinet ministers and people and acquaintances of D.L. Campbell at the 100th anniversary birthday party. It was indeed tragic that it was just one month short that D.L. Campbell passed away, although I think for all of us, if we can have the health that D.L. Campbell had and only have to have our 100th anniversary short by one month, we would be pleased indeed to be graced with that kind of health and stamina, to live that long and rewarding a life.

Madam Speaker, as the Premier has indicated, he is a person that was conservative, small "c" conservative, by nature and was proud of it. In fact, I remember as a young person when D.L. Campbell was defeated. I remember his history and I remember I believe it was the '57-58 election and the comments that were being made by people analyzing this election that the Conservatives were going to be the spenders in terms of investing in Manitoba and won that election after a period of time because D.L. Campbell refused to build some, we would argue, needed infrastructure, schools, hospitals, et cetera, because to him balancing the budget was the key priority if not the only priority of government.

So ironically the Roblin government was considered to be the investing party and the D.L. Campbell Liberal government at the time was considered to be the parsimonious party in terms of spending, and I think history has shown that to be true in terms of the change of even the accounting methods by the Roblin government after Campbell from current and capital accounts.

But D.L. Campbell left tremendous legacies long before his time to this province, the rural electrification that the Premier has noted in his comments. The first vote for aboriginal people, Indian people, in 1952 took place here. Many people talk about the fact that women did not have a vote until well into this century, but aboriginal people did not get a vote in Manitoba until 1952, and, I think, federally, it was even after that. [interjection] 1960, yes, with John Diefenbaker, and that in itself is a comment on Canada but also a comment on D.L. Campbell to proceed with this obvious human right for our First Nations people.

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The Electoral Boundaries Commission--we can be so proud of the Electoral Boundaries Commission process that takes place in law in Manitoba, a process that no government has touched since its introduction here in this Chamber, a process that has been so sadly lacking in other provinces. British Columbia, Saskatchewan have had major court cases on the gerrymandering of boundaries by political parties in power to maintain their power, the kind of antidemocratic ways in which people try to maintain their own perpetual power rather than respecting the demographic changes and democratic wishes of people.

I mean, this Boundaries Commission was well before the Supreme Court made a decision on the Saskatchewan boundaries and the B.C. boundaries over the last three or four years. Every ten years, the boundaries are adjusted, are done so on the basis of census. They are done so on the basis of an independent Boundaries Commission. This Legislature has always passed the boundaries after the public hearings on the basis of the independent commission--and, as I say, well before his time. Other provinces still do not have a process as pure in integrity as the one in Manitoba.

Look, even in Ottawa right now, the Senate is fooling around with the bill on the Boundaries Commission report federally. The boundaries report commissioners are set up sometimes independently, sometimes not, because it is permissive, whereas in Manitoba it is by statute. Three people by statute are, by their position, on the Boundaries Commission. Therefore it is outside of partisan politics, and it has been a wonderful, wonderful process that has been established by Douglas Campbell and a model for everybody in terms of integrity and honesty. It is a model that we used in terms of establishing an independent boundaries commission for the City of Winnipeg because you have the same difficulty if you have partisan political considerations being made on boundaries and how they would be set up.

I know D.L. Campbell was a good family person, and, of course, the Premier has already indicated the quote that was made by Gil Molgat and a quote, I think, by D.L. Campbell's grandson Campbell Wright about the essence of family, the linkages of family, the connections that we have with the Earth and with family in terms of our roots. I know he was also proud, and other people were very proud. I think former Premier Lyon was always describing how many great political successes came from Portage la Prairie or High Bluff, Manitoba, and, of course, he would list them off, Meighen and Lyon--he would not list them off, but it was next coming--and, of course D.L. Campbell.

As I understand it, other leaders of the opposition came from there, and former Chief Justice Dickson came from the same community of Portage la Prairie. In fact, there is a street there that some of them lived on in Portage la Prairie for a period of time. So it is quite a famous community that D.L. Campbell came from [interjection] Yes, that is right, born there and then moved to Minnedosa. He had a great connection with his rural roots in terms of Manitoba and in terms of the portfolios he held.

Madam Speaker, 47 years, what can you say about that? The history of the commonwealth. I know his successor in Lakeside is getting closer to that record, but it is a record that I suggest is going to be impossible to ever beat. They said they could not beat the Lou Gehrig record in terms of longevity in continuation of baseball, and it was finally broken. I think this is one record that will never be broken in the British Commonwealth.

It is a testament to his integrity and his honesty and his connection to his constituents that he was re-elected by them for 10 elections, 9 successive elections after his first election. A Premier for 10 years is another record, not the longest record, but it is a very, very long period of time in Manitoba history for a Premier to hold office.

I remember at his memorial service that he had chosen as his favourite hymn, a hymn that I think typified his character because he was always curious, he was always intellectual, he was always prodding, he always had a bit of--he was always pushing things. He was always having a little fun and having a lot of intellect as he was prodding you and pushing you along. I recall the hymn he picked, and I thought it was very appropriate. I believe it was the Lord of the Dance: Dance, dance, everybody dance; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

It kind of typified my experiences with D.L. Campbell, kind of that positive, energetic attitude that he always had, his intellectual consistency, which, as I say, was quite small "c" conservative, and his tremendous dedication to his family and to his community.

We, too, on this side pass on our condolences to the family, and we try to, in our very small way, pay tribute to his tremendous contributions to this province. It is a tremendous, tremendous history of a very, very prominent Manitoban, and he is, indeed, a very prominent part of Manitoba history.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): On Sunday, April 23, 1995, at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, in the presence of his family, Douglas Campbell died one month short of his 100th birthday.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Leader of the Liberal Party in Manitoba and my colleagues, I would like to pay tribute to the Honourable Douglas L. Campbell, the last Liberal Premier of Manitoba.

I noted the current Premier's remarks when he made reference to the fact of his being Progressive Liberal or Liberal Progressive. It is one of the nice things about the Liberal Party, if you like: the spectrum is very wide in terms of our acceptance. Mr. Campbell did a fantastic job in terms of broadening that spectrum for our party. I take great delight in the fact that he was a Liberal Premier.

MLA from 1922 to 1969. I stress the length of time which has been duly noted, both from the Premier (Mr. Filmon) and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer). Madam Speaker, 47 years of service in the House is a Commonwealth record; this includes 22 years as a minister and 10 years as a Premier. It is a formidable record that few of us can even contemplate, let alone achieve, possibly achieve, as the Leader of the New Democratic Party has pointed out.

Elected in High Bluff, Mr. Campbell served his constituency with tireless dedication that is a mark of a good MLA. It was made reference in terms of individuals that had come from this area of the province. I had something sent to me from Senator Gil Molgat, in which he made reference--I just want to quote what he had said: From this particular area, if you like, as an aside, one cannot help but observe that the first two native-born Premiers of Manitoba, John Norquay, and Douglas Campbell, both called High Bluff region home. That this small region of Manitoba could produce two Premiers--three-plus, if you include Prime Minister, if one wanted to expand it slightly to include Portage la Prairie--speaks well for this land and its people.

One of his achievements was the creation of an independent Electoral Boundaries Commission, the first in Canada, as has been pointed out, again, from the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition. It has been copied by every province, and in fact the federal government forming a solid foundation of democracy that is at the heart of all Canadians. There are none serving today that can match his record. The best any member of this House can do is attempt to live up to the example set by Douglas Campbell.

Madam Speaker, I have not had the privilege, as many members of this Chamber might have, of knowing him on a very personal level. I look at Douglas Campbell and can only read and hear what people might have to say, and as someone that has a great deal of respect for those that take the time to make politics a career, it is in fact a very honourable profession, and I take my hat off to individuals that are prepared to put to the side so many other things that could be very enticing, and I pay tribute to those individuals that do that and put in the effort. I can only wish to be able to serve half the time in this Chamber that Mr. Campbell has put in.

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I take note of the comments that Mr. Campbell made at Mr. Enns's 25th anniversary, and I think that speaks volumes in terms of the type of an individual that Mr. Campbell was, first and foremost a parliamentarian, and in terms of individuals that put in that sort of effort I think speaks volumes. All of us in this Chamber should applaud the effort of an individual of this nature.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay my respects to the family of Douglas Campbell. I hope it will ease their grief to know that many members of this House are trying to live up to the example he set.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Hon. Harry Enns (Minister of Agriculture): Madam Speaker, it is a privilege for me to rise as the member for Lakeside. I have the privilege of being the only elected member in this Chamber that sat and experienced the presence of Mr. D.L. Campbell for three years. His seat is now occupied by the member for The Pas (Mr. Lathlin) the last three years that he sat in this Chamber. It was a different Chamber. Television had not yet made its intrusion, and so there was a little different atmosphere that prevailed in the Chamber and I will not say was better, it was simply different. It called upon members to perhaps speak, although always through the Chair, more directly to each other particularly in some of the heavy debates of those times.

I am thankful, and I wish to associate myself with those comments particularly that have already been made with respect to Mr. Campbell's presence and life and experience in this Chamber, particularly those made by my First Minister (Mr. Filmon). The First Minister alluded to a very memorable occasion that I experienced with Mr. D.L. Campbell on an occasion when the constituency of Lakeside was honouring me with a bit of a party for 25 years of service in the House.

The Premier omitted that part of Mr. Campbell's spontaneous speech that suggests that he had a continuing fantasy, that was, to come back into this Chamber and become Manitoba's first centennial MLA. He would do that after he celebrated his 100th birthday. Most laughed, but I did not. I have no doubt any attempt of any record-setting achievement that I might have had in mind would have come to an end, but that was Mr. Campbell, and I am very pleased and very proud to have the privilege of representing Lakeside, the seat that he made so synonymous with his presence on the Manitoba political scene for so many years.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Hon. James McCrae (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, the things that I could say today about Douglas Campbell besides repeating what has already been said could probably be said by hundreds if not thousands of Manitobans who have been touched in a personal way by Douglas L. Campbell. But I thought I would take just a moment to offer just my personal experience and perspective in joining with the others today in offering condolences to the family of Douglas Campbell on his passing last spring.

I and my family came to Manitoba in 1957 in the spring. It was right around that time that Premier D.L. Campbell's term of office was approaching its end. Well, as luck I suppose would have it, my next door neighbour's name was Dave Campbell, Davey Campbell we called him and he was in Grade 4 and I was in Grade 4. His dad was a nephew of Douglas Campbell, and Davey and I, neither of us knew much about politics, but it seems that very soon after our arrival there was an election, a Manitoba election coming and my dear friend David and I got into some discussions about it. I never realized until later on in life how all of those comments that were being made in our part of Manitoba which turned out to be relatively conservative with whatever size C you want to give it, but it must have had quite an effect on young David Campbell because after all his great-uncle was the Premier of Manitoba.

I did not know the significance of all those things back in those days, but that was the beginning of my interest in politics, Madam Speaker, a time when I would be engaged in a debate with another 9-year-old on our way to and from school, who just happened to be the grandnephew of the Premier of Manitoba.

I met Douglas Campbell when I was 17 years old, Madam Speaker. Mr. Campbell, as the Premier referenced, took an interest throughout his years in fraternal organizations such as the Masonic Order, and he also had a special interest in young people and their development, and as a young member of the Order of De Molay, I was very pleased to have met Mr. Campbell at a De Molay function in Brandon back in those early years of my life.

Well, then the next thing you know, many, many years went by before I had an opportunity to see Mr. Campbell again. I do not even know how many years, but it was probably a couple of dozen years after that first encounter. It must have had something to do with my work around here, but I met Mr. Campbell again and his first response was, "How is your dad, Jim?"

I think that probably hundreds if not thousands of Manitobans can tell you of that same experience, and he knew exactly who my dad was and what interests my dad had. Well, that had a lot to do with it because Mr. Campbell was also a friend of my father and our family. And so certainly others have spoken about Mr. Campbell's contribution to the province that he loved, and his presence among us spans two to three generations as a politician. The Premier mentioned there were nine elections Mr. Campbell successfully completed. I do not remember how many, but a number of those elections were by acclamation.

Madam Speaker, I do not know how many members in this House today can claim that they got here by acclamation, but I do not think it is very many, but it is another testament to the kind of person Mr. Campbell was that he should have achieved election here nine times and certainly some of those by acclamation. It must have been quite a party at, what was the name of the place?

An Honourable Member: The Hitch'n Post.

Mr. McCrae: At the Hitch'n Post, and indeed it was, Madam Speaker, I was there too. I remember in addition to some of the other things that were said, just to comment on the wonderful wit and wisdom of Mr. Douglas Campbell, because there was reference to his 47 years that night at the Hitch'n Post and there was reference to Harry Enns's 25 years representing the Legislature, and reference to the fact that in the whole history of Lakeside those were the only two members who had represented that constituency. I remember, with his tongue slightly in his cheek, that night when Mr. Campbell had an opportunity to reminisce about some of those years, he said and I quote: Ladies and gentlemen, it is only modesty that would prevent me from saying that during those 72 years, the constituents of Lakeside were indeed very well represented.

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That is just a little picture of the kind of wonderful man Mr. Campbell was. In more recent years, I have had more opportunities to spend some time with him and to enjoy his company. It was not long before his passing that I had an opportunity to go by his house in the middle of winter, right after quite a storm, pick him up and take him over to the Lions Manor for some of the day club activities that were going on there. Even then, fresh snow and ice on the road and me parked on the wrong side of the street, but in any event, I go to the door to greet Mr. Campbell and take him out to the car, he would not take my arm. He would walk over the slush and the ice and the snowbank without any help, would not let me hold the door open for him. He was a very, very independent person and an example for anybody of any generation. In fact, his influence on our province will span many more generations to come.

Hon. Darren Praznik (Minister of Northern and Native Affairs): Madam Speaker, I feel very privileged today to join with other members of the Assembly in offering our condolences to the family of the late D.L. Campbell. Even though I am a younger member of this House and was born after Mr. Campbell's departure from the Premier's chair, his influence on my family and in politics in my family was truly profound.

The Praznik family, as many know from that particular time, were very strong supporters of D.L. Campbell while in office and throughout that period. I remember growing up as a young child, and my father and my grandfather always referring to whatever government of the day was dealing with a deficit budget or spending on a particular program that cost a great deal of money, but, ah, we remember D.L. Campbell. D.L. Campbell would never allow that to happen.

That was always a comment that was made in my earlier years in the household about the need to balance budgets and the need to live within your means. It became very much a part of the political philosophy of the political values that my family held and passed onto me, and which I still count as part of my political values today.

I had the rare privilege as a young person to have met D.L. Campbell on a number of occasions and to spend some time chatting with him. I think one of my great impressions was his great, great intellectual capability, that his wealth of experience combined with that intellectual capability made for a very, very interesting conversation and very insightful comments on the issues of the day.

Several members of this House had the privilege, as did I, of serving on our Constitutional Task Force. I know the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer) was part of that task force when D.L. Campbell made a presentation to us on the Constitution. For a man of his age, and at that time his eyesight was failing him very badly, he spent the whole time allotted to him to give his thoughts and views on Canadian Confederation, how it would work, how it should work and offer us very, very much sage advice. For an individual like myself to serve on the committee was a rare privilege, to have the benefit of that experience and great intellectual capability at that particular time.

Manitoba has lost one of its great, great sons in the passage of D.L. Campbell and in some ways an era in Manitoba politics that he represented, having come to this Legislature I believe in 1922 as part of that wave of United Farmers and Progressives that were elected to this particular Chamber, having lived through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the government in the '40s, the postwar period of the '50s and been an active player in the government of our province.

Many things that people of my generation take for granted D.L. Campbell was indeed very much a part of building and constructing in our province. I know my own family credit the coming of electricity to their farm and their community to D.L. Campbell. His electrification of Manitoba, primarily rural Manitoba, will, I think, stand as one of the great achievements of that era and of Douglas Lloyd Campbell. Today, so many who benefit from electricity in our province, so many young people, do not know that history and the effort that it took to electrify rural Manitoba, and yet he and those of his era were the ones that brought really modern life and conveniences to most of our province.

So today, on behalf of that generation that I come from and to those who appreciate the history of our province and all those who contributed to building the very sound base on which we now enjoy our current life, I think today we use this as an opportunity to say thank you to a truly great Manitoban and a truly great Canadian. He certainly will be missed.

Mr. Gary Kowalski (The Maples): Madam Speaker, it is indeed an honour and a privilege to add a few words of tribute to Mr. Campbell. It is also a very humbling experience. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Campbell in the early '70s, and his oratory skills humble anything that I could say in this Chamber, a Chamber that he loved, this process that he loved so much. He was an inspiration to me to get into politics because he often told me that politics was an honourable higher calling, and he made politics become more than--he became more than a politician, he became a statesman and personified what a statesman is not only for the province of Manitoba but for this country.

My wife is a distant relation of Mr. Campbell in that her Uncle Jack McKeag married his daughter. So I had the privilege of first meeting him at a Christmas meal in the early 1970s when I was a young police officer, having just left the RCMP and joining the Winnipeg Police Service. I remember, after dinner, sitting by the fire in the McKeag residence listening to many of his stories that he had to tell about his days in this Legislative Chamber and listening with great interest. But he was not going to let me off the hook by just listening; he engaged me in conversation and asked by views on politics. He asked why I was a police officer. He asked many things about my family. What was truly amazing was the following Christmas. I had not seen him since then. He not only knew my name, he remembered the names of all my family members, including my parents, and he even remembered where our conversation ended. A year later he was able to pick up from the same point.

Another tribute to Mr. Campbell is the fact that if immortality is based upon the fact that our genes carried on through our children and grandchildren, Mr. Campbell's work continues through many of his children, grandchildren that I have had the pleasure to know. They all speak with great love and affection for him. That was another lesson I learned from Mr. Campbell. His children would often talk of, no matter how busy he was, there was always time for the children. He had a very large family, and yet every child felt special in that family.

One thing Mr. Campbell also taught me is that one skill that politicians often lose or never learn is the skill of being brief. So I will make my comments brief in tribute to Mr. Campbell and hope that these words will somehow act as tribute to a great man. Thank you.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [agreed] Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate support for the motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

George Johnson

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Minister of Family Services (Mrs. Mitchelson),

THAT this House convey to the family of the late George Johnson, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty in a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, it is a privilege for me to say a few words in fond remembrance of the Honourable George Johnson, who was a member of this Legislature between 1958 and 1969, and someone who as well is very well known to members currently serving in this Chamber.

Dr. George, as everyone fondly referred to him, had considerable service to give to this province in so many different ways because, after he left the service of the Legislature, some almost two decades later he became our Lieutenant-Governor and served in that capacity for some six years, between 1986 and 1992. Many of us are familiar with his many talents, his many fine qualities and his many, many contributions.

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Dr. George Johnson was a lifelong resident of Manitoba. He devoted his entire career to the service of others.

He was born in Winnipeg in 1920 of third-generation Icelandic stock and educated in Winnipeg public schools and the University of Manitoba.

I have many fond recollections of Dr. George. In fact, I think I might have embarrassed him a tiny bit at an occasion at Government House just prior to his being sworn in. I believe it might have been the evening before, when Pearl McGonigal, the then-Lieutenant-Governor, held a small dinner in honour of Dr. George and Doris Johnson. In congratulating him and welcoming him to his new role, I said that my earliest recollections of Dr. George Johnson were as a patient of his. As many know, my family had a cottage at Gimli for a long, long time, and it so happened that when I was about seven years old and staying at the cottage in the summer, I was struck with a tremendous bout of the mumps. For any who have experienced it, the mumps can be a pretty fierce affliction to a young child and, of course, my family had all the concerns that go along with mumps, and especially when I became absolutely delirious and was literally climbing the walls, they were very, very concerned about my well-being.

The doctor who was brought in to attend to me was a young Doctor Johnson who was doing a locum at the time in Gimli, which ultimately became his place of practice for the next eight years. He did not recall that, but I, they say, somewhat embarrassed him when I said that I was in terrible shape. He was being very, very warm and gentle and friendly and wanting to humour me and sort of calm me down, and he said, my, you look just like porky pig. But Dr. George was absolutely, the most pleasant, friendly and likeable person anyone could ever, ever encounter, whether it was as a practising physician or as a servant in public life or just a friend or a neighbour.

Later, of course, I followed with great interest his career in public life, and he was indeed a member of the progressive wing of the Progressive Conservative Party. Some would refer to him as a red Tory, a reformer, but he served the province during some very buoyant and exciting times in the administration of Duff Roblin and in portfolios in which he particularly made a difference. He served as Minister of Health and Welfare, as it was first called, then as Minister of Education and then again as Minister of Health.

Some of the things for which he deserves credit and recognition are, of course, that he was the Minister of Health at the time when medicare was brought into this province. Initially, of course, it had been a system of self-insurance run by the doctors of the province, a form of insurance that was available. Then, with the passage of the national Health Act and the introduction of medicare across Canada, he was the minister responsible for the fine-tuning, the negotiations and the ultimate implementation in Manitoba.

He was known for his contributions, and I learned this from speaking with one of his deputy ministers of the day, towards the modernization, so to speak, of the welfare system in Manitoba, bringing it into the modern era, very, very farsighted policies, policies that serve us well to this day.

He, of course, was in Education at a time when many challenges were undertaken, not the least of which was the development of our community colleges, our regional secondary schools, the universities of Winnipeg and Brandon, formerly colleges turned universities, and ultimately a Boundaries Commission Review that was the first, I believe, in more than half a century, that was very controversial in its day but has served the province well for the succeeding almost 30 years.

One would have to ask about Dr. George's tendencies to be the reformer, the red Tory, so to speak, and how did that fit with the Roblin government? Well, Duff Roblin tells the story of how he went throughout the province in the mid-'50s looking for the right person to run for him in each and every constituency, and told of how he recruited Wally McKenzie in Roblin-Russell, a very popular storekeeper in the area, known to all.

A similar story was told, of course, of Dr. George. He went to the town, and he asked around who might be the most popular person, the one most likely to win the seat of Gimli. He was told about this young doctor who tended to everybody's needs, who delivered everyone's babies, who was universally liked regardless of political stripe and active in all respects in the community. He did not bother to ask what his politics were. Dr. George sort of allowed, I think later, that his politics probably were not Conservative, but that is okay. He identified with Duff, and Duff was persuasive.

Doris tells the story of how she left Duff sitting in the waiting room for more than an hour to see George because he was busy with patients. She did not know who this fellow was who would ultimately become the Premier of this province for more than 10 years. She thought, I think the story goes, that he was a pharmaceutical salesman.

But he eventually did get in to see Dr. George and eventually did convince him to run for him. As they say, the rest is history, and what a wonderful history it is in terms of the accomplishments of one very special individual, the Honourable George Johnson.

After seeking the leadership of our party to replace Duff Roblin in 1967, Dr. George did not run again in the 1969 election campaign. He went back to the practice of medicine.

But again, to show you what a special individual he was, he did not need to requalify to practice medicine under the rules of governance of the day, as I understand it, but he chose to go back and to intern for a period of about a year, I believe it was, at the Health Sciences Centre so that he would bring himself back up to currency in all aspects of the practice of medicine. He felt it very, very important because he was a doctor's doctor as well as a politician's politician, and he wanted to be absolutely back to state-of-the-art practices in medicine.

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So he took that time to requalify himself by virtue of the experience that he would get going in as an intern to the hospital. This, I think, earned him the respect of his peers in the profession who already respected him immeasurably but even more so the fact that he took that route in going back into the practice of the profession.

By the time I was elected to the Legislature, he was already the acting deputy minister to the Minister of Health of the day, Bud Sherman. Again, to show you the measure of the man and the respect that he held, when the Honourable Larry Desjardins became Minister of Health following the election of 1981, he retained George in that role as his chief advisor, as his chief counsel and as his chief administrator for all of the talents that he brought to the table and because, I think, nobody would accuse Dr. George of being partisan in the advice that he gave to the administration of the day.

Larry felt comfortable with him and remained throughout the rest of Dr. George's life an admirer and friend of his.

In all things, Dr. George was a warm, generous and intelligent human being. He was fiercely proud of his Icelandic heritage and very much passed that along to his children and his grandchildren. I recently did a letter of recommendation for his grandson Stefan, who was a particular favourite of his. He and Stefan would go to hockey games together and do things that were very important imprints on Stefan's young life.

In the letter I referred to the tremendous sense of heritage that the Johnson family, Doris and George, had inherited from their own proud Icelandic parents and have passed along to their children and grandchildren.

He was fortunate in being in a position to transmit that heritage, that love of his Icelandic history to many people through the role of being the Lieutenant-Governor of this province.

I have many fond memories of times spent together, one, of course, hosting and entertaining President Vigdis Finnbogadottir in 1989 here in Manitoba on a wonderful, warm visit that brought her up to date on the history of the Icelanders in Manitoba that goes back many generations and has a tremendous history and achievement attached to it.

Also, of course, he hosted the then-Mayor of Reykjavik David Oddson, who is now the Prime Minister of Iceland. He, of course, in turn was invited as a very special and honoured guest to visit Iceland in the role of Lieutenant-Governor. He was very, very proud of the way in which he was received as the Queen's representative and the tremendous memories that he had of all of those experiences.

He has many dimensions to him, one of a very good athlete. He had played, as I understand it, very high level junior hockey in his day and perhaps was almost good enough to be in the NHL, which in those days was six teams. He did not have that opportunity but he was a good athlete.

I remember in later years, and he was certainly older than I, but we played baseball together out at Gimli. There was an annual challenge between the Johnson family and the Gislason family who are our neighbours across the lane. We joined in with the Johnson family because they always had the best athletes, thanks to the good genes of Doris and George. I think the member for Concordia (Mr. Doer) might have participated in one or two of those competitions.

We also had friendly games with Special Olympians that son Danny used to bring out to Gimli. They were always fun. George maintained his good health and his good physical condition.

He was also very proud of his war service. He had served in the Navy and he, I believe, achieved the rank of lieutenant. He was a navigation specialist and was equally proud of the fact that in 1988 he was appointed honourary captain of HMCS Chippawa.

My favourite story about his war service was the fact that Doris went right across the country by train with her mother, Mrs. Blondal, and the wedding cake that Mrs. Blondal had baked for their wedding, ultimately, in Halifax. I believe it was December 31, 1944. A fascinating story because in those days with the war going on and all of the difficult things, it was not exactly something that was recommended or encouraged by the armed services but they were determined. They, of course, were able to then live a very long, fruitful and happy life together. Their particular individualism and determination I think is told very straightforwardly by that story.

I had the great good fortune to chat with him on numerous occasions because we continued to share the same summer home at Gimli and whether it be in his cottage or our cottage or his daughter Janis's cottage or whether it be in his living room in Winnipeg, I have fond recollections of listening to George's stories about public life, about the things that he achieved and the really good information he had about the things that continue to challenge us as we serve in public life today.

We sat on the beach at Gimli and we sat at the Stefanson cottage in Gimli and on all occasions George loved to talk politics. I think probably the thing that bothered him most when he was Lieutenant-Governor was that he felt this great sense of nonpartisanship, the burden of the role of not wanting to talk politics because of the role in which he was. It was always the kind of thing that George did over on the side, in a corner on a quiet evening over a cup of coffee, but he loved to talk politics and share experiences. For that, I am eternally grateful for the time that I spent with him.

He, of course, received many, many honours, honours that are fitting for an individual of his talent and his contributions. He was a certificant, fellow and life member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, the Manitoba Medical Society, and the Manitoba Teachers' Society. In 1967, the Gimli elementary school was named in his honour. He was awarded honorary Doctor of Law degrees by the Universities of Winnipeg, Manitoba and Royal Roads Military College.

I was very honoured and thrilled to be here in this Legislature in Room 200 in January of 1994 when the government of Iceland conferred the Order of the Falcon, Commander with Star on him. Very, very few Icelanders who live outside of their home country have been given that recognition. Dr. George was. Of course, in 1994 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

My last favourite memory took place about a year ago now. Dr. George was starting to show some of the effects of ill health, and in the spring of last year he had planted some potatoes in David Oakley's little garden that he had given him. He did not realize what a year it was going to be. I mean, we all know that across the province the potato production was 50 percent above normal. It was an enormous year for potato production just because of the combination of the wet weather and other good growing circumstances we had.

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We were at dinner at his daughter Janis's cottage in mid-September, and he was lamenting the fact that he had planted these potatoes in the spring and he was not feeling up to harvesting them. So two days later my Janice and his daughter, Janis, got dressed up in our gardening clothes and went out to the potato patch with Dr. George leaning on a cane and giving advice. We harvested four bags, those huge sacks of potatoes, out of these. I believe it was only about a dozen mounds that he had planted, but the potatoes were enormous. Some of them were probably 10 inches long. He was just beaming. So we shared a sack of potatoes that he gave us as a reward for digging them out, and there was plenty for the Johnsons and others of their friends. That was the kind of relationship that we had and it was indeed a warm one, one for which I will have many, many fond memories and for which I will always be grateful.

The legacy that he leaves of course is the family that is behind, and these are enormously talented, capable people with a dedication to public service that they inherited from their father and mother and their grandparents. Indeed, it is a family legacy.

I certainly want to on behalf of all members of the Legislature extend our deepest sympathies and to say that we are all grateful for the life of public service that Dr. George Johnson led and for all of the legacies and achievements that he has left behind for others to enjoy. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, it is an honour to join with the Premier and members of this Legislature to pay tribute to a great life and pass our condolences to the family.

I first met George Johnson, the Honourable George Johnson, at a Special Olympics event, and I last met him at a Special Olympics event. I met him when I was invited to join the board of directors in the late '70s, early '80s, when we were just putting together--Ted Irvine and Wayne Hildahl and some others--a board of directors for Dan Johnson, who was then the board, the staff, the volunteer, the fundraiser. He was everything for Special Olympics.

George Johnson was very, very involved as a volunteer with Danny. Of course, with the whole Johnson family, you got one, you got them all in terms of community activity.

I last saw George about a month before he passed away. They were having a 15th anniversary roast for Dan Johnson, and George was there with Jon, whom I always used to argue with. I was one of the roasters for Danny and we had a beer and a chat and did, as the Premier always indicated, tell stories about the Special Olympics, about politics, about the Icelandic community.

After joining the board of the Special Olympics, I met his daughter and went out with Janis for a number of years.

Before I talk about the formal part of his career, I want to agree with the Premier about the stories that George would tell. My favourite one, and I think one of his favourite stories, was the one about his daughter, Janis. He was Minister of Education--and I am sure the Premier has heard this story; I am sure the Minister of Finance (Mr. Stefanson) has heard this story, but it is a great story.

Janis was the vice-president of the University of Manitoba Students' Association. She considered herself to be a radical Tory, I guess, as opposed to a red Tory, as opposed to a Tory. She was the elected vice-president, and those were the late '60s or the mid-'60s when student protests were in vogue. Janis was leading a protest on to the Legislative Building. The students were marching--you got into a lot of trouble after about doing that--but Janis was leading a protest, bullhorns and student radicals coming here demanding that the tuition fees not be increased or something or more investment in the universities and demanding a meeting with the Minister of Education who happened to be George Johnson at the time.

All the media rushed up to his office apparently and asked, is he going to meet these student protesters, these student leaders? Is he going to meet with them on their demands? He, apparently, when he tells the story and I believe him, he looked into the cameras and said, you tell Janis Johnson when she cleans up her room, I will be willing to meet with them as a delegation for the universities. Apparently, Janis went on to try different methods to persuade the government to change their mind after that.

He was also, as members opposite know, if he was a red Tory, he was a really red Tory in the terms of those words. When he ran for leader in the late '60s, I have heard from a number of people who supported him in those years in that leadership campaign--I think it was Weir, Lyon, Bernie Evans, and George Johnson.

An Honourable Member: Stuart McLean.

Mr. Doer: Stuart McLean, okay, thank you.

He was considered the progressive, we would call, part of the Conservative Party, the left part of that party. When he lost that, a number of people actually joined the NDP and actually were involved in the Schreyer campaign. It is quite interesting to watch what history determines in terms of whom you choose and what it means for you.

I always loved him debating Jon Johnson, who was on the conservative side of the Conservative Party, in my opinion. Jon and I never agreed on anything, still did not when I saw him fresh from the Harris victory in Ontario, with George at the Special Olympics dinner. When Jon would go on about banks--he was working at one point for the vice-president of the banks or the president of the banks, writing the speeches; shortly thereafter, he wrote speeches for Brian Mulroney--of course, he was quite Darwinian in his view. George always would argue that we should nationalize the banks and take them all over; there is no need to have these banks that have all their profits protected by government regulation. I do not know whether George believed it, but it was another story I quite enjoyed, listening to Jon justify why this was not--all the government regulation that protected banks' profits should not require nationalization of the banks, and I always thought George won those arguments.

He also was interesting in his stories to show the way that political decisions had changed. I remember him showing me editorials from the Winnipeg Free Press, for all of you that get preoccupied by editorials--[interjection] Do you? Well, I like the one they wrote about you a couple of weeks ago.

I would not suggest you lose sleep over them because, for every good one, there will be about three or four bad ones, and that is just part of the nature of the business. But just to show you, George was condemned as a raving socialist as Minister of Health for having mandatory polio vaccine shots in the education system, in the schools. This was considered massive intervention by the state into the individual decisions of children. Of course, he often would show that editorial around about how left he was but also how common sense he was in terms of bringing in those policies.

He loved to tell political stories, and I am not going to repeat all the ones I heard, but he loved to tell them. He always talked about why he joined the Progressive Conservative Party. As the Premier (Mr. Filmon) indicated, he got a promise from Duff Roblin to build schools and hospitals in his community before he would run. He felt that the Campbell government had not been fair to Gimli and the Interlake communities, and he felt that Duff Roblin would be. He got very specific commitments from him about infrastructure in his community, about fishermen that he was very concerned about, about schools and hospitals that he felt were essential before he would agree to run.

But he, as the Premier has indicated, was very much a medical person, very much a family person, but he just loved politics. Even when he was Lieutenant-Governor, he wanted to talk politics. As the Premier had indicated, he would just sort of make a few comments in the hallway, and then he would make his opinions known in a very discreet way. Then he said, but, of course, I do not have any opinions on that because I am the Queen's representative. He always had very, very interesting advice.

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History is always very interesting, because I listened to his stories in his term as Minister of Health, the Minister of Education, the many portfolios he had. I was also sworn in by Dr. Johnson at one point in cabinet, but I also had a very, very different kind of decision to make with him--probably the most difficult decision he was going to have was as Lieutenant-Governor of the province of Manitoba--about whether I should be sworn in or not as the elected Leader of the New Democratic Party in the middle of an election.

The day after the leadership, I basically had to choose whether to be sworn in--and I was not naive enough to believe that we were going to win that election--for a very short period of time or to refuse it. Obviously, I had not talked to the Lieutenant-Governor before that, but I had to go down to the office, and I chose. I said to him I did not think it was appropriate for me. He was prepared to swear me in, and I did not think it was appropriate. There was all kinds of precedence. There was not a lot of precedence for this, the Leader of a government, should you be sworn in as Premier or should you not? I chose not to be sworn in, but I think George would have preferred that as well.

I got that strong feeling his preference was, and he was quite relieved that I did not ask to be sworn in as the Leader of the government. I think it was antidemocratic to have been sworn in. I actually believe that no Leader should be sworn in if they become Premier without an election. I happen to believe that even about Kim Campbell, but this was right in the middle of the election. I think it was much more a case of--I think he was definitely relieved. I think he sighed. He had a great sigh of relief. It is interesting how history presents different contacts with individuals throughout the years.

He was a man of tremendous honesty, tremendous integrity, tremendous public service. Here is a man who literally worked for nothing through the years and of course, as a trained medical doctor, the wages and conditions were not that great. He virtually gave up his best earning years as a doctor because he believed so much in the role of government to make progressive and positive changes for people.

Whether it was the introduction of some of the parts of the new Canada Health Act; the medicare in Manitoba and some of the proposals on hospitalization; whether it was dealing with separate schools and independent schools; whether it was dealing with the language issues in our province, he was always on the leading edge. He was considered I think by all of us from all political parties to be a very, very fair person, extremely fair person.

He always had a great deal of interest for the underdog in our society and would always want to find a way to make sure that people had opportunities, there were bridges of hope for people rather than for people to not have hope and opportunity that he felt he had as a person growing up in Manitoba and as he felt he was providing for his own children.

As the Premier (Mr. Filmon) has indicated, he was always very dedicated to his Icelandic culture. He would demand that if you were down in the Gimli region you said Islendingadagurinn properly and would teach you the Icelandic terms and feed you the Icelandic dishes at his place.

I never had as much coffee as the Premier may have had with George Johnson. It was usually scotch, I might say, and always late in the evening and only one glass of course, but of course that was always part of the culture of listening to and working with George.

I also remember through the years how dedicated he was to the Special Olympics. He always, always was there for Danny and Special Olympics volunteers. I think it is a wonderful organization. I am obviously very biased. I was on the board for a period of time. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of volunteers right across Manitoba working in schools, working in recreation programs, working across all the sports and disciplines, working with families with the Special Olympics program here in this province.

I believe that it is the finest program in North America. To some degree, with the work of Dan Johnson and George Johnson, I think it is a tremendous organization of people. It was nice even at fundraising activity. I was at the fundraising celebrity dinner a couple of weeks ago. There were lots of Special Olympics athletes there. Every table has people who are actually participating in the event. It is not just people just contributing money and businesses just buying tables. It is actually really nice.

Even at Danny Johnson's roast, which his dad attended, there were volunteers and athletes from all across the province. It is a tribute again, as the Premier (Mr. Filmon) said, to the family and the values he has instilled in his family.

I know that he has a very talented family. Of course, notwithstanding my bias about the Senate, Janis is a senator; Jo Ann is a doctor; Jennifer is working in Victoria; Gillian is a tremendous writer. I bought her book for Emily. It is a wonderful book. I cannot pronounce all the Icelandic names, so perhaps George did not quite get me through all of the terms, but it is a wonderful book. She is a wonderfully creative person.

Jon, of course, continues to be very much involved in public affairs from a very right perspective, right in terms of his mind always being correct, and Dan, of course, continues to work in Special Olympics. Doris, I know, has always been very involved in the community and public life. It is really a very, very fascinating family.

The Premier has already indicated the tremendous career that George had. He did serve his country in the war, and then he went back to medical school and practised medicine. He made house calls as a doctor all hours of the day, all days of the week.

He even jokes about some of the people he delivered into this world. He sometimes laughs about people; when they think they are a hot-shot he will come back to stories about, well, I delivered you and I had to slap your bottom to get you started in life, just tone down a bit. He loves to tell these stories of people like that.

He was really, I think, a real symbol to me of the Gimli-Interlake area. Even though he went to Daniel Mac and lived back in the city of Winnipeg, I think his love was his cottage at Gimli and the beautiful, beautiful beach and people that lived and worked in that area.

A tremendous political career with the Duff Roblin government--he was never defeated. As the Premier (Mr. Filmon) has indicated, he came back as a deputy minister. He worked, I know, with the NDP on issues of doctor recruitment, especially recruiting doctors to rural Manitoba, which is a challenge today. It was a challenge then; it continues to be a challenge.

He was a person of tremendous integrity, tremendous intelligence and tremendous contribution to this community.

I remember all the tributes at the funeral, but I especially remember Gillian's words, he is a sweet guy. I think that is how I want to remember George Johnson. Thank you.

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Finance): Madam Speaker, I too want to join with the Premier (Mr. Filmon) and the Leader of the Opposition in acknowledging the life and very significant contribution of Dr. George Johnson, certainly to Manitoba and to other parts of the world.

As a young boy growing up in Manitoba, I think, like many young people, you obviously have people you admire and respect and want to model yourself after and they are certainly often right within your family midst. It is not uncommon to want to model yourself after your father or your mother, but there are also other people who impact on your life and, in my case, that certainly was the case with Dr. George Johnson.

I was fortunate that I was one of those babies that the Leader of the Opposition refers to. I was one of George's first deliveries in Gimli. He moved to Gimli in 1949, I believe, and I was born not long after, so he always reminded me that he had an opportunity to learn his profession on many babies in Gimli and Gimli region, of which I was one. From that point on, our families developed a very long and lasting and close relationship.

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George, very early upon arrival in Gimli, took an active interest in the community, in the surrounding area and got involved in various organizations like the chamber of commerce and so on and was instrumental in his early years of bringing progress to the town of Gimli. He and others worked hard on bringing water and sewer to Gimli, Gimli being one of the first communities in rural Manitoba to get water and sewer.

George showed, I think, early upon his arrival in the town of Gimli his commitment to the community, to the people and obviously that led to other career opportunities or other pursuits later in life.

As has been mentioned, his approach as a medical doctor was one that he always had time for people. He did make house calls and you never felt when you were being dealt with by George Johnson that he was in a rush to move you on and get on to somebody else.

He always had time, and some people on occasion criticized that he had too much time, because on occasion if you had a two o'clock appointment with George it might stretch out a little bit beyond because he would be taking whatever time he required to deal with that patient and often to talk about other members of their family or other things that are going on in their life beyond their own medical situation or whatever. He always took a very keen and strong interest in his patients, in the babies that he brought into this world and so on.

As both the Premier (Mr. Filmon) and others have mentioned, anybody who came in contact with George Johnson is the better for it. I do not think you could know or meet a finer individual in terms of the qualities that he possessed, that have been mentioned, how kind and caring he was, his qualities of integrity and honesty and qualities that would stand anybody in good stead in whatever they pursued in life. Certainly George in approximately 1958 made a decision to pursue a career in public life and served in various capacities with a great deal of distinction and honour throughout his entire years.

From a personal perspective, I had the unique situation--as the Premier mentioned, George served in the Legislature from '58 to '69, then retrained himself and went back into medicine after being out of it for some 11 years--it just happened that I was having a family at that time and George brought both of my children into this world as well. In terms of what he has done for my family directly, Madam Speaker, I do not think one could do any more.

Madam Speaker, George, as has been mentioned, was fiercely proud of his family, of all six of his children and his grandchildren and took a very strong interest in everything that they were doing with their careers, with their lives and supported them and helped them in any way that he possibly could.

Madam Speaker, I go back to the early years of George Johnson in Gimli. Once he did take an interest in politics, it became very much of a strong bond between our two families. It happened when George was running in 1958. Originally, my father was going to be his campaign manager, but then there was a federal election called for around the same time. So George suggested to my father, well, rather than being my campaign manager, why do you not run for federal politics, and if we both get elected at these two levels of government, just think what we can do for Gimli and the Interlake region.

Lo and behold, what happened, George Johnson was elected with the Duff Roblin government, and my father was fortunate to be elected with the John Diefenbaker government. They both served those regions for the next 10 years and had an awful lot of good times, an awful lot of challenges, many a political discussion at our family kitchen table or at their house on Waverley Street after George had moved into Winnipeg or in the summertime at their cottage.

Again, George, as has been mentioned, took his responsibility so seriously and was so committed to doing the absolute best that he could do on behalf of each and every Manitoban, I think when people look at people to admire, to respect, to model yourself after, you could not pick a finer person than Dr. George Johnson to emulate and to attempt to lead a similar kind of life and to treat people in the same very kind and caring and compassionate way and to take the responsibilities of public office very seriously, that it is, as George reminded me on many occasions, from his point of view, the highest honour.

So few Manitobans get the opportunity to be elected here in this Chamber, to serve in a cabinet and a government and, in his case, to go on to become the Lieutenant-Governor of the province. Certainly, one would like to think that the George Johnsons, as I say, emulate what a politician or a public servant should be and is good and valid reason why politicians like George Johnson should be held in the highest of regard.

So, Madam Speaker, I too want to join with the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition in expressing sympathy to Doris and to Janis and Jennifer and Danny and Leona and Jo Ann and Gillian but also to say how proud I am, along with so many others, to have known George and to have had the opportunity to share so much of his life with him and with his family. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Hon. James Downey (Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism): Madam Speaker, I too want to join with members of this House expressing the sympathy of myself, my wife, Linda, and son, Ryan, and the constituents of Arthur-Virden to the Johnson family in the loss of a father, a husband and good friend and certainly a very stalwart leader in Manitoba.

I just, Madam Speaker, would like to point out two or three occasions which I found were very special. First of all, one should recognize the record of public life which has been clearly stated on the record, one which the family and all those people associated with Dr. Johnson should be extremely proud of, a record which is in all aspects of his service to the public, whether it be as an elected member, as the Lieutenant-Governor and/or in the civil service.

Special times were when I would come down from my Northern Affairs office and his door would be open, and he would say, come on in and sit down and have a cup of coffee and of course talk nonpolitical talk, as was mentioned earlier. But just to do it in an informal way was a real treat for a person like myself, a tremendous learning experience as to some of the history of this province and as Lieutenant-Governor had the opportunity and again as Minister of Northern Affairs to participate in a northern tour with His Honour and Mrs. Johnson.

One thing that Dr. Johnson always insisted was that he covered all bases, that everybody he was to see--the chiefs, the councillors, the leaders of the communities--wherever he was, it had to be done properly and it was done that way and that was an insistence on his part.

Madam Speaker, I also felt that it was the automatic place to go when I was first elected to the Legislature, not having a doctor in the city of Winnipeg, that he was an individual that one could go to to find out if you needed health care. He is one that could give you some advice and looked after the health needs of many people in this building.

The other opportunity that Linda and I had to join with His Honour and Mrs. Johnson was again at one New Year's levee when the Premier and Mrs. Filmon were unable to attend, and we had the opportunity to fill in, and I say the way in which he received the people of Manitoba, the warmness and the interest that he showed in each and every person who came to say hello was truly a tribute to Dr. Johnson and his concern and care for people.

So, again, Madam Speaker, I am pleased to associate our family and the constituents of Arthur-Virden with the condolences to the Johnson family. Thank you.

Mr. Edward Helwer (Gimli): I am also proud to join the Premier (Mr. Filmon), the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer), the Minister of Finance (Mr. Stefanson) and also the Deputy Premier (Mr. Downey) to pay tribute to the late Honourable George Johnson.

Although Dr. Johnson was educated and raised in Winnipeg, he spent much of his life in Gimli to which he will be forever associated. Before completing his degree at the University of Manitoba in 1950, Dr. Johnson answered the call of duty and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. He proudly served this country from 1941 to 1945 as a navigation specialist, seeing action in the north Atlantic, and he was discharged from the Navy as a lieutenant.

He then returned to school to complete his education and to set up a family medical practice in the community of Gimli. He remained there as a local doctor until 1958 when he made his decision which has benefited all Manitobans, he ran for public office. He represented the Gimli constituency from 1958 to 1969.

It was during that time that Dr. Johnson received his reputation as somewhat of a political reformer. Although he served from '58 to '69 as the Minister of Health and the Minister of Public Welfare, Education and Health, he was respected in the governments of Premier Duff Roblin and Premier Walt Weir at that time. Mr. Roblin gave Dr. Johnson credit for pioneering the welfare reforms and helping to build new hospitals and expanding the use of French in public schools. He also helped to implement medicare in Manitoba and assisted also in the establishment of the Universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba.

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Although he retired from politics in 1969, Dr. Johnson continued his role as a civil servant, and he practised medicine in Winnipeg until 1978, when he then served as senior medical consultant to the government of Manitoba.

In 1986, in December, he was appointed as Manitoba's 20th Lieutenant-Governor and was the first Manitoban of Icelandic origin to serve in that position. During his lifetime, Dr. Johnson was the recipient of many honours, and as the Premier (Mr. Filmon) stated, in 1967 the new Gimli elementary school was named in his honour.

Dr. Johnson's authority did not limit his local community involvement either. He was a member of the Kinsmen Club there, a member of the Lutheran church and also a member of the Masonic Lodge, and such local involvement only complemented Dr. Johnson's character further.

Dr. Johnson's mark will not only be felt in the Gimli area but in all parts of the Interlake, a very highly respected person throughout the province of Manitoba. Dr. Johnson and the late Eric Stefanson, as the Minister of Finance (Mr. Stefanson) has stated, were very good friends and Eric, as the M.P. for Selkirk at that time, they worked together very well, and they accomplished many things for Gimli and for the whole Interlake as a whole. One of the reasons the Seagram's plant is in Gimli today is because of the late Dr. Johnson and also the work done by the late Eric Stefanson.

So Dr. Johnson's death brings an end to a lifelong service and a distinguished career and an impressive record of accomplishments. It is my belief that if each of us could only achieve part of what Dr. Johnson did, the world would be a much better place in which to live.

I want to just pass along my condolences and also from my wife, Adeline, and from the people of the Gimli constituency, to the Johnson family. Thank you.

Mr. Gary Kowalski (The Maples): Madam Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege for me to rise on behalf of my Liberal colleagues in the Manitoba Legislature and our Leader Paul Edwards and join and add a few words of tribute regarding the Honourable George Johnson and to extend condolences to his family.

I never had the privilege of meeting the Honourable George Johnson or speaking to him. Much of what I have learned about Mr. Johnson is in preparation to saying these few words and what I have heard today. What I have gathered is that his life was a life of service, service to Canada and a service to the Royal Canadian Navy, service to his community as a medical doctor, service once again to his community and to Manitoba as an MLA, and service to his sovereign as the Lieutenant-Governor of this province.

Indeed, from my readings and from what I have heard today, he was a reformer. As another person of Icelandic descent, a writer for the Free Press, Tom Oleson wrote, his Icelandic roots emphasized the common good and this probably led him to be a reformer, some might even say a small "l" liberal.

I noted that he was Minister of Health for two terms, Minister of Education. Amongst his accomplishments was the establishment of medicare in Manitoba, the expansion of French language services in the schools, welfare reform, an extension of health care facilities. Also, I understand he was instrumental in the formation of the University of Winnipeg and Brandon University.

As was mentioned earlier by the Premier (Mr. Filmon), he received the Order of the Falcon from the government of Iceland, one of the few individuals, Icelanders outside the country who have ever received this award, an honour that could only be equalled by the bestowing of the Order of Canada to him later in life.

All members of this House are privileged to have a member such as Dr. George Johnson as an example to follow and for us to live up to his standards as members of this Manitoba Legislature. Thank you very much.

Mr. Steve Ashton (Thompson): Madam Speaker, I think in an earlier era, one term that would probably be used to describe Dr. Johnson is that of the renaissance man. I was trying to think of how you could describe someone who was a physician, who was an elected representative of this House, a cabinet minister, returned to medicine, became a medical adviser and then served as the Queen's representative in this House, all distinct careers but all of which bore the imprint of a very unique individual in this province.

I had the opportunity first to get to know Dr. Johnson in his third or fourth career, that as a medical adviser to various governments, as an MLA concerned about physician shortage. I found it rather interesting because I knew Dr. Johnson had been involved in elected office before, but I knew he was in an apolitical role and I was very careful in circumspect. I did not mention politics in any way, shape or form. We talked very much in detail about the need to recruit physicians, and as soon as the discussion was over, he asked me how the Legislature was going and he asked me about some current issues of the day. Before you knew it, we were talking about how things were when he had been a member of the Legislature, how things have changed and immediately I felt that--it is interesting because I met him on a number of occasions and then I met him again as the Lieutenant-Governor. If I at that time had previously been concerned about talking politics with someone that was an adviser to government, I was doubly careful, very, very careful, Madam Speaker, not to mention anything in terms of politics when I met the new Lieutenant-Governor.

So we talked about the weather and how things were in Thompson. We actually talked about physician recruitment and then we, at his initiative, started talking about politics and once again compared the way things were and the way things are.

One thing that I always appreciated was the unique perspective that I got from talking to someone like Dr. Johnson, because I think when I mentioned he was a Renaissance man in terms of his career, there was something else that needs to be remarked for the record too, and that is, I think he was someone who genuinely cared about people, and that was probably the common thread that was there.

He talked about a day in this Legislature when harsh words were perhaps said probably as frequently as today. He indicated that debates in those days, if anything, could be probably even more fiery than they have been in more recent years. But he talked fondly of the fact that members of all sides socialized, became friends, became certainly social acquaintances and got into quite some detail about various social events that he had hosted out in Gimli, unofficial social events with various members of the House who had been engaged in some pretty bitter public discussions at the time who all came together at his invitation.

Perhaps there is something we can learn from that, because I think one of the special marks of Dr. Johnson, certainly in my brief acquaintance, and there are others in this House that certainly got to know him much more personally, is that perhaps we need that kind of approach again. Certainly, I will say this for my own mind, seeing his career but also seeing his unique personality, I think he is very much a role model of the type of individual that I hope we will always be able to produce in this province, because he was just an absolute model not only of public service but of a very unique and special human being. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Neil Gaudry (St. Boniface): Madam Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not rise today to say a few words and pay tribute to a great Canadian, a great Manitoban, Dr. Johnson.

I would like to offer my condolences on behalf of myself and my wife, Leona, to Mrs. Johnson and her family. Leona had the pleasure of being asked on January 1 of 1989 to pour tea at the Government House with Mrs. Johnson.

Over the next few years after I had been elected when I was sitting in Room 167, Dr. Johnson would come in from the back door on Assiniboine and would often stop by and say hello and was always very friendly. Indeed, he became a friend during those years.

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Dr. Johnson was a well-respected and well-loved individual. He was a man of compassion and kindness, a real, true public servant. Madam Speaker, Manitoba has not only lost a great leader, but it has lost a close and good friend. I offer my condolences to Mrs. Johnson and to the family. He will long be remembered, I am sure, in this province of Manitoba for the work that he has done and with having worked as the Minister of Education. In St. Boniface, we will long remember him for the expansion of French language services. It was quoted in the editorial in the Free Press the work that he has done, and we will long remember Dr. Johnson for the work he has done for Manitoba. Thank you.

Mr. Gerry McAlpine (Sturgeon Creek): Madam Speaker, I too am privileged today and honoured to rise and pay tribute to the life of the Honourable George Johnson. I do so because when I was elected in 1990 Dr. Johnson was the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. I think that my experience with Dr. Johnson was one of I guess admiration for the fact that he always took such an interest or he appeared to me to take such an interest in the newly elected members of this Legislature. That came through very loud and clear with my association with him.

My term in office and experience with Dr. Johnson were much shorter than a lot of members in this Legislature, both personally and professionally, but I think that he had an effect upon all of us here in the Legislature, and one that will be remembered for many, many years. The great contribution that he made not only to Manitoba but to society of the world. I think he made that impression not only from the heart but he led by an example that very few of us may be able to achieve because the type of person that he was, it was his life and his family. It came through with his family as well.

I do want to say these few words because my wife, Jeanie, and I had the opportunity to attend Government House when he was Lieutenant-Governor and he always made us feel so welcome. I always felt that he took a personal interest in everybody, what they were doing and what their families were doing.

I had the honour of representing him after he retired as Lieutenant-Governor in this Legislature as he moved into the constituency of Sturgeon Creek. That was a great honour for me, and I had several conversations with him about that.

I just wanted to share these few words with the Legislature and to offer my condolences to the Johnson family, and, on behalf of the people of Sturgeon Creek, to extend our heartfelt thanks for all those people that he affected in Sturgeon Creek and in the province of Manitoba. Thank you.

Hon. Harry Enns (Minister of Agriculture): Madam Speaker, just very briefly to associate myself with those comments already put on the record with respect to a former cabinet colleague of mine and a fellow Interlaker.

My memories of Dr. George are very much associated with a predecessor of mine, another George, George Hutton. Those two gentlemen were extremely aggressive and powerful people in the then Roblin administration.

Mr. Hutton went on to serve the wider community with the United Nations world food organization's administration in Rome, and we are now celebrating their 50th anniversary in Quebec City just this week. Those two were a dynamic duo in this House, made a lasting impression on the rookie MLA for Rockwood-Iberville that I then was.

I remind honourable members also that I always have great admiration for those who reach for the brass ring. Mr. Johnson did just that on behalf of the people of Manitoba and the party that he served in a very aggressive and hard-fought leadership convention of 1967, after the then Premier Duff Roblin stepped down.

Again for a rookie MLA, it was a very difficult decision to choose among four cabinet colleagues who sought the leadership of the party--and the premiership, I might add. We were, of course, in office at that time.

As I recall, it took three ballots to come to the decision, but throughout those activities Dr. Johnson maintained a very special level of humanity and openness that is not given to all who seek public office. Dr. George maintained that throughout his life.

It was a pleasure and a privilege for me to have been a colleague of his. I regret very much that I was out of the province at the time of his passing and was not able to attend the funeral, but certainly to Doris, to the family--he has a great family--the very best of wishes for all of them as they come to terms with life without Dr. George.

Hon. Albert Driedger (Minister of Natural Resources): Madam Speaker, it is also my wish to affiliate myself with the condolence motion for Dr. George Johnson. My relationship with him was probably a little different than most.

I had the privilege of being the Minister of Government Services at the time when Dr. Johnson was Lieutenant-Governor, and through the responsibility that I had, had the occasion to meet many times in Government House which, in his view and I think rightfully so, had been sort of let slide a little bit. So under his guidance I toured the building from top to bottom, a very interesting building, and learned a lot of the history about it, and of course, his wife, Doris, was also very positive in terms of her views as to what should happen.

It is a grand old building like this building is, Madam Speaker, and I think that it would be irresponsible if we, as government, would have let that thing continue to slide, so we took pride in terms of restoring some of the things. The air-conditioning aspect of it, the stairs, the rugs, the walls, many things there basically had sort of deteriorated, so we had a good relationship in terms of trying to restore some of that. My colleague who followed me, Gerry Ducharme, then minister who took over after me, continued with that and was very positive with the things that happened.

Dr. Johnson at that time--we had that old car, a good-looking car, a Cadillac, Town Car or whatever the case may be, in ill repair. They had it looking shiny all the time, but it was always a matter of great anxiety whether the thing would stall in some parade or something like that when they were hauling him around--many interesting discussions.

In my relationship with Dr. Johnson, what happened is that my colleague, the now-Minister of Health, Jim McCrae, and myself both I suppose got a bit of a favour done by Dr. Johnson and his wife when they invited Jim and his wife and Mary and myself and our parents for a special supper at Government House. My dad is 87 at the present time. He still talks of the great impression it made on him, him and Mom being out there and experiencing what they consider the ultimate in terms of being exposed to important people.

I just wanted to say that George, Dr. Johnson, was that kind of a person and left very fond memories, certainly with me and Mary and Mom and Dad and I know the McCraes as well, so I hope Doris and their family know it well, and we have very fond memories of Dr. Johnson. Thank you.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [agreed]

Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate the support of the motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

Hon. James Downey (Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism): I wonder if I may have leave of the House for a couple of minutes. I was not in the House when Mr. Campbell's motion of condolence was being passed today, and I would ask leave just to put a couple of comments on the record, if I may.

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism have leave to add a few remarks to the condolences of D.L. Campbell? Leave? [agreed]

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Douglas Lloyd Campbell

(continued)

Hon. James Downey (Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism): Thank you, Madam Speaker and members of the House, for this opportunity. I will be brief, but I think it is important to say again from my family, from Linda and Ryan, and from the constituents of Arthur-Virden to the family of D.L. Campbell to send our condolences and our respect for Mr. Campbell.

I say this as a new--when I was new and a young Minister of Agriculture, some of the experiences that I had that helped me as an individual in public life I want to put on the record. He truly was an individual who not only could I call on for advice but was quite prepared, when I did not call upon, to advance that advice. It was very excellent support and knowledge which I needed as a rookie Minister of Agriculture.

Again, his public record, Madam Speaker, has been talked about and speaks volumes for his contribution. There is one that I would like to further add, and that is of his contribution to rural Manitoba with rural electrification. It truly took a tremendous load off the backs of the women of rural Manitoba. I can say this, as a young person when rural electrification was brought in, how I saw the change in my mother's life and the conveniences which were able to be introduced to looking after a home. Again, the credit to that, to a large extent, goes to Mr. D.L. Campbell as an individual. That is the kind of thing that the introduction of rural electrification did. It really revolutionized agriculture and the rural way of life.

The other point I would make is that Linda and I had the opportunity of taking Mr. Campbell with us to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns) and his 25th anniversary of sitting in the Legislative Assembly, and the enjoyment that we had out of Mr. Campbell and the drive out and the drive back, I can tell you, Madam Speaker, he knew more about my constituents then and quite a bit about the ones today than probably I did, whether it was the type of voice they had, the issue. He could quote what was said at a particular meeting about an individual, how gravelly a voice he was and how he would speak it so assertively. Again, a mind and an ability to stump speak without a note truly sticks in my mind as a true public leader and an individual that I want to just say that pleased, certainly added to the quality of life and to my ability as a member of the Legislature to perform.

I will further conclude that one piece of advice that he gave me as the Minister of Agriculture, he continually told me, he said, as long as the socialists are opposed to what you are doing, you are doing the right thing. I will conclude my remarks, Madam Speaker, by saying again that it is a privilege to have known Mr. Campbell and associate myself and the constituency of Arthur-Virden with the condolence motion.

Hon. Brian Pallister (Minister of Government Services): I ask for leave as well, Madam Speaker, if I may.

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for Portage have leave to make comments on the condolence motion for D.L. Campbell? [agreed]

Mr. Pallister: I thank the members of the House and thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity to just put a few brief comments on the record regarding Douglas Campbell who had an astonishing career of service in this province, in this nation, in fact in the British Commonwealth, and who is someone that I am proud to say was a friend of our family.

I first met Douglas Campbell at a meeting in Saskatoon some seven years ago now and was immediately impressed by him for the fact that, having never had the chance to meet him or speak with him before, he immediately made the comment, he said, you would be a Pallister. I took that to mean that he knew from the height, perhaps, that I was from our family. But he went further. Do you farm, he asked me. I said, no, I do not. He said, well, then you would be Brian. Right away, he impressed me with the fact that he knew our family and he knew something about our family. But he went further. He said, Brian, you were raised on the most beautiful yard site in the R.M. of Portage la Prairie as it is located along the Rat Creek and at a bend in the creek. I said, well, thank you very much, Mr. Campbell. I think it is a beautiful place, too. When were you last there? He said, I was there once. I was there in 1922 in my first campaign for elected office, and your great-grandfather John Pallister showed me around Edwin in a horse and buggy.

The man had an incredible memory, an incredible ability to recollect people and things about them. The reputation that he has in our area is that he did not just know the names of the husbands and wives, but he also knew the names of the children and, almost all the time, he knew the names of the pets as well.

Doug Campbell was a person who was a people person. I had the honour of being at his interment at the same cemetery where my dad is buried at the Hillside Cemetery in Portage la Prairie, and the comment that was made about him there that I thought was very good was that the reason that he was so good at remembering people was, of course, because he liked people.

Doug Campbell will always be remembered, certainly in our area, for many reasons, but not least of those will be the fact the seniors home in Portage la Prairie, the Douglas Campbell Lodge, of course, bears his name. My last opportunity to meet with Doug was where he was dedicating the Gladys Crampton Campbell Memorial Garden at the Douglas Campbell Lodge.

It was a beautiful day with his family there, and I know that everyone enjoyed the dedication of that garden, and it will serve as a place of reflection on the life of Douglas and, of course, on the life of Gladys as well.

One of the last acts that I saw Doug perform on behalf of the people of our community was at the 4-H sale, the 4-H calf sale, in Portage la Prairie at the fair. He was 99 years old, and, of course, Doug and my grandmother, Jessie Pallister, were born the same day, and it is unfortunate that Doug could not have made it to his 100th. There was going to be a big party held in his honour, and I know that he would have enjoyed it, and he would have known everyone there.

At this calf sale just some months before his death, he auctioned off the grand champion, and he did a tremendous job, a commendable job, and this all at the age of 99. It is a tribute to his life well lived and his good health, of course, that he enjoyed throughout most of his life that he was able to do that.

Just in closing, Madam Speaker, I would say that one of the first suggestions I got from a gentleman, my first day out going door to door on my first campaign, he asked me if I had time for a word of advice from an old man, and I said I certainly did. He said, Brian, Doug Campbell treated everyone as a supporter, and you should do the same, and those are words for all of us to try to live by. Thank you very much.

Peter Wagner

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): I move, seconded by the honourable Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer), that this House convey to the family of the late Peter Wagner, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty in a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

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Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, Peter Wagner was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba on June 16, 1958, representing the CCF Party in the electoral division of Fisher Branch. He was re-elected in the general election of May 14, 1959, and served until December 16, 1962.

Peter was born on June 6, 1916, and lived all his life in Fisher Branch where he was a successful farmer. He was also very actively involved in community affairs, including service as chairman of the co-op store, of the local pool elevator and the local school board. He was involved on the advisory committee for agriculture extension, the local cemetery committee,, the Farmers' Union as district director for Manitoba. He was a member of the Interlake Development program and member of the local hospital board.

Peter served his community very actively, was a great participant in public affairs in his area and was very dedicated and devoted to his people.

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege for me, on behalf of my colleagues, to extend our sincere condolences to his loving wife, Dora, to his son Pete, his son Walter and his daughter, Irene, as well as his many grandchildren, and also to give thanks for the service and dedication that he gave during his life to the province and the people of Manitoba.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): I am honoured to rise to join the Premier for the motion of condolence to pay tribute to the contributions of Peter Wagner to the province of Manitoba.

As the Premier has indicated, Peter Wagner was elected as a CCF member for Fisher Branch in 1958 and re-elected in 1959, two elections that he won. That is not a very long period of time in the Legislature, but obviously anybody that wins twice has the respect of his constituents and the respect of the people that he is serving, and he has to be congratulated for it.

He was obviously a very strong participant in his community and obviously very active in organizations that were consistent with his political belief, the Farmers' Union, the Interlake Development board. He was chair of the co-op in his own community, chair of the Pool Elevator organization in his local community. He was on the school board and on the hospital board. This was a person who was very, very involved in the community and very, very involved in the organizations that can make a difference to the average family in his community.

He was very concerned about farm issues. He was a farmer himself, and, as I understand it, he was very involved in ensuring that people could make a decent living and maintain the family farm in his area and believed very much in the philosophy of co-operation as a way of keeping individuals' farms, of pooling one's resources through the Pool Elevator system. Of course, that is why he was a participant and member of the CCF and NDP and ran under that political banner.

On behalf of the New Democratic Party, I want to express my sincere condolences to his wife, Dora, his two sons, Peter and Walter, and his daughter, Irene, and thank him for the contributions to this Legislature and the people of Manitoba in terms of the Legislature, but also in terms of the many, many activities he had as a farmer and a member of his community in the Fisher Branch area. Thank you.

Mr. Clif Evans (Interlake): It certainly is an honour and a pleasure to bring condolences this afternoon here in the Legislative Assembly to Mr. Peter Wagner.

I had the wonderful opportunity, not long after the 1990 election, to sit down with Mr. Wagner over coffee and discuss the issues and some of the things that were most important in his mind and some of the things that he wanted to pass on as advice to me, a new elected member. Of course, Mr. Wagner, being elected in '58 and '59 again, he indicated to me times have changed, issues have changed. The one thing he did have to say to me is, Clif, remember the people you serve. Think of the people that you are serving. Do whatever you can, as he did in the past. Do whatever you can to help a constituent. No matter what the issue is, look after your constituent. Call him back. Write to them. Do whatever is necessary that, when they bring their issues to you, you are there to help them.

He says, you know, that will be more remembered and spoken about than anything else you might do. The fact that you have called back, the fact that you have come to their house and sat with them to hear their problems and discuss their problems with them, he says, I guarantee you, if you do that, he told me after a third cup of coffee, he said, people will remember you for that. Whether you are successful, whether you are not, it is the fact that you went out and personally dealt with their problem.

At a fundraiser a year or so later I got to talk to him again. He said, Clif, did I not tell you? He said, all I am hearing is that when somebody calls or writes you, you are right there, and I said to him, Mr. Wagner, if any bit of advice that I have received, and of course I had received advice from Mr. Uruski before I went in and other elected officials on how to conduct myself in the Assembly, that this was the most important piece of advice and the advice that I have taken right until today, Madam Speaker, in dealing with the constituency of Interlake.

But Mr. Wagner was also very devoted, devoted to the community. He was devoted to the people that he served for the four years, but not only during those four years, Madam Speaker, previously. After he had left the Legislative Assembly, the people were always so important to him, community was always important in his mind, what the farming issues were, what was happening in the farming community, what was happening in just the general community, what was happening at the local church, what was happening at the local co-op.

He also said to me that first time, co-operate; try and do your best to co-operate. Do not go off half cocked about parties at times and different philosophies at times. You have your philosophy, you follow it, but you also do whatever you can to co-operate, because if co-operation means that we can achieve something for the betterment of your community and your constituency then you are further ahead than any other way of doing business.

I heard at his funeral, Madam Speaker, his two sons, Peter and Walter, speak of their dad and of the support that he provided, the guidance he provided to them and to their sister, Irene, the guidance and strength he provided to his wife, but mostly I remember that day where they talked about the dedication. The wisdom in the stories that he had to pass on to his grandchildren were very, very important to him. He did whatever he could for his family. He worked hard; he was dedicated not only to them but to the cause.

I know that it showed the respect that Mr. Wagner earned over the years by the attendance in the small community of Fisher Branch where they had to change from one Catholic Church to another because of the size. One was not big enough to accommodate all the people who were coming to pay their respects to Mr. Wagner.

There were a lot of dignitaries and a lot of people from the community that showed their respect that day and spoke very highly of Mr. Wagner.

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It was a pleasure, Madam Speaker, to have met Mr. Wagner and heard his advice, and I hope some of it I am still following. For myself and my family, I would like to express my sincere condolences to Mrs. Wagner, to his son Peter and his wife, Myiah, to his son, Walter, and wife, Louise, to his only daughter, Irene, and husband, Bob, and especially to all his family, his brother and especially his grandchildren. We offer our sincere condolences and sympathy.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt this motion? [agreed]

Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate their support for the motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

Francis Laurence (Bud) Jobin

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Minister of Environment (Mr. Cummings),

THAT this House convey to the family of the late Francis Laurence (Bud) Jobin, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty and a useful life of active community and public service and that Madam Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.

Motion presented.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, Bud Jobin was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in the general election of November 10, 1949, as a representative of the Liberal-Progressive Conservative party for the electoral division of The Pas. He was re-elected in the general elections of June 8, 1953, and June 16, 1958, for the electoral division of Flin Flon. He served until May 14, 1959.

Mr. Jobin also served as railway commissioner and Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism for the period June 1956 to June 1958. Many members, of course, recall his service as Lieutenant-Governor of our province between 1976 and 1981.

Bud Jobin was born in Winnipeg on August 14, 1914. He was educated at St. Mary's School, St. Paul's College, Campion College of Regina, and he received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba.

I did not know until I read about him at the time of his passing, Madam Speaker, the many different jobs that he held and the very wide experience that he had in working primarily in the Flin Flon area and primarily for Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting. He was a brush cutter and worker and he was a freight checker, construction labourer at the power site up at Island Falls. He worked underground as a mucker, as a survey helper. He was the head of the contract department, pay office supervisor, purchasing buyer.

He, of course, during that period of service became a member of the steelworkers union in Flin Flon. He had tremendous service to the public in Flin Flon in a variety of volunteer organizations. He was the founding president of the Flin Flon Trout Festival. He was the former director and chairman of the Northern Manitoba Regional Development Corporation, a former director of the Hudson Bay Route Association. I recall hearing from him about matters to do with Churchill, because he also served as president of the Port of Churchill Development Board. He served on provincial boards such as the Red Cross Society, Society for Crippled Children and Adults, the Misericordia Foundation and the Joe Brain Foundation.

Specifically in Flin Flon, Mr. Jobin served as city councillor between 1966 and 1974. He was the mayor between '74 and '76. He was Flin Flon City Community Club president in the late '40s and again in the early '60s. He has, of course, been recognized by many different organizations for significant awards: the Manitoba Historical Society Centennial Medal, which he was awarded in 1970; he was a Knight of the Order of St. John; received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Manitoba in 1977.

He was married to Donalda Beatrice Lamont, better known as Donie, on September 10, 1938, and they had 57 years of very happy and productive married life together.

Madam Speaker, Bud Jobin was certainly known to many people throughout the province and certainly most members of this Legislature on a personal basis because he remained active in public life in a variety of roles after ceasing to sit in this Legislature. Primarily, of course, he became a very high-profile public figure as Lieutenant-Governor between 1976 and 1981. I certainly saw him often publicly right up until very recently. We each placed a wreath at the cenotaph together earlier this summer in recognition of a ceremony honouring our fallen members of the armed forces.

He attended, as I recall, most of the openings of the Legislature over the past decade or more. Oftentimes, I would speak to him, whether it was out publicly or he might have called my office. He became a constituent of mine, living on Kenaston for a period of time, and certainly he was always a person who was jovial, happy to see me as he was, I think, most everybody. It turned out, of course, from the time that I first met him, that our relationship was warmer and friendlier than most because of my wife, Janice. See, when the Jobins moved into Winnipeg, as he had become elected a member of the Legislature, they moved into the neighbourhood where Janice lived, and she and Onalee became chums at school together. So, when Bud became Lieutenant-Governor and Janice told me that she knew him well, I said, how well do you know him? She said, well, I have seen him in his pyjamas. Janice was invited over for sleepovers by Onalee, and that was the relationship.

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When I became involved in public life as a member of City Council, Bud was then the Lieutenant-Governor. We would see him at public events, and he was always very, very delighted to see Janice and, I know, certainly felt very excited when I was first elected as a member of the Legislature in 1979. That resulted in a story because, around the Christmas season of that year, we received an invitation to attend the levee at Government House. I did not look closely at the envelope and assumed that it was an invitation for Janice and me to attend the levee.

During the course of the Christmas season, we ran into the Jobins or, at least, I guess, Donie phoned and told Janice that she wanted her to pour tea. I just naturally assumed that I was invited, so I arrived dutifully with Janice at the levee and was politely taken through the greeting line on New Year's Day and realized that something was probably wrong by the fact that I did not get a warm greeting from Sterling Lyon who was greeting along with Mr. Jobin in the line-up. It did not occur to me why this might be the case. I just thought maybe it was a busy day and Sterling was preoccupied. I walked into the ballroom area of Government House, looked around and could not find another member of the Legislature, so I had my cup of coffee and sort of went over to Janice and said, I have an idea I am not supposed to be here and so I will go to the building and just sort of bide my time and I will come back and pick you up.

Well, of course later I learned that those gatherings at the Lieutenant-Governor's had a very narrow list of invitees who were the clergy, the military, the judiciary and the consular corps, and members of the Legislature were not included. I now attend those of course on an official basis and greet with the Lieutenant-Governor, but my first attendance there was on an unofficial and unexpected and illegitimate basis, but Bud did not say a thing. He was very gracious and very kind and the matter just never came up. [interjection]

Somebody opposite mentioned that Sterling did mention it and that is true. I told him that I had found out what the protocol was, albeit a little too late. Bud also was the person who swore me into Cabinet in 1981 and I think he was very thrilled to be able to preside over that particular event, and so there were many occasions in which we have special and fond memories of Bud and Donie and the times that they served in that high office as the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba.

My memories of Bud are all fond memories. He was certainly an individual with no airs or pretensions. He was a refreshing character and I think he has been referred to by many as a character in a very positive sense. He, I think, opened up Government House and made it a more comfortable place for many people by his relaxed down-to-earth atmosphere, and as Lieutenant-Governor I know he is fondly remembered throughout the province for all of the various things he did.

I was able to just last week speak to Donie and to Onalee Jobin-Bevans, his daughter, because Janice and I were away at the time of the funeral. We away at the annual Premier's Conference and so we were very sorry to have missed that event, and it was good to see Donie, in particular, and Onalee at Government House for the reception that was held in honour of the Governor General and his wife just last week.

So I want to, on behalf of Janice and our family and certainly I know all members of the Legislature, extend our sincere condolences to Donie, to Onalee and Bill, and to Bud's grandsons, Dean, Scott and Sandy, as we remember his many contributions, as we celebrate his life and his service, devoted service, to the people of Manitoba.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, on behalf of our party it is an honour to pass on our condolences to the Jobin family and pay tribute to his life and contributions. I did not know Bud Jobin well. I always was impressed with his deep voice and his very confident nature, but I was more impressed by his love of the North and as the Premier has indicated he was always concerned and had ideas about the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay line. He was a person who, I know, would be quite concerned about events today when we have real challenges about that port, because he always believed that there was tremendous potential that was not being fulfilled with the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay line.

As the Premier has indicated, when you read through his history, his community activities, steelworker, founder of the Trout Festival, first president of the Port of Churchill Development Board, his jobs as mucker and other functions in the North, you can really observe a person who worked very, very intimately in northern Manitoba and in northern-Manitoba events that have survived to today, are very, very popular today. The Trout Festival is still a festival where you have to book a room a year in advance if you want to get into Flin Flon. I know that it is a very, very popular event for the people of Flin Flon and the area surrounding it.

Three elections, again, that Bud Jobin was able to win, plus he was sworn into cabinet, I guess, in the latter part of his career--and his cabinet job of Industry, Trade and Tourism was stopped with the election of the Roblin government in 1958.

I always found him to be interesting to talk to at openings of the Legislature. Usually he was here, and he usually was here at the receptions. I was just talking with the member for Wolseley (Ms. Friesen), and she mentioned that he was active in political issues and political debate throughout his life, and in fact this spring during the election was at the candidates' debate at the Lions Place on Portage and listened to the various candidates. That is, I think, a tribute to the person, active in public life and political decisions all his life.

On behalf of our party I want to express our condolences to his wife, Donalda, and his daughter, Onalee, and thank his family and on behalf of us thank the Jobin family for the tremendous contributions as Lieutenant-Governor, member of the cabinet, member of the Legislature and just a very, very committed person to northern Manitoba and to Manitoba citizens.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Neil Gaudry (St. Boniface): Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Leader of the Liberal Party and my colleagues, I would like to pay tribute to the life of the Honourable Francis Laurence Jobin, better known as Bud Jobin.

What the members before have mentioned about Mr. Jobin, it is true that he had an active life, not only within the political realm but within his community of Flin Flon.

A successful politician, which Mr. Jobin was, must not only be able to read the mood of the public, but he must have had the skill to get the public on his side, and this is something that Bud Jobin was very successful in doing.

Mr. Bud Jobin made a contribution to living, and it is that contribution that we pay tribute to today in the Legislature. Therefore, along with all the members of this Assembly, I want this message to go to the family of the late Bud Jobin with our condolences, but also our hope that time will ease the grief that they are suffering in his loss and will enable them to know that they lived with someone who made a contribution to the world in which we live--a great Canadian.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Hon. James Downey (Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism): Madam Speaker, I rise to extend our sympathy, my wife, Linda, and son, Ryan, the people of Arthur-Virden, to the Jobin family and associate myself with the motion of condolence to Donie and to her family.

There are again several points that I would like to make, but first of all I think the record speaks truly how much of a man Bud was of the people, worked extremely hard and was very ambitious in his job as a representative, but also carried out the very aggressive and very open style as the Lieutenant-Governor.

That is when I, when I was first elected in 1977, first came to know Bud Jobin as His Honour. He, in fact, did carry out the signing and the officiating of the signing in of the cabinet of about 18 years ago--in a week's time, in October--in which that was my first opportunity to be associated with Mr. Jobin; again, as has been indicated, opened up Government House to more public events, particularly the opportunity for members of the Legislature to gather to get to know one another in a little more of a social and informal way, Madam Speaker, a man who loved to have fun and young people.

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I remember the visits as the Minister of Agriculture to the Morris Stampede at which His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor Bud Jobin was there in an official capacity in his big limousine.

Of course, we had the opportunity to go after the parade to meet. Then the event was to go to the opening of the stampede. Ryan, being a very young person at that particular time, just a young boy, was invited to travel with Bud Jobin in the limousine. Of course, that is what he did. This was a great thing for Bud, and Ryan has remembered that ever since. Of course, they ended up sitting in the stands watching the stampede, both enjoying to the fullest all the popcorn that could be taken. That was again a memorable time for myself and an association with a man that carried out the role in a very open and very honest manner.

I will conclude my remarks. I did have the opportunity to attend the funeral of Bud Jobin. I think it would be appropriate to state, as there were a tremendous number of people at the church and there to pay their respects to Bud and to the Jobin family, Monseigneur indicated as to what Bud may say when he saw so many people gathered in that church. A bloody good crowd, is what he was probably saying as he looked down on the numbers of people at the church.

So, Madam Speaker, again, I am pleased to associate myself with the motion of condolence to the Jobin family and wish Donie and her family well in their time of being without Bud Jobin.

Mr. Gerard Jennissen (Flin Flon): Madam Speaker, I also would like to express my condolences to the family of Francis Laurence Jobin, also known as Bud Jobin. He was known as a fixture in the North. Everyone either knew Bud Jobin or had heard of him. He was friendly, popular, down to earth, sincere. He was a good speaker and a great organizer.

He embodied Flin Flon, Manitoba, as no other person has. He was a champion at promoting Flin Flon. In fact, the current mayor of Flin Flon, Dr. Graham Craig, stated that Bud Jobin, over the years, had done more for Flin Flon than any other human being. He certainly promoted that city. No one could match him. He was the volunteer par excellence.

Bud was involved in everything. He was active in the Flin Flon Steelworkers Union local. He was a founding member of the Flin Flon Trout Festival association. He was a director and chairman of the Northern Manitoba Regional Development Corporation. He was a former director of the Hudson's Bay Route Association. He was the first president of the Port of Churchill Development Board, and he was already involved in promoting the palm-to-pine concept long before the central North American trade corridor association even existed.

Bud was a man of work, and he was also a man of vision. There was not a club or organization in northern Manitoba of which Bud was not an active member. He is the perfect example of one person who made a difference. His influence, his positive impact, not only on Flin Flon and the North but on all of Manitoba, is beyond question.

Bud Jobin, the master volunteer, was equally unstinting in his efforts as the people's elected representative as councillor, as mayor, as MLA. Therefore, it came as no surprise to any Manitoban when honour after honour was heaped upon Bud Jobin. If anyone deserved to be honoured, it was Bud Jobin.

He was honoured by being promoted to the position of cabinet minister. He was awarded the Manitoba Historical Society's Centennial Medal in 1970. Bud Jobin was installed as Knight of the Order of St. John in 1976. A year later, he was granted an honourary degree by the University of Manitoba.

Finally, Bud was granted the supreme honour by becoming Manitoba's Lieutenant-Governor. He filled this post with great distinction from 1976 to 1981.

It is indeed an honour, as the present member for Flin Flon, to pay tribute to a former member for Flin Flon, Bud Jobin. Bud, like Tom Barrow, also a former member for Flin Flon, was a character. Both of them were really colourful characters. The North has very few of those colourful characters left, and that is a sad loss.

Bud Jobin will be sadly missed not only by his loving family but by every member in this Assembly, every northerner for sure and, I believe, indeed every Manitoban. In Shakespeare's words, Madam Speaker, may his memory be forever green. Thank you.

Mr. Steve Ashton (Thompson): Madam Speaker, one thing I appreciate about this Chamber is the opportunity to see the great diversity of this province and the unique character of each part of this province and the unique character of individuals who come from different parts of this province. I guess the reason I am saying that is that there was no doubt in my mind the first day I met Bud Jobin that he was a northerner. He had a unique outspokenness. He was not one to miss the opportunity--I remember watching politics from outside the Chamber, before I was elected, remembering when Bud Jobin created some controversy by adding some editorial comment to the throne speech. I only think you could expect that from a northerner.

I find it interesting too that when I was elected it was just--it was interesting too, because the editorial comment was, I think, and I am trying to remember what he exactly said, but it was that we should work together and of course this was at a very--well, of course, we have had rather a number of years where we have had fairly lively debates and, to put it diplomatically, it was a time when there was a lot of lively discussion going on in the Legislature. Bud put it pretty bluntly and clearly and probably spoke for a lot of people and then proceeded to create a mini constitutional crisis. Only a northerner could do that, Madam Speaker.

Then I happened to really get to know him actually after he had completed his term as Lieutenant-Governor. Everywhere I went as a newly elected MLA, and I have always been one to admit this, I think we all go through this, but being elected at the age that I was and being reminded by members opposite, I was actually told I think on occasion that I was wet behind the ears. The great thing was, you know you have to learn. [interjection] Yes, well, actually there were a number of people who used that term. I do not know when I lost that but, anyway, I hope I have not lost it in the spirit of learning. [interjection] Okay, I am actually encouraged by that, because Bud was a great one to just pull you aside, and he would say, you know, and then he would proceed to give you his opinions based on his own experience. Believe you me, they were very useful perspectives to have because, you know, following when he moved to Flin Flon, I would say he was one of the real founders of modern day Flin Flon.

You know, I remember one time having a discussion with him and it was related to a matter of concern at the time. We were trying to get a seniors home. We did not have a seniors home, and he said, you know, that was the way Flin Flon was 25 years ago. He said: We went through that process. You know what will happen? You will talk about it for a while, the community will talk about it for a while and then at some point in time the collective minds will get together and they will say, let us get it done, and it will happen. It was an interesting perspective, because very shortly afterwards that is exactly what happened. It was interesting because he had that long-term vision of other things.

I was on the Port of Churchill Development Board. He had been active with that. I was on the Norman RDC, many of the meetings. He had been active in founding the Norman RDC, and he would tell you in great detail his plan for northern Manitoba. He deeply believed in northern Manitoba. You know what I thought was always classic though with Bud Jobin was that he was very straightforward.

It is interesting I think when I mentioned about the unique breed of people that we are in Manitoba, the one great thing about this province that I really like, maybe this is coming from the North as well where titles do not mean that much, pomp and circumstance does not mean that much. It is more the essence of the process and the person. That was Bud. I can call him that because that was his personality. You did not ever call him Your Honour. You did not call him by any title and you just listened to what he had to say. You told him what you thought and that is exactly the way it should have been.

That is something that I think is probably very, very much so the character of northern Manitoba. Certainly ever since I can remember, it has been very much part of our politics and our daily way of life. You know, I think in a lot of ways, even though it is not quite as obvious elsewhere in the province, perhaps it is probably very much a Manitoba trait as well. I do not know anywhere else where I could be standing speaking about someone who had such a distinguished career as Bud Jobin and just refer to him by his first name in this kind of a tribute to his life, because I know that is the way he would have wanted it, I know the people he worked with in northern Manitoba would want it. I know the rest of the province, they knew him as Bud. They knew him for the work he did. They knew him for the person that he was and he certainly contributed a lot to me as a then-rookie MLA.

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I can truthfully say when I go to those Port of Churchill meetings or the Norman RDC meetings in the future, you know, I think instinctively I would be looking for him, and even though he may not be there physically, I still think his presence will be there because so much of what he believed in is still being carried on today by so many organizations throughout this province.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Some Honourable Members: Agreed.

Madam Speaker: Would all honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate their support for the motion.

A moment of silence was observed.

Hon. Jim Ernst (Government House Leader): Madam Speaker, there may be a will of the House to call it six o'clock.

Madam Speaker: Is it the will of the House to call it six o'clock? [agreed]

I am leaving the Chair with the understanding that this House will reconvene at 8 p.m. this evening.