More than 1,200 attend ceremony
Published Saturday July 4th, 2009
Dignitaries and the people he served stood side by side to say farewell to former governor general
The sun shone on the Memramcook Valley just once yesterday morning, but it was an auspicious moment, burning through a grey sky just as the flag-draped casket carrying Roméo LeBlanc was borne to the St. Thomas Church.
The church, its steeple the valley's dominant landmark, was the one Canada's 25th governor general worshipped in as a boy and it was there yesterday where he began his final journey home.
He did not make the journey alone.
More than 1,200 people from literally all walks of life gathered in the village to pay tribute to the man from Cormier's Cove who lived in so many different worlds in his 81 years of life.
"This is history," said Lakeville's Jeannine Arsenault, when asked why she had made the trip to Memramcook.
Indeed, LeBlanc's funeral in the cradle of modern Acadie may have been the most historic event to take place on the grounds of l'Université St-Joseph since the National Society of Acadians meetings set the Acadian renaissance in motion back in 1881.
The mighty and the wealthy came out, and so did the ordinary men and women in the street. There were ambassadors from places like Poland and Cote d'Ivoire and Mongolia, and there were those who travelled from places like Ste-Marie-de-Kent to honour the man who had served them so well as a parliamentarian.
And while several hundred citizens lined the main street through St-Joseph to watch an equal number of Mounties, soldiers, fisheries officers and dignitaries march in procession, it seems there could have been more.
"We thought we'd never get close (because of the security)," Memramcook resident Lisa LeBlanc said, adding she was glad she took her chances and came out anyway.
Watching with her fellow residents in front of the Marche-Central across the street, LeBlanc, no relation to the former governor general, said, "it's touching that they did it here in this small town."
A small town Memramcook might be, but it felt a lot like the corridors of Canadian power yesterday. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former prime minister Jean Chrétien were both there, as were Governor General Michaëlle Jean and former governor general Ed Schreyer.
Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae were both on hand, as were New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and former premiers Bernard Lord, Camille Thériault and Frank McKenna.
"We'll go a long time before we have another giant like that in our midst," McKenna said. "Add him to Louis Robichaud and Yvon Durelle and Rocket Richard. He would be right up there in the pantheon of heroes to me."
The Honourable Marc Lalonde was also there. Lalonde and LeBlanc had been friends since they were both journalism students in 1950. It was Lalonde who recruited LeBlanc to be prime minister Lester Pearson's press secretary before Lalonde and LeBlanc became members of parliament in 1972.
He spoke of LeBlanc's commitment to people who, "did not have a big voice, fishermen, the Acadian community, the aboriginal peoples."
"He was a humble servant of the people," Lalonde said. "I was glad he acceded to the position of governor general. I think it speaks well for our country that we appointed a man like him to represent us."
Bob Rae, who called LeBlanc "a great friend, mentor and counsellor," echoed Lalonde.
"He rose to the greatest heights of public life and he never lost his sense of humour or sense of who he was," Rae said.
"I think what you're seeing here today is not just a huge outpouring of respect, but also of love and affection."
Corporal Wally Blacquiere was one of those whose affection for LeBlanc drove his sense of duty yesterday. One of the two Mounties in red serge who flanked the doors outside the St. Thomas Church throughout the funeral, Blacquiere said he jumped at the chance to serve LeBlanc one last time.
Blacquiere had been on LeBlanc's security detail for the better part of three years and fondly recalled yesterday how it was impossible to take LeBlanc shopping for groceries in Grande-Digue without the governor general insisting on buying his bodyguards blueberry pies and other treats.
It would be both cliché and inaccurate to say the village came to a halt for the funeral, and quite likely something Roméo LeBlanc wouldn't have wanted anyway. The barbershop near the church stayed open and the day was an economic boom for the Marche-Central, which kept Mounties, soldiers, reporters, civil servants from the Department of Canadian Heritage and general public topped up with water and coffee.
While those outside strained to hear their MP Dominic LeBlanc eulogize his father via loudspeakers that carried the funeral from the church into the street, LeBlanc was momentarily drowned out by a passing pick-up truck blaring Kid Rock.
The moment captured something of the greatness of the nation Roméo LeBlanc served so loyally. With both our head of government and our head of state, not to mention Canada's chief justice, minister of defence, speaker of the house, leader of the opposition and also New Brunswick's premier all inside a church just a few metres off the road, security was relaxed enough to allow traffic to flow past normally.
A plainclothes police officer from the prime minister's security detail did however draw the line when a large truck came to a stop in front of St. Thomas Church, just as the mourners spilled out at the end of the funeral mass. He quickly signalled a uniformed Mountie to wave it away from the area.
As the mourners left the church, the first volleys of LeBlanc's 21-gun salute were heard. The artillery guns were still firing when the whistle of a CN freight train making its way up the valley joined in the chorus.
It seemed to all those gathered that the field guns had shot holes in the sky, as the first real rain of the day began falling simultaneously.
As boxes and boxes of black umbrellas were produced to shelter the mourners from the rain, two distinct parts of the ritual of saying farewell emerged. At the west side of the church, a sombre graveside ceremony laid LeBlanc to rest while a lone bugler played the Last Post. Around the corner at the front of the church, other mourners emerged into the fresh air unaware of the graveside service 100 metres (350 feet) away, and shared the understandable happiness and high spirits of seeing old friends, slapping backs and laughing heartily.
By then a hard rain was falling -- it would let up briefly again before pouring down in buckets -- and all retreated into whatever buildings they could find. And before long all of them, more than 1,200 people, were headed home.
Roméo LeBlanc was already there.
Disabled
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
