May 16, 2007

by Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean

Our official visit here should have taken place last year, but provincial elections were called and we were forced to delay our trip.

We decided to begin our trip two days ago by visiting with military personnel and their families at CFB Gagetown, which, as we all know, suffered terrible losses over the Easter weekend when four of its own were killed in Afghanistan. They wanted to talk about it, and their pain, and I found out what kinds of services and resources are at their disposal under such circumstances. These families touched me with their courage; young mothers and their children told me about how difficult it is to just wait and how they go about their lives in the meantime. The families of military personnel deployed overseas need to be heard. Their situation is unique and they need to know that we are interested in what they have to say and that they are not alone. They say that indifference and a lack of understanding upset them the most.

After our visit in Gagetown, we went to Fredericton and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, where we saw an incredible exposition of some amazing pieces by Miller Brittain (1912–1968), a painter from New Brunswick who was a contemporary of Alex Colville. As our guide—the wonderful Mr. Lalonde—said, Beaverbrook may be one of the smallest galleries in Canada, but it certainly has some of the best art. There are three huge canvases by Salvador Dali right as you enter the gallery, and a very interesting selection of beautiful pieces by Krieghoff in the basement. Children come to the gallery every day after school to explore the principles of artistic creation. When I went to talk to them, I was surprised and touched when they gave me a magnificent collage they had all worked on together that was made up of excerpts of speeches I have given and photographs all put together in a cheerful, multicoloured floral motif. I want to call it “resonance,” because these little artists, all under the age of ten, showed that they were capable of taking in so much more than we usually give children credit for.  

The evening ended with young local artists, musicians and poets, who demonstrated their talent with enthusiasm, passion, and an air of celebration.  

The atmosphere was lovely, but we also had an interesting discussion about their choice of art to express themselves and as a medium for dialogue and bringing people together. They decided to stay here and develop means of creating, convinced that many new solutions and ideas are born in small communities where people still know how to design and implement even big projects collectively. Their own creations are good examples of this, but they also talked about the poetry festival in Trois-Rivières and the Festival international de musique actuelle in Victoriaville, Quebec. I agree with them and salute their determination.