Donovan Arnaud’s life on the river
Looking forward to what’s around the next bend
Donovan Arnaud gives the helm a small adjustment as he pilots his beloved Nugget upriver toward Merrickville. It takes a practised eye to navigate the hidden shallows and clumps of weeds along the narrow waterway, and Arnaud knows the river’s secrets intimately.
As we motor along between the grassy banks it is easy to forget that we are on the Rideau River at Burritts Rapids 45 minutes southwest of Ottawa, and not some sleepy backwater of Huck Finn’s Mississippi off Hannibal, Missouri. The vessel’s old-style charm brings smiles and waves from visiting boaters as they slip past in their powerful, modern cruisers.
The Nugget is a familiar sight to regular traffic on the river, as is Arnaud himself. Since 1989 the 69-year-old former naval reserve commander and retired federal government Public Safety program director has called this part of North Grenville between Merrickville and Kemptville home. For the past two years he has served the municipality as a councillor, chairing the Economic Development Advisory Committee, and representing council on the local BIA and chamber of commerce.
Arnaud is also well known through his community work with the local Navy League and Sea Cadets, Rotary Club, and as a lay reader with the Anglican Church. His wife Jennifer Franssen, who retired from Public Safety Canada herself a year ago, is also involved in Rotary, and is in her second term as president of the Kemptville Youth Centre.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Arnaud said. “Life is such a great adventure, and I’ve had some incredible opportunities. You never know what’s around the next bend.”
For most of his working life Arnaud has held responsible senior leadership positions in one form of government service or another. His record shows numerous awards for exemplary and meritorious service, validation of the personal progress he has made since finishing high school in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., where his father Eddie worked as a brakeman for the Canadian National Railway. His mother, Lillian May Fairbanks, was an English war bride from Manchester.
“Our family was close, but I was totally rudderless as a young man,” Arnaud said. “It was a time in my life when I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I was very undisciplined. The navy made me the man who I am today. It shaped me in every way.”
When he left the federal government in 2013, Arnaud said he was prepared financially but not emotionally for retirement. Having every day seem like a Saturday with nothing meaningful to do left him feeling miserable and depressed. Franssen encouraged him to get moving and investigate a few business opportunities, and supported his decision to throw his hat in the ring when a municipal councillor position opened up in 2015. It was the tonic he needed for finding his bearings again.
“It got me out of my funk,” he said. “Leadership has always been an important part of my life because of what you are able to do for other people.”
Arnaud feels a strong sense of duty toward the citizens of North Grenville, especially those who have special need of attention. On Remembrance Day last year his initiative to honour the life of a local soldier killed in action in Afghanistan in 2006 came to a successful conclusion when the Kemptville Armoury was renamed the Pte. Blake Williamson Memorial Hall.
“I felt it was important that we honour this young man who gave his life in the service of his country,” Arnaud said. “I got a lot of support from my colleagues on council, and we made it happen.”
Arnaud said life is precious and good these days, and he does not want to waste any of it through negative energy or hesitation.
“I’m about to turn 70 years old, and I have no intention whatsoever of not living life to the full,” he said. “Some people are afraid of what’s around the next bend in the river, but what’s life without risk? It isn’t worth living. At my time of life I want the river to continue.”