LETTERS HOME ... TO CANADA
GG’s morning ritual leads to book
David Johnston is an old-school guy. He likes a beer at his local (wherever that local is) and he enjoys a wellplayed game of hockey. He lives and works out of Rideau Hall these days, but his day job as Governor General of Canada doesn’t seem to have affected him or distracted him.
One of his long-standing routines involves writing letters — to his daughters, their children, friends, acquaintances and just about anyone he has bumped into. It is something he has been doing every morning for decades, putting pen to paper.
Now this habit of a lifetime has led to a new book about Canada as viewed from the perch at Rideau Hall and beyond. The Idea of Canada: Letters to a Nation will launch in Ottawa on Tuesday night at the NAC’s Panorama Room as part of the spring edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The event is sold out. He will be in Toronto on Wednesday evening taking part in an event with CBC Radio’s Shelagh Rogers presented by the Toronto Public Library.
Letter writing helps Johnston to focus his thoughts.
“I guess I’m a little old-fashioned in that way. When my eldest daughter moved away from home, each morning I would write a letter to her.” This continued as each one of his five daughters left home.
“I felt so good doing it, it was my contact with each one of them,” whether they paid attention to every one of the letters or not, he says.
For Johnston, it was continuing a habit he started early in his life, writing home when he was away at Harvard University or to his wife of 51 years.
“I was in England in the year before Sharon and I were married and I wrote a letter a day in those days.”
When he was in academia (Johnston was, before his current job, a law professor, dean of law at Western, principal of McGill and the president of University of Waterloo), he would take down some notes from a conversation and turn them into a letter, or something would pop into his head during a run.
“I find writing hard. It’s much less hard to come back from a run and put things down in bullet form.” Out of that would flow a letter.
In the book, these letters are small essays, unashamedly didactic, reflecting a career in universities and life as a father and grandfather. Some are addressed to people such as Clara Hughes, the athlete and mental health advocate; Céline Dion, the singer, about the importance of French culture to Canada; to the former clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette on Samuel de Champlain, and others to groups of people and some even to the dead.
“This was a book that I had intended to do and publish after I stepped down. I was supposed to step down last September and we launched (the project) when I was asked to stay on. It just seemed an appropriate thing to do. It’s not simply a reflection of my time over the last five and a half years as governor general, but really my entire life.
“So much of what I have done in this job has been about my idea of Canada and the special place it is. And it’s captured that, we hope.
“People often ask me, ‘What surprised you in the job?’ I would say I have always thought this is a good country, but I never realized how good it was, and what the special qualities were, and that’s what propelled me to stop writing law books for a little bit and write something that was a little more personal about this special country.”
The process of effectively baring his own soul is a bit nerve-racking, he says.
Canada today, he says, is a more confident country than when he was a young adult in the 1960s, when Lament for a Nation by George Grant was the thought of the day.
“I think it’s been an enhancement of confidence, but I think it’s (partly) come from knowing ourselves and not allowing ourselves to be judged by how others see us.”
And the country has been able to avoid extremes in order to make Canada work, he adds.
It’s not simply a reflection of my time over the last five and a half years as Governor General, but really my entire life.
“I often cite the fact that when Champlain first arrived, his first settlement only survived because the local First Nations helped them.
“It’s very important that we understand the history of the country and the role that the Aboriginal Peoples played and the role we want them to play as our history unfolds. I certainly have strong feelings about the need for equality of opportunity for First Nations people. As we move to 2017, we will place a special emphasis on the kinds of things coming out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” which examined the impact of residential schools on indigenous Canadians.
After 1763, he noted, the French settlers kept their language, religion and civil law. “I suppose people would question two systems of law in the country, but it has worked.”
The letters have all been mailed, except for the those to people who have passed on. And there have been some replies.
Replies encourage Johnston to keep the exchange going, something that seems to be developing with John F. Helliwell, an academic and editor of the World Happiness Report.
This, Johnston says, is the track of innovation. It is iterative and reiterative.
Johnston’s personal passion is hockey. He played at Harvard, where his coach was a man named Ralph Cooney Weiland, who coached the Crimson side. Weilan had been an NHLer and was a part of Boston’s famous Kraut line.
Johnston has included a letter to Weiland in the collection, even though the man is long dead. In fact, Johnston helped deliver his eulogy.
One reason for the letter is to remind Canadians to cherish their teachers. But another is about playing hockey the right way. And that part is for parents.
“I don’t know what the pros will do, but (we) have to minimize risk of head injuries.
“The culture of Canadians is not to seek conflict. The Canadian custom is to say ‘excuse me.’ I want to teach children to compete vigorously, to give a good, decent, clean check, but never have the view that ‘I’m going to run that person into the boards.’ ”
Johnston worries most about the complacency of Canadians; that they may take their country for granted.
“Life is somewhat comfortable in Canada. We have been some 200 years without armed battle in this land of ours. We have had a good public education system. We really have to concentrate on having excellence along with equality of opportunity. They are complementary objectives and not competing objectives.”
Johnston will be in office until September 2017. He has one last Canada Day on a very important anniversary, Canada’s 150th.
“My wife says, ‘Maybe you’ll get it right.’ If you are married 51 years, your hat size never changes. Remember that,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.
The sesquicentennial will be very exciting, he says, before charging Canadians with a task.
“The 150th birthday is pretty special. To celebrate you have to make a gift to ensure the next 50 years or so are even better than it is today.”