Clarkson Cup to honour best in women’s hockey
National trophy one of 2 new awards Northern medal struck by governor general
Adrienne Clarkson, in her second- tolast week as governor general, is creating two awards that will serve as part of the legacy of her six years in office.
Later today, Rideau Hall is to announce creation of the Governor General’s Northern medal, a new honour to be awarded each year to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the “ evolution and constant reaffirmation” of Northern Canada. The medal doubles as a way to ensure her record of championing the North’s importance remains a permanent role for future governors general.
“ I want the institution of the governor general . . . to be recognized as the one that recognizes the North,” Clarkson said in an interview.
Yesterday, at a joint luncheon of the Empire Club of Canada and the Canadian Club of Toronto, she also announced creation of the Clarkson Cup, a prize for the highest level of Canadian women’s hockey.
In what was billed as her farewell speech, she said that, after visiting some 300 Canadian communities and travelling more than half a million kilometres around this country, she really has come to understand the need for Canadians to think of the nation more inclusively.
That means including the North in the way we think of Canada, thinking of the problems of the still struggling aboriginal population as problems we all must tackle and remembering all our stories, good and bad, as our history.
“ Not many have had the privilege of seeing at first hand, as we have, how enormous and various Canada really is,” Clarkson said. “ To link it up in our minds, to have it feel like a real and united place, we must find ways to interact and to understand.” Her mandate as the Queen’s representative in Canada ends Sept. 27 but her constitutional role as de facto head of state was a role sharpened, she said, by the elected federal minority.
“ A minority government does have a wonderfully clarifying effect on the mind.” She noted her constitutional role rests in the reserve powers of “ making sure that there is a prime minister and a government in place” and “ exercising the right ‘ to encourage, to advise and to warn.’ Without revealing any secrets, I can tell you that I have done all three.” Of Canada’s history, she said, “We must remember it, not in order to dwell on suffering or wrack ourselves with guilt, but simply because memory . . . is a very good thing. We are responsible for all our history, the times when Canadians have treated others badly as well as the countless ways, large and small, that our people have behaved with the greatest humanity and compassion.” The idea to create a Clarkson Cup arose during last season’s NHL lockout when Clarkson suggested that the Stanley Cup, created by Lord Stanley, one of her predecessors, should be awarded to a women’s hockey team.
Clarkson said yesterday that the cup will be designed and crafted at Nunavut Arctic College. It’s to be ready by May. What’s unclear is exactly how Canada’s eastern and western women’s hockey leagues will vie for the cup. Her successor to be sworn in Sept. 27 is Haitian- born Michaëlle Jean, who is also a Canadian journalist.