A solemn farewell
Published Saturday July 4th, 2009
Hundreds pay tribute at state funeral for former governor general Roméo LeBlanc
MEMRAMCOOK - Roméo LeBlanc was remembered on Friday as one of the leading luminaries in a generation of politicians who helped strengthen and unite Canada.
LeBlanc, a farm boy from Memramcook, was buried in his hometown with the kind of pomp and ceremony reserved for Canada's most honoured and respected citizens.
"He was immensely proud to be from this village," federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said as he stood outside the Memramcook church where LeBlanc's state funeral was held.
"It's a story for all Canadians. You can start in a place like this and become our head of state. It's an inspiring story."
LeBlanc, former governor general, senator and federal cabinet minister, died last week at the age of 81 after a long period of failing health.
The list of dignitaries who arrived at Saint Thomas Church for the funeral reads like a Canadian Who's Who. Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean; Ignatieff; former prime minister Jean Chrétien; Marc LaLonde and Justin Trudeau, to name just a few.
Chrétien delivered one of three eulogies, describing LeBlanc as "the great gentleman of Acadia." Chrétien appointed LeBlanc as Canada's 25th governor general, the first Acadian and the first from the Maritimes.
"I never met anyone who did not like him," Chrétien said.
Although politicians were well represented at the ceremonies, there were also people from the farming community of Memramcook, many of whom lined the streets in a cool mist to watch the state funeral - the first to the held in New Brunswick.
"I used to work in retail and he use to shop at our store in Moncton about 20 years ago," Moncton resident Val LeBlanc said as he stood near the church.
"He was dressed like the average guy, he had security, but he was just like you and me. He didn't act like the high class person that he was, he was like us. Plus, I am a LeBlanc and it's an honour to have an Acadian go where he was, and he brought a lot of pride to the LeBlanc name and to our Atlantic province."
There were also business leaders, academics, members of the legal community and members of the aboriginal community.
Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations gave a reading during the service. Outside the church, he told The Telegraph-Journal he had great respect for LeBlanc.
"He had a strong desire to make things better for our people," Fontaine said in an interview.
Harper and Chrétien were among those to file by LeBlanc's casket on Friday morning at the Memramcook Institute, where he was lying in state, before the funeral at the nearby church.
A funeral procession, led by a military honour guard and accompanied by a military band, later made its way through the village.
Fisheries officers lined the procession route, a tribute to LeBlanc from his time as fisheries minister in Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau's cabinet in the 1970s.
"I saw three former ministers of fisheries here," Brian Tobin, a former federal fisheries minister said in an interview.
"We all tried hard to emulate Roméo, but he was the master. He was the best minister of fisheries Canada ever had. Even John Crosbie would agree with that."
LeBlanc's son Dominic, the Liberal MP for Beauséjour, recalled that his father went to work in Ottawa with people like former prime minister Lester Pearson, then Trudeau and Chrétien.
"My father was proud to be included in this group. They all share a vision of a compassionate Canada and each of them had an unyielding faith in the generosity and tolerance of Canadians," he said in his eulogy.
"The country has lost a devoted Canadian who did his best to serve with humility and compassion."
Dominic also remembered his father as a devoted family man.
"Dad, we love you," he said before bowing his head and laying his hand on the flag-draped casket.
Genevieve LeBlanc, Roméo's daughter, was presented with the Canadian flag that had covered her father's coffin during the lying in state and funeral.
His Acadian roots and importance to New Brunswick's francophone community were remembered by Rev. Arthur Bourgeois, who delivered the homily.
He described LeBlanc as a warm man, someone who worked to improve the lives of others.
"Whatever he undertook, there was this constant theme of consideration for others, respect for people and tolerance for the difference of others," Bourgeois said.
Writer and historian Dr. Naomi Griffiths said in her eulogy that LeBlanc was shaped by Memramcook and his ties to Acadia.
"He took with him not only a sense of his own Acadian village - French-speaking, Catholic and a community where helping one's neighbour was something one never questioned - but also the knowledge of the neighbouring English protestant village where the same attitude held true.
"When trouble struck, each one came to the aid of the other."
Griffiths said that history opened LeBlanc's heart to the possibility of a nation in which different cultures live in harmony.
"He had the heart to follow the impossible dream."
More than 1,000 people attended the funeral in the church. It was also broadcast live on television.
Chrétien, his wife Aline, Premier Shawn Graham, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau and James K. Irving, chairman of J.D. Irving, Limited, were among 32 honorary pallbearers.
Although LeBlanc spent his last years in the community of Grande-Digue, near Shediac, Memramcook was always a special place for him.
He was born and raised near the village and attended Saint Joseph's College, now the Memramcook Institute, where his body lay in state before the funeral.
He was buried in the cemetery behind Saint Thomas Church.
"He was a great Acadian, Canadian and a Memramcooker," said village councillor George Gaudet.
"I am so glad the funeral was here, because he never forgot where he came from."
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