Did you see ex Prime Minister Jean Chrétien being interviewed by news media about his memories of the Queen in Canada. I didn’t see it, but I was told that he that he told, from his point of view, the story that I have also told so many times from my point of view.

In July 1970 the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles and Anne were to visit Canada to mark the 100^th anniversary of Manitoba’s entry into Canada. That year also saw the commemoration of Northwest Territories entry into the Dominion of Canada.

I was in my office in Calgary one day when I had a call form Ottawa, asking if I would be able to organizeany events for the Queen could take part in while on her visit. At the time we had a big back log of plagues that had to be put up, several in the Northwest Territories. I thought that I could arrange 3 sites and one of those was to be a plague recognizing McKenzie’s Trip down the River which now has his name. That was to go up at Fort Providence. I would look after 2 of the ceremonies myself, the one in Fort Providence and another at the rapids at Fort Smith, which was the head of navigation at that time. As with all ceremonies a choir would be needed for the singing of the national anthem and God Save the Queen. A local school choir was located to take on the honor of singing before the Queen.

The ceremony was to take place in early July, so all the arrangements were being made before the end of June – during school time. They forgot the problems of having the anthems lead by the school choir while the kids where not in school. They were scattered far distances; some may even have been flown in for school. When all was arranged, and it was time for The Royal Family to arrive we looked around and there was no choir! I looked at Chairman of the Historic sites, Alen Turner, who was the Master of Ceremonies and said, “I am not going to lead the Anthems” and Alen said he wasn’t going to, but we could not do without singing God Save the Queen. The Minister of our department at the time, Jean Chrétien, said he would. And he did. Even doing a creatable job of it and creating a memory for both himself and, I have heard, The Queen. And that is the story that Jean Chrétien told when asked of his most memorable time meeting the Queen.

 I remember too from that time looking at the Queen, she noticed me looking and nodded and smiled back at me.

A few days earlier The Queen was to unveil a plague at Fort Smith where the monument to be dedicated was put on an esker on the shore of the Slave River in view of the rapids. It was the Head of Navigation into the north and an important spot. That day It was also a choice place for scads of misquotes.

With the Queen present, it was imperative that men remove their hats, which I dutifully did. We didhave a choir this time and with my hat removed for the singing of God Save the Queen and the national anthem I was suffering much to the amusement of Fran Turner, the wife of the Chairmen. She could hardly contain herself during the singing when looking at about 100 misquotes on top of my bald head. The Queen herself refused to use the vail to keep fly’s off. She used her famous wave. I believe that this was also the very first time that the Queen wore slacks due to the insects.

I was at Fort Providence before the ceremony to make preparations and check the decorations and what not and a group of the Queen’s entourage arrived. I didn’t have much time and knowing there would be a big crowd had gone in early and arranged at a local cafe for my noontime meal. I came back and found a group of the Royal Family’s entourage were sitting around a table. I went to this table and offered a cup of coffee, and several said yes. I got the coffee pot and poured the coffee myself and almost shocked the group. I, who was arranging the ceremony would act a servant and pore coffee. And even stranger to them as soon as I sat down my meal was served hot and first.

There was nowhere suitable for the Queen to stay in Fort Providence, so they fixed up a River Boat from Hay River for her accommodation.

It was interesting that they had a canoe race for the benefit of the Royal Family with canoes that would later follows Mackenzie’s trip right up to the artic ocean. They took off and did a race up and around an Island. They were decorated from where they came from. There was a bunch of young paddlers from Aklavik. Their canoe was decorated very traditionally and Prince Charles took a liking to this canoe. As he was talking to the men from this canoe The Queen turned around and said “Charles”. Mother or Queen, he quickly made sure to catch up.  The canoe started off and they were going so hard I thought that they would play out before long, and it would be like the race of the Tortoise and the Hare but they came out around the Island and they were still going way way ahead of everyone else.

The next year Dorothy and I borrowed our son Garry’s red convertible to attend The Queen and Prince Philip’s visit to Fort Langley, BC. This was the time I escorted Prince Philip and his aide that I talked about in another blog. Both Dorothy and I were to be presented to The Queen. Before hand we were required to attend meetings and meetings and meetings on what to do when we met her. How you address her as Your Majesty, how you do not need to bow but a slight nod of the head will do. Not to squeeze or grip the Queen’s hand and you do not linger holding her hand.

Perhaps the best story I remember about the Queen was her stop at Lower Fort Garry outside of Selkirk, Manitoba. The event commemorated the 1670 granting of Rupert’s Land by the English Monarch to the Hudson’s Bay Company. The original charter included a clause that said that any time the reigning monarch came to Rupert’s Land that monarch would be made a gift of two beaver and one elk.   The two beavers were in a tank of water awaiting the presentation. Well, it is hard to sex a beaver. They thought they had two male beavers but sometime into the presentation the beaver started to do what a boy and a girl beaver will do. The Queen bent over the tank to inspect her new possessions; she turned to HBC Governor Viscount Amory and asked, “Whatever are they doing?” Not knowing what to say the Governor replied. “Ma’am, it’s no use asking me, I am a bachelor”