The president of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga during an intervirew in her home in Jurmala Latvia. (CP PHOTO/Jacques Boissinot)
Posted on 05/25/2006 3:06:24 PM PDT by lizol
Latvian leader remembers good, bad times in Canada
By CHRIS JOHNSTON
JURMALA, Latvia (CP) - Over a lifetime that has seen her go from a refugee in Morocco to a professor in Canada to the president of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga has learned that countries, like people, must pass through different phases.
It's easy then to understand why the 68-year-old "Mother Latvia" - as she's affectionately known by some here - feels a bit like a proud parent while watching her country host this month's International Ice Hockey Federation championship.
"It demonstrates that Latvia has achieved maturity as a country that recovered its independence," Vike-Freiberga said in an interview at her home this week. "The fact that we are able to host such an important event, that we are able to provide the facilities . . . is very good advertising for Latvia as a country."
The opportunity has been a long time coming for both country and president.
Vike-Freiberga's family fled Latvia to escape Soviet occupation in early 1945. They first went to Germany, then Morocco. Sponsored by other exiled Latvians, the family eventually made its way to Canada in 1954.
After landing in Toronto, the 16-year-old Vike-Freiberga had to find a job quickly to help the family settle debts. She worked at a bank and attended night school. She remembers waiting for streetcars in the brutal winter cold while wearing just a thin jacket.
"My first year in Canada was just about the hardest in my life except the last year of the war," Vike-Freiberga said. "It was extremely difficult."
She then enrolled at the University of Toronto, earning a BA and MA in psychology and meeting her future husband while helping organize a Latvian community dance.
Vike-Freiberga sought comfort from the "enclave" of fellow exiled Latvians she found in the city, as acceptance from other classmates was slow to come.
"It took quite awhile because the attitude towards new Canadians in Toronto - there were so many of them - was that they weren't quite normal people," Vike-Freiberga said.
It didn't get much easier after getting married and moving to Montreal, where she earned a doctorate in experimental psychology at McGill University.
She was fluent in French - along with Latvian, English, German and Spanish - from her time in Morocco but still felt like an outsider among Francophones.
One moment that stands out is seeing the introduction of a Canadian flag in 1965 and watching it raised up the flag pole at McGill for the first time. "I remember feeling very moved that day," said Vike-Freiberga. "I felt Canada was maturing, it was acquiring an identity."
"When I arrived there, I felt Canada was still sort of like a colonial empire. In 10 years' time, it had developed a stronger identity." Progress, she felt, was being made.
There are some parallels with Latvia today.
National identity has been the central question since Latvia regained its independence in August 1991.
Latvian citizenship was extended to those who had roots in the country before Soviet occupation. This left many Russians who had settled in Latvia during the occupation in limbo. They were later offered the right to citizenship by passing a test to show understanding of the Latvian language and history, but ethnic Russians without full citizenship made up as much as an estimated 13 per cent of the population in 2005.
Still, linguistic and cultural differences have seemingly disappeared during the world hockey championship. Passionate Latvian hockey fans have come together behind the slogan, "Mus vieno hokejs!" - hockey unites us.
"The spirit of being united behind a team I think is very, very good for Latvia," said Vike-Freiberga, who has attended games with her husband and sat among fans wearing one of the team's maroon jerseys. "It's a very democratic, very unifying moment. The fans are all united in the one enthusiasm for the sport."
It's also been gratifying for Vike-Freiberga, who has spent a lot of time thinking about Latvian identity.
She spent 33 years as a professor at the University of Montreal and authored nine books and 160 articles - many on Latvian folk songs and culture - during her career. She has delivered more than 250 speeches around the world.
Vike-Freiberga returned to Riga after retiring from teaching in 1998 to accept a job as director of the newly founded Latvian Institute, which sought to increase the country's exposure around the world.
When the Saeima - Latvia's parliament - was unable to agree on a new president in 1999, Vike-Freiberga was introduced at the last minute as an unaffiliated compromise candidate.
Until that point, becoming president was only something she'd thought of "as a joke."
After giving up her Canadian citizenship and being unanimously elected, she became president on June 17, 1999.
It was a move that came with mixed emotions.
"I had worked hard for that (Canadian) citizenship," Vike-Freiberga said. "I felt I had earned it. And of course I had all these memories of my life spent in Canada."
But she also understood it had to be done. In fact, since she's taken office the law has been extended so that ministers holding public office must be Latvian citizens.
Vike-Freiberga says it's a matter of optics.
"Can you really conceive of somebody having whole-hearted support of the interests of the country and at the same time holding the citizenship of another country?" she said.
As president of Latvia, Vike-Freiberga has one of the highest popularity ratings of any leader in the world. She was re-elected for another four-year term in 2003, and saw Latvia gain acceptance into NATO and the European Union in 2004.
Even though she relinquished her citizenship, she can't ignore how her time in Canada has contributed to her development and, by extension, her country's. "You can't very well wipe out a major portion of my life," Vike-Freiberga said. "It has an immense importance in who I am."
"I had plenty of time to both reflect and talk about what democracy means, what freedom means. I couldn't have done it living here in the Soviet system."
She has witnessed a lot of change and is often reminded of it.
"I look in the mirror and I say, 'Who is this old woman?"' Vike-Freiberga said with a rare laugh. "It's somebody else."
"In other words, life does go on."
In June 2007, she'll complete her second term as president and will face another of life's many phases. She has been touted as a possible candidate to replace Kofi Annan as secretary general of the United Nations.
Vike-Freiberga isn't too worried about what will come because she remembers how she felt after tendering her resignation at the University of Montreal in 1998. Never one to shed a tear, she returned to her car and wept because she thought her career was over.
And yet life continued.
"Discovering that what I had learned was still being of use to somebody was a wonderful experience," Vike-Freiberga said. "If it's happened twice . . . then surely there will be something interesting to come along again."
The president of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga during an intervirew in her home in Jurmala Latvia. (CP PHOTO/Jacques Boissinot)
bttt.
Very nice home page BTW.
Thanks, I'm glad you like it :-)
"One moment that stands out is seeing the introduction of a Canadian flag in 1965 and watching it raised up the flag pole at McGill for the first time. "I remember feeling very moved that day," said Vike-Freiberga. "I felt Canada was maturing, it was acquiring an identity."
French identity...
Imho, the '65 Canadian flag represented the political power of Montreal's Molson family.
"I Am Canadian."
;^)
ping
BTTT
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