Sunday December 15, 2024 | COLWOOD, BC [Posted at 11:18 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
This morning’s lovely Vancouver island sunrise came ahead of the afternoon’s provincial state memorial for former Premier John Horgan on a cold bright Sunday in mid-December.
The event planned for 90-minutes duration spilled over past two and a half hours in a cold arena attended by at least 2,000 people.
Acknowledgements and a range of feelings filled The Q Centre arena, a space that meant so much to the late former Premier. His long-time regular seats with wife Ellie in Row 7 at center-ice was lit up as a way of visiting and holding that spot one last time.
The event that started at 1 pm continued to about 3:30 pm. Short eloquent remarks with a dash of humour were delivered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby. Remarks of a more formal nature were delivered by Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin and former Deputy Premier Carole James.
James said her speech today was ‘the hardest job of all’ the jobs that Horgan had ever asked of her in their many shared years of politics together.
Complex components:
Pulling off a provincial state memorial while keeping it friendly, local and simple was no small feat. Guests ranged from high-level elected officials to local folks of the west shore area of Greater Victoria.
Dozens of government officials and NDP party organizers worked with the Horgan family to develop a program that included family and politics.
The tone was set with video and images, music (including John’s hand-picked playlist) and political soundtrack, and a stage setup that highlighted Irish roots, a love of sports, and a passion for all things Star Trek.
Indeed, even the printed programme took on a Star Trek tilt in reminding people to mute their phones: “Please silence your communicators. Our phasers are set to stun.”
Two sons:
Evan and Nate — the now grown and married sons of John Horgan and his widow Ellie Horgan — brought the most joy and emotion to the afternoon sojurn through multiple tales of ‘John from Langford’.
Nate, the elder son, is an emerging singer-songwriter who moved people to tears as he did himself in delivering lyrics about how he will always miss his Dad.
Evan, the younger son, emphasized at the end of his remarks that he will never share the most personal memories of his time with his father. Not only was that emotionally poignant it powerfully underscored how much a high-profile life of political service robs from family life. “I had 34 happy years with my Dad but I thought I’d have 34 more,” said Evan Horgan.
Nate played two songs about and for his Dad, accompanied by his own harmonica and guitar. “Every time my hand writes a new song, I see your hand make the salute to prosper and live long,” he sang, to audience embrace.
Political achievements:
Indigenous ceremonial blessings and drumming both opened and closed the memorial event. Indigenous leaders on stage included Beecher Bay Chief Russ Chipps (now also a school trustee in Sooke School District), Elder Rick Peter (Cowichan First Nation), and Elder Shirley Alphonse (who had years back become John Horgan’s Indigenous Elder, making him ‘a man of the land’).
BC adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has been promoted by NDP followers as Horgan’s greatest achievement.
But Horgan’s achievements are numerous, many if not most of them impacting the everyday lives of British Columbians — from removing fees for adults to return to completing their high school education, to extending supports for children in foster care past age 18, to removing medical services fees from the general population (shifting it to being a business-source tax), to shaking out profiteering in the housing industry, to removing tolls from commuter-bridges in Vancouver and bringing in the pathway to $10-a-day child care.
Those things might go unnoticed by some people, but folks whose lives became a little easier or a little more affordable were touched by Horgan’s vision of politics-for-the-people whether they realized it or not. And whether they voted NDP or not. His politics was for all people.
“Quick-witted, brilliant and unflinching in his values and beliefs,” said Trudeau about Horgan. The Prime Minister said the federal strategy for dealing with the COVID pandemic was essentially Horgan’s vision, co-penned with Trudeau in a lounge at the BC Legislature on evening, which then took months to be fleshed out by governments processes. Trudeau said he was most of all proud to have called John a friend.
“John and I didn’t talk a lot about spiritual stuff but I have to say, a gathering of thousands of political leaders in BC in a lacrosse arena on a Sunday would be pretty close to his definition of heaven,” said Eby. That elicited a burst of laughter with a sense of relief in the audience … at the first articulation of the higher significance of the day.
Eby learned high-level political ropes from Horgan for 10 years before taking over as BC Premier in 2022. Eby’s wife Dr Cailey Lynch attended in the audience. “If you were on team Horgan, you knew it!”
“It’s impossible to separate ‘John from Langford’ from John the premier,” said Carole James, former Deputy Premier under Premier John Horgan. “It’s the very essence of what made John so loved,” she added. “He was always true to who he was.”
“John left a positive and lasting impression on everyone he met,” said Evelyne Coulombe, who served as a Chargée d’Affaires (essentially as deputy-ambassador) to His Excellency Ambassador John Horgan in Germany in the past year. She turned around a 24-hour flight from Germany to be in Colwood today.
Michael Allabarton — who was a friend of Horgan’s since school days — in a long speech came full circle to stating the obvious of the entire message of the event: John has a genuine guy, what you got was who he was.
Who attended today:
A few thousand people attended the Horgan memorial in the spacious cold sports arena today. That included politicians at all levels of government, leaders in education and business, folks from the education community, people of the NDP ‘family’, and regular folks who in particular live in the west shore of Greater Victoria where Horgan built his political career.
While Horgan hopes his moniker of ‘John from Langford’ will stick, he actually grew up in nearby Saanich and found his strongest political base in nearby Sooke and Juan de Fuca. Folks from all those areas of the Capital city attended, and more.
There were people of all ages, from infants to elders, and all in between.
Everyone feels like they knew the man which is actually true. Everyone did. Because they interfaced — if even briefly — with the real person because Horgan was not about pretense. To know someone doesn’t necessarily mean for a long time, but a good time.
Dignitaries in attendance included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, BC Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin, BC Premier David Eby, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, and Alistair MacGregor MP (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford). Eby and Moe would have had to dash quickly to the airport to get to Toronto for the pres-scheduled December 15 & 16 Council of the Federation meeting.
Numerous BC MLAs were there, past and present. That list includes current Deputy Premier and Attorney General Niki Sharma; Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon; Finance Minister Brenda Bailey; Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix; Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth; Agriculture and Food Minister Lana Popham; Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar; and Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert.
Also attending were Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities Brittny Anderson; Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals (Jagrup Brar); Grace Lore (Victoria-Beacon Hill / temporarily off from being Minister of Children and Family Development ), Parliamentary Secretary for Arts and Film Nina Krieger, and Parliamentary Secretary for Transit George Anderson.
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad attended. BC Green MLA Rob Botterell attended.
Former NDP MLAs in the crowd included Rob Fleming, Bob D’Eith and Mitzi Dean.
Ed May of the BC NDP caucus office attended.
BC Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt was there.
Municipal mayors in attendance included Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson, Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi, Sooke Mayor Maja Tait, Metchosin Mayor Marie-Terese Little, and Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock. Municipal councillors there included Dean Janzen (Colwood) and Kevin Pearson (Sooke), and former Colwood city councillor Gordie Logan.
The Victoria Shamrocks lacrosse team call The Q Centre home. Shamrocks owner Jim Hartshorne was there.
From the Sooke School District (SD62) were former Superintendent Scott Stinson and outgoing Secretary-Treasurer Harold Cull, both of whose careers were shaped by the education deliverables that Horgan delivered to the west shore (notably land and funding for new schools).
Indigenous leadership was represented by Elder Shirley Alphonse, who was seated next to former Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Mitzi Dean.
Folks from Sooke included former MLA and former District of Sooke municipal councillor Rick Kasper and his wife Doni Eve (a former government employee and board member of the Sooke Region Museum), as well as Moonfist who helps out on Sooke-area NDP campaigns.
Media outlets with personnel there to cover the event in person included Global, CTV, CBC, CHEK, The Times Colonist, Black Press, BC Today, Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail, and Island Social Trends.
Saying goodbye:
John Horgan passed away on November 12, 2024 after a battle with cancer. He was 65 years old.
He was remembered in prayer, hymn, eulogy and music. The event was led by Rev Dr Keith Howard. The national anthem was sung by Al Ferraby of C-FAX Radio.
Horgan made public for at least a year before his death that he wanted to be remembered as simply ‘John from Langford’. He had taken a direct hand in the arrangements for his memorial.
The nearly full house at his memorial today somewhat belie the modesty of ‘John from Langford’. Horgan knew that he had impacted a wide swath of society in BC and beyond — indeed, that was his intention.
According to his son Evan today, Horgan had told his son to just let everyone know that he tried to ‘do his level best’. That’s a piece of advice John Horgan often attributed to his mother Alice who predeceased him in 2008.
The life of John Horgan was lived with political intensity and love of the people, with an easy-going style that has touched the lives of many.
Background:
John Horgan (August 7, 1959 to November 12, 2024) served as the 36th premier of British Columbia from July 2017 to November 2022. He was first elected as member of the Legislative Assembly in 2005, representing the riding of Malahat-Juan de Fuca from 2005 to 2009.
From 2009 to 2017, he represented the constituency of Juan de Fuca, and from 2017 to 2023, he represented Langford-Juan de Fuca. He was Canada’s ambassador to Germany from December 2023 until his passing on November 12, 2024.
The December 15, 2024 ceremony was livestreamed .
===== RELATED:
Book of Condolences:
The BC Government’s online Book of Condolences for former Premier John Horgan will be available to December 16, 2024. All entries will be forwarded to the family.
===== RELATED:
- Full house expected at provincial state memorial for John Horgan (December 14, 2024)
- Public tickets now available for provincial state memorial for John Horgan (December 9, 2024)
- Provincial state memorial for John Horgan on Dec 15 at The Q Centre (December 3, 2024)
- Book of Condolences for John Horgan in the west shore (November 15, 2024)
- Remembering John Horgan: book of condolences (November 13, 2024)
- Former BC Premier John Horgan has passed away (November 12, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: LANGFORD | POLITICS