The Icelandic National League Convention will be in Toronto for 2010 from April 22-25

Iceland News had the pleasure of talking to the convention’s Co-Chair and Honorary Counsel of Iceland in Toronto, Gail Einarson-McCleery. In part two, we’ll be talking to Kara Schuster, also co-chair for the convention.

*UPDATE* Iceland News spoke to Einarson-McCleery on 6 Nov. 2009 and she emphasizes the convention program is still in development. Here’s what’s new as of 17 Nov. 2009:

- Genealogy and the singalong with Sig Martin accompanying on violin confirmed.
- Putting together a cabinet committee for the fund raising campaign.
- More suggestions were received regarding which music group they will try to get from Iceland.
- Washington Island will not be done by Birna from University of Manitoba. She will be part of a trilogy of people talking about the Icelandic language and courses to learn it.
- Exercise classes on Friday and Saturday 7 to 7:30.
- Regarding the Snorri program – Asta Sol cannot come as she is pregnant. Others will do it.

Saunders: Just wanted to get started by finding out a little about your Icelandic background?

McCleery: So my name is Gail Einarson-McCleery and on the Einarson side, which is my father’s side, his people came with the first large group which went to Kinmount, Ontario, 315 people. That was a failed settled and that whole group relocated. Most of them went to Manitoba and founded New Iceland on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The place they landed was just south of Gimli. That’s my fathers side. They came in 1874 to Kinmount. My mother’s side was a little later and they settled with one of the groups… a few miles north of Gimli.

Saunders: Here you are living in Toronto. Can you tell us a little more about the work you’re doing for the Icelandic-Canadian club of Toronto. What kind of duties are you doing there?

McCleery: Well with the Icelandic-Canadian club of Toronto I’m co-editing the newsletter. I had had various positions at various times. I was the vice-president, the president, program director and I’m very involved with working for the program for the club. We currently don’t have a program director so we all work together. I do wear a different hat as well… which is the honorary counsel of Iceland in Toronto. Counsels are responsible for liaison with the Icelandic-Canadian community. We have two counsels here. (The other) responsibility is for business, trade, the economy. My responsibilities include liaison with the Icelandic community, which I do mainly through the club. And culture, and travel, so any exchange visits, musical events. They fall into my side of the partnership.

Saunders: How did you come to make that step up in to all of these things?

McCleery: Well, I was raised in Gimli, Manitoba, and so of course my Icelandicness was part of my life. Although at the time I was raised people were really quite busy integrating and there wasn’t a whole lot of contact (with relatives in Iceland) in the case of my family. As the years went by people started to become curious about their roots. In my family, three of my aunts were the first to make contact in Iceland on my father’s side and they went to Iceland, finding people there. When I was about 22… at some point… I decided that maybe it might be fun to visit the country. My father had passed on so my mother and I went. We didn’t find any of her family. So then we had a a subequent visit after I married and my husband and mother went again…. They actually found us (Einarson-McCleery’s family) in Gimli… then we visited them in Iceland. Then there was a long gap. I was very busy with my career at the CBC. So I didn’t do a whole lot of things other than go when I could to the Icelandic celebration in Gimli. My mother was involved in the Icelandic club in Gimli and the Icelandic National League. When I retired I knew I would want to be doing something. At that time we had started to attend some events in Toronto and my husband was actually program director… he’s actually Australian. Anyway, when I retired I started looking around to see what I might like to do with my time and the newsletter was looking for an editor. So I thought that was a good mix for me because I had never in my career had the time to develop my computer skills as much as I’d liked to. And so I thought I can combine my interest in my heritage here with learning how to do the newsletter and work with pictures. That was how I started.

Saunders: How much time are you dedicating to these duties each week?

McCleery: Hmm (laughs) well I have at least three volunteer jobs and I’m busy all the time. I mean I do squeeze in some personal time for myself absolutely… there’s no question about that. But I’m the head of my green team at my church, and also meals on wheels. So between that and issues of helping people with illnesses… but mostly I’m not terribly interested in housework, I do tend to devote more of my time to my volunteer work than anything else.

Saunders: Something that’s going to keep you even busier are the plans for 2010 and the INL conference in Toronto. Can you tell us where you’re up to with the planning stages for that?

McCleery: Well, we’re doing quite well with the planning stages. We have secured the hotel and have been zeroing in on the hotel issues. We’ve been recruiting people to head up the various areas such as the arts show, the vendors, the hospitality suite. We’re still looking for some tasks to be done. Such as someone to be our overall technical expert. But most of those important duties have been assigned and then we’ll fill in with more volunteers as time goes by. We’ve basically got a plan in place for the tours. In this case we have two settlement areas, Hekkla and Kinmount. And so, we’ve got a plan in place to tour there on the Thursday. We’re still thinking about adding an option of a Niagara Falls tour.

Other tours of interests include the Hockey Hall of Fame which ties into the Falcon’s Gold story… the Falcon’s from Winnipeg were the first people to win gold at the Olympics, the year hockey was added. This was an Icelandic team. One of our people is the son of one of those players. He will be doing a segment. And then on Friday taking people to the hockey hall of fame to see his father’s jersery and the other memorabilia that they have. On the Sunday, we’re planning to offer art tours.

In terms of the program we’re very close to locking in the program details. We’re still not absolutely sure about the length of each segment and what time we’ll start. We want to have the program locked in in time so they can be posted will in advance of mid-January. People can start to decide which segments they want to come for. And book the various choices. Because on Friday and Saturday there will be three choices all day.

One is a stream of films… documentaries and features. The others are program choices. When they book they will need to signify which program choice they want to go to each day. Then Sunday is going to be a brunch with a speaker and the speaker will be Linda Lundstrom who is a clothing designer, half Icelandic, half Swedish. Very talented and articulate woman. And there is a possibility that a company she has done designing for may be able to do a fashion show. We’re waiting to hear on that.

Saunders: If you could cherry pick some of the highlights you have planned, what are some of the things that would pop up?

McCleery: Friday night, Saturday night and lunch times are all opportunities when everyone is together. On Saturday night there is a gala dinner. Friday night is opening ceremonies and that’s always interesting with meeting all the people and presenting honorary memberships. The keynote speaker will be Donald K. Johnson. The Globe and Mail’s news-maker 2007 who also received the Order of Canada. People might be interested in the film workshop. We have an anthropologist from Iceland who will be presenting the results of her research for her thesis, which is Why are North Atlantic North American’s still so interested in Iceland? She’ll be coming from Iceland for that.

This year will be featuring the Snorri program. It’s a program where young people 18 to 28 go to Iceland for six weeks. There’s also a Snorri West component where Icelanders come to Manitoba. And also a Snorri plus component which is for people aged 30 and over who go to Iceland on a two week trip. The head of INL Iceland will be here to talk about that… and also the woman who actually runs programs.

Saunders: Have you had to change much because of the economic situation in Iceland?

McCleery: Well, we had to think much more seriously about how many people can come from Iceland and how we can find the money for them to come. That’s the big difference because as you know in the past the banks were very generous. A lot of the funding would come our way from them and there is a cultural at the foreign ministry in Iceland and that is still in place. But how well funded it is we don’t’ know. So we’re having to do a fund-raising campaign and rely on our local people here. We assume we will have no problem finding the money we need because we don’t want to increase the cost of the convention, we want to keep it on par with what people have been paying in the past. Toronto was already an expensive destination because of the cost of hotels and the cost of airfares to get here. Basically the registration fee doesn’t even cover the cost of the food we’ll be providing. So everything else we have to fund-raise for. The other thing in regard to Iceland and the “kreppa” as people sometimes call it, we do want to do a segment on that. We haven’t booked the people for the segment on that because we want to how things play out. We’ll see what’s happening in the meantime there.

Saunders: If you’re non-Icelandic and you’ve heard about this and want to attend. What would you say to these people?

McCleery: Well the thing they’d be most interested in would be the films, because they’re a little hard to access other than through the screening program I run at the National Film Board. Apart from that and the Toronto International Film Festival a lot of them don’t get distributed. We’re looking into selling individual tickets for those. The other thing a lot of women would be interested in and some men to would be the fashion show if that comes to fruition. I think the financial community would be interested in our round table discussion on the financial meltdown. You know historians could be interested in the segments we’re doing on the settlements. In addition to the tour they’ll be segments on Kinmount, Hekkla and Markland, Nova Scotia. Then there’s knitting (laughs) Icelandic sheepdogs… there are many segments here I think could be interesting to the general public.

Saunders: Is there anything you think I’ve overlooked?

McCleery: I just want to emphasize the companionship and the visiting is a very large part of this. We have a hospitality suite and we’ll have time… different receptions. Different dinners. There are so many opportunities to get to know people in the community from across the country. And to re-visit those that you’ve made friends with from other conventions. Yes there is business to be done again and that will be part of it, but if you’re not interested in the business side of it there are other choices.

To find out more about the convention and how to donate, visit the Icelandic-Canadian Club of Toronto web site.

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