A Boy from Acadie: Roméo Leblanc’s Journey to Rideau Hall

A Boy From Acadie is a delightful account of the life and accomplishments of Roméo LeBlanc. Using a chronological approach, Young draws upon published biographies and interviews that she conducted with a childhood friend of the subject and members of his family to provide interesting anecdotes that convey humane insight into LeBlanc’s character. Young avoids the trap of bogging down the story with cumbersome dates, instead providing enough information to keep the reader on track, and allowing a timeline of events in the end matter to fill in more details.

The youngest of seven children born to an Acadian family farming near the village of Memramcook, New Brunswick, Roméo experienced a devastating loss when his mother died when he was eight years of age. An older sister became his second mother, and he owed a great deal to his other sisters who nurtured him and supported his interest in sports and education. In fact, he was the first member of the family who went on to study beyond grade seven, a level of educational attainment that his father deemed sufficient before working full-time on the farm. Funds supplied by two sisters working as domestics in the Boston area helped to pay his high school tuition and boarding fees in Memramcook. For the first time, he began to study the English language, something that one of the Fathers teaching at the school wisely told him would stand him in good stead in the future. Unsuited to farming, LeBlanc pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating cum laude before completed a one-year college program to become a high school teacher. Most of his income was sent to the support his family on the farm.

Scholarships allowed him two years of doctoral studies at the Sorbonne in Paris before he was forced to withdraw and return to Canada when the needs of his family called him home. The importance of family and a commitment to supporting one another and the larger community were values central to LeBlanc’s being. These traits were demonstrated in later years when he served as a journalist followed by press secretary to two prime ministers (Pearson and Pierre Trudeau) and later as a Member of Parliament, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Senator, Speaker of the Senate, and eventually as the Governor General of Canada.

While in Cabinet, “Romeo’s major accomplishment was to set a two-hundred-mile fishing limit off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and later the Arctic Ocean. The new limit protected Canadian fish by keeping other nations from fishing inside Canadian waters.”

Young reminds readers that the demands of political life can put a huge strain on a family. MPs are away from home a great deal and work long hours. LeBlanc’s first marriage ended when he was still an MP, and he and his wife shared caring for their two children.

When he was installed as the 25th Governor General on February 8, 1995, His Excellency the Right Honourable Roméo Adrien LeBlanc became the first from the Atlantic provinces and the first Acadian. As Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, he was expected to wear a military uniform, but he insisted on wearing a suit, arguing that he had not fought in any war and didn’t believe that he had a right to wear a uniform and any medals. He continued to demonstrate humility and vision of service in his capacity as Governor General. He set up a Visitor Centre on the grounds of the official residence Rideau Hall and strove to make the office more known to average Canadians. He expanded the Canadian honours system to recognize not just outstanding achievements but the roles of more ordinary citizens in their communities. The Caring Canadian Award (later the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers) recognized volunteers and caregivers. He also recognized the important role of teachers, and especially his love for history in the establishment of the Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.

A Boy From Acadie is also issued in a French language translation. Appropriately, the bibliographical references at the end are called “Books and ressources” that acknowledges titles consulted may be in English or French and includes works for young and others for adult readers. The book is nicely designed with maps, photographs, and illustrations by Maurice Cormier complementing the text. Illustrative matter is often relegated to the even numbered pages and sometimes serve as sites for contextual details such as The Acadian Story and the Deportation, Poutine à Trou or Pudding in a Bag (a steamed dessert that Roméo loved as a child), How Does Canadian Government Work, and, The Role of the Governor General of Canada. The time lag between writing a manuscript and the final production of a book may account for Young’s omission of the newest federal political party (People’s Party of Canada) represented in the House of Commons. A need for brevity and age-appropriate simplicity may account for the misrepresentation of the role of the Senate as solely to discuss and review bills passed by the House of Commons. Senators can, of course, propose bills too. These quibbles aside, Young has written a fine biography of a remarkable Canadian who rose from poverty to the highest chambers of power in the country. In her telling, it is clear why Roméo LeBlanc remains one of the nation’s most beloved politicians and statesmen.