Hardly anyone talks today about Queen Elizabeth’s longest journey to Canada in 1959.
Then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had warned all his ministers, and even Radio-Canada’s management, never to speak of a “royal visit.” One had to speak of a “king’s tour”. Diefenbaker wanted people to understand that Elizabeth wasn’t “visiting,” but that she really was at home in our country. She was discovering everything, including territories, in 45 days, almost always under the eyes of Radio-Canada’s cameras. So we wanted to follow her back and forth from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
It was the time when public broadcasters weren’t worried about money. Two North Star aircraft – the largest four-engine aircraft at the time – were chartered to transport the 120 people from the two Radio Canada networks. Judith Jasmine, Henri Bergeron, Pierre Nadeau, Roland Lelièvre – the father of the singer Sylvain –, Jean Ducharme, Raymond Charette, Jacques Fauteux and Yolande Champoux were part of the French network’s “advertisers” team. My job was to write their presentation texts. Not only did we follow the royal couple, we preceded them to explore and learn of all the locations from which we would be streaming multiple shows, including two live coast to coast for the first time in history. .
ALMOST A SINECURE
To my brief shame, I have to admit that other than the technicians and craftsmen responsible for moving the heavy cameras, bulky sound equipment, dozens of projectors and miles of cables, none of us struggled with the task. We enjoyed ourselves more like children and, for example, laughed a lot about Judith Jasmin. From the top of her observation post in the tower of the Château Frontenac, unaware that her microphone was on, Judith had sung, II war a small ship, when she saw the royal yacht Britannia rounding the Isle of Orleans. For our first live broadcast it was not a success!
Poor Henri Bergeron also took it for his cold, he who was constantly correcting our speech. We had made so many jokes about the words “queen” and “arena” that the inevitable happened. As the Queen was about to present the trophy to the winner of the Calgary Rodeo, Henri, describing the scene, said the winning cowboy would enter the arena…only to pull himself together and speak from the stage!
A TOUR OF POWER
We survived this long journey unconcerned, me like the other guys from the Canadian radio team, but how did Queen Elizabeth manage the feat of covering 24,000 kilometers by car, train, ship and plane in 45 days to shake hands with 5,000? people (including mine and those of every member of our team whom she received at a reception aboard the Britannia) delivering 52 speeches, 61 award ceremonies and attending 81 popular demonstrations? Meanwhile, she was pregnant with her third child (Prince Andrew), as she revealed days after returning to England.
During those 45 days in 1959, I discovered a vast country about which I knew very little until then, but above all I discovered an exceptional woman, full of attention and kindness, patient, compassionate, serious or smiling depending on the situation and circumstances. Why shouldn’t we take the opportunity to conclude in the coming months or years that Queen Elizabeth II is irreplaceable? At least in Canada…
