The Ontario Legislature voted unanimously on Thursday to pass a bill put forward by NDP MPP Percy Hatfield (Windsor-Tecumseh), to create a Poet Laureate of Ontario and establish the role in memory of Gord Downie, the late frontman of The Tragically Hip \u2014 a bill the NDP\u2019s critic for Francophone Affairs, Guy Bourgouin, said has special meaning for Franco-Ontarians.<\/p>\n
The beloved and iconic lead singer for the Juno Award-winning Kingston band, Downie was also a published poet. In his final years, Downie was an outspoken advocate for reconciliation with Canada\u2019s First Peoples. He died in 2017 from a rare form of brain cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am beyond thrilled that the Ontario Legislature will honour Gord Downie\u2019s life and legacy with the office of Ontario Poet Laureate. Creating this role in Downie\u2019s memory is a powerful tribute to the legacy of this quintessentially Ontarian artist. Enshrining the office of Poet Laureate in Downie\u2019s name both celebrates his life and gives an important platform to Ontario\u2019s next generations of poets,\u201d Hatfield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis development is especially exciting in Ontario\u2019s French-speaking community, because of the importance of poetry to French and Franco-Ontarian culture,\u201d said Guy Bourgouin, NDP MPP for Mushkegoquk-James Bay. \u201cFranco-Ontarian poets and musicians like Paul Demers, who authored the Franco-Ontarian anthem \u2018Notre Place\u2019 will certainly appreciate the meaningful opportunities granted by the new office of Ontario Poet Laureate to raise the profile of our culture and community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s Poet Laureate will be responsible for promoting arts and literacy in the province, celebrating the province and its peoples and raising the profile of Ontario poets.<\/p>\n
\u201cOntario\u2019s Poet Laureate will act as Ontario\u2019s literacy ambassador, traveling the province to bring attention to Ontario\u2019s great poets and works of poetry, as well as the beauty and value of poetry in our society,\u201d Hatfield said. \u201cThe Poet Laureate will also lead workshops, take part in poetry readings and encourage students to engage with poetry at school,\u201d said Hatfield.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that Canada\u2019s federal government has a Poet Laureate, as do several other provinces and a number of Ontario municipalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoems by the Poet Laureate of Ontario will transform events into memorable, lasting experiences of pride and inspiration. The opening of a hospital, a bridge, a library, or an arena honoured by poetry will create a climate for citizens to treasure the past, take pride in the present, open pathways to the future. \u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u00a0Mary Ann Mulhern, Poet Laureate of the City of Windsor<\/p>\n
\u201cOntario’s poetry is one of its greatest resources, if a lesser known one. Far-seeing Ontario cities such as Windsor and Toronto have spearheaded the growing, worldwide revival of the ancient role of Poet Laureate, and it is right and good to find the Province of Ontario adding momentum to this encouraging movement.\u201d\u00a0\u2014 A. F. Moritz, Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto<\/p>\n
“In contracts and legislatures, language can look like Latin and sound like gobbledygook, but the importance of the poetry of Gord Downie and of this bill that heralds his name is its reminder that the most meaningful speech is that which connects us, heart-to-heart, as clear as a slap shot and as civic as a kiss.\u00a0 Just as Gord Downie achieved in his songs, so will now the Poets Laureate of Ontario strive to represent, in poetry, the feelings and experiences and histories that bind all Ontarians in a commonwealth of imagination and of intelligence, of dream and of purpose.”\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u00a0George Elliott Clarke,\u00a07th Parliamentary Poet Laureate (of Canada), 2016-17,\u00a04th Poet Laureate of Toronto, 2012-2015<\/p>\n
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