bout de papier, Vol. 18, No. 4 (2001-2002) — Winter 2001/2002, pp. 26–27
OTTAWA BOY, by Lloyd Francis, General
Store Publishing House, Burnstown, Ontario,
2001, $27.45, 272 pp.
Ottawa Boy by Lloyd Francis is informative, lively, interesting, and well-written: a really good read. It covers Lloyd’s life from his early years in Ottawa through his World War II service in the R.C.A.F. It then goes on to describe his political career: first in Ottawa municipal politics, later as an MP, and eventually as Ambassador to Portugal.
His parliamentary career had its ups and downs. He was first elected to Parliament in 1963 for the riding of Carleton: a politically-tricky riding in west Ottawa that he both won and lost several times over the years. In 1980, during the last Trudeau government, he was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons and then Speaker in early 1984, when his predecessor — Jeanne Sauvé — was named Governor General. His account of the life, times, and problems of the Speakership in the House of Commons is both fascinating and instructive.
His political career came to an end when he was defeated in the Federal elections of 1984 that brought the Progressive Conservatives to office under Prime Minister Mulroney. He was appointed Ambassador to Portugal by the Prime Minister in late 1984 and reached Lisbon in January 1985.
His comment (p. 216) that “the two years and eight months that Margery (his wife) and I spent in Portugal were the most pleasurable and exciting of my life” caught my eye. I was rather surprised by the remark and also pleased; not all political appointees to the foreign service — I served under four of them – shared that view nor, indeed, took their duties seriously.
As I too had spent three years in Lisbon somewhat earlier under one of his predecessors, appointed by Prime Minister Diefenbaker, and given bout de papier’s readership, I was particularly interested in Lloyd’s career as Ambassador to Portugal.
He took his job seriously and performed his duties as Head of Post conscientiously. From the outset, he studied Portuguese assiduously — not an easy language to learn — and he also studied the country’s history thoroughly, from the great days of the 15th and 16th centuries to current times. He and his wife travelled extensively throughout Portugal and took a genuine interest in things Portuguese. Not only did he cultivate useful political and economic contacts, he was also mindful of the good administration of his Embassy and the well-being of his staff. Clearly, he was an excellent ambassador.
His pages on the work of the post, particularly the problems that he faced in the Immigration sector, are reminiscent of those of some of our other missions in the Mediterranean area, e.g., accusations in the Canadian press of visa selling (untrue), the imposition of visa requirements and other steps to curb illegal migration from Portugal to Canada, relations with Quebec’s immigration officer in the Embassy (good) under an Ottawa-Quebec Immigration Agreement, and so on. All are well analyzed and presented.
His discussion of Consular affairs is lively. A percentage of Canadians travelling abroad can always be expected to get into some kind of trouble or other. Some of the consular cases he describes, resulting from the growing number of Canadian visitors to Portugal, are quite amusing and I recommend them to readers!
Our trade with Portugal, never very extensive, suffered a drop when Portugal joined the then European Economic Community and a number of non-tariff barriers affecting Canadian trade came into play. However trade in codfish, particularly salted codfish — a traditional staple in the Portuguese diet — was still prosperous during Lloyd’s time. It has of course dwindled drastically since then with the collapse of the fishery. Codfish! I still vividly recall Joe Smallwood’s annual descents upon Portugal, with his cohort of friends and advisors from St. John’s, to nurse “his” codfish trade with Portugal. He did so energetically and well.
On Lloyd’s return to Canada in 1987 he was able to settle into a well-varied life of retirement with more time to pursue his long-standing interest in gemstones and, concurrently, to perfect his skills as a gemologist.
Ottawa Boy, well-designed and printed, with a type-face that is easy to read, comes with an excellent selection of photographs covering the main aspects of the author’s life.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 18, No. 4 (2001-2002) — Winter 2001/2002, pp. 26–27. Read the rest of this issue →
