Brief encounter with Filmon left long-lasting impression

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2015 (3862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I couldn’t tell you exactly where it was, or exactly when, that Janice Filmon shook my hand. I only know that I remember the handshake.

It was a short time after Gary Filmon left politics, having lost the 1999 provincial election. I was at a reception prior to a charity dinner at a downtown hotel (all those ballrooms look alike) with my wife when I saw Gary and Janice across the room.

For reasons I’m not sure make sense, I felt instantly awkward. The former premier and I had crossed swords during the years I covered provincial politics, and he could be a handful when he wanted to be. That is to say, his stare could break rock.

I had been in the legislature on the last day Gary Filmon served. I was also at the reception held in his honour a few months later. This chance meeting was really the first time I had seen him since he left politics.

Eventually, mingling around the reception, I came face to face with Gary and Janice. I extended my hand, and the premier shook it firmly, smiled, exchanged a pleasantry and moved on. It would be arrogant to think that he was holding some sort of post-politics grudge. But I certainly felt a chill.

Fortunately, Janice was not far behind. She shook my hand, asked me how I was, and even asked how Ottawa had been (as I’d spent some time at the Free Press Ottawa bureau). As she left us, I realized she had doused my wife and me with pure charm.

It seems a pity I can’t remember exactly when or where this took place. But I thought it was interesting I remembered that meeting. And it was the first thing I thought of on Monday when the news broke Janice Filmon had been confirmed as Manitoba’s next lieutenant-governor.

I suspect many people in Manitoba, and elsewhere in the country, are recalling similar moments with Janice Filmon. She was one of the rare people in partisan politics whom almost everyone from all parties grew to respect. In fact, I can say in all honestly I never heard a single derogatory, skeptical or critical word from anyone when it came to Janice. And that is saying something, because the life of a politician’s wife is still a tough gig.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit to occasional shudders when I see some political spouses dragged around at events like a piece of luggage. This is not an indictment of all spouses or all politicians; only that far too many are still being used as accessories.

I don’t know anyone who saw Janice Filmon in that light. And not just because she had her own important work, both as a philanthropist and an activist on numerous issues, but also because watching her at a political event was truly impressive.

She shared her husband’s gift for remembering faces and names, recalling small, intimate details and demonstrating a broad realm of knowledge on a whole range of files. Janice was every bit as elegant and accomplished as any politician I have ever seen.

Which is why if there is any disappointment surrounding Janice’s appointment as lieutenant-governor, it is only because it extinguishes any glimmer of hope that she would run for elected office herself. Over the years, her name had been mentioned in hushed tones as a possible candidate for this or that, and more recently as a potential Senate appointment. Lamentably, none of those rumours proved true.

However, let it be said that she would have made a marvellous politician. And just for the sake of clarity, that is in fact a true compliment.

The lieutenant-governor’s job is decidedly ceremonial, and has been portrayed over the years as a sort of B-level patronage appointment, a silver medal for loyal partisan soldiers who couldn’t get a Senate appointment. Of course, that’s not true for all lieutenant-governors; the potential of the position is ultimately determined by the worth of the person who holds it at any given time.

Right now, there is every reason to believe Janice Filmon will put into the position as much or more than any lieutenant-governor who came before her.

I’d be willing to bet on that based solely on a handshake.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca