Mourners pay their respects to former governor general Roméo LeBlanc in the chapel at the Memramcook Institute in Memramcook, N.B., on Thursday. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press) A steady stream of mourners paid their respects Thursday to former governor general Roméo LeBlanc, lying in state in his hometown of Memramcook in southeastern New Brunswick.
LeBlanc, who was the first Acadian to be appointed governor general, died at his home in Grande Digue, N.B., last week after a lengthy illness. He was 81.
In a cool quiet room of a chapel at the Memramcook Institute on Thursday, LeBlanc's casket was draped with a Canadian flag and topped with several medals. It was surrounded by an honour guard of officers from the RCMP and the Canadian Forces.
The queue of people filing past was mixed with local dignitaries, such as Liberal Senator Marilyn Trenholme Counsell, the province's former lieutenant governor, and local Liberal MP Brian Murphy, alongside many people who grew up with LeBlanc.
Murphy brought his daughter to Memramcook as they honoured a man he calls an example to all Canadians.
"Anybody with the right mix can come from this region, can come from a minority. An Acadian person can come from the beautiful but remote village of Memramcook and be the head of state," Murphy said.
"That's the symbolism that I think is important from the Canadian point of view."
Jean Gaudet, a Dieppe city councillor and Acadian historian, knew LeBlanc for 60 years and said he was an example to others.
"Simple, truthful, just very simple. What you see is what you get," Gaudet said.
'I wish all politicians were the same. You know, it doesn't matter which party you're for, you work for the people.' —Janine Arsenault
"He was very tenacious despite being very kind and very easy-going."
Janine Arsenault, a resident of Lakeville, N.B., came to pay her respects and she said she wishes more politicians were like LeBlanc.
"I wish all politicians were the same. You know, it doesn't matter which party you're for, you work for the people," Arsenault said.
"And I think that's what he was: a people person, very, very kind."
Robert LeBlanc, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 89 in Memramcook, said despite all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the funeral, the former governor general will be remembered in simpler terms.
"He's a great friend, a true Acadian," he said.
"A Memramcook man always [with] two feet in Memramcook and he loved it."
Mourners started filing in to see LeBlanc on Thursday at 9 a.m. and had until 9 p.m. to pay their respects.
Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc, who holds the seat once occupied by his father, was at the chapel speaking with many of those there to pay their respects.
LeBlanc was governor general from 1995 to 1999. Before that, he was a journalist with Radio-Canada, press secretary to former prime ministers Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a Liberal cabinet minister and a senator.
The former governor general will be buried in Memramcook, a village of roughly 4,638.
It is expected roughly 250 VIPs and 3,000 people will turn out for the state funeral Friday.
The funeral will be shown live on CBC-TV in New Brunswick and streamed live on the internet at CBCNews.ca.
