The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jacques Labelle's story is a familiar one to Flin Flonners. After landing a job in the community, the friendly educator figured he would stay for a year, acquire some new work and life experiences, and move on. But one year soon turned into two, and two years became three. Only now, five years later, has the popular principal of McIsaac School Ecole McIsaac made the tough decision to leave. "I think you can take the person out of Flin Flon, but you can't take the Flin Flon out of the person," says Labelle, who this fall becomes vice-principal and French Immersion coordinator at a middle school in Morden, about an hour outside Winnipeg. See 'Best' P.# Con't from P.# The position will allow Labelle to be closer to his family. Yet at the same time, he feels as though he is leaving behind a whole other family in Flin Flon. "Why did I fall in love with Flin Flon? The people. The community," he says. "We've got the best community in the province. I think we are very lucky in Flin Flon. We have problems and challenges, but we have great kids and the community is friendly and always ready to go the extra mile." So was he. Among colleagues, parents and many students, Labelle is considered one of the Flin Flon education system's top assets. He also became a community asset, volunteering with the Phantom Lake Soccer Club, Knights of Columbus and other programs. Doing all of this is in a faraway place like Northern Manitoba is something Labelle never imagined while growing up in Mauritius, a tiny island nation southeast of Africa. He wasn't necessarily going to enter education, either. After coming to Canada at 19, Labelle enrolled at the University of Manitoba with plans to go into a different career altogether. "I thought I was going to be a lawyer, so I enrolled in the faculty of law," he recalls with a laugh. Soon enough, however, Labelle followed his heart and switched to the faculty of teaching. "What do I like about education? The kids. I just love kids," he says. "I believe in the kids. I believe they can learn. I believe that they need to be guided." Labelle arrived in Flin Flon in 2000 after accepting the vice-principal's position at Ruth Betts School. He became vice-principal of McIsaac a year later and principal of the dual-track school a year after that. He is thrilled to have spent part of his education career Ð which has lasted nearly a quarter-century and counting Ð in an oddly-named mining community. "It was a privilege and a pleasure serving the community of Flin Flon," says Labelle. And for the community of Flin Flon, it was a privilege and a pleasure to have Jacques Labelle.
