When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna to his cabinet in November, several Flin Flonners took notice.
McKenna, now Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, has been spending summer vacations in the Flin Flon area since 1998.
McKenna’s husband, Scott Gilmore, was born in Flin Flon. His parents, Tom and Collette Gilmour, move from their home in Edmonton to their Bakers Narrows cottage from May to September each year.
Their two sons, Scott and Patrick, try to spend as much time at the cottage as possible with them.
“Everyone has a very big attachment to Flin Flon,” said McKenna in a phone interview.
McKenna’s three kids – Cormac, Isabelle and Madeleine aged 7,9 and 11 – look forward to their summer visit every year.
“They absolutely love coming to Flin Flon – it’s their favourite thing,” she said.
Before she became an MP and a cabinet minister, McKenna worked as an international trade and competition lawyer.
She served as executive director at Level, a charitable organization that aims to increase access to justice for marginalized populations worldwide.
Throughout much of her busy adult life, the family cottage at Bakers Narrows has been a much-needed retreat and getaway for McKenna.
“It’s the one place I can go and actually relax,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve gotten to know lots of people there, and physically it seems pretty far from Ottawa, which is really nice. Once you get out on the water its pretty hard for people to reach you – not impossible, but hard!”
The members of the Gilmore-McKenna family are never far from the lake when they are visiting; canoeing and water-skiing are favourite pastimes.
“We now have a picture of all the generations, my father-in-law, my husband and my daughter Madeleine all up on skis, so it’s cool continuing family traditions,” McKenna said.
McKenna herself is an avid swimmer. She captained a national championship-winning swimming team at University of Toronto and now trains with a master’s team in Ottawa.
During her time at Bakers Narrows, McKenna loves open-water swimming and always tries to swim across the lake to Burnt Point.
Now that she is overseeing and developing government policy on environmental sustainability, climate change management and national parks, McKenna’s time among the rugged beauty of Lake Athapapuskow is serving as inspiration.
“When you get somewhere like Flin Flon, you realize how vast our country is and how absolutely beautiful it is,” she said. “You realize how lucky we are to have such a beautiful country and we really do need to take measures to protect it.”
While McKenna hasn’t missed a summer at Bakers Narrows since 1998, her visit was cut short last year when the election was announced while she was en route to Flin Flon.
“I had to go back two days later, so I had one day in Flin Flon, one day at the lake,” she said. “It was worth it to see everyone, and to
get in a swim.”
Since that time, McKenna’s life has changed considerably.
So will this cabinet minister and MP still make the annual trek to northern Manitoba? Absolutely, she says.
While her visit might be shorter than usual this year, the Flin Flon trip is a priority.
“No matter what happens, I’ll be there,” she said.
