Festival du Voyageur is a celebration of the Canadian spirit that expanded trade across Canada.
Students at Jack Kemp Community School, amid some real Canadian March weather were outdoors and indoors getting hands-on learning about canoes, dogsledding, and strength training activities in a fun, but meaningful way.
French language teacher, Nicole Webb is organizing the event for the second year.
The principal at E.S. Laird, Mr. Luke Maw and his family restored the canoe which the students are benefitting from in their Voyageur learning.
“His family took it out on Lake Superior and he brough it to us so the kids could have a good look at what a Voyageur canoe looks like.”
The Hudson Bay Company is in receivership, but the pioneering spirit and the lessons of the past are a bedrock of strength in Canada’s current trade scenario.
“We celebrate the Voyageurs who were some of the first employees, basically in Canada for the Hudson Bay Company or the Northwest fur trading companies. All the activities are based around things that they would have done as Voyageurs.”
Rowing machines from the Lloydminster Rowing Club were brought in to simulate paddling canoes, and the Lloydminster Armbenders led arm-wrestling.
“A lot of these were strength-related activities. They were paddling for 15-hours a day, and then bragging rights as to who was the strongest.”
Community partners pitching in include the Lloydminster Métis Local 18 who brought in the dog sledding team from Loon Lake.
Leah Boyer, program coordinator with Métis 18 said a part of being Métis means being outdoors.
“This opportunity allowed students to have an authentic experience spending time outside – learning about the culture and seeing history, today. They are celebrating the Voyageurs. It’s important to see this culture alive today and celebrate it.”
The LPSD is grateful for all the support of community partners who make events like these possible to enhance the students’ learning.
“Just staying true to our roots. We are not going to get too carried away about everything that’s going on.” He agrees that just like the sled dogs, Canadians are a tough, hardy bunch.
The history lessons of hardy Canadiens expanding trade are not lost to Canadians in the present trade climate of 2025.
“Those French Canadiens and Métis people put blood, sweat and tears into their jobs to create an economy for Canada,” said Webb.
Festival du Voyageur is observed in Manitoba every year.
