By LINCOLN DEPRADINE
Former Canadian Member of Parliament (MP), government minister and ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, “is a gift to humanity”, according to sports executive Mike “Pinball” Clemons.
“I admired him more than anybody on the planet,” Clemons said in an emotional tribute to Alexander.
Clemons was among several speakers and guests that attended a January 21 ceremony in honour of Alexander, who was born 1922 in Toronto to Caribbean parents and served as the province’s Lieutenant-Governor from 1985 to 1991.
The ceremony, at the Ontario legislative building, was for the unveiling of a bronze bust bearing the image of Alexander. It coincided with the 2024 observance of “Lincoln Alexander Day”.
Ontario officially proclaimed January 21 as “Lincoln Alexander Day” in 2013. It was recognized nationwide in 2015.
This year’s main event in the province was the unveiling of the commemorative bust of Alexander at the legislative building at Queen’s Park.
Alexander enjoyed a career that spanned the fields of politics, military and academic service.
The ceremony marked the first time that a Black politician’s image was being displayed in any parliament building in Canada. It’s available for viewing at the provincial legislature for school groups and public tours.
The placement of Alexander’s bust in the legislature is a “huge transformative first step”, said Craig Wellington, executive director of the Black Opportunity Fund (BOF), which supported the “LINC Bust Committee” that spearheaded a campaign to have the bust completed and unveiled.
“We’ve transformed the culture of one of the most hallowed halls of government in Canada,” Wellington said, adding that the Alexander bust “will help to enshrine the extraordinary legacy of this great Canadian”.
It was “10 years of work” and Alexander’s family members were “on board with this project from the beginning”, said author and community leader Rosemary Sadlier, who chaired the LINC Bust Committee.
Sadlier described Alexander – affectionately known as “Linc” – as a “great man” that believed in education and who lived “a Black purposeful life”.
“When we honour the past, we affirm the present and we really underscore hope for the future,” she said.
Like Sadlier and Clemons, other speakers similarly expressed admiration for Alexander, including granddaughter Erika Alexander.
“My family, we’re all just so proud of this moment. It’s something that we’ve been waiting a long time to come to fruition and here it is,” Alexander told the audience.
“Every time I come to Queen’s Park I have been mesmerized, I am inspired,” she said. “I actually love it here, just because I can feel the memory of my grandfather here, every time I step into this building.”
The LINC Bust Committee’s project was funded from individual donors and made possible through partnership with the BOF, the Licensed to Learn (L2L) and the RBC Foundation.
The bust, decorated with medals Alexander earned over the course of his career, was designed and sculpted by Quentin VerCetty, an award-winning Afrofuturist artist.
“In my opinion, he was one of the greatest Canadians,” said VerCetty, who spent more than six months working on finishing the bust.
He said he hopes it will inspire people who see it to learn more about Alexander and “be great in their own lives”.
The Queen’s Park ceremony was hosted by speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott, who hailed Alexander for his “personal decency and trailblazing accomplishments”.
It’s “fitting and appropriate” to display Alexander’s likeness at Queens Park so that a new generation of Canadians can learn about the “man he was and the timeless values that he lived by”, Arnott said. “Linc inspired thousands of young Canadians with his life story and his example of overcoming discrimination.”
Quebec Liberal MP and speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa, Greg Fergus, said Alexander challenged the status quo, “so that everyone can seize opportunities and live up to their full potential”.
Clemons, the 59-year-old Florida-born former Toronto Argonauts football star and current executive of the sports club, was born January 15, the same day and month of birth as the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Alexander “lived” the dream of freedom and equality that Dr. King spoke about in the now famous 1963 “March on Washington” speech, Clemons said.
Alexander, said Clemons, “wasn’t just a man of honour; he truly loved people”.
Other speakers included NDP Member of Provincial Parliament, Dr Jill Andrew and fellow MPPs Andrea Hazell of the Liberal Party, as well as Conservative government members Charmaine Williams, associate minister of women’s social and economic opportunity, and Patrice Barnes, parliamentary assistant to education minister Stephen Lecce.
MPP Mike Schreiner, in his remarks as leader of the Green Party of Ontario, said everyone should try and live up to the “values, vision and examples” set by Alexander, a 1953 Osgoode Law School graduate, who became MP for Hamilton West in 1968. He was Canada’s first Black MP and served in cabinet as minister of labour.
Alexander, beginning as a teenager, lived in Hamilton and earned his first degree in economics and history from McMaster University in 1949.
He was recognized by having a commemorative stamp produced in his honour and several schools – including one in Hamilton – have been named for him. Hamilton also is home to the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway.
The Afro Canadian Caribbean Association in Hamilton maintained an annual tradition by hosting an event on “Lincoln Alexander Day”.
For this year’s “Celebration Honouring the Legacies of Lincoln Alexander and Martin Luther King, Jr”, the association said it wanted to “commemorate the remarkable lives and exceptional achievements of these two extraordinary individuals”.
Alexander, had he been alive, would have celebrated his 102nd birthday this year.
Before his death in 2012 at age 90, Alexander also served as chancellor of the University of Guelph and chair of both the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada and to the Order of Ontario in 1992.
His life’s activities are documented in his memoir, titled “Go to School, You’re a Little Black Boy”, which was published in 2006.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in a message on “Lincoln Alexander Day”, described him as an “Ontario trailblazer and a great Canadian” who “worked tirelessly to end racial discrimination and make our province a better and more equitable place”.
Federal government minister Kamal Khera called Alexander a “role model”, who “used his voice and platform to defend the rights and interests of marginalized communities, tirelessly working to promote inclusion by breaking
