A prominent Castlegar citizen and former mayor attended the Order of Canada 50th Anniversary Gathering in Ottawa, along with other members of the Order of Canada, last month.
Audrey Moore, who was awarded the Order of Canada on May 30, 2001, attended the celebration at Rideau Hall on Aug. 26 with her granddaughter Dr. Stephanie Moore.
“It was interesting because she’d been there in 2001 with me when I was presented with the Order of Canada, so it was nice to have her back again and able to attend with me,” said Moore.
She said that about 1,700 people attended the event and she enjoyed the grounds and programming.
“What I found extremely thoughtful of the people putting the program together — they had all the previous living governor generals there and they had the widows or the widowers of anybody that [had been] married to a governor general,” Moore explained. “I thought that was very thoughtful, and the new incoming governor general was there as well.”
She was also able to reconnect with an old friend at the gathering.
“We had both lived on the north shore of Quebec in the 1950s and we connected and it was very interesting,” said Moore.
The friend was Dr. James Borcoman who was awarded the Order of Canada in 2014 for his work as curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Canada for more than 25 years.
Moore was mayor of Castlegar from 1973 to 1990 and “in addition, the Castlegar Library, Selkirk College, British Columbia’s Police Commission and Press Council have all benefited from her insight and dedication,” according to the Governor General of Canada’s website.
Moore has also been invited to attend a B.C. celebration of the 50th anniversary at the University of B.C.’s Vancouver campus on Nov. 29.
“I may attend that because I know quite a few of the people that have received it from B.C.,” she said.