Former POST journalist David Paul nails multicultural O'Canada

In the true spirit of a multicultural northern Alberta community, David Paul, a Portage College employee, and former Lac La Biche POST editor brought a room of 200-plus people to near silence with a unique rendition of O'Canada to start a fundraising dinner and auction night.

https://youtu.be/FBX33Aur3HU

Paul, who has been a professional singer in choirs, opened the Portage College Sports and Education dinner - an annual fundraising event for the Lac La Biche-based college's sports and endowment fund - with what he called a fitting tribute to the country and the community where large percentages of the population are Aboriginal, Francophone and Muslim.

The Lac La Biche area, one of the oldest settled communities in Alberta has the largest, per-capita population of Muslim people in Canada. The area is home to the first Aboriginal people, and also boasts a robust Francophone community. Other cultures and demographics include White Russian, Italian, German and English.

Joel Watson - POST Regional Reporter - Laughs, drinks, hockey stories and a lot of donations filled Portage College’ s gymnasium Saturday night, as the postsecondary institution hosted their annual Sports and Education Dinner.
The evening headlined two speakers Dale “Mr. Winnipeg Jet” Hawerchuk and former NHLer and Hockey Night in Canada analyst P.J. Stock during the 17th annual fundraiser, sharing humorous stories throughout their careers.
Originally Calgary Flames legend Lanny McDonald was to headline the speaking portion of the event. Although the mustache himself was not in attendance, a few fans still wore their McDonald hockey jerseys along and speakers made a few jabs at the unfortunate cancelation.
“I know that Lanny was supposed to be here, but the scheduling fell on maintenance day for his moustache, and that’ s an all day job” Stock joked during his presentation.
Stock took to the microphone first discussing his first year in the NHL with the New York Rangers and what it was like getting to play alongside Wayne Gretzky and driving around in his old Ford Taurus during his first year.
Hockey Hall of Famer Hawerchuk reminisced his time with Bobby Hull, his chats on the bench with Canada Cup teammate Doug Gilmour and his phenomenal rookie season with the Winnipeg Jets.
The two then participated in a “hot stove” session answering questions from the audience regarding rookie initiations, playoff stories, whether or not Quebec City will ever have a hockey team all while Stock reflected on his five career goals in the NHL.
The annual dinner raises funds for The Spirit of Community partnership endowment for scholarships and bursaries for the college’ s student athletes.
“This fund will provide deserving students with scholarships to help pay for their education and achieve their personal goals and dreams,” said acting chair of Portage Board of governors Roy Ripkens during his opening remarks.
President and CEO of the College Trent Keough said the endowment sits at approximately $80,000 and hopes to raise that total to $1 million.
“We’ d like to bring at some point to $1 million so that it reaches that sustainable,” he said. “Right now we’ re at about $80,000-we’ d like to tip it to $100,000 sometime tonight.”