By Walter Kish

Several issues ago in this column, I reflected on how spring is bringing some renewed hopes for the future of Ukraine (“The Hope of Spring”, March 28, 2002, Issue 13, Vol 73). In recent weeks, a number of events closer to home have also given me cause to feel more optimistic about being a Ukrainian in Canada.

The Board of Directors of the Ukrainian National Federation (UNF) invited me to speak on behalf of the New Pathway and to participate in a meeting with the St Catharines UNF branch. Representatives of the UNF of Canada included: Roy Kostuk, President; Leslie Salnick, Executive Secretary, Genya Hunchak, board member and Ukrainian Woman’s Organization (UWO) Toronto branch President; UNF executive board members Walter Maceluch and Bohdan Terefenko. Terefenko is a also UNF Toronto branch board member and a representative of the wave of Ukrainians that came to Canada in the latter decades of the 20th century. Rounding out the group was Taras Pidzamecky, the CEO of Canada’s largest Ukrainian Credit Union, who had a particular interest in the situation inasmuch as he grew up in St Catharines within the UNF system

The purpose was fairly straightforward. The St Catharines branch of the UNF has been in decline for some time, with most of the membership no longer able by reason of health and advanced age to effectively carry out the branch’s programs or activities. For reasons that are probably common to a lot of other UNF branches, there have been few younger people from either the Canadian-born generations of Ukrainians, or from the more recent Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, interested or available to take over the reins of power and responsibility.

We were there to assist the branch to find ways to rebuild and become viable once more.

The branch is caught in a classic vicious circle – the membership is elderly and need an injection of younger members and their energy to rejuvenate the branch and make it grow again. Yet because of their demographics, they have neither the strength nor the understanding of the motivations or interests of the younger generations of potential members to attract them into the organisation. Unlike the original founders and builders of the UNF, these potential members will not be motivated by patriotic zeal alone or be persuaded that it is their unquestioned duty to take part in organisational activities.

Ukrainians in Canada, particularly those born here, are increasingly of the mind that Ukrainian organisations here should focus their efforts on the health of Ukrainian culture and the Ukrainian community here in Canada, and leave Ukrainian politics to our cousins in Ukraine to sort out for themselves. Organisations that do not reconcile themselves to this reality will simply cease to exist as their aging membership base dies off. This has proven itself out in dozens of towns and cities throughout Canada that once had thriving and active Ukrainian halls and organisations that are now but a distant memory.

In the face of all this, you might wonder why I mentioned at the start of this column that I had cause to be optimistic. The reason for this lies in the fact that the UNF and its National Executive in particular, have finally realized that their top priority must be to attract and interest newer generations of Ukrainian Canadians in being members of this organisation. Further, they have come to understand that this will only come about by changing the priorities of the organisation away from the political, and more towards the cultural and community aspects of Ukrainian life in Canada. It also means that the primary focus must be on youth and developing new generations of involved and dedicated leaders.

For virtually the last three decades of the twentieth century, the leadership of this organisation stood by while first, almost every branch of their youth wing, the UNYF disappeared, and then one by one, their main adult branches of the UNF started closing up shop as well. These may be harsh realities to face, but they are the undisputable historical facts. I do not attribute this to any malicious intent; it was simply that that generation of leadership was committed almost exclusively to a political agenda of combating communism and achieving independence for Ukraine. As admirable as these goals certainly were, in neglecting to devote sufficient time, energy and funding towards the younger generations born here in Canada, they lost not only their respect, but their interest as well. The end result is that a once strong and influential organisation has now decreased to a shadow of its former self.

The visit to St Catharines demonstrated a genuine concern on the part of this organisation’s current leadership, a willingness to do whatever it takes to rejuvenate the branch, and a determination to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. There is a new attitude in the leadership of the UNF, and it represents a new hope for its future.