Höfn Icelandic Harbour
2020 Harrison Drive V5P 2P6 Vancouver, BC, Canada

If you come to this page and this post, it offers a glimpse into some west coast Icelandic history. Icelandic Harbour Assisted Living was used for some of the interviews. Egill Helgason is an Icelandic journalist and television producer. This is the 10th episode of his series for Icelandic television. Watching has brought back many good memories for me and tells a good story of life in British Columbia and Point Roberts with an Icelandic point of view. It is in Icelandic and English. The Winnipeg Falcons hockey team pictured below won the first gold medal in ice hockey at Olympics 1920. Thank you Egill. Click of the picture to see the video.

At Christmas, we send a card to our members. To celebrate a new decade, the image on the 2019 card was of fireworks over Reykjavik, Iceland on New Years a few years ago. Thank you Mats Wibe Lund for giving us permission to use your photo.

If you get a chance to see Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson go see it. Four of us, led by Margo Matwychuk, braved the cold and the ice and the snow. We would... have hacked our way through an army of trolls if necessary. When we got to the Vic theatre, the long line up looked like it had been imported from Winnipeg: toques, parkas, insulated boots, red noses. The movie is crazy. Let that be said right at the beginning. The heroine, Halla, is running across the volcanic landscape and there is the usual insistent music for such a scene but then there is a trio (Davið þór Jónsso, Magnús Trgvason Eliasen, Ómar Guðjónsson) in the midst of Iceland’s barren, unforgiving landscape. Later, three Ukrainian singers (Iryna Danyleiko, Galyna Goncharenko, Susanna Karpenko) dressed in festive costumes appear singing in unexpected places such as the side of a road. At first, I thought What! What! but quickly slipped into enjoying and anticipating the musicians. Although they have no lines, their music comments on and intensifies the scenery and events. Strange as it was, I thought the presence of the musicians and singers brilliant. The film with its narrative continues as normal, unaware of the audience, but it is as if the musicians share both worlds, aware of the drama on screen, and the audience in front of the screen. This is a film of brilliant moments and brilliant minor characters. If I was watching it at home, I’d want to stop it in places and play it back and say to whomever I was watching it with, look at that. Did you see that? There is the poor Spanish bicyclist (Juan Camillo Roman Estrada) who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is repeatedly arrested. His wild hair, dark skin, sense of being lost, marks him as a foreigner and an obvious target for a country where everyone is tied by genetics. His growing hapless confusion brought ripples of laughter. When Halla is being pursued by the evil forces of the establishment, police in helicopters, with drones, cars, every bit of modern technology possible, she ends up at a farm. And, of course, there is a farmer and, because it is Iceland, he a possible cousin. He helps her escape. Another time, he rescues her by hiding her in a truck full of sheep. The farmer, Sveinbjörn is a minor character, but Jóhann Sigurðarson) makes him charming, likeable, believable, everyone’s possible cousin. When Halla is cold to the bone from hiding in an ice field, he carries her to a warm pool and lays her in it. The story line is fairly simple. Halla, the main character, is on a one woman crusade to stop the industrialization of Iceland and its domination by foreign governments, the Chinese, the Americans and others. Industry has come to Iceland because electricity is cheap. It despoils the landscape and by implication, the people. Halla is an Eco Warrior. She attacks the pylons that bring cheap electricity to the aluminum plants. The contrast between the landscape and the inside of a smelter is well done. I thought for a moment of Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. Modern times in Iceland with the people being chewed up by foreign businesses who care nothing for them or for the land. Halla has a twin sister. Unlike Halla, she is interested in her internal journey and is planning going to India to study. Their relationship is carefully constructed so that the parts of the ending fall into place like the pieces of a parquet floor. Halla’s war against foreign industry is disrupted by a letter telling her that her application four years before that to adopt an orphan has finally gone through. She has to go to Ukraine to get a four year old girl whose mother, father and grandmother have all been killed in the fighting there. A conviction for a criminal offense would mean losing the chance to adopt. However, not fighting against the industrialization that is destroying Iceland’s landscape and character would mean not fighting for a better planet for the child and, by implication, all the world’s children. Quirky. If I had to describe the film in one word, it would be quirky. But quirky in a way that made me feel and care and like the characters. I’m not much of a warrior so I don’t think the film would inspire me to bring down pylons but here in BC there is a battle to protect Burrard Inlet and at the same time the Wet’suwet’en First Nation is opposing a gas pipeline through their territory. The struggle of large industrial companies against locals is a theme that we will be seeing more and more of as companies become larger, international and have no interest or concern for local people or the local environment. The theatre was nearly full. From what I observed, it was more the Icelandic community (Norm came from Vancouver and he and his friend Al were there) that filled the seats rather than eco warriors. Some Icelandic films I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot, aren’t as successful as they could be because the plots trickle away. Not Woman at War. The ending is carefully set up from the very beginning. The plot points click together nicely. The unexpected ending is prepared for. The final scenes take the mundane and raise it to the symbolic without overdoing it. Helga Thorson, the German and Slavonics department chair at the U. of Victoria and director of The Richard and Margret Beck Lecture Series introduced the film. The film was sponsored by the Beck Series. See more

Facebook keeps prompting Icelandic Harbour to write a post. Hello Facebook and friends. Icelandic Harbour celebrates eleven years in our assisted living building on Harrison Drive in Vancouver, B.C. this month which is November, 2018. The society which operates the assisted living residence also celebrates its seventy first anniversary this year. This is our third generation of care home. All is good. Facebook appears to want us to do more marketing and has asked "a small group" which seems to include us to do a five minute survey. Thank you for asking but no thanks Facebook. We hope our pictures give you some idea of who we are.

On Sunday, September 17, 2017, The Icelandic Care Home Höfn Society held their 70th Annual General Meeting. The meeting took place at Höfn Icelandic Harbour at 2020 Harrison Drive in Vancouver. An item entitled "Special Presentations" was added to the usual AGM Agenda. The Icelandic Archives of British Columbia presented to Höfn a framed picture of the original Care Home on Osler Street in Vancouver. The IABC also presented Höfn with a book of all the residents who lived in ...the first Care Home from 1947 to 1961. Reports were given and Past President Inga Henrikson was presented with flowers. Visitors from Iceland joined some of the Höfn Society members for a picture of the cutting of the 70th Anniversary Höfn cake. We were pleased to find out that one of our members attending the AGM recognized her Great Grandmother as being a resident of the original care home. Following the meeting, President Norman Eyford and Vice President Margaret Amirault viewed the special presentation book and found the page showing a beautiful picture and biography of that resident. See more

Today was the resident Christmas Party. Lots of good fun and many family members and friends attended.

2016 Christmas Lights in the Solskin Garden. Thank you to a staff member for the pictures.

Four visitors from Iceland had a fun day in Vancouver. Sólveig, Sveinn, Sverrir and Rannveig toured Höfn Icelandic Harbour with Ási and Óli.

On Sunday, September 18 the 69th Annual General Meeting of the Icelandic Care Home Höfn Society was held at Icelandic Harbour 2020 Harrison Drive. Thank you to Chef Andy and staff, Icelandic Resident Ásthildur and Volunteer Shawn for being a part of a successful AGM Meeting. The food provided was tastefully presented. Next September we will celebrate our 70th AGM.

Christmas Happy Hour with Santa!

A young piano player with roots on the West Coast played to an appreciative audience today at Icelandic Harbour. Max Keenlyside had dropped in once before while visiting his Amma and Afi in the Lower Mainland. Max has connections to the Icelanders who lived at Osland on Smith Island.

Höfn Offering Affordable Housing Units for Seniors Höfn Icelandic Harbour is converting some of its assisted living units to affordable housing. This means that assisted living and affordable housing will be operating at the same time. The application for affordable housing is different than that of assisted living. For assisted living, you can continue to apply to your local health unit. For affordable housing, you would first apply directly to Höfn and then to B.C. Housin...g. Because B.C. Housing subsidizes affordable housing and Höfn is a senior residence, there are criteria for qualification. Applicants must: Be age appropriate, preferably age 75 years and older. Have assets less than $100,000. Have annual income less than $40,000. Rent amount: 30% of total gross monthly income. See more