Mr. Speaker, last Monday hundreds of people gathered at the funeral of John Angus Rankin to say goodbye to this beloved parish priest and fiddler.
Born in Inverness, Reverend Rankin was ordained to the priesthood in 1946. In 1959 he became pastor of Saint Mary of the Angels Parish in Glendale and Holy Trinity Mission in Waycobah, where he stayed until his retirement in 1994.
During these years Reverend Rankin sparked a renaissance in Cape Breton fiddling and helped revive the Gaelic language. He combined an ear for fiddling with a genuine love for people, in particular the Micmac community of Cape Breton among whom he finally chose to lay at rest.
Reverend Rankin will be sorely missed by all, but his cultural and musical legacy will continue to live on long into the future.