This article appeared in the Nov. 7 issue of the Interlake Enterprise
…By Teresa Carey
Tom Nevakshonoff, Interlake riding MLA, recently had the honour of a lifetime after receiving an invitation to dinner at the Radisson Hotel in Winnipeg and sitting a few tables down from former Russian President, Mikhail Gorbachev, Oct. 29.
Gorbachev was in Winnipeg for We Day, where he addressed 18,000 students and educators at the MTS Centre the following day. Winnipeg Mayor, Sam Katz, who sat with Gorbachev at the head table for dinner, presented both Gorbachev and Free the Children ambassador Spencer West with the Keys to the City that evening.
“An hour into the dinner the Premier [Greg Selinger] called me up and personally introduced me to Gorbachev’s daughter, then to Gorbachev himself. It was quite an honour,” Nevakshonoff said.
“What struck me most of all was how warm he was, and how friendly and sincere. He held my hand as we were talking.”
Nevakshonoff said the interesting few minutes were spent talking mostly about Nevakshonoff’s trips to Siberia last year when working on establishing trade relations with Russia.
“I made sure I did most of the talking,” Nevakshonoff said. “I speak better Russian than I understand,” he quipped.
“Then my wife, Roseanne, came to the table and asked for permission to take a picture, which he granted. Gorbachev made me promise that if I come [to Russia]again to take my wife with me.”
Nevakshonoff counts Gorbachev as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century and expressed great admiration for him.
“Gorbachev changed the world more than anyone else in the twentieth century…and it all occurred without one shot fired,” he said.
“There are very few people that I could think of that I’d like to meet more than him.”
