Growing up in Toronto, there was no figure in Estonian history that loomed larger than President Konstantin Päts. He was either President, Prime Minister, or Head of State of Estonia three times, and the sole President from 1938 to June 1940. A large painting of him hung front and centre in the main entrance of the Estonian House on Broadview Avenue, Toronto, and a large framed photograph of him hangs in a place of honour at Ehatare Retirement and Nursing Home in a suburb of Toronto. For our parents and grandparents, he represented the childhood memories of being surrounded by loving relatives and parents, living in an increasingly prosperous Estonia, and a world where everyone seemed honest and upright. And all of this came crashing down with the Soviet Union occupying the first Republic of Estonia. Päts' reputation was very clear.
While building Estonians houses (Eesti majad), Estonian schools, and churches around the world, diaspora Estonians felt that they were continuing in the spirit of Estonia, whose spiritual leader remained Konstantin Päts.
When I had been in re-independent Estonia for a few years and returned to visit my parents for Christmas, I remarked that there had been discussion in Estonia if Konstantin Päts had been a dictator during the period from 1934 to 1938. My mother took offense and yelled "How dare they say that. When I was a little girl, the President's car drove by and we showered him with flowers." Emotions on this topic are still very strong.
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