By JILL MAHONEY

With reports from Peter Kennedy in Vancouver,; Bertrand Marotte in Montreal and Melissa Leong in Toronto

Monday, April 1, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A6

EDMONTON -- Back in 1939, when the Dominion of Canada was transfixed by a month-long tour undertaken by the new king and queen, the young Roy MacLaren sat propped on his father's shoulders waiting on a Vancouver street for a glimpse of royalty.

When King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King approached in an open car, the crowd roared, "and I said in the piping little voice of a child, 'Who is that fat man with the King and Queen?' " Mr. MacLaren remembered yesterday with a chuckle.

Decades later, Mr. MacLaren, who had been appointed Canada's High Commissioner to Britain, related the tale to the Queen Mother at an encounter in London.

When they next met, at her 100th birthday celebration in the summer of 2000, she made a beeline for him and emphasized the helpfulness of the Prime Minister during that rail tour, which was one of their earliest foreign trips.

"It was a triumph and she knew it was a triumph, and ever after she had a very soft spot for Canada," Mr. MacLaren said.

Indeed, during her tenth and second-last visit to Canada in 1987, the teary-eyed Queen Mother fondly remembered the 1939 voyage, saying: "In those far-off days I lost my heart to Canada and Canadians, and I assure you my sentiments have not changed with the passage of time."

Since her death on Saturday at the age of 101, Canadians have mourned and remembered a formidable woman who managed to be both a friendly Scottish lass and a dignified member of the Royal Family.

The Queen Mother was "a remarkable woman and managed to be endearing even if you didn't know her," said Royce Frith, who was Canada's High Commissioner to Britain from 1994 to 1996.

"She was an incredible woman," said Lieutenant-Colonel Julian Chapman of The Toronto Scottish Regiment, who attended two private luncheons with her, including one in July of 2001. "She would put anyone at ease no matter how nervous you were. She had this incredible knack."

The Queen Mother was Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment for 65 years. "She had a strong bond with The Toronto Scottish Regiment."

In 2000, the regiment officially adopted the name the Toronto Scottish Regiment: Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother's Own.

"We'll carry that name with us forever."

Though most Canadians have never seen the Queen Mother in person and were not alive when she was queen, they still hold a special place in their hearts for a woman who made the monarchy a more human institution.

"Her influence was very deep, and many people probably had their first identification with the Crown through this grandmotherly figure," said John Aimers, chair of the Monarchist League of Canada.

Neil Reid, a Scot who now lives in Edmonton, became an admirer of the Queen Mother between 1966 and 1973, when he managed St. Paul's Walden Bury in Hertfordshire, the estate that was her childhood home. "She was relaxed, very informal, full of fun," he said.

During one visit, he said, the savvy businesswoman, who was extremely interested in cattle, asked whether she could go to see a new milking area. After inspecting the dairy, they stopped to admire some trees. The Queen Mother peered through the wild hedgerow at a field and complimented Mr. Reid on his thistles -- which, he said with a chuckle, "are not admired in the agricultural world."

Then, Mr. Reid recalled, after hearing the bells that the estate's retired head gamekeeper, whom she had known all her life, used to scare birds off his cherry trees, she "looked and said, 'Oh, do you think if we went up there he would give us a cup of tea?' "

The pair sauntered up to the man's cottage, tapped on the back door and enjoyed their tea at the kitchen table.

Joe Doucet, a retired real-estate agent who lives in Vancouver, also remembered the Queen Mother as an example of what the monarchy should be, someone who seemed to have high moral standards and who had earned respect.

"She really is what I would expect from a queen."

Ella Balfour, a former adult-education supervisor from Richmond, B.C., remembered her famous comments during the Second World War, when she said after Buckingham Palace was hit during an air raid that she could finally look people from London's bomb-damaged East End in the eye.

"She gave people a reason to go out and smile."

In Toronto, more than 100 people had signed a book of condolences at Queen's Park by late afternoon yesterday.

Carol McCanse sat facing a photo of the Queen Mother on a table with a single candle burning. She wrote, "We will never forget you."