My favourite job

I've had a lot of great jobs during my career, but the one I loved most was as an editor at Maclean Hunter in Toronto.  Here are the jobs I have had and enjoyed:

• Writer, IBM Canada,
• Editor, Maclean Hunter,
• PR leader and writer at DuPont of Canada,
• Director, Vincent Massey Awards for Excellence in the Urban Environment,
• Speech writer for Trudeau Sr's ministers (no, I'm not a Liberal, but it paid well),
• Writer/editor at Supply and Services Canada,
• Director of External Relations, Public Service Commission of Canada,
• Director of communications and PR, Federal Presence, Expo '86,
• Head, communications, Comptroller General of Canada,
• Director General, Communications, Customs and Excise,
• Head, communications, Canada-U.S.-Free Trade agreement,
• Head, communications, GST Task Force, 
• Director, Communication and Consultations, GST, CRA, and
• Director, Problem Resolution Program, Canada Revenue Agency. 

Yes, I've had a great career and all of it was because I was a good writer.  Good writing is a skill few possess, but, thanks to the rigorous schooling I received in English grammar in grade eight under Miss Anderson at York Street Public, to Mrs. Jean Portugal, my editor at Maclean Hunter, I learned how to write and edit myself.

Why did I love my job at M-H in Toronto so much?  Because I worked in the era of the great Margaret Wente and Christie Blatchford (may she Rest in Peace).  These two women were an inspiration to me and I sometimes think had I stayed in Toronto, I might have risen to their heights.  Well, maybe not that lofty, but close.

M-H is where I wrote book reviews for 'The Financial Post' and booklets for 'Miss Chatelaine' magazine.  One I wrote was on horoscopes.  I started out doing prodigious, pre-internet research, but soon discovered all signs were basically the same, so as my deadline loomed, I just made a lot of it up.  It sold many thousands of copies, but all royalties went to M-H.  Nevertheless, I was very proud looking at the finished, somewhat bogus, publication for which I got many congratulations.

I also loved M-H because it was like working in 'Mad Men', that glorious series about the advertising world of Madison Avenue in New York.  At M-H, everyone also drank all the time, everyone smoked their brains out and everyone had affairs with everyone (except my old friend 'Globe and Mail' columnist Roy Macgregor, who had a girlfriend and stayed loyal.)  The rest of us?  Well, a completely different story!

Don Draper's were everywhere, as were suave British writers and editors who had not quite made it on Fleet Street, but were nonetheless excellent journalists.  The latter were the real "Don Juan's" and we fell for them hook, line and sinker.  Remember, this was the first wave of "The Pill', which made us all believe we were the epitome of, and in the vanguard of, sexual liberation.  The reality was, it was the men who were having all the fun; we were the pawns in their game.

Nonetheless, it was so much fun.

The kind of keyboard I used until we started using the wonderful IBM Selectric.  Yes, I'm that old!

Unfortunately, I moved to Ottawa because I wanted to keep my then-marriage together.  Although it produced my two wonderful children, it did not last, which is why my first job in Ottawa was with the Massey Awards.  

To this day, I will often edit well-known writers and columnists in 'The Globe and Mail' or 'The New Yorker' and find mistakes and grammatical errors -- all thanks to Mrs. Portugal and her ruthless red pen. 

When I worked at M-H, we used hot type and I loved going to the plant in Willowdale every Friday to put the magazine to bed.  p.s.  You have to get permission from the union to go out onto the floor.  They took it very seriously.

It used to be amusing to have to work at the end of my career under women who were younger and had no clue about my background and experience.  Some had absolutely no experience in anything other than working at a counter in a tax office somewhere, yet they thought I was some kind of inferior employee.

Yes, as I headed towards retirement, my bosses got younger and younger.  But I carried on, the pension always in my sights.  

Now I have my blog and my letters to the editor.  As a writer, I just have to keep writing.     

Fun FIFA facts!

Did you know that Canadian taxpayers are giving $729 million to the Vancouver portion of the World Cup?  And did you know that the beleaguered Toronto rate payer is handing over $380 million?

I didn't and wish I hadn't.  That's $1.109 billion from your threadbare pockets to the vast riches of the FIFA bank account.  How outrageous!  And no serious matches are even being played in either city, just group-level games that don't count -- not the final, not the semi-final and not even a quarter final.

Mr. Infantino making the pitch to pick our pockets.

Just to put it into an even more depressing perspective, here are a few other fun facts:

• The Vancouver budget tripled 750% in eight years since the original estimate;
• With only seven matches being played in Vancouver, that's $104 million per match, or $1.2 million per minute per match;
• Gregor Robertson, now the witless and hapless Federal minister of housing, was the mayor who bid for this fiasco, with the backing of then premier John Horgan, now deceased;
• It was John Tory as mayor and Doug Ford as premier who bid for the games for Toronto;
• Considerable money is being spent on FIFA-logo condoms and lubricants;
• FIFA demanded major renovations to B.C. Place, including the ripping out of the artificial turf, the replacement of it with real grass and then the re-installation of turf when the games were over.  (With stage four water restrictions in B.C., the stadium will be the only site which will be allowed watering);
• FIFA demanded that all other major sporting events be cancelled during the games -- which included all B.C. Lions games and the famous Dragon Boat races;
• They also demanded new luxury changing rooms for the players and new VIP and VVIP suites for the bigwigs be installed;
• Infantino also demanded Pope-level security, which includes road closures and police escorts;
• Property taxes in Vancouver have risen by $450 per household in Vancouver and $389 in Toronto to cover the costs;
• The head of FIFA in Toronto alone makes $340 million per year;
• The cheapest tickets in Toronto are $3K each, meaning the average family of four would have to shell out $12K to go to one match.  Not going to happen; and
• That $12K would cover a university education for one year.

FIFA's demands sound like Satan's to-do list.  Considering how many FIFA executives have been convicted of fraud and jailed, we're verging on mafia territory here.  Presuming Carney brought about 10 hangers-on, plus his mother, er, wife, means that his little junket to watch the Canada game would have cost about $30K -- not including accommodation and airfare.

Kids' soccer camps in Canada run about $250 per week, meaning that three million Canadian kids could have gone to soccer camp for what we're wasting on this ludicrous FIFA bread-and-circuses fiasco.

So, next time you switch on a match, or drive by lineups at the food bank, keep these numbers in mind, as Carney tells us to tighten our belts and make do with less.  

Any lights going on in the brains of his supporters yet?  The numbers always tell the tale.  

I don't want to go out with him

That's what I said to my Mother when Bob Irvine called to ask me out.  I was in grade nine at Lisgar and didn't fancy him at all.  "Go, you might meet someone else there," said Lily.  So I said yes.

We went to a movie at the Nelson on Rideau Street and I didn't meet anyone else.  When I attended the 175th Lisgar reunion in 2018, who was the first to make a bee line for me?  Bob Irvine.  We embraced warmly and he reminded me of our one-and-only date and which movie we had seen. 

Sadly, I saw his obituary the other day.  It brought back many memories of our halcyon days at Lisgar.  I saw that he had married and had two daughters.  I left a condolence on the obituary.  May he Rest in Peace.

__________________________

The following letters, among several, were not published, but should have been.  I think 'The Herald' is off me at the moment:

Dear Editor,

Carney's recent video to Canadians was a re-hash of unfulfilled pre-election promises, not a summary of actual accomplishments.  Yet, his poll numbers mysteriously remain consistently high. 

Puts one in mind of that old fable, "The Emperor's New Clothes", in which the emperor rides around town completely naked, while everyone raves and cheers about his beautiful new outfit.  It's baffling?  When will Canadians wake up and realize Mr. Carney is basically that naked emperor?

Nancy Marley-Clarke

Dear Editor,

I agree Carney is much more interested in Europe than in the country of which he is prime minister.  Apart from a few high-profile, photo-op trips in Canada, he has yet to travel to small towns and cities to show he is concerned about ordinary Canadians.

He also consistently snubs Parliament.  He has missed 100 of 136 Question Periods since taking office, which is truly shocking because Parliament is where Canada is governed.  Mr. Carney, however, behaves like an autocrat, giving away billions to other countries as he personally sees fit, with absolutely no Parliamentary oversight whatsoever, all while telling Canadians to tighten our belts and make do with less.

The sooner he moves on to grander pastures in Europe the better off this country will be.

Nancy Marley-Clarke

Giving us back our money

How stupid is the $100 fuel rebate Danielle Smith has announced because of high gas prices?!  Very.

My question always is, with oil right underneath our feet, why are gas prices so high?  It's partly because we can't refine it here.  It has to be shipped to Texas, which is dumb.  Estimates are that the rebate will cost the treasury $350 million.  Why not put that towards a refinery?  Why not put that into education?  Why not put that into doctors and hospitals?

We need these in Alberta.

She must think Albertans are pretty dumb, but listening to a phone-in radio show the other day, I realize they're pretty smart.  Not one caller thought it was a good idea to hand out money.  Everyone saw right through it to what it was:  A naked political stunt to buy votes.  With our own money!  Every, single caller said they were going to donate it to a good cause -- like giving it to handicapped Albertans who have just been stripped of half their allowance.

The kicker is that you have to apply for it, which those in most need will never be able to figure out, which, of course, is what Smith is counting on.  With everyone's tax information in government hands, there should be no need to have to apply.  So cynical.

So folks, it's Bread and Circuses all 'round with this premier.  Not fooling anyone.

And speaking of health care, the provincial auditor is going ahead with a forensic audit of contracting procedures at Alberta Health because a lot of funny business has been going on since Smith took over.  Athana Mentzelopoulos, former head of Alberta Health, was fired after she accused the Health minister and the Premier's office of fiddling and interfering in contracting procedures.  Gee, what a shocker! 

Frankly, I'm with Athana, who is now suing the minister for wrongful dismissal.  That'll be a fun audit to follow!

  

Interesting facts about slavery........

Re-printed from 'The Catholic League', by Bill Donahue:  

June 17, 2026

Slavery in America, imported by the British.

"Juneteenth is a federal holiday that commemorates the freeing of the last slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865. It will be commemorated this year by elite colleges and universities across the nation. This is rich given that most of those who ran these institutions at that time owned slaves.

"The Northeast Slavery Record Index is an online site that allows the public to access a host of records on slavery. Last year it posted, “Slavery by Alumni of Colonial Colleges.” It provides information on college officials and faculty that owned slaves.

"It listed the following Ivy League schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania. It also listed five other schools tied to slavery: Rutgers, University of Vermont, Williams, Union (Schenectady, NY) and Bowdoin.

"It is striking to note that only one Ivy League school, Cornell, did not have any slaveowners associated with it. But that is not a tribute to the university—it was not founded until slavery ended in 1865. Here’s a look at the Ivies.

• Harvard slaveowners included political leaders and the heads of prominent families. Records show that the university continued to benefit from slavery even after it was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783;

• Yale was named after slave trader Elihu Yale. Under his tutelage, the school benefited greatly from the slave trade;

• Princeton was home to slave-owning trustees—16 of 23 bought, sold and traded slaves; some inherited them;

• Columbia was run by ten men who served as president during the slavery years, and at least half were slaveowners;

• Brown was founded by a family of the university’s namesake. They not only owned slaves, they were deep into the slave trade, participating in two voyages to secure more of them;

• Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock owned at least 18 slaves, and at its Hanover campus in 1770, slaves outnumbered the faculty, administrators and trustees; and

• University of Pennsylvania’s benefactors, trustees and faculty owned slaves. The founder, Benjamin Franklin, owned seven of them.

"Many graduates of these institutions—both the Ivies and the other five—are quick to condemn all expressions of racism, real and contrived, and will no doubt be beating their breasts over slavery on June 19. But few will mention their alma mater’s slave-owning legacy.

"If there is one man who flouts his interest in fighting racism, and is a graduate of one of these slave-owning institutions, it is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College.

New York Mayor Mamdani.

"Bowdoin received funding from benefactors who made their money from the slave trade. Most spectacular, in 1858 it awarded Jefferson Davis, who served as the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, an honorary doctorate.

"In 1972, it doubled down by accepting an endowed gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and established the Jefferson Davis Award. It took until 2015 before this award was discontinued.

"Mamdani graduated in 2014, before the award was nixed. Why didn’t he lead a protest against it? He had plenty of time to join organizations that sought to punish Israel.

"Today he is bellowing about the need of New York City to make reparations to African Americans. Where will he get the money? He says the money should be collected through a targeted tax on white people who live in the city today. But wouldn’t it be racist to fleece those who had nothing to do with slavery, save for sharing the same skin color of some of the slave-masters? (Note: free Blacks also owned slaves.)

"Given the slave-owning legacy of his alma mater, will Mamdani do something? To be specific, will he return his Bowdoin diploma, now that he knows it is soiled by the legacy of slavery?

"Will he dig into his own deep pockets—he is worth a fortune—and make reparations? He could begin by compensating every Black person in his employ. But it should not be up to him to decide how much—he should ask his African American employees how much he needs to pony up. If he is running low on cash, he can always ask his multi-millionaire Marxist parents to loan him the money (preferably interest-free).

"It is so easy to criticize dead people for not abiding by today’s standards, standards that will soon be deemed unjust by a new wave of left-wing zealots. It is much harder to swallow one’s own medicine. 

______________________

Canada had approximately 4,500 slaves between 1671 and 1834.  In 1793, Upper Canada, now Ontario, passed the 'Act Against Slavery'.  While it did not free existing slaves, it prohibited the importation of new slaves, making it the first anti-slavery legislature in the British Empire.

This walked onto the pool deck

I kid you not, a very overweight, middle-aged man strolled onto the pool deck the other day wearing this:

No one needs to look at this first thing in the morning.

There's a reason I no longer wear bikinis, ya, that reason.  Not that I'm fat, but there are a few bulges here and there that modesty dictates I not display.  I even have a long-sleeve suit to hide my upper arms.  They too are not as toned and smooth as they once were -- even with all my swimming.

I envy the Big Dogs at the pool.  All in their sixties, Chris, Don and Dave are still ripped.  None wears a speedo.  Chris is the fellow lane swimmer who is the Canadian national champ and won four golds and one silver in the world games in Singapore.  He is amazing!

So, I'll keep plugging along and try to keep the old lady at bay for a couple more years.

   

A car tale

Hand washing at Bubbles.

The other day, B and I ventured down to southeast Calgary to 'Bubbles' car wash.  $498 later, we have a virtually new car.  That's what a detailing job will run you there, but it's worth it.  I guess.

But what I really want to talk about is Carney's unjustified "trade" trip to Ireland.  There he was, debarking from the plane with his why-was-she-there? wife.  Instead of going to Washington to try and get the Gordie Howe Bridge open, he's stumbling around in Ireland finding his roots.

And we're paying for this personal pub crawl!

The new bridge is not opening because the Maroun family, which owns the old Ambassador Bridge, has convinced Trump to block it.  What I should say is that it's the Maroun's money that is blocking it -- the family that has given Trump and other Michigan politicians millions, so naturally they believe there should be no competition from the new bridge.  

The tolls on the new bridge -- which Canada paid for, by the way -- are half what the Maroun's charge, so guess which bridge will be used?  Rhetorical.  Their wealth exceeds $1.7 billion, but I guess it's not enough. 

And where is Carney?  Swanning around Ireland.  Since he came on the scene, 85 major corporations have moved their head offices to the U.S. -- including his own, Brookfield!  That's what his "elbows up" schtick is getting us.  Nothing.  The only binding trade deal we have is with Indonesia.  That's it.  And we actually had to give them $1 billion to sign it!!!

Folks, Ireland is a personal boondoggle and we're paying for it.  When will Canadians rouse from their torpor and wake up??!!  It is to weep.............