Bores and non-bores

"I was sorry to hear your Dad died," I said last evening at a reception.  The non-bore nearly fell over.  "Thank you so much," he replied.  I had just introduced myself to Jaime Watt at a gathering of Concordia alumni at the Jack Singer Centre in downtown Calgary.  Mr. Watt is "Executive Chairman and Senior Partner of Navigator Ltd. and a Principal at Ensight Canada.  He specializes in complex public strategy issues, serving both domestic and international clients in the corporate, professional services, not-for-profit, and government sectors."  (This is from the internet.)

But I was thinking of him as a guy who had lost his Dad because I remember watching him on The National, when Pastor Mansbridge offered condolences.  We then started a long conversation about Alberta politics and the Montreal in which he and B grew up.  It's guys like Jaime -- guys who actually listen -- who have insight into what the rest of  "the great unwashed" are actually thinking.  He is..... 

"....a trusted advisor to business leaders, as well as leaders of political parties at all three levels of government, across Canada.  Jaime has led ground-breaking election campaigns that have transformed politics because of their boldness and creativity.

"Jaime is the president of the Canadian Club of Toronto, Canada's oldest podium of record, and serves on the boards of many organizations including the Canada Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, the St. Michael's Hospital Foundation in Toronto, and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. As well, he chairs the Capital Campaign for Casey House, Canada's pioneer AIDS hospice.

"Deeply involved with efforts to promote equality and human rights issues, he was the inaugural recipient of Egale's Lifetime Achievement Award and has been awarded the Queen's Jubilee medal for service to the community. Jaime has also been elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society."

Naturally, I shamelessly had my picture taken with him.  By the way, the guy who took this blur was incompetent -- and he was the official photographer for the event!  Here it is:

 

The bore of the event was the president of Concordia, Alan Shepard.  An American, he was typical.  We talked for about 10 minutes and I finally excused myself, knowing he had absolutely no interest in anything I said.  Where's the bar?  I screamed.  Spare me, please, from this bone-headed intellectual.  All he talked about was.....Alan Shepard.....Alan Shepard.....and Henry F. Hall.  Now, the latter was certainly someone to talk about.  What galled me was that we talked about B having been the first-ever nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship from Sir George Williams University, nominated by President Hall himself.  Had I been Mr. Shepard, I would have been floored and a tad fawning, but he merely feigned interest.  Had Shepard ever been a Rhodes nominee? 

As if. 

I wonder how many Rhodes nominees have emerged from Concordia since?  President Hall graduated from Harvard in his twenties and was a force with which to be reckoned.  It was he who recognized B's talent and nominated him.  Takes one to know one.