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.