2015 Christmas Letter

When Justin Trudeau said, in his acceptance speech, “sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways” he was apparently referencing Wilfrid Laurier’s positive approach to solving the separate schools crisis in Manitoba in 1896. Sadly, I mis-heard this and thought he was saying “funny ways” which rang especially true in my own household. Funny ways, my friends, funny ways.

It’s funny how when the kids come home from University for re-supply in one form or another you rarely see them. When I’m asleep they are out. When I’m awake they are asleep. When they are home I am at work. We text. They have boyfriends. The boyfriends are nice guys - they fill me in on what’s going on. Carolyn texts their other friends to find out stuff.

It was also funny how the girls are a study in contrasts. Maggie had a very fun and profitable summer working as a brand ambassador at the Pan Am games and other marketing events (you hand stuff out and be a human billboard in the service of some marketing objective).  Hannah had a socially exciting post-high school summer with a moderate amount of work. She had banked her cash from working through the year and was enjoying that dividend.

The empty nest is just fine. The big adjustment is running the dishwasher every second day. We learned. We went places like Burlington, Vermont and California and St. Lucia to spend time with Duff and Nik. Absent the wards, Carolyn found time keep her fitbit humming and ran a 10K with Maggie and did a triathlon with Duff.  The tri appears to be an annual thing; other family members are considering joining.  They do it on Toronto Island. The trek to the starting line is at least as challenging as the actual race.

 In February I had a flashbulb moment at the Air Canada Centre. Carolyn and I were singing along with Fleetwood Mac and 17,000 well-heeled baby boomers.  We were belting it out when suddenly those lyrics in Landslide seemed, well, profound?

Well, I've been afraid of changing/'Cause I've built my life around you/But time makes you bolder/Even children get older/And I'm getting older too

But then they launched into “Go your own way” and I snapped out of it.

The award for best actress in a leading dramatic role went to Carolyn for her part in “The Halifax Express” (aka “Rocky”). She drove the 3600km round trip to bring Hannah and her stuff to school at King’s (with Julie and her son). Best supporting actress went to Duff who flew out to drive the return leg with her.  When they returned fully intact I had to enquire how she managed it so well, especially the journey home when all the excitement of going to college had faded. “Duff and I just chatted the whole way home. We didn’t even turn on the radio” As if they were coming home from shoe shopping at Yorkdale. Bravo, bravo!

Both Carolyn and I started new gigs. She left the Heart and Stroke Foundation to lead the marketing at a lumber distribution company called Upper Canada Sierra (UCS). After 10 years of doing good works she decided, “not for profit, not for me!”

In addition to my consulting I started teaching a marketing course at Uof T in their school of continuing studies.  My course covers wide-ranging marketing interests like: Why are the ads still too loud?  How does Hormel feel about the email term “spam” and where are their trademark attorneys?  Do cowboys still use brands?  What are the names of the three people who click on banner ads? What is the cleverest ad agency name ever? Actually it’s not, but it should be.

We can only hope that your 2015 was as good as ours, maybe better (you had no exposure to oil and gas stocks). Despite the daily grind we have few real reasons to gripe. Now if we can only get a little snow – we might fit in some cross-country skiing.   Have a great holiday from all of us. See you in the new year.