Steve: You know, as I hear you explain your services, I think we can use you at The Linguist. You can help us develop a better marketing strategy.
Bob: Well, that may be. We certainly have a variety of talents that we could put to work on the problem.
Steve: Now, I met you through the Canadian Club, and you have been active there. Could you explain a little bit perhaps-well, first of all, a bit about your background. I understand you're originally from Saskatchewan, and what brought you out to B.C., and some of your professional background, but then also how you got involved with the Canadian Club. Bob: Very quickly, Steve, in terms of my background-Graduated from high school at Saskatchewan, came out here to UBC, graduated economics and business, and joined IBM and was sent to Montreal for my initial training. Then back out here, over to Edmonton, became branch manager with IBM, back to Montreal looking after the manufacturing sector of the province for the IBM company. And then I eventually moved west, because Vancouver became my adopted home, and no matter where I went, I always wanted to gravitate back to this base, and found that my attention span tended to be two to three years, no more than three, so I have managed to move into different positions. I've been Vice President, Finance at ICBC. I've been Island Manager for BCTel, looking after Vancouver Island. I've been the Director of Computers for BCTel for three years. I've run companies in the east, companies that you may not have heard of-BusinessLand-and I have been-Memorex was another company that I was in fact running for the president, and that's what got me back to Toronto for what turned out to be twelve years. So those are the kind of things-Zenith Data Systems, I was General Manager for Canada with Zenith Data Systems for a while as well. But the Canadian Club, a subject much more important as far as I'm concerned, is an organization that I've been involved in from the seventies, because if someone important was coming to town, they invariably spoke to the Canadian Club in Edmonton, in Montreal, in Toronto, and in Vancouver, and the audience was typically two, three hundred people. That's where the Prime Minister would speak. That's where ambassadors would speak. Like many organizations, we have drifted a little bit, and we're desperately needed in this country, because what we represent is one of the most unique organizations that are here strictly to promote Canada-its values, its culture, its uniqueness in the world. For that reason, I dedicate a lot of my time to make sure that the Vancouver Canadian Club survives and starts to flourish, and I am very happy to be part of it.
Steve: Well, you know, I have not been a member of the Canadian Club, although I attended your end-of-the-year dinner, and I personally am interested in becoming more involved. What sorts of activities do you see for the Canadian Club? What sorts of things are you going to be doing in this year and in the future, to try to return it to its former glory?
Bob: We are like many other organizations that have their own objectives and focus in this country, but we have a difference. In Vancouver, we do three things that we think set us apart from any other organization. We have an Order of Canada Luncheon every February, and we honor all of the British Columbia recipients of this year's award. To our knowledge, we're the only Canadian Club that does that across Canada, and we get all the former Order of Canada recipients invited, and many of them come as well, and we honor the new ones. We have this luncheon, it's always at the Four Seasons Hotel, and it typically has an audience of 350-400 people, and we invite every school in Vancouver to participate. One hundred and nine schools, one counselor, one student, and that makes up a good part of our audience. In addition to that, we have a Canada Soars program, where we ask high school students and intermediate school students, if they're excelling in community service, academics, scholarship, athletics-if they're up at the top of their class in these fields, and they write us a letter on what Canada means to them, and we evaluate and judge, and we distribute three thousand dollars annually to winners. We go to their school graduation ceremonies to do that, personally hand over a check and a plaque. So that's another one of what we consider to be a very critical part of our reason to exist, and I think that the third one is that we're-one of the others is that we're very involved with the Canadian flag, we have a Flag Luncheon in June every year, and we want to promote this. It's a flag that's a symbol that too many new Canadians are aware of how significant it is around the world, how we are regarded around the world, and that flag symbol means so much to the reaction that we receive, no matter where we travel.
