Nuanced. - 22. Trevor McDonald: Entertainer & Host of 89.5 The Drive

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

Trevor McDonald is a husband, entertainer, host of 89.5 The Drive, business owner, and Executive Director of the Downtown Chilliwack Business Improvement Association.Mr. McDonald grew up in Downtown Chilliwack, and works hard to champion his community. Trevor has hosted 89.5 The Drive radio station for 9 years, emceed Party in the Park in Downtown Chilliwack, and supported fundraising events for nonprofits. He has been the recipient of the Stan Rogers Legacy Award from the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce in 2017 and an honorary Paul Harris Fellowship Award from the Chilliwack Rotary Club in 2018 for service to the community.In this conversation Aaron and Trevor discuss some of the challenges Trevor has faced, and how he overcame the adversity. The two talk about mentors, hosting a radio station, the pressure of being an entertainer, living in poverty, addiction, supporting small businesses, and family life.Trevor McDonald Website:https://www.trevormcdonald.com/communitySend us a textSupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

Trevor MacDonald, it is an absolute pleasure to sit down with you, right by the Fraser River. We have lots to talk about because you've set an extremely amazing example for our community. And I'd just like to start off with a little bit about your background, but I'd also like to just thank you for taking the time to come out here and share your story. Well, thank you, Aaron, for doing this. I don't think you could pick a more picturesque place to do an interview. I've got to say this is a first for me. Yeah, this is amazing.

We are blessed to be on these lands, aren't we? Yeah, right? Yes, it's very comfortable. We can't forget whose lands we're on right now. We have to pay great respect to that. I got to say, this is the best way to end a day. So thanks for doing this. I'm really grateful that you were able to take the time

because I think it's important that we're able to share these stories because it's too often that they're gone and they're never told and they're never kept. And so I'm grateful to be able to share your story on the platform and make sure that it's told for other people to hear and learn from. Thank you. So can you tell us a little bit about your background? Well, I mean, I was born in Toronto, Ontario.

I moved, you know, early life for me was a bit of a blur, the youngest of 10. Moved to Chilliwack. Really, that's where life began for me. Really, I say that I was, I started here because this is really where I got here when I was nine years old going on 10. Just loved it from the very beginning. Chilawak was a magical spot. My mom was a welfare mom, but just an incredibly resilient lady.

And back in the days when I was young, if you were on welfare, you could still purchase houses, which you can't now. But back in the day, you could. And so my mom always made a point of buying real estate. And we moved from Ontario. She sold her place there, moved here in 1977. We bought a small place on Lewis Avenue where this story will return. turn again and again, but about eight blocks from where I currently reside right now, some

40 years later. But yeah, it's been a long and interesting journey, but so happy to be here. And starting from very humble beginnings and ending up here at 53-year-old guy with very humble middle-aged stuff going on. Yeah, I definitely know what that's like. I have a lot of respect for my mom because I got to see this person. face adversity again and again and again but get up because of me and that just gains more and more respect from me the more I understand the sacrifices that she made and the tough

decision she had to make because there were times where she would move food onto my plate from her own because there wasn't enough food for more for me and so I'm wondering how you feel about that and what your memories are with your parents how many kids in your family just me oh wow so we come from two a very different situation you being you being an only child and me actually although I was the youngest of 10 our family was in two kind of version 1 version 2 so my mom had me when she was 41 years old yeah so yeah so the first generations of our family were born in the early mid mid 40s to 48 and then down to myself my two older sisters who were three and five years apart from me so we had a weird um kind of an upbringing because my family, the generation one, left Ontario, moved to BC way before we ever did. So I lost touch with my brothers to the point where my mother actually got me a big brother

sponsor to kind of make up for my lack of having a brother, which is kind of strange. But, I mean, you know, I'll tell you what, talking about my childhood and my mom being very resilient and and I think that life is just I really think life is is you deal with it as best you can um those who can pivot pivot and my story is basically and I was thinking about this on my way here is my story is a pivot everything I've done in my whole life has been a pivot um adapting and changing um to the point where I became very good at it right and I think that is part of growing up the way we grow up is you become a you get that extra survival nodule in you right um some unfortunately are not as uh maybe mentally strong and um they don't have the capability or the or the

or the uh the tools to to adapt and to move forward in a positive way right i was blessed to um kind of see the positive um in in one of my older brothers i mean all my family obviously i take great things from all of them but from one of my older brothers in particular who I lost years ago to a heart attack but he was a real inspiration for me and um you know you cling on to the light right and that means your neighbor across the street who was really good to you I think of that right away I think of school teachers who saw where I was lacking in love and and support and filled that void I was always blessed to um see a shining light in somewhere and And they in turn saw that in me, I guess, and offered a hand out, you know.

I feel the exact same way. I remember, I don't know if you know Ron Laser, who's now in real estate. But he would give me birthday cake and birthday food. But like at some point he would just give us free hot chocolate because there wasn't that extra money to be able to just go out all the time and enjoy decades. But he really created a space for me. And that became the only coffee shop that I ever really knew growing up because he was willing to support us and to.

kind of give us those opportunities to feel a little bit more comfortable when in other places it's just assumed that you have the extra money to pay for those things but we've used that little back area that he had for meetings and stuff for birthdays for events and he would just do that all of because he watched me kind of grow up there and uh same with creekside my mom had a job there um all along wellington i my mom's worked on in almost every business in that whole road and it was more people just trying to help us out and give us a leg up more than I think they needed my mom to be there and that's that's community to me is being able to look back on all of those stores home hardware that was there when we were growing up um the royal hotel those are

all just places where they'd help us out and give us opportunities my mom worked there too and so I definitely understand what you're saying well I don't know if I if I if I know of your mom but I can tell you just by the story you're saying right now that obviously everybody you saw the same light that maybe some saw in myself, they saw in your mom, they saw somebody who was not a quitter, who was resilient, and who really just needed that handout of support. And, you know, to me, it takes a really beautiful human being to be good enough in your own shoes to, you know, to really take the extra time, like guys like Ron and the people you speak of, to notice that there's somebody who needs to feel like they belong.

They need to feel empowered. And empowerment is everything. Empowerment is pride, right? And I go back to my mom being able to own a house on welfare. Ownership is pride, isn't it? You know, like never, there's so much pride. And when good people recognize that in a person that maybe just needs a shot in the arm,

I have so much respect for it. And I love that you mentioned decades because they're turning it into a daycare right now where hopefully that building is going to, you know, help some people along and change some lives as well. So the legacy will kind of continue in the decades building. I absolutely agree. And I think when people do those acts of kindness, they're not looking, they're not doing it for the advertising. They're not like, I don't think Ron ever expected me to create a podcast and start talking about his impact. I've mentioned it a few times on here. But I think that that's where the value comes in is that there are.

are these unsung heroes of our community who are never looking for the spotlight to get the recognition of what they're doing in the community. They just view it as their responsibility as a member of the community. And I think that you carry a lot of that with you because I see you helping out other musicians and I hear you working with others to try and build their opportunities and to open doors for others. And so can we talk a little bit about that? How did you end up in the entertainment industry? What called you in that direction? Here's the story of a pivot. So I when I left high school, I had no ambitions, no expectations of going to college or university. It wasn't in our family's DNA.

I have a beautiful sister who did go to university, and I had a brother who was scholarly, but they were the exception to the rule. My friends in high school, all of them had university plans since grade seven almost. They were already in a five-year plan in grade seven where I was just deciding, you know what hockey gear I was going to put on to go play ball hockey right so come grade 12 everybody had their plans they all went to their universities and colleges and got their scholarships and I was literally floundering and I hung around and made some community connections ended up I worked at a 7-11 as a graveyard shift I worked in a produce stand I love that actually

I worked in a produce stand right where I was going to say where Canadian tires where Merton is now on Yale Road and I loved it and you know my whole personality is that I don't mind the first three weeks being an employee but I'm always wondering how quickly I can get into management right it's a control freak and I think that that speaks to having a bit of a not a solid foundation as a kid you you always have to be in control right and it's stuff you learn I and as a 53-year-old guy that, you know, my need for control comes from not having it a long time ago and to the point of anxiety really for me. But so back to the pivot. So ended up going from 7-Eleven to a computer store. So at one point, I worked nine to five at an office supply place,

5.30 to 8.30 at same-day TV, selling TVs and renting videos. Big shout out to same-day TV on Young Street. Old school VHS machines. And then going from there over to a nightclub. Started out nightclubbing. Went from DJing at the nightclubs to managing the nightclub after a while. Nightclubs closed down. I was without a job. I just bought my first house at 23. And my mom had just passed away. It was a pretty tough time. And so I was without a job and a brand new house with a mortgage and no. And all those doors, people said, oh, you're really, you know, you're an enthusiastic guy. Boy, I tell you, you ever want to leave this trade? Let me know I've got a job waiting for you. And then I got, our nightclub got sold, no job and no phone calls and no return

phone calls. So in order not to lose my mind, I would put on a suit every day. And back then, With UI, you could make $100 a week or something, or $100 a, I don't remember what it was, but so I walked into a piano store on Youngstreet. I was a gentleman there, an old gentleman had an old used piano store. And I didn't play piano, but I walked in and I said, you look like you could use some help. I'm willing to come and work. I think it was $100 a month, actually. Either way.

Just to keep my sanity and make me get up in the morning and put a suit on, I went out and I did this job. and over time I got picked up in a computer store didn't know anything about computers pivoted over there sales to sales right found out about music through computers writing computer music MIDI files realized that I could go and play at a pub in town and make the same amount of money as a five-piece band as a one-piece band

if I just wrote the drum part and the bass part and the piano part so I could go way to make the same amount of money. So I did it. I started writing tracks. I would write them every night in my basement, spent hours and hours writing what they call MIDI tracks, which is computer music. And you play along with the guitar and sing to the backup band. And I ended up making that a full-time job. Started one night a week. Ended up doing it 300 shows a year for 25 years. Hold on 300 shows? Yeah, up to 300 a year. So almost getting close to one every day. A lot of times, three a day.

But I loved every minute of it, and I was good at it. What was your favorite part about it? Well, you know, for me, it's always the learn, right? It's the learning. It's the, I don't think I can do this. I'm going to try to do this. So it was the computer programming at first, right? I never even knew what a computer was.

I ended up building them with a great guy named Ron Armstrong. You know, I ended up doing that. Ended up using what I learned from that to know about the music in computers. ended up using my natural ear with music into writing music, which got me the gig playing gigs. I played gigs for 30 years. I made a ton of connections. Loved people started doing things like emceeing beach party and emceeing community events, and my name became a bit of a brand.

And then when I was old enough to listen to some advice from some really smart people, they just made a good point of always being good to the community. Even though they were doing well, they always gave back. I watched people like Harry Merton, like Brian Minter, oh gosh, I can name so money, Jeff Ford. And there were so many great people who had success and didn't just take it and run. They kept growing the bank, right? They kept growing their life pension. And I watched those people and thought, if I can just build my name, build a brand, and just keep giving back, it's going to come back to me.

and so really it's been a perpetual um cyclical carmic wheel of i you know you just keep doing good by people and look i'm far from from the perfect guy but i will say that i can honestly 80% of my life i can say i really did work at finding the positive uh in a situation and the positive in people and using my talent and my gift to to give back in any way i could so i'd auction off my shows to Boles of Hope or to any charity that could use it. I couldn't afford to pay the money. I couldn't afford to write a check. Like a corporation would for donations.

So I said, well, look, my show goes for X amount of dollars. I'm going to let you have my show to auction off. I won't take a nickel. You do it. And we ended up auctioning up to 10 a year. So in that, you meet great people. And then my gift was that I got to go play at these people's houses, got to talk to them, got to give them a gift.

Well, they already gave us a gift. I feel like I'm rambling on. But anyway, the bottom line is for the music industry, for me, it has a shelf life. I think I never wanted to be the old guy in the room of playing for young people. And so I developed enough of a business model in myself that I could do another pivot. And that pivot was opening rooms up for younger artists, opening doors that they might not have open. So I knew a lot of guys who were very talented who weren't working or who had experienced bad management in the past and I by no means wanted to be a manager or an agent, but by the

time this new portion of McDonald Entertainment was born, I had 18 rooms running steady with 150 artists a week working all over the Fraser Valley. So it's really come in a may, it's been an amazing journey, but in that I've met amazing people. I've seen amazing, talented. And I, you know, I use this term as a friend. I've seen great kids, talented kids become really incredible, talented musicians. And what a gift that is to this very day. I still get that. Yeah. That's a long-winded roundabout. Well, I think it really ties in because I just saw that Chilliwack Progress article of the fact that your guitar was left. And then it was stolen and people had it. And you ended up.

because of your relations with the community, because of what an inspiration you've been, the community kind of surrounded you and helped you. Can you tell us that story? Well, I'll tell you what. It's been a while now, but I could still tear up thinking about the generosity of so many people. So I made a foolish move.

I left a guitar on a stage after a gig outside and called his Lake. And in my haste to load my gear out, get out of the room, get out of there. you know you go through a process usually right well i ended up talking to an old school buddy of mine while i was loading my gear out so he was on and on and on reminiscing and you know almost getting in the way kind of but you so courteously i'm talking to him loading gear in and out changed up my routine left walk up in the middle of the night with in a cold sweat realizing i don't remember packing my guitar got in my van drove up to coltis lake of course not

Nothing there, right? Nothing. Waited until the morning, phone, the parks board. You know, I did all the proper things. And through the, I'm telling you what, don't tell me that there isn't somebody up there watching us because a buddy of mine from the Curly Cale Cafe there in Vedder just happened to be outside on a break in the morning, prepping food, took a picture of these guys,

suspicious in the back alley. Anybody missing a guitar was a Facebook post. These two guys, I look at it, says Trevor McDonald's tagged. I look there's my guitar case I know it because I know the stickers in the guitar case I lose my mind immediately I phone Mike Mike did you see him no I didn't well so the race was on

I ran all around town I collected camera footage and this and I got camera footage and the beauty of social media I had I had guys from high school from the nightclubs from people I haven't talked to in years that I thought I lost touch with would pull me over on the street and say buddy you relax I got this one

I would be in a place that was a little bit skitching, a little bit dangerous, but I was going to go there any way to see. They told me to sit in the car. I got this. I get emotional thinking about it. They sat me in the car. They went and scouted the area out. And long, I mean, I feel like I'm babbling, but it's a really good story, though.

So the long and short of it is, after just 48 hours, this guy could not sell the guitar to anybody. He couldn't get rid of it. I would literally have people phoning me Hi, you don't know me I'm just on my way with my kid to go grocery shopping I saw the guy with your guitar Should I follow him? And I'm on my cell phone Thank you

She says I don't want to get out I said don't get out please tell me what street you're on And I had another friend of mine Corresponded with where she was We lost him Yeah that was the last night I thought I lost all hope But so many people phone me like that The next morning I get a call from a lady

in the Pioneer Build All parking lot, 5.30 in the morning. I'm driving by. I see the guy with your guitar. It looks like he's got a flat tire. He's here right now. You've got to come. I said, okay, I'm coming down. I'm going to phone the cops because they're just around the corner. So I phone the RCMP. Bless their hearts. And I said, listen, I didn't file a report because I, you know, I didn't, I thought it'd be a bit of a burden. She cut me off. She said, where is it, Trevor? I said, pardon, she says the guitar. Where is it? We've been following the story. I said, well, right now they're in the Rona parking lot.

She said, we'll have a patrol unit on there in a second. And I was coming from Sardis. By the time I got from Sardis, they had three police cars, the guy in custody, and a garage sale full of stuff that he had stolen all over the Rona parking lot. Oh, my gosh. And counselor Jason Lum was there, of course, too. And, you know, he's just one of my great buddies. and he's there making sure everything's going okay.

And so these are a CMP guys. Is that your guitar? And there it was, my beautiful guitar. And boy, I tell you, that's a great example of everything that I ever talk about with community. When I say the word community, not only do I practice that, but I was blessed by it. So I really know what it means for the community to come together. And that was just for something like a guitar, which really isn't as important to everybody. But that guitar was super special to me because it was a great gift from a friend of mine was super important.

So to this day, I have the guitar. And thank goodness to the good people of Chilliwack. And that's that story. That's an amazing story because it does speak to how your name recognition, people understanding the value that you bring to the community. You bring people together. and under COVID, I really think that it speaks to something we're missing out on right now, which is getting together and feeling like a community.

And the other part I wanted to talk to you about was party in the park, because you're there during those pivotal moments. That was a pivotal moment in my childhood growing up. I like to hear that. And you were emceeing that. You were the person that everybody was listening to. And I still remember. I didn't realize who you were today in today's footing.

But now looking back on that, I remember being like, wow, that person's up on the mic. they're leading the way like it's getting us started for a great night and when i grew up downtown there was no option of going to coltis lake that cost money and i couldn't get out there and so whatever's going on in cultus or sardis or the other side of town to me was too far and it wasn't an option for my mom and i because buses stopped running back then at like 5 p.m the last bus would run so it wasn't an option and finding people to give you rides can be embarrassing when you're when you're on a limited income and so those party in the parks were my whole childhood my whole summer type of thing and you were the person emceeing that so what has that been like for you to be able to

have the opportunity to get that your name out there but also to bring people together because that is what you're doing if you're a good emce you're bringing everyone together well let me tell you about party in the park um anybody who knows me uh knows my love for it way beyond uh the mc side of it um i've been blessed you'll know i never played a party in the park in my life because i did not want to take that showtime away from another musician, another local musician. You can look back. I did nine of them. And it was my honest to goodness pleasure to book local entertainment 90% of the time. We brought in some showcase acts at the end, but it was always about incredible talent in your own backyard, giving people a chance to shine.

the event is so important to me and I want to go over two things you just said number one it needs to come back in some form most definitely in that community sense where people can come together once a week talk about their week get off of Facebook and see each other physically bring your stroller enjoy music that is not offensive to the mass is that everybody can enjoy the dance groups the night market you name it right So it's coming back. I don't know in what form.

But I want to speak to another really important part of that. That is the social aspect for somebody who can't get to SARDIS, who can't afford the P&E, who can't afford the water slides. This is the water park is your water slide, right? When you're low income downtown, this is what I think a lot of people miss the point on. I was you, buddy. I lived, I went to central school. Central Park was, that's where I would have been if I was your age.

I would have been there. Why? Because I could fit in there without questions asked. You know, I don't know if you were like me, but, you know, we couldn't afford hockey. And I don't want this to become a, you know, how poor were we? But I will say, these are things when you read books like Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, you know. Great book. There's benefits to a good upbringing, right?

My mom would never pay for a season of hockey. There was not a chance. It was 300-some-odd dollars for equipment and registration. And I was a good athlete when I was a kid. I was a tiny little guy, but I had the heart of a bear. And I would have loved to have skated and grew, you know, so I missed that whole part of it, right? There's things that you miss. There's ski trips to Hemlock with your school, field trips, where you have to pay $12 for registration.

And your mom's like, there's not a chance of giving you $12. I love you, but no way. What am I supposed to do? You can deal with it. And then we put on our bulletproof shield and we make an excuse or we called in sick. You know, it's bad enough to not belong on a daily basis in school, but even worse when you're excluded on things like that. And I'm so grateful now there's programs like Bulls of Hope and stuff

where you can feel like you're still a part of something and not have to be so afraid to ask. You don't have to put your pride aside, right? So what party to park is most important for for me is it's a gathering spot for people that can't get out of the downtown core. that maybe come from Fairfield Islands, that come from a five-mile radius around that area to be somewhere peaceful, safe,

and experience some culture and say that I was a part of that. And that's what is, above all, the most important part for me. So you'll see when I'm on stage, I would rather be off the stage on the ground. It's about bringing good people together to experience really good people. Yeah.

And everybody deserves that, regardless of your income. I champion causes of poverty because I was that kid. And I know the emotional damage it can do. And it's just so important. So thank you for sharing that because that makes me feel like all of my thoughts about it are correct. You're one guy. Look at you now.

Look what you're doing. You're one guy who I think, honestly, I think you're a rare gem. You see, I mean, I don't think I've met anybody your age who's quite as. I don't know. You're just, you're deep, buddy. Thank you. I can't explain it. But, you know, I appreciate you for saying that, and I hope that it touches other people that way. I really do. I do, too, because I'm that kid who my school was putting on a trip to, I think it was Sun Peaks,

and my mom was able to get the $70 together. But we didn't know about the fact that you needed ski year. And I didn't even think of that. So there was me skiing on the hill in jeans, embarrassed and ashamed, because I didn't. realize and having those opportunities like i felt wealthy at party in the park like i didn't feel impoverished during those moments because what's a churro three dollars like i could scrape together three dollars but it's those events where you are at the p and it's twenty five dollars to get a pass for this and it's fifty dollars to go ride this ride and those

are the things that really and party in the park was never that to me because you can afford most of the things there maybe there's some clothing you can afford but pretty much everything that's kind of fun to do is accessible I got to do karate when I was like eight or 10 or something like that and do that in front of everyone. And it was an opportunity for me to showcase something. Exactly. So there's a great example. And Adam's another great leader. I know you had Bill Turnbull on this show as well. But Adam's another great leader who if he knew your story, Adam would take you in free of charge and help you. That's what I'm talking about. It's experiences like, and you talk about it so passionately.

Do you see what I mean? There's empowerment in belonging. There's empowerment. in not feeling like you've got to first put up the bulletproof shield before you can even act. Do you know that when you spend like literally I feel in my life I spent grade five here in Chilliwack coming in here as a grade five guy, grade five probably to grade 11 with a bulletproof vest around me. I had beautiful teachers, two of them that I know and I anybody who knows me knows that I'll talk about Margaret Paulding, my music teacher in Central Elementary, who saw all the weaknesses that I was suffering and cared for me in every way she could. She paid for private trumpet lessons. She introduced me, she brought me to junior high school out of elementary school, introduced me

to the music teacher. She did everything that she knew I desperately needed. And when she passed me off, there was a grade 11 theater teacher who literally said. said, you know what, you can try and be funny boy with me, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to buy your shit. I'm not going to buy it. So we're going to be real with each other, right? And open my eyes to, I could trust her. And I could, for the first time in so many years, just feel like, you know, I could breathe almost, you know. And I always had a really good happy face shield on. But I didn't start feeling really like I belonged even in high school till probably December of my grade 12 year,

like the last six months where I made some really wonderful friends and was more secure with myself. Boy, it's a funny life, man. I agree. I don't think I got that until a couple of years ago, that feeling of security. And it partly came with starting this and believing that I had a perspective

that other people didn't have because a lot of my teachers, I was called Dents. I was told I wasn't going to graduate. I was called one of my teachers in front of me and my mother said that I have narcissistic personality disorder. Just these comments that really shook my, these are the professionals. Like, I know my mom has a disability. So she's not on the right footing. I'm not on the right footing.

I'm 15. I can't defend myself. I don't know what's right. My mom doesn't know what's right. And the teacher's telling me I have this personality disorder that I should go get checked out. But that was, as you said, the shield, the protection. That was me trying to look and behave, like I had everything figured out, even though I was at 12. At 15, though.

And you're trying to control, you're trying to play the adult. I was playing the adult. And did you find your whole life you've had to play the adult? Yeah. So at an early age, my uncle was the one who kind of said, hey, your mom, she's got limitations of her own. And so you're going to have to step up here. And I was 12 or 13 at the time. And that's when I started going to the store with my mom and calculating, okay, a pack of toilet paper.

it's $12 for $5 or it's $24 for $10, which one's the better deal, trying to sort those types of mathematics out and knowing that that was the only way we had enough food till the end of the month. If I didn't do the math, we didn't have food till the end of the month. So you're doing family budgeting at 15 years old. So, you know, I have to confess, I didn't have it that bad. And quite frankly, I was kind of a selfish little guy. You know, like I, you know, my mother, being the youngest of 10, my, The worst of my mother, I'll say, was unleashed on my, my version one of my family, the hard drinking, hard partying mother of mine. That being said, it was no picnic growing up because she, my mother was felt entitled to, I feel now looking back, she felt entitled that, you know, I've devoted my whole life to kids.

I'm taking some time for me. And she never came to any of my, like my mom wouldn't know. she passed away when I was 22 and she wouldn't even have known that I mean she knows now because she's literally here with this right now but um she would never have seen a show would never have seen and she didn't come to any of my elementary school concerts or high school stuff and I mean I don't want to I'm not whining about it I'm just saying that um you know there are things that you kind of you know I was jealous of kids who had the Kool-Aid moms and stuff I was fortunate that a lot of my friends at the time were very sympathetic to my situation and almost

kind of adopted me in like i mean i spent half my life i could think of two uh two people that i probably spent most of my teenage years with in their house so yeah and don't get me wrong my i love my family i had a beautiful i have a beautiful relationship with all my family um i'm just speaking to the fact that there was no rebar in the ground for my family and it's so very important in your internal build to have that. I saw that with my friends. Like I saw some of my friends like I thought I had it bad but then I would see this person with two parents while the dad beats the child. And so it was like, oh, what is worse? And there isn't a right answer. It's personal circumstance. But understanding that a lot of people have things behind closed

doors that it looks picturesque, but there is a lot of struggle. And the thing I'm grateful for, the thing that I think makes my circumstance so positive is that my mom never stopped believing that I could go do things and she always pushed me to ask like her famous comment like that I'll always remember is ask a better question and so that gives life to what I'm doing here is I don't like I try and make sure that the questions I ask I'm not repeating what you've heard from journalists or what you've heard from other people I want to make sure that I'm developing on a better question and that is driven me farther than I think I realized exactly and so but seeing other people circumstances, you realize that we've all got these demons, these struggles, these things that we're

trying to protect ourselves from. But it's about bringing those to life and sharing that with people so that we can talk about how to move forward in the best way. But when we're busy trying to cover it up, we're not moving forward in any good direction. My thing for me was that I can really see it. I can look at a pot of kids and I can see immediately. I can see me in that pod. I never had kids of my own. I so fortunately got to share my wife's kid with her since she was 12. She's 29 now. So we have a beautiful relationship, but not one of my own, right? So I never had a chance to coach a soccer team or a hockey team or do you know what I mean? In that respect, I never had to grow up. And I never had a chance to mentor or spend time with maybe a kid who could have used

that up. That's my one big regret. And now knowing that I could do that, but there's no social except it's, you know, I can see in a pod of kids playing when I'm driving A to B and I look over to schoolyard, I can see me in that pod. It takes me four seconds to see which one is Trevor in that in that pod right there. Which one's getting bullied and is playing cool? You know, which one is, you know, there's so many stories, man. You know, like I said, I mean, You know, we just tend to bury a lot of stuff as human beings. And I think podcasts like this are important for anybody who cares to listen to them. You take the nuggets out of them, right?

Like a lot of it, for me, I babble all the time. But there's a couple of nuggets in there. I think that you really got to, and it's so cliche, but man, you got to love people. You really got to give the love. Yeah, I had the opportunity to see somebody else. I was at Save on Foods a couple of weeks ago, and there was a kid standing there at the self-checkout, and the lady was staring at him, waiting for him to pay.

He was probably like 13, and his parents weren't coming inside to come and pay for the groceries. He was just standing there. And then so I just went over to the kind of management area, went over there, said, hey, what's going on with this kid? He's just standing there. They were, like, moving his stuff out of the way. They were like, okay, come to the side.

They were kind of moving him around. And I was like, what's going on? And they're like, oh, he doesn't have any money to pay, but he's got all these groceries. So I was like, just charge me. I don't care. Just pay. Let's get this kid out of here. Let's let him take home his dad.

Everybody should be in that mindset. And you know what? Honestly, I got to say, Aaron, you know, you've been here a long time and you've interviewed people and there's a ton in this community in general. I know that I always waived the flag for Chiluck being extra special, but there is truly something special, whether it's a water or, the farmland or whatever we got here, we have an incredible amount of people that would literally give somebody the shirt off their back here. We're blessed to be here. This is a rare a rare community. I completely agree. I am so grateful to be here. And the more I learn about Chiluak, the more I learn the history of the mountains and what people saw from thousands of

years ago it just reinforces how deep the environment we're in is and it gives you greater appreciation and being able to see people like Lucas Simpson starting his art career and people just getting started and wanting to like the person I had on recently was Alex Hart and he's a photographer and he noticed that all the grads are having a real problem getting photography done because money's tight and then also there's no celebrations so he pivoted and decided to hey I'm going to spend an hour with you, not 15 minutes. I'm not going to rush you. You're going to share your story with me while we do this. And we're going to have some fun taking photos for your memories. And when people do that, when people take that extra 45 minutes out of their day to hear

it, it changes a whole person's experience when they look back at their graduation. And he also makes a point of not making the photos too focused on like pivoting your head and turning your, yeah, the pose. It's about this is your memory. You want to look back on this in 20 years and be like, I got through COVID, but look at how happy my face was in that photo and be grateful for the memories you have here. And I think one- I needed him in my high school photo. So did I. One of the biggest struggles I had was I grew up downtown too long and I didn't experience this. I didn't experience the great outdoors of Chilawak. You can only get here by car. And so realizing that I had a dislike for Chilawak because I was stuck so deep down inside of it that I didn't

go to the Sardis. I didn't go to Coltis. I didn't go to the Vetter River. I didn't go to of these locations that give you that appreciation for the beautiful landscape, the stories, the history of it all. And the more I've learned about it, the more grateful I've become to be here. How old are you, Aaron? 25. Okay, so if I was as mentally aware as you were at 25, I would be Premier of Canada right now. I'm telling you right now, the beauty of watching you and listening to what you're saying is that I'm almost in. of your youth in the way that you are going to do so much good for people, right? You're young.

You have 20 years before you're me sitting in this chair. 20 years to really continue to just do positive, right? Think of the good things you're going to do in the next 20 years. And I'm grateful for people like you. You mentioned Lucas Simpson, you mentioned we have such a good crew of young folks coming up right now in year 20s, but I think of the 35, early 40-year-old guys that have been passed a torch now for non-profits

like Bulls of Hope, and the older guys that are stepping off now who are turning 60 and maybe 65, who have done their time and have given, I mean, without question, service above self. They've now passed a torch to the younger generation in their 40s. And I feel so good knowing that the next generation, which is you in your 20s,

we're just, it's just getting better and better. I really feel that. I absolutely agree. But it's from getting the, like I don't think we can do it without getting the wisdom from the people who've been there, done that and struggled and seen all the challenges. Like I think that that's one struggle my generation seems to have is believing that there is something about history that is worth learning and incorporating because often we look at history and we go, well, those people.

were so ridiculous. Why would we do that today? And it's like, right, but those people actually thought that they were doing good. And that's what they thought. They were wrong, but that's what they thought. And we need to understand where people were coming from previously in order to not make the same mistakes, because it's easy to believe when you're going in the right direction that you can do no wrong. And when you have, like, I really don't want to be a person who just thinks I'm doing right. People are saying I'm doing right. So I'm just going to keep going until I hit a brick wall. because there's consequences of going in the wrong direction and chasing that too far. Well, we've proven that up till very recently, haven't we?

Yeah. There's no excuse for burying the past. There is every, there's no excuse for you not digging up the past either. There's no excuse. You know, you're as guilty for not knowing the past. It's there, it's there at your disposal. I mean, you know, this tragedy that's just happened recently in Kamloops is a great example of, you know, I had friends of mine who told me these stories 25 years ago, and just as traumatic, just as terrible. It's important that people look past the fact, well, they never told me.

I never knew. It was, it was looked, it was buried back then. You have to do your job as a human being. to educate yourself to find out what I'm loving so much now and I'm kind of around about getting to your point is it I'm loving so much now that you you can't hide the truth not in today's day and age you can't hide it it's it there's too much out there to be uncovered and people are not going to sit back anymore and just take it they're going to they want the truth and so that's another thing that I'm really happy about

for it's going to it's going to provoke pain is going to provoke all kinds of things but it's also going to promote healing in every way yes and that is one of the hopes i have is because for me what i hope people get out of the 215 lost children is that first those are a lot of role models that we we may have lost there are a lot of people that could have set a better example who could have been chiefs who could have led their community in a better direction but also recognize that there are people here today who survived and who are all messed up because of of what they went through and then they had children and that's that's my mom and then those people had children and that's me today my grandmother went to indian residential school my mom has f asd because of the drinking that went on because of my grandmother and then there's me today and so i can see within my own lineage intergenerational trauma that's occurred but the thing i want people to get out of it is that we can't just have the negative story and that's why i really like nikola campbell who's a children's author is because she's trying to give

indigenous children the tools to do better because one of the fears I have is that we're not giving indigenous kids today the story of what does it look like to be successful? What does it like

what does it look like to beat the odds? What does it look like for these things not to weigh you down? And as a native court worker when I was working at the Chilliwack courts in the Abbotsford courts,

there isn't a mindset of how do I get rid of alcoholism start a successful business or start a job that I actually enjoy. There isn't that conversation taking place that gives them the tools to go and succeed

by their own definition, whatever that looks like because they're told that the government did this, this is all the government's fault, and so what do you do if the whole system is built against you and that's what my role

as a native court worker was was to give them that confidence we're going to get you through this court process, we're going to resolve your court matters, we're going to get you some counseling and we're going to try and find you a job you actually want to go to.

And we're being real. Exactly. being legit. We're not just reading a textbook and following step A, B, C, and D, I'm here, look me in the eyes, I've got your back. Yeah. You know, and again, Aaron, you know, big respect to you. You know, like I said, I just, again, I always have to find some form of bright light and just believe that the right people are going to uncover the right truths. And, And in the end, justice will be served. I just, and I don't just mean in this particular circumstance.

I mean in so many. And I'm talking anybody who's ever had to suffer at the hands of abuse. I mean, my family went through it intensely. In a different way, but the same pain. And for you, you're the prime example of generational effects of that. but you're a flower in the weeds man you know like again you pivot right and and if somebody doesn't break the trend and believe that there can be better what do we what do we what do we have exactly and that's why I love it's a dark metaphor but people who get abused abuse but

that's actually less true than people who are abused end up not abusing because that's the majority of people and so that shows that people can be hurt but they don't continue Some do, but a lot of them don't. And those are role models. Those are people who are setting an example of how to do things different and how to process the hell that you've been through and go in a different direction. And some can and some can't. And that's, again, that goes to what I first talked about in the beginning of the broadcast,

was, you know, some people have the inner strength, and it's not a weakness or whatever that you don't. But I'm saying some people have that capability to, to pivot and to grab that last rung and pull yourself out and up and others they don't they're tired they're done their their their previous spirit is beat already yeah do you know so i i am by no means uh uh uh an expert at anything i i do uh i do watch the human condition and i do i do watch very closely how people are and I just try to surround myself with the positive all the time you know right and I'm habitually negative like my me as a person I am I mean my poor

wife right I am 70 30 negative over positive you never know that by my public persona because I try to keep the smile going and and keep it up but it's a struggle for me every day to get up and find the good. Takes up maybe a quarter of my daily energy. But you do, though. Well, what has that been like for you? Because you're right, you go into the circumstance where everyone's looking for the show.

You're the show. What has that been like to kind of carry? Because you having an off night, that's not really an option. People aren't maybe as interested in hearing that. They want, I saw you last week. I can't wait for the same type of show tonight. That's exactly.

And it's literally, you know, like, And you go to a house party and somebody's saying, you're going to sing tonight, you're going to, you're singing tonight? No, but, you know, I'm not saying, here's my wife, we're eating, you know, for lack of crackers and cheese, I'm not your entertainment tonight. But the insecure person in me feels, oh, I guess I better turn it on now. I am the guy literally, and I say this to a lot of people,

I am the guy that would, at a house party, I'm the guy who would go stand in the kitchen, you know, eat celery. And then a couple of people drift in and I talk with them. When I have to be on, I'm on. and I, you'll know I'm nervous because I'm trying to be funnier, I'm funny. Yeah. The more nervous and insecure I am, the funnier I can be, right?

That was a gift. Thank goodness, because it got me friends and didn't get me dates, but got me girls who liked me. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So I got accepted through being funny. I had a sense of humor. And, you know, from my youngest days of being an insecure kid, seeing the reaction of someone laughing at something you're doing.

Wow. And then getting the positive affirmation from my, playing a proper g on a ukulele you know and then there was one of my sisters who who it's all in the attention you're seeking right and how you get it i was fortunate enough to to realize that music if i you know if i've nurtured that talent a little bit people will like me man i you know so it was a necessary need for me it was a need to crawl out from under that grade four grade five really insecure shy bullied kind of um persona to come out now and i think honestly that's a great deal of why i am

who i am is because i will always have that soft underbelly that has been really hurt and really really vulnerable and still to this very day insecure if somebody said the wrong thing to me i still cower like i'm you know 10 years old again right you recoil um you just learn how to master it a bit better. How did you end up doing that? Because that sounds like a lot of, like, I can't imagine what it would be like to have people approaching you all the time kind of being like, play a song, do something, entertain. Alcohol. Yeah. Alcohol. So for me, my, you know, my, my years, once I found I could pad a lot of feelings with booze, look out, look out, man. Once I knew that I could be a better guitar player, better singer, I wasn't afraid to go on stage. And, you know, For me, I've played literally over 10,000 shows, right? And I've played in front of thousands of people. And every single show, whether it's 10 people or 1,000 people, I almost get sick the week before up to a gig.

I play it through my mind a thousand times, and I never got over the stage fright. Never. I would play, I played Wednesday nights at the Jolly Miller for 17 years, and I was nervous till the second song every single Wednesday. for 17 years. And then imagine times that by five, seven gigs a week, eight gigs a week, having that height of anxiety.

And so I ended up patting it with, you know, four beer, a couple shots, right? Yeah. You start, that's your pad. All of a sudden, then anxiety levels down. Okay, this works. Oh, I'm pretty funny when I'm drinking. I'm pretty good at this. Yeah.

Pretty loose. And then, and that becomes, that's how you give the same show overnight. is it you literally the best part of you dummies down and the worst part of you comes up when you're at your peak with booze and so you're consistent so you find that happy medium and that's what people got for about 20 years was that really good could have been way better yeah or could have been way worse yeah you know what was that like for you to kind of make that decision or was did you even notice did it impact you at all what i noticed is that i used to watch other players play and I remember judging them and I'm pretty judgmental guy but I remember judging him like

oh look but he's had a couple too many sauces up there it's a little bit past his prime that guy yeah he's oh look and then the last of my performing days back when I was still performing a lot like you know whatever five years ago whatever I was the guy slurring uh in my show and missing a guitar part and not caring about it as much and and being one of the people in the audience not the guy giving them the show i became this guy that i that i personally hated i hated that guy and it dawned on me a few times watching myself on stage like dude you just miss that whole solo there and now you're laughing about it on stage publicly yeah you're you've become the the spectacle not the really cool guy yeah that's what i felt anyway a lot of people would say you're

they know they didn't notice to this very day. People go, oh, dude, I never had any idea. Well, that's your internal fight, right? Yeah. And so there just came a time for me where I was just letting myself down every single day. And so my brother, my mother died of a heart attack, just quick. She died, literally talking to my sister on a stool. They were having a conversation.

And she literally grabbed her chest and died right in front of my sister. My brother was 48 years old, Sean, rest his soul, my hero of my family, which is my brother, Sean. Beautiful family, raised in terrible poverty, the first generation of my family, grew up, always had this air of dignity about him, regardless of situation, walked with a swagger, educated, very smart guy, dodged all. the troubles, pivoted his way out of it, moved to Victoria, married a beautiful lady, had two kids, became a stone mason in Victoria, got too old to be a stone mason, gave it all up, came back to Chiluac, lived in my mother's basement on Lewis Avenue, went to school, UFV, became a social worker, started all over again, moved to Nanaimo, bought a small house, became a social worker, ended up helping others, right? This is my hero, Sean. He died of a heart. He died of a

heart attack at 48. So one day I'm on a treadmill about four years ago doing my annual checkup and my doctor stops me mid treadmill. It sits me down. He says, no, you got to stop. You got to stop. And now I'm nervous and I'm trying to be funny. And he's not taking any of it. He's like, no. He says, he's looking at the chart. He says, this is bad. This is really bad. Sits me down. He says, I'm going to write your prescription. He wrote me a prescription for nitroglycerin. And right away, I'm thinking, okay, I'm 48. I've done my time. I got my stand Rogers Award. I got a Paul Harris from Rotary. I think I've done good by people. This all makes sense. This is my going out party. You know what is it? And he said takes, I want you to immediately

rest, go leave this hospital, go grab nitroglycerin pills and always carry them in your pocket until I call you again. So I already suffered from anxiety. So now you can imagine a guy who's kind of a hypochondriac anyway. Anytime I had a slight chest murmur, if I drank coffee and I got indigestion even. I would think I'm having a jammer. This is it I'm done. So my poor wife and I'd be walking the Vedder Trail. And I would feel a little tangent.

I'm like, oh, I'm going to go down right in the better trail. Is this how it ends? So I did that for eight months. Wow. And in the process, my drinking increased to a ridiculous degree. I thought, if I'm going out, I'm going out in flames. I'm going out. I'm going to live.

You take me if you need to take me, but I'm going out, right? Fast forward to the day I get my big exam. They get me on the table in Vancouver, and they give me a little bit of happy juice and settle me down, and the needle goes in my leg and up into my heart, and they check me out, and it was a false positive. So there I am, eight months of this pent-up, am I going to die?

What's going on? And the doctor and the nurse are talking about a karaoke party that they were at. I was a Monday appointment. So they were talking about Saturday. Oh, I can't believe so-and-so sang queen. Oh, he was so good, so good. Meanwhile, he's in my heart with the camera. And I'm laying there and I'm listening to this and I'm thinking, man, they're casual.

And he was done in about 15 minutes. He said, you're good. That's it, you're good. And he starts talking to the nurse again. I said, Doc, you got away. I said, what do you mean? What? He said, you're good.

You're good. It was a false positive. You're good. You're clean as a whistle. Nothing. No, no doctors, whatever you call. it and know and I don't think he realized that you know who's going to know right but eight months I've been there yeah thinking honestly that my time is coming and

then when I got out of that I was already full into the drink now now I'm like okay I'm now I'm free and I'm bulletproof yeah and I also like booze yeah look out yeah right and so I just you know it just became a it just became a reckless guy like just not paying any respect to anybody around me, not respecting myself, most of all. Nothing anybody could ever say to me would ever replace what I said to myself and the lack of respect for myself. And so the final straw, and I've never told anybody this. I told my wife knows and my close friends know, but I want to share this because I think

is important. So this speaks to sobriety for me, right? Like I've been sober now. I'm proud to say I'm sober a year and a half. I just quit and I've been sober a year and a half and I'm really proud of that. So November 10th, a couple years ago, I was playing a gig for a buddy's wedding and I did that, you know, that drank too much at the wedding, mouthed off the security guards, tried to drive. I did everything that I just hate in a human being that I would just detest in a human being. I did it all that night.

Just disrespected everybody on the whole process. And then, of course, November 11th is Remembrance Day, which is really hugely dear to me. I missed Remembrance Day. And I literally was too hung over to go to Remembrance Day ceremonies. And I'll tell you, Eve. I'll tell you what, that to me, it's, I'm a bear, I'm, I feel embarrassed to say that, but I did. I missed, I missed remembrance day. So the time when you're supposed to go pay tributes to everybody, I was selfishly so hungover.

I couldn't even get up. My wife went by herself, had to make a ton of excuses to our friends. And that was it, man. She came home and said something, whatever she said. And I said, there's, again, there's nothing that you're going to say that's going to make me feel worse than I do right now. And that was the November 10th was the last day I touched a drop of boost. And it's been 100% fabulous every day since then. That's amazing.

Yeah. I'm really, I really like that we got to, I got to share that because I, my close friends know. But I, you know, I'm a shining example of, honestly, if I can. if I can be sober, anybody can be sober. I was a terrible alcoholic, worst offender. And, I mean, I got a DUI. Cost me about $10,000. I am not proud of what I did,

but I'm prouder of what I did after because of that. So own it and move on. I really appreciate you being willing to share that. on this platform because this is what it's about. It's not about anybody ever being perfect. It's about how we come back from those times and how we choose to share those stories with others because I know a lot of people who listen to the podcast,

but I know a lot of people from my indigenous community who could really do good by seeing someone like yourself, someone who's well respected, who has the love of the media, who has a strong foundation within the community, has the respect of small business owners to have you say that I was here, And now I'm not and I got out of it and this is this is what others can do.

I think that that is what sets an example for others. And it's hard to emulate you if we don't know what you've been through to get to where you are today. Every day is, you know, I have bad days. I mean, everybody does. I have days where, you know, honestly, I can slam a beer. I do. I have days like that. But I will say that 25 out of 30 days are positive.

And I believe that everything that I've been blessed with in my life to this point is because of what I've done in the last, you know, the last 16 months, the last 18 months, whatever it's been. You have to give of yourself to get those rewards. I really believe that. And, you know, like this job with the BIA and, you know, just a lot of really good things have come forward. since, you know, that whole commitment.

Yeah, can you share a little bit about the BIA specifically? Of course. Let's start there. What happened with that? Because you obviously moved a little bit more away from entertainment. On goes the story of the pivot. So with music, I didn't want to play live anymore. So I still wanted to promote music and promote the same thing as party in the park,

getting people out in front of people that really wanted to play. And then we have so many talented. to people in this town. I got to say during this podcast, please people listening to this podcast. Go out and support artists. Go click on a website, a random local musician, artist, visual artist, whatever you can do.

Go purchase something. I don't care what it is. Purchase something. Give it away as a gift. Do what you got to do. There. Okay, there's my preaching portion done. So the pivot came.

When my music business was going to be on its best year ever, I had this great Lox list that the guys from Lox Pharmacy were so great to sponsor and it let me showcase businesses with live artists every week online. And so I would phone around and find out what rooms were booking live entertainment and I was booking most of the rooms. So it was perfect. So I could literally promote the rooms that I was booking with these great artists in it and really keep live music humming. up to March 11th, 2020. So right before COVID started, I hit 18 rooms, 150 artists going all over the Fraser Valley. And then fast forward March 11th, within two weeks, we were down to two rooms and about eight artists that were working. It was horrific.

And so I switched over to focusing on the artist with the logs list versus the venue. You know, Andrew Christopher has a live stream here. And Ben Cottrell's got a live stream. And Kyler Pierce has a live stream. And Greg Neufeld and really pushing the talent that we're doing live streams, right? Getting them to with their tip jars, a virtual tip jars. And that ran its course as we came out of that weird first wave of COVID where everybody was kind of sick of live streams.

And they'd given what they could give and their adrenaline was down now. And the honeymoon was kind of over. I switched over to doing video production for a lot of my. radio clients because you know I have a radio show so that also died so a lot of those radio clients were interested in what I could give them video wise so I started doing video production and so that kept I always had different fingers and different pies so any advice I can give to any youngans coming up don't put all your eggs in one basket like you you've got your podcast you need to have a whole bunch of three of law school yeah there you go you got a ton this this is one good

example this is your offshoot right so perfect um philosophy just law school um you're something else but uh so anyway so we pivot out of that went into video production and i've always been a huge flag waiver for chilewack in particular downtown chilewack as you know i grew up seven blocks from there dated my first girl first kiss central school first apartment above unross tv and stereo in wellington A beautiful little funky place with the Mr. Turtle Pool on the roof. And so I've always been a downtown guy. And when this opportunity came up, Kyle Williams stepped down as the executive director of the BIA.

And the opportunity came up. And it's just that carmic wheel, right? That great wheel that may be a bit of my life pension. That's my life pension paying one of its dividends. What pulled at you for this position? What did you see in it? I was afraid of the position to start with because I did. didn't think I had the qualifications from an administration point of view that there was a lot.

I knew I had the relationships and I knew that I could bring people together. We need a unified city in general, but in particular, I knew that I could help to unite the business community downtown with our citizens of downtown. You know what I mean? I've always been a fan of forging those relationships anyway and cross-networking businesses and now I just get paid to do it. So I went through four interviews, which scared the bejesus out of me. And I thought it would be easier to get the job than it was. And I hadn't written a resume since I was 16. So, you know, I put up this cheesy resume for resumes, whatever, are us.

And they laughed at it. My buddy laughed at. I gave it to him with this work. And they're like, dude, what are you doing? So I literally had to study on how to do a resume, got a buddy of mine, help me out. Went through four interviews, four pretty rigorous interviews. And with every interview, I felt more confident in me as the person in that seat. And administration, you can learn.

People and networking and years of relationships, you have to earn. 100%. Right? So I just took that as my mission, just like learning how to build a computer, learning how to write music on a computer, any challenge I've ever taken in my life. You pivot, you adapt, you learn, you grow, you succeed. see, right? And so here we are now. I'm three months into this great job that I love more than the first day I took it, get to work with really good people in town. I get to work with all

these connections that I've made over the years from from our mayor to to SEPCO to the chamber to all these businesses that I've known as good friends of mine, business owners, and some friends that I didn't know very well that I know better now. So the job is a blessing. And I'm good at what I do. You know, I don't, I don't ever say this arrogantly ever, but this job was really made for me. And I'll tell you something, something that got me right in the heart. When my guitar got found by all the people, right, I was gutted, like, emotionally, so thankful. The only time I felt like that after that was when they announced that I got the job for the BIA. and the social media kickback on that was so unbelievably positive and warm and again people I hadn't

heard of and mentors of mine and and people that I really respected and loved and high school friends and sent these beautiful words of you're the guy this this was meant for you you're the guy you've earned this and it was such a I mean you could not ask for a better push into the water like you know I I was walking on air for, I mean, I cried, I read them. It was, uh, anyway, I read the, um, I read them all and it was just amazing. My wife and I read them and it was, uh, it's pretty gutting, man. So, uh, um, oh, we can do this over. again. No, we're not changing anything about this.

Okay, here we go. Take two. Anyway, so I read the comments and it just fortified everything that you do. It's all those years of lending that hand and doing the work, right? Doing the, putting the rebar on the ground. And you do get the rewards. I'm just glad I'm here to get them. I'm glad I'm not. That's what this is all about.

This is about like the way I came to know your name is because Bill Turnbull at the Butcher was putting on a Christmas event and he said, oh, this is going to be amazing. You have no idea. Trevor McDonald is coming down here. And the way people talk about you behind your back is the same positivity that you saw on those social media posts. Oh, that's very nice. That is what I get to see and what I'm always trying to work towards. It's not just about that you have a name recognition in Chilliwack. It's that every person I've ever spoken to you and said, hey, do you know Trevor McDonald, any thoughts?

It's always immensely positive. And it's always that person went out of their way. Like, if we can just talk for a few minutes about the fundraiser you were involved in, that raised like over $100,000 and what that does for our community and how you played a role in our community in such a positive way. and you just keep looking for different opportunities. You've tagged me in posts, bringing awareness to local artists. And that, to me, spoke to out, wow, this person is absolutely the right fit for this podcast

because they're constantly looking for ways to raise awareness, not about themselves, but about other people that are doing great things. And there aren't enough people doing that, and you are one of them. And that is why I'm not having every single person I meet on this podcast. It's about those special people who go out of their way, who sacrifice. and the response you got was well deserved. Well, that's very kind. Yeah.

And people are, again, people are very kind, man. You know, the one thing about me is, is everything I do, I might not do it right. I do it honestly. And I, you know, I don't really have a filter a lot of times. And I say the wrong things. But I'll tell you what, my heart is, one thing I know, my heart's always the right place. And if I burn a bridge or if I screw up, you know, of course it hurts me, right? You want to take everything back.

You've ever done. If I had to say sorry to everybody that I ever, you know, disappointed, I would take it to my grave, man. So you just got to move past that and just accept that you. I think the majority of what I've done in my life is pretty good. And I've still got lots to do. That's the beauty. Just like you, I still know I've got, I mean, I pray I've got 25 good, solid years of working for this community

in whatever capacity it ends up being. but talking about this great give-a-thon you're talking about from last year. I want to just speak quickly before I go to the give-a-thon of Rosalie of Lianna Kemp from the Chilat Chamber Commerce and of so many great female, young female leaders that we have coming up in Chilliwack that are just amazing. This speaks to what I'm going back to about you and so many great young folks coming up. I don't think there's ever been a better time at Shilowak for female. Females in powerful leadership roles, I think, that we're so lucky to have that.

And I really wanted to mention that because this speaks to the give-a-thon. Leanna Kemp reached out to me, and she was the only person that I can think of who really reached out to me during a pandemic. When I was reaching out to a lot of other people myself, you don't want to ask for help. but when someone asks you it really means the world she phoned me one afternoon and said what can i what can we do as the chamber what can we do to help you and it kind of caught me off guard i said nothing we're good da da da da what what can we do to help you like what do you need and i thought that's just what a great gift that is so um through that we put together this this givathon which was the idea formulated into a telethon like the old telethons right of the day

and how can we make this work? And so I just formulated an idea that we would do it for 12 hours, and every hour we'd have a guest host. And so I would bring a great community leader on every hour, and they would guest host the show. I don't know if you watched any of it, but our goal was to raise $700,000. We raised $137, I think, through some really great donations. I think $130 is wonderful, so $130,000 is amazing.

and we showcased everything we were supposed to do. We brought in great community leaders to back and forth banter. Well, we had great local artists do segments, musicians, and we had almost every nonprofit, as many as we could fit in the show, do segments, about who they were, what they did, really encompassing that, and how you can help them through this time. Because, you know, I emceed the Hospice Gala,

I MCD the Bulls of Hope dinners, I MCD, a ton of stuff that involved raising money for these functions that with COVID no dice man we're not doing it so this was just a great way to give at least something to these organizations so I am so proud

of the team that worked overtime you know Tim McAlpine and Robbie Snooks and and Matt Hawkins from around Chilowack and Lianna Kemp and her crew of the chamber and I mean I could go on for a day Michael Berger from Rotary

so many people who put that event together I was just lucky enough to be, um, I'm always lucky enough to be the guy. And you know, I'm always looking to be the guy out front, right? And that's the insecure guy on me. You can't be me without a ton of really secure people in the background that don't need the spotlight. I needed it since I was five years old. So this is how good people like that shine to because they see it in me and they go, dude, you go, you go, you be the speaker. And luckily, I've got the gift of the gab. But, I love to be out front. I love to be that communicator.

I do it honestly. And people see that. Like you did a party in the park. So, you know, I'm good to be the conduit, right? I'm good to be the mouthpiece for anything good. And luckily, people take my name as a positive brand. And as long as I can use that brand to bring awareness or bring money to great, great causes, I'm going to do it. So that's one thing.

We're planning on putting a version of that together. We're actually meeting this month to put together round two of that as well. That's amazing. Now that we're on the topic, can you just go through some of your favorite local businesses? Because I think that that is valuable for people to understand not only where to go, but why you go there. What drives you to places like the town butcher or local businesses that you really believe in? Just to give an insight from a different perspective, because I've definitely talked about my favorite places on the podcast. Yeah, yeah.

But getting your perspective, what do you see when you go into these businesses? Do you know, for me, I'm a big fan of the underdog, always. I'm a big fan of the people who just opened the Indian restaurants, Spice 88, within my downtown BIA border there on the corner of Williams and Yale. They're in a tough location. It's always been a tough sell, but they're a beautiful family. They have great food. I'm always a kind of pusher for that.

you'll see my videos from the BIA or the last few anyway have been locally owned up-and-coming businesses just trying to make it work, right? Woodstone pizza, things like that. But, you know, I'm sure many people have talked about, I can say this just generically to anybody. Find out what stores locally support local. Bill, you mentioned Bill from the Timbletcher. Bill sponsors, he runs ads on my radio show. He doesn't need to. He just doesn't. because he does that. That's Bill. That's a guy that I would throw a million people to, not just for what he does for me, but what he does for the community. Amber Price is someone who, you know, she has the book man, right? And for what she does in the community, she's always kind of waving the flag and, you know, with Bill and with Amber, even with myself, you know, you either love us or you, you know, we rub you the wrong way, but hearts are in the right place, right? You know, I'm just trying to think of some businesses off and just do the homework and find out what business is really truly support local. I think of Pic Eco.

I've had the pleasure just recently of hanging out with the Selena from Pick Eco, which is also in the downtown core, by the way. And they're just going to kick off their farmers market this weekend. But she's a person who believes in business, but believes in the business of growing everyone around. her, the community around her, as well as the businesses around her, and that will make her succeed. I think that there's a young generation of super hungry millennials out there. They're fearless. They don't want a 50-year-old's idea of how businesses run. I think of the local space in District 1881. I think of, again, I think of Pink Eco. I think of just so many young entrepreneurs who just go in, well, my daughter, Chloe, is.

another one. Like just, she's in Cologne right now, but she's fearless. And she doesn't want to hear your stories of failure, your stories of burning bridges. She sees the light and they attack it like literally like a, just a, they're just shining stars, man. You know, I, so I don't have a store in particular. I just say shop local, support local. And of course, I, the biggest one for me, people in promontory on the south side of Chiluac that have not been to downtown Chiluac in years, maybe ever. That is if the one job I could do in the BIA before I leave the BIA is have regular traffic from promontory in the south side to come and see our beautiful north side and see what what there is really going on over there. I've done my job because it's amazing

over on the north side. Not that the south side doesn't have great stuff. But we, There's no reason for us, North Siders, to feel like we need to escape anymore. We got good stuff going on. And I think that's where my pride, like the reason why this job fits me so perfectly, is I walk the streets every day with my job, and I go home, and I change into my runners and my jeans, my T-shirt, my hat, and I come right back downtown, and I walk around again. And I walk so proud through downtown.

Yeah. And that's what I want everybody to see that right there. So no favorite store, just stores that support everybody else. Well, and I think the culture as well, like one thing I kind of learned after leaving the downtown and like losing that mindset of being stuck in the downtown is that there's a lot of community in downtown that you don't get when you're so comfortable that you never have to leave your house or your space. And when you're in downtown, you see people having to help others, even if it's a homeless person helping another homeless person. But when I've had trouble in downtown, it's a lot of those people that are. struggling that we're there to be like, hey, I've got you, don't worry, you're safe. Like, everything's okay.

Become a family within their own. Exactly. I mean, there's a definite, look, there's a, where human nature, there's a hierarchy in human nature, right? There's always going to be a leader of a pack, a good pack or a bad pack. There's always going to be the mom and the pop of some, to some degree, whether it be four people or 40, there's always going to be, you know, the head of the pod, so to speak, right? And so, you know, for me, that situation that people kind of, immediately,

think, oh, it's downtown. It's not. It's all over Chilliwack. I lived in Sardis up until November of last year for four years. It's there just as bad as it is downtown. We have the same problems over there with homeless and with crime and with the problems. We have services on this side and we're getting more services. I think we're blessed in Chilliwack right now that we have so many services with more on the way. We have a mayor who as a counselor was his whole docket was homelessness. And he never gave it up and he was Mary kept it going and it still is passion and the money that's been funneled from federal and municipal government into Chilliwack people should really do some research and realize how much effort is going into it. The naysayers will say that enough being done but I see it every day. I see progress and I again there's that looking for that positive right we're far from perfect and I am by no means an expert in this I just see it as Trevor guy walks the streets and who listens to the right people talking. I know that change is common.

And people are really putting efforts into positive and to try to help. And to give people a building where you can go in and can come out with a sense of hope. Not just piecemeal answers to little parts of their problem, but maybe a situation where you could walk in

and you could come out. You know, we could have that here. Yeah, when you speak of Tim McAlpine, I just think of like, I watch a lot of shark tank, like a lot of shark tank. And just to think that there's this person who said, where is the entrepreneurship in Chilliwack? Where is us creating a space for them? And then he builds a co-work space. And he's taking the time to talk to me about audio and video because this is all just a sidework. Like, I enjoy what I'm doing.

but it is very hard to learn about audio and video from the outside, and YouTube videos are good, but having someone who's able to take the time to say, hey, this is some of the things I learned or some of the basics that might be useful for you to understand and creating a space for entrepreneurs to get started so they don't have to spend a lot of money to start their own office space or to rent and to invest that kind of money. There are opportunities to get started right away in the space. Have you interviewed him yet? Not yet. He's, him and I just met up and he was teaching me about some audio and video.

And then I said, I need to bring Bonn. You need to interview him. Absolutely. And I mean, I don't want to speak for him. Let me tell you about a guy. Like, here's an example. Tim has done more for the community and just done more as a human being. He's just, he's incredibly gifted, incredibly talented, really dry, funny, by the way, also.

But here's a guy that is so modest and so humble that a lot of people maybe don't know about Tim. Exactly. You know, but yet. So Tim is a guy. guy who makes a guy like me look good. Tim sits back and lets me be that, you know, I liken myself to that air machine where the arms are flailing in the air. Black inflated water moving too bad. Tim is the guy who walks over and turns the propane on, right? And then just walks away and lets me flail about and do my thing. So he's a guy that is a perfect example of a lot of who

we have in Chilowack, who are solid, good rebar on the ground. And the reason why we're so successful as a community is because they do they're not afraid to share their gift it doesn't come as a cost to them to give you something they've learned and i've learned so much now we have the algra brothers development across the street from my office this great new development downtown which has been the spark plug for so much good going on downtown they took a chance on this acre three acre parcel four acre parcel three acre whatever it is and they said we're going to do this and businesses fell in and they said, we're going to do this. And, you know, you sit with those Alga brothers for half an hour,

45 minutes an hour. I've been blessed to sit quite a few times with them. And they're more than happy to share anything, anything you need, any resource from them. How did you make that successful? What's your secret for this? Here, here it is, man. Because they know in their heart, you're never going to do it like they do it, but we're still going to give you the tools.

We want you to succeed. If you succeed, we succeed. And that goes back to that exact same thing again. That's like Tim, giving you the tools, right? You're going to be way more successful at a faster rate. Exactly. Because he's giving you some shortcuts. 100%.

And the idea of this is like, I want more podcasts. They're not my competition. They're support. They're bringing more people to listen to podcasts in general. I don't have any concerns about other people getting started or doing something similar or raising awareness. Those things are good because it creates the investment. for all of us to do better and all of us to share these important stories. And we are very lucky to have people like Tim and people who are willing to sit more in the

background and allow us to take the lead. And I think that those are the stories that are extra important to share because they're the ones that could disappear in nobody ever tells that story of what role he played in Chilliwack and all the different events that have relied on his space, the space he helped create, in order to do our elections, in order us to be informed voters. to operate effectively. And you want it to do good by him too. It makes you step up your game.

You know, me personally, when I'm working with Tim, I want to make sure that his job is easy. I want to make sure my game is an A game because he brought a very humble A game without question. So I want to be able to step up and make sure I'm there with him. And that goes with anybody that I work with. It presents that thing. One thing I do want to say also is never,

you're never too old to search out mentors. I don't care if you're 80 years old. You know, always, if there's a mentor out there to help you in some way or there's something you can learn, hitch on that ride, man. I don't care. I'm 53 and I still, every day, if there's somebody who can offer me some really good words, I hook on to them like a, like a, you know, just this is a sponge. I just want, I want it.

You know what I mean? I feel so blessed to be in this chair right now because I get to hear people. people's full stories from front to end and get an understanding of where did it go wrong, where did it go right, where did it, where did the opportunities arise for them? And because it's my education, I learn from your experience and the stories you share of, wow, okay, entertainers might have it harder than we realize and we kind of take them for granted because we think they're just extroverted people that it's so easy for them to turn on when really maybe turning on takes them a week in advance. And that is the learning experience and the humility that

I can go into new opportunities and meet new people and say, hey, if there's anything I can do to make this experience easy for you or improve the experience, let me know because I'd like to. Like, I want to make sure that when guests come on, they feel recognized, heard, that they feel comfortable. Like, I tried my best to find good outdoor chairs because I knew that this was going to be a lot to ask people sit outside in the sun or in whatever weather it is. Well, I mean, I'll tell you as, you know, besides, it was a two-mile walk to get to your interview site, but here we are in beautiful Shady Acres, British Columbia. Your research and your prep package and your professionalism in your whole presentation

speaks anybody who is going to do this podcast in the future, and I encourage if you're asked to do it, to definitely do it, you'll see the packages is, there's nothing you're missing when you come here. I mean, there was nothing, you didn't throw me to curveball. that I didn't want to discuss. And I'll be really honest with you. You sent me questions today. And I think I looked at them for about 10 seconds because I don't really want to know what you're going to ask me.

I think that I just, I knew I wanted to share a few stories with you, which I didn't. Thank you for that. But, you know, for the most part, the fun part for me was the first night. I started my job with the BIA March 1st this year. And my first house that I ever bought, my mom always said, before she died, said, do me one favor. All I ask of you is a human being. I never said go to school. I never said be a doctor. Please buy real estate. You'll never regret it and never let go of your real estate. Please buy that. And I never got it. I never just said, then she passed away.

And because of the real estate she bought, even as a welfare mother who had no money, she left everybody, all the existing kids in our family about $12,000 each with the sale of her house in the NIMO. I took that money and I put it as a down payment on my first house, which was on Victoria Avenue in downtown Chilliwack, which if you're from Chilwaukee, you know, where I work at the BIA office at five corners, it's literally a three-minute walk.

So when I leave my office every day, I go right by the first house I bought when I was 22, 23. So I'm 53 now. So literally I walk by 30 years, So I get to relive my story every single day when I come home from work. And I get to go, dude, what a journey, man, 30 years. That's seven more than you've been alive, buddy. And that's just in my little first house.

So I'm so excited about what you get. Your next 30 years, your walk is going to be like. Yeah, I already see it because I look at downtown and I think, wow, like I relied on these people. and these people, like Ron Laser was a role model to me. I absolutely looked at him and said, you own a business. These staff members are looking at you to guide them. And you're helping me out. And that's always blown my mind.

And this opportunity to be able to sit down with people who've played such an amazing role. Like I had Leonard Wien's on who runs the Royal Hotel. And he gave me my first opportunity at a real adult job where I had to wear a dress shirt. And I was struggling with weight issues, with confidence issues. And he was like, oh, I'm going for runs. you should come for runs and just creating that environment where it's like you're you're way older than me and you've got your exercise under control and I don't and that encouraged me and he gave me opportunities to find my place and use social media for the hotel to try and try and bring

awareness to it so when I started the podcast I was like I need to bring you on because hotels are struggling right now and I'd like to raise awareness of how amazing you run your business and how you try and take care of your staff and how well you treat them how you choose them so you can give them a leg up not just who's the best candidate who's got the most potential long term and look what you did yeah so you did interview lent yes so imagine how proud he was sitting in this chair knowing that a little thing that he did was so monumental for you yeah um you know i speak to that for me do you know my music teacher i go back to my music teacher from grade five to grade seven when i was in grade seven she wrote we didn't have your books in in elementary school but you

would grab a piece of full scamp and you'd get all your buddies to write goodbye for the year end right you know annuals and high school so we would all write on each other's pieces of paper have a good summer you know and my music teacher wrote the most beautiful thing ever and it was like i truly you're my best music student i've ever had in all my years of teaching and i i truly believe you're going to be on tv and you're going to have records someday and i was just i i just thought oh it was Just, it was everything to me. Like, that just was beautiful. And I kept that.

And I kept that. And I played a gig about four years ago, and she came out for the first time to watch me play. And I gave it to her shoulder. I kept it. And I got to give it to her after all those years. And she always kind of gets a bit weirded out because I'm so over. You know, I really, I just have so much love for her to this very day.

And even when Central School did it to 90th reunion, and she was there again and of course I just fond all over it. It's hard for them to understand though. But I think she's getting it now after the 50th time I've mauled her like Bearcub. But, you know, teachers out there, boy, just make one difference.

And one, just make one difference. I see my old buddy, Steve Anderson, is retiring, who's a teacher at Chilowak Senior, Tulloch Secondary School, whatever you call it now. Steve is just leaving after leaving a legacy of great inspiration and events. And it was so important in the Chilliwack 50-year reunion and he's retiring now and I just think about how many like

I'm the guy who cried watching Mr. Holland's opus right with Richard Dreyfus like all the students came back and performed his opus for him and I just think I'm never going to be a school teacher but I would love to leave a legacy like that where you've affected people and you've impacted people in that way so some of the small stuff you've said and and I and I experience it every day I'm blessed through social media and through my job with the public that I get that gratification and that thank you a lot yeah and my wife says to me too she said you know you're so lucky that in your job I mean even as a performer you get applause and you get you know you get that fortification and that adulation and whatever you know it's a pretty it's a pretty

blessed life it really is so that's awesome can you tell me a little bit more about what it's like to be a radio host because that is something I've never like I don't know what that's what like to experience? So I was blessed again with the guys at 89-5 the drive. So new radio station comes into town and it's a funny story actually because I initially when you have to apply for a broadcast license. So some of the older well-established guys in town grabbed me for another application to go sit on their panel. Well this other crew came in and they had their time in front of the CRTC. So we both do our hearings. I'm a deer in the headlights. I had no idea of the process. Didn't know what I was doing there. It was a generous ask, but I think they expected

a little more than I was going to deliver. But here's a great Fraser Valley personality. Here I am trying to do my best, and I can feel myself dying. Long story short, we lost the bid. But the other guys, 895, the drive won the bid. So year and a half goes by. I go in and on their door and say, hey, guys, you know, I would really like to put a 70s show together on your show. Like maybe just, maybe I could do it as a kind of a special guest came in and do this show. And they weren't having anything of it. But times changed. The format changed. They got their foot in the ground and Chilliwike a little bit more. And honestly, I think that they found out a little bit more about who I was and so I was pretty genuine. And, and

Kevin Gamble, who's not there anymore, he was the station manager. He's a great guy. And he finally Brogey said, I want you to come in. We've got an idea for a show. Nothing but 70s. I want to give this to you. And I said, okay, and being me, I said, I'm going to go buy. I'm to go sell it. I'm going to go sell it. Okay, go sell it. It's Sundays. I mean, I don't know how many people are you going to sell it to, but go get them. Well, I ended up selling it to the point where it was, you know, a lucrative situation for me. It was very good. And I did that for a long time. And the drive brought me in, gave me basic production skills, had a really good staff like they still have sadie there and glens slingerland they're the remaining two from when i

started but the staff there was so supportive it's so like dude we know you're not a radio guy but we know you're going to be okay yeah gave me the tools of the trade and it was probably brutal in the beginning i don't even know i would love to hear some of the first shows but i thought i was amazing of course but fast forward nine years later and i'm still doing it and it's an 80 show now and it's on Saturdays. It's called Ultimate 80s on the Drive, and you can stream it, which is fun. 895, TheDrive.com,

every Saturday, 8 to 12, Pacific Standard Time. And so I didn't have to go to radio school, but I was a DJN and I club for a long time, and I did have the gift of the gab, and I do have a very thorough knowledge of music. I'm a music nerd. If we did this podcast in my house, you'd see I've got a library full of 500 books

and 490 of more music, One of them is outliers and maybe a couple other that make me look intelligent that I've never read. So, anyway, yeah, so there, that's the quick and short of, how does that compare to being live in front of an audience? What was that transition? Like, was it different? Different animal. It's completely different animal and just as fun. At one point when I thought my life was about as perfect as it could get, minus the booze, I had a radio show. show that could promote community. I was on stage playing music and on stage emceeing events, gallows, partying the park, Canada Day, where I could promote my radio show and promote the

community. And then I was in my person playing live, just being rock and roll guy that they might have heard on the radio or might have seen emceeing these gallants. So I had this great cyclical fully working machine of and all i had to do was spit out the message you know and so once i saw that i could make a difference with my message then i could start saying well hey bolza hope needs some help and then mike shoka who just rest in peace uh mike who we lost again way too soon just just recently uh i met mike and he immediately had me clicked on bolz of hope him and Norm DeVoe. And we met at Tim Horton's, a Starbucks, I think of Starbucks.

And we met, and Mike was just contagious with his energy and his passion. And he said, you, I can use you to spread the word. And honestly, together with a great group of people, Bolzahopoli went from kind of a smaller secondary nonprofit to, and I'm not taking any, please, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that using people. like myself to spread the message, it's become a really powerful tool. And my cell on it was that I was that kid at Central School who didn't bring a lunch. I was embarrassed to bring a lunch when my buddies had a lunch with wrapped up cookies and real milk. And, you know, I would sit and stare at their

lunch and act like I wasn't hungry. Yeah. You know, so I got bowls of hope to the tea. You didn't, you, you would never have to go without a meal. And you could stand in line with other kids. and there was no questions asked. And you also didn't have a teacher just spotting you in a crowd and calling you out. Trevor, you don't have any food, what's going on? It was a group effort.

We all get to go up as one and get that food. And that's what I love about Bowls of Hope. There's no judgment. And I've always been a big fan of uniforms in schools for that very reason that, you know, there's one kid with the brand new Nike shoes, and then there was me who,

my mom went to the Armory's flea market and bought a pair of Nike runners and they were a size too small but I wore them anyway because they were Nike runners so I can remember wearing these shoes thinking like fun I got these trendy shoes and they were a size too small I can remember going for probably eight months with my feet like that and my shoes but because you wanted to be you want to be long and and that wasn't part of your narrative you know you could just be one of the kids and and I think within five minutes somebody had scuffed them all up because They look new. You know what I mean?

Yeah. But you were okay with it, right? Because he scuffed up my new Nike shoes. But I'm going way off subject. I'm just saying that to be able to be long, you get to take your mask off, right? And that's what Bulls of Hope did. So so many great causes like that. Just need a voice.

Just need people like myself to stand up. And I think we have a ton of them in Chililowack. You're one. And I look forward to seeing, like I said, what you're going to do to be a voice to promote positive. So that's the goal. but I definitely know what that's like to show up unprepared because I was in university and I thought I got a suit, I was all dressed up,

but the hardest part was when my friend was like, you're wearing the wrong socks. I was wearing just normal, low-cut socks. I didn't know that there's a rule around socks and how they're so supposed to go up your leg. I didn't realize. And so that day I thought I had was all together and when he made that comment, I was devastated.

Your walls crumbled down. It doesn't matter you could have an Armani suit on. Yep. I never felt comfortable around rich people for most of my life that took me until i was probably honestly probably i bet you i was 17 18 probably i i never felt comfortable around rich people i felt like they always had just something over me always right and you're you're born with that you are um it's something that you have to work through it took me years to get over that i i was intimidated so intimidated by rich people

that i you just didn't think yet it's you just didn't think you had it chance. You know, I just think about it now, thinking back then, and my brother, Sean, who I talked to about earlier in the show, he ended up marrying into a very wealthy family over in Victoria, really well-known, well-to-do family. He was bulletproof. He's like, whatever, I'm going to show you. Hey, I don't care. I'm marrying your daughter. She loves me. He had that gusto, right? I didn't have that gusto. So when we would go over and visit them, we would go to the houses, you know, his now father-in-law, You know, of Uppington in Oak Bay, on Beach Avenue in Oak Bay, which was, you know, the most regal part of Victoria, British properties. And that was just normal for them.

Normal to have Sophie Pemberton paintings and Emily Carr paintings and everything was prim and proper. And you drank from Royal Albert Teacups. And I wanted so badly just to fit in to, so I grasped everything I could grab. I found out who Sophie Pemberton was, who Emily Carr was. how good I sucked all that in but your sock thing spoke to me because all it takes is one thing to break that very frail,

fragile tower down, right? One mistake when you're speaking and they are ready to cut you down and make you feel that you're just that poor kid from Chiluac in one sentence. Yeah, right? It's a funny,

a very fragile tower we built, right? But then you get older and you get a little stronger and you start feeling a little bit better about yourself. And if you've done right, you can take ownership in it. And then money means nothing. The person means everything. I think that that's one thing you emulate really well because you're able to network. I think on a level that a lot of people aren't able to do. And so I'm curious as to how you approach that because it's not easy to put yourself out there or to have

the conversation. And from earlier, it kind of sounds like you struggled a little bit with being an introvert at parties and stuff because that is kind of what I've seen from a few guests is you're able to do this big loud energy and then when it comes to being at a party where you're just another person now there's this pull towards the food let's go stand over here where it's comfortable and if people approach me it's because they're coming over here and I don't have to go and try and find them so what has it been like for you to network because you do have probably some of the strongest relationships like if you think of the top 10 most known people you probably have the strongest relationships with the other people among that list. So how can other people

go about networking and building relationships kind of in the way that you have? What have you gone about doing it? Well, that's an excellent question. And it's one word. Genuine. Just be genuine. There's nothing beats an honest cell and nothing beats, uh, nothing beats getting through the bullshit. You know, you just, this is what I'm, you know, I'm coming to you. I need this from you. or I'm coming to you and I'm going to offer this to you. Take it from me because it's valuable. Look me in the eyes and know that I'm giving you this as a gift. Or I'm going to take this from you and you're going to do some good.

I'm going to help you do some good. For a lot of businesses, for me, my cell is that I know you want to do good. I know you don't have the time or the facility to take it on yourself. So give me what you can and let me get it where it needs to be. For me, that was exactly that. It was that I don't have money to give you. What can I give you that's a resource that is valuable? And so I gave it myself.

I gave my music. I gave my talent. Anything that I thought was valuable and that people would take as value, right? We'll bid on that show. And an $800 show would go for $3,500. And then at that $3,500 show, I mean, I'm just blown away. I think of playing at Tom DeGroote's house one night for Bulls of Hope. And the show itself went for $3,500, nothing out of the ordinary.

Maybe I wore a dress shirt instead of a T-shirt. We raised $3,500 off the cuff, and then the beautiful people at the fundraiser at this barbecue, did 50-50 draws all night. They ended up raising, I think, another $3,500 just at the house party. There's $7,000 from just the gift of music because people just needed a conduit for which to give. They don't want to go out and do the road work or they just don't have the time. So here, I'm going to do this for you. In the end, it gets to the right place, gets to Bowles of Hope or gets to Sally Ann or gets to wherever.

I want to speak about one more thing that I didn't speak about with the missing guitar. This is the most beautiful part. I got choked up, so I got off my thought. In my guitar case that night, I never take tips. I've never taken tips in my life. And I don't say don't take tips if you're a musician. I just never felt comfortable. Again, probably a pride thing.

I never ate at gigs, and I never took tips. Because I didn't want your charity, I guess. I felt proud about it. I'm here playing. I'm getting paid. Don't worry about it. Buy yourself a beer. When we had things like the forest fires in the interior,

and I found out that the horses were not getting food, they were missing some stuff, just some weird stuff like that, then the tip jar came into effect. And then we could say, okay, So every Tuesday at the Lakeside Beach Club, we would do a charity. We'd give away. Look, you can tip me tonight.

If you want to hear Brown-Eygirls, 50 bucks, because I hate that song. You know, we'd make fun of it. But that night, we made $450 and tips, just for people $5, $2, whatever, little kids, everybody. So that went with the guitar case. Now, that never came back to me. But I'm telling you, the next day, Elliot from Van Dyke Cabin, it's like, I'm thinking of people right away phone to me, Shane O'Connor. these are guys I haven't talked to any year

Trevor how you doing how much was in the case oh dude 400 change man real drag come and see me today come see me later today we gave Sally Ann I'm not quite sure the number

but I think it's I want to say $3,900 bucks $29 or $3,900 in the matter of so from minute one guitar gets taken to handing a check to Sally Ann to go help take care of the people

with the forest fires, we went from zero in the most terrible thing ever to guitar back, community amazing, charity gets paid three or four thousand dollars, which as you know, with a charity cash is king, right? You could go give somebody, you can give the sale to the end a 12 pack of soup or a thing in noodles or six cans of spaghetti sauce. But if you give them the money, they can double that. They can buy 12 cans of spaghetti sauce, 24 cans of soup. It's worth double to them. So cash is king with charities with these nonprofits. So imagine what three or four thousand dollars did. Yeah. And that was from 400. That's that's community. What was it what is it like to play a gig where you're doing it for the crowd and you're doing it maybe at Harrison

Hot Springs or something like that versus doing it for a cause? Is there any difference in how the audience responds? Is there any difference in the energy that you felt? You know the Harrison Hot Springs gig for me. So for those who don't know, listening to this podcast, I took a brief detour for my rock and roll career to become a jazz guitar player singer at the Harrison Hotel with a group called the Jones Boys. They were a long-running group in the copper room and maybe some are familiar. Some aren't. It's not there anymore, sadly, but the idea for me was to reinvent myself and settle down a bit and get into, it was a regular gig, five nights a week. Now, the The pros of it were I played five nights a week. I learned how to read jazz charts. I played with

incredible musicians who you couldn't let down every night. It was not a one-man show anymore. It was a full band and you're expected to come and deliver. You couldn't let them down. So I learned how to read jazz charts. It was at low volume, so I learned how to sing better. I learned control. But as part of that routine of every night, hearing the guy beside me say the same exact thing like clockwork every night 10 to 7 he would utter the same words or 20 after 7 he'd play the same riff on his instrument after three and a half years I'm losing my mind it sucked my soul right out of me and up to my drinking through the ceiling that was the beginning of trouble for me yeah I had control of it until I went to the copper room and then I was literally drinking to

escape I had a buddy of mine who drove me to work every day I would drink every day to work. I would drink at work. And I'm embarrassed to say this, but I, you know, I'm okay to share it now, but, uh, what a letdown to everybody. So you, long-winded answer to your question is that ended up sucking my soul away, so they never got the best part of me. They might have for the first six months when I thought I could make a difference there and change the direction of the band and, but it was three against one in that case where they were kind of set in their ways and you know as strong-minded as I am and so rather than fight it I just chose to you know I'll deal with it and I'll do it yeah and uh the beauty of me thank goodness in my brain

and my stubbornness is that I called myself on it I just said you you're done my most important thing at the time was really community events and they stifled me for three years in community events. I couldn't do party in the park. I missed two years of party in the park, which broke my heart. And the manager at the hotel at the time, he only gave me one Saturday off a year. Now, you can't do events like that. They could have used me at the hotel as a great ambassador and a great pillar for bringing people to the Harrison. And instead, they chose to put this wet towel on it. And you're here now. You work for us. This is your, this is what you do. no no letting the flower through cracks

no letting that shine and I don't want to make this sound like oh what was me because it was I learned a lot I had a time there I'm blessed for the time I spent and I met some great staff there and I still have great friends from the hotel so that's not my point

I forgot my point but the benefit for people always play for your always I don't care what it is for a gig always find a way to find your truth in a gig That goes for rock and roll or working at a shop selling clothes or bringing people food. It is a job.

Find the light in the job or get out. Get out. That's fair. And it does sound like you found your light with this new position where you get to bring all of your energy and all of your ambition and your voice to this new position and actually bring people together. But you know what I'm blessed that with this. new job is I have an incredibly supportive team around me with Brian Coombs from Sepco and Leanna from the Chamber and the great staff at Sepco who welcomed me with open arms Nettie Tam and Nettie Tam has done my job before so she knows what it takes nobody put a wet

cloth on me they said this is yours to lead I work with an incredibly cool board of on the BIA of volunteers store owners merchants business owners downtown who have trusted me to to at 53 take the lead. I couldn't have done this seven years ago. When I was first interested in the job seven years ago, I was disappointed that they didn't look at me. Now seven years later, I realized why, and I never felt more ready to lead.

And so I've been lucky that they've given me the ball for which to drop. Right, right? And I won't drop. That's awesome. Can you share a little bit about your relationship with your wife and how that came about, how that relationship started and what some of the things you guys have gone through together

because I think a lot of our listeners, what I've noticed is they really enjoy the family aspect and the connection with another person because that is who you're kind of on this journey with and with you sharing a story of your sobriety hearing what that journey has been like with your wife would be, I think, really meaningful to people to understand how they might, they should be treating their significant others or what they could be doing better in their relationship. Well, look, okay, first of all, let's just preface everything I'm about to say by I am in no no way the poster boy for what you're supposed to do in a relationship. So let's just start with that.

I will say that my wife, my wife Tracy, is with or without me has always been an incredible shining light. Anybody who's met her or spent 10 minutes with her get sucked in by, on the rainiest day, she is the sunshine. And I'm not just, oh, and smoke here. Have you met my wife? Not yet. Well, wait till you meet my wife.

You'll know what I'm talking about. So she'll put a positive into anything, any situation. Every day she wakes up legitimately happy to go to work, happy to put costumes on. My wife works for seniors. She's a lifestyle coordinator with Chartwell Hampton House right across in the hospital. She's been there 16 years. Got the job through Eldon Unger, who's a well-known Chilawak guy for many years and saw this light in Tracy and thought this job would be perfect for her. And he was right.

another example of someone who sees the light and 16 years later she's still there making making seniors lives better I say this to everybody who listens if a senior comes into that place and they're going to be five years left on this planet she'll give them seven or eight or ten full on dignified

proud happy zestville years there's no one like her her place. There's no other retirement community like Hampton House because of her. So she would have been okay on her own. How did I affect her? She put up with me for a long time, all the stuff that she's had to put up with. And there's been a lot. She is just always, she wasn't dealt the best hand either as a kid, you know. But she had a family who, a mother who is just amazing, who I've adopted as my own mom.

So that's been a blessing. With Tracy came her incredible family, right? And the biggest gift of all with Tracy came her daughter, Chloe. And that was the greatest gift of all that I have been in some way been able to have a daughter. And, you know, I would have been a good dad. I know that. I love kids. Love them.

um so chloe's been since she was 12 or 13 to now i've got to share her what do you do to make yourself better and in turn the couple is better right you owe it to yourself to um just like you'd take your car into the shop you owe it to yourself to at some point in your life look in the mirror and say dude or do that you know how you doing and have you let people down lately do you owe something to somebody that you could you could make better by you know repairing a bit of your own yeah that's that's what i wish was done more when it comes to new year's resolutions because that is the idea behind it is you're supposed to look at yourself in the mirror and say how could i do better next year and

doing diets or whatever i'm going to start doing Pilates more whatever it takes yeah i mean if it's in a physical sense like that if that's all it if that's what it is great. I'm not that disciplined. I've never been that guy. Clearly, I've never, I think I've walked by a gym a few times. I understand the concept, but I have a metabolism rate of a young puppy dog, so weight has never been a problem for me, but I don't follow a diet regime. I'm terrible with habits. I am incredibly addictive personality, incredible addictive personality. There's some things in my life that I'm grateful. I can say, for example, never touched hard drugs, even in all my life in the nightclubs never once did cocaine never never dabbled in it um i was fortunate

because if i would have this would be a different podcast yeah if i was even here so incredibly addictive personality um what was what what about that allowed you to be that strong because peer pressure is real and the environment you were in obviously facilitates that type of behavior? Same thing that got me through watching my brothers and my family. Some of them didn't do the best they suffered through terrible life stories. And I got to learn from their pain. I got to be better because of that.

I got to watch mentors that I really looked up to when I was young. Guys that really, I was like, oh, if I could just be as cool as you. and then I would say man that guy just fell apart that guy's dead that guy's dead that guy's dead that guy was going to be a pro baseball player what happened to him

all these guys that I watched him really looked up to you could join the brigade or you can go no way man no I'm good I'm good man and I so watching their failure was weird mentorship for me that's how I feel I look at my indigenous

communities and they really struggle with alcoholism and I was afraid of alcohol all the way up until I was like 1718 like deathly afraid of like I can't touch this because I know people who are addicted to it and I know what that looks like and I'm I'm afraid of becoming that and so it it was unhealthy at a point where I was too afraid where I was like I can't be near these people I don't trust these people and then now I think I have a more well-rounded viewpoint of it but it was fear because I didn't want to I knew people had invested time and energy into me and for me to go down that path like I still remember like I had a knife held at me by a bully that kept bullying me in downtown and he very much had this personality and I felt pushed to go down this route of like he cornered me one time with a weapon and was like swear and like use profanity and do that and I fought it for as long as I could but then I ended up folding and being like hey if you'll go away I'll swear and then he left he left because of that but that proved to him that he could influence me and so That gave me a lot of fear towards what am I capable of doing when put under pressure?

Nine. How old was your bully? 15. So you know now as you're a 23-year-old guy and as you become 53, I hope, I pray, you'll know you'll see that bully again and you'll get his whole life story. You probably already got it because you're a wise guy, but you see why he was who he was at 15 and why he needed to do that to you. and what probably a hundred times over happened to him right in his own house. Or his brother did it or someone just a bit above him did that to him. And it's that cyclical chain of, I mean, I have bullies in my life that I know by name that I talk to now.

They're buddies of mine. But I know, you know, if I ever called them on it, I would never because I'm good with it and I would never want to inflict that on them. But, you know, you never forget, right? You never forget those times. and you talked about it and your whole body language changed when you were talking to me about it. Yeah.

You know, you'll be 50 and you'll still have the same body language because it was that traumatic. I can remember a kind of, you know, and not, I mean, you speak of like the frailties within the indigenous communities. I'm talking about me being just poor welfare family who grew up post-war.

My mom was born in 1926. She was a good solid drinker by the time she was 12, 13, 14, right? She went through the, through the war time. Then you have all these guys coming back from war with PTSD before there was a label for it. Yeah. Just drinking, that's what you did. You smoked and you drank and you forgot and you rebuilt.

But you, you know, they didn't diagnose PTSD. You just imagine the atrocities, right? So that's generations now of, and my mom was bulletproof, the stories I hear, she was bulletproof as a drink. She could out drink every guy at a table, right? My family Christmas parties would be beautiful family get-togethers until 11.30 at night. When the bosejor was done, when the third bottle of the, you know, $10 beau-sage-or, the family Christmas wine had reached its peak. And the seagrams bottles were, you know, you had enough stars from the empty seagrams bottles to put around your mirror.

And then the family fights went, and all those old wounds would come up. And so I can remember being a kid. And again, I don't want, this isn't a feel sort of me. It's just the truth. What I remember is I can remember going to bed and opening a window in the wintertime because there was so much smoke in the house from cigarettes that when you close your eyes, your eyes would burn. And so you open the window to get fresh air in the bedroom.

And you would go to sleep to that very familiar fighting in your family. And you're half asleep, half awake, and you're anxious because is this going to end terribly? You know, I have memories of beer bottles hitting TV sets and of, you know, of family fights and in squabbling. And, you know, I didn't really know my real dad, right? He left when I was very young. So I, to me, I never had a relationship. So when he passed away, it meant nothing to me. But my mom had a boyfriend who was pretty solid through my growing up.

But they would drink. My mom would antagonize. She was a strong woman. She'd press buttons. I would hear them start to fight. So by the time I was 13, 14, I was an expert at conflict assessment. I knew it was coming, and I'm sure you can relate. You see it, and you see it in a room across a room.

Now you and I are talking, and it's happening over there, you're like this. Yeah. So always finding a corner seat. And you're ready to go put out that fire because that's in you. Yeah, I was at a subway in. downtown, the one where Bill used to have the town butcher, and it was being robbed. Ground zero. Yeah, and it was being robbed, and I was shocked that this person walked up, started yelling at the teller there, and I visited Subway all the time. That was like

my safe place, me and Jacob Coet would go there and hang out for hours, read the newspaper, catch up on current events, try and fight for the Save the Paramount, do those types of things. And this person came in, stole money. He would have been like 15. Yes. And you were saved the Paramount. Yep. Well, good for you. And so from that, the guy steals and I chase him out the door. And I would still do that today. He goes around the corner. He turns around. I didn't know if he had a gun or not, but he turned around and he tried to point something at me and I was terrified. But I was like, this is my home. This is my community. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to scare you out of here. So you know not to come back and do here again because I'll be here. And so I had the police officers kind of tease like, oh, you didn't need to do that, like probably not safe for you. And it's like, I don't, this is my home. This is where I come every single day. So this is, I'll defend this.

Do you know the phrase fight or flee? Yeah. Anxiety. Everybody would know from anxiety, fight or flee, right? Yeah. So in a lot of cases, what they forget to tell you with that whole fight or flee is that you have no choice but to fight. Yeah. There's not an option to flee. Yeah. So you get trained to fight. You don't leave a situation like that.

You don't run. You're just born to be that person, right? because you have to be because fleeing is not an option you're leaving loved ones in an unsafe place or whatever the situation is that speaks to you 100%.

Well and that's where I get a little bit concerned because we can call Harry Potter the Lord of the Rings, the Avengers movies we can call those just silly movies that are about something fun but for me growing up I didn't have a dad and I didn't have a strong understanding of what to do in those situations so when I looked at people like Peter

Parker, the character, and he failed to stand up in the first movie with the Tobin Willeyer. He failed to stand up to the person who was stealing. It wasn't his money. It wasn't his problem. But he still paid a consequence for that. His uncle died because of that. And so that story was super real to me in that moment because it's like, what am I supposed to do? Am I going to just let this guy get away with this?

They ended up catching that guy. And I had to go to court and testify for the next couple of years because of that event. Because I played a role in getting that guy off the street. he had robbed like eight subways prior to that and I got to help put an end to that now maybe not forever but he now knows that just because that there's a 13 year old in the store

doesn't mean he gets to get away with it I pray for you that as you move through the court system and your law career and I pray that you don't get jaded by this by and we're going off my subject now on you, I'm in interview you for a sec but I pray that you don't get lost in the process in in the wheels and just get so

so tired of you know seeing the end the way you want to see it but the system you can't get off that wheel and I hope that guys like you at your age that there's a mass of you that can really make change and and be on the right side of of stopping that wheel one of my saying yeah one of my biggest frustrations is I can't have crown on here because crown council i got to work very closely with and talk about people with hearts in the right place and mindsets in the right point of view to get things done because these people would come to me and they viewed me as their greatest resource a native court worker to me when i started the position i was like these people are going to push me to the side they're going to schedule meetings two months

later when they have the time but these people were like where's erin we need erin in here where's why don't we have erin in this room because i'm the guy who knows what the resources are i'm the person getting these people set up with counseling. I'm the one following up with their counselors to get the letter saying they've attended 10 successful sessions. And that's what Crown wanted to see more than anything else that I could provide was just evidence that these people were putting their best support. Let me ask you a question. How did the people that went through the 10 consecutive courses, how did they see you? They looked at me really positively because I was able to share. Because you were genuine. And because I think for, because I was a native

court worker working with indigenous people, I would have the judge say things like, hey, look at Mr. Pete here. He's here. You can be more like Mr. Pete. But you weren't entitled. No. You weren't entitled indigenous. You weren't in there. And, you know, let's face it. I mean, you, you, I don't care where you came from. If you're poor, you're poor. Yep. And if you've seen stuff, you've seen stuff. And when you give that to people, they know. That's my biggest fear around getting too focused on one community. Like, I love 718.2E of the criminal code because it says with a special understanding of indigenous people.

When it comes to sentencing, we look at people's story, what they've been through, with a special consideration of indigenous issues. With my issue with Gle-Doo, it was a case that was decided that basically said we have to look at indigenous issues and what they've been through, is it narrows the scope. And now we have these things called Gle-Doo reports that are only for indigenous people. And my fear with that is that anybody in the bottom 10% needs a leg up. They need resources, they need to be heard, they need to share their story, they need counseling. It doesn't matter their ethnicity. Yes, I agree Indian residential schools are horrible, 60 scoop are horrible, but so was living through World War II. So was a lot of horrible genocides that occurred around the world.

And like the black community is a good example of a community that can't get the Ladoo reports, despite the fact that they clearly have struggled. And same with my friend Jake, who is of white skin but has indigenous background. you can't say that based on skin color, we know what to do. And that's where I get hesitant on focusing too much on just one ethnicity is because I think it's important, like you said, anybody who's in poverty needs help, needs resources, needs understanding. But I respect you said that.

And then I push you right back and say your community needs you more than ever. Absolutely. But, you know, honestly, you know, Aaron, it, I mean, you should just be very proud of who you are like you should be really proud right now of of being well spoken of being respectful the one thing that i watched in your podcast with with you know with the last few that i've watched and actually more listened to um you you you're very respectful of the process you're very respectful of the people that you talk to you you have put in the time to respect the time they've put in and that's important that's the most important

thing, not just as this podcast, but as a human being to really listen and to really give the space to receive, right? And then to not necessarily have an answer or an offer. One of my biggest flaws is I always feel like I have to have an answer for everything. I always have to have an answer. It's got to be a fix. And you know, you don't have to have the answer. You just have to have the ears sometimes, right? And I, with this latest situation, I feel so, so, frustrated with what's going on in Kenlips because I don't have an answer. It's not my right to even have an answer or even a, not my, this is not my place to mourn, but yet I still mourn and I still feel, I mean, I've always had a great respect for an indigenous

community. I always, there's not an event that I would put on without having Ernie or Eddie or somebody there to bless the ceremony. Party at parks always started out with the dance and a welcome drum. Canada Day always you know I've been blessed to have great indigenous friends of mine who have always had a honestly like way better sense of family than I've ever seen anywhere family is everything and I was blessed to go to Rose Kelly's funeral ceremony in Fort Langley there and what a beautiful moving I said to my

friend Dave do you know David Kelly do you know Dave Kelly from the the cultist like Kelly's, I said, Dave, I'll tell you what, when I pass away, will you please make sure that, you know, you somehow get me this ceremony, make this happen for me. You know, you can't, but please try and make it happen. It was literally the most beautiful farewell and tribute to a human being I've ever seen. So we're so blessed to be able to, if you want to experience it, it's right here. We're so blessed, man. We're blessed, you're blessed, be sitting here right now. Well, I tell you, I got to say, I was a little bit when I had to walk three miles to get to your interview site. Now I get why you did it. It's magical, man.

Well, and I feel like the other thing that a lot of people can learn from indigenous culture is looking to their elders, because as I said earlier, I think that that's something that's kind of missing from our society. We're losing so many people who've seen the Great Recession, World War II, we're losing these people who can give us an understanding of what hell actually looks like. What having literally no access to any food whatsoever is actually like. And for indigenous people, we always, I've seen people who have been homeless for a very long time, still look at their elders and say, yes, like, I understand. And it's like, wow, this is, this transcends your circumstance. You're not like, well, I'm broke. So I'm going to not care what people think anymore. They still have

that and that's where they might not respect anything around them except that because that is in the blood yeah and that's what i've seen over and over again yeah and that's what i i truly love and uh we should be so lucky looking from the outside to have something even remotely close to that yeah because that's something you can never take away is that that blood bond when you see what happened in ontario with the the care homes and how people were treated and how it was handled and it's like this is not how we should be treating people who fought and died for our country in a lot of circumstances. Well, this goes back to, again, you know, when I woke up Remembrance Day and slept through the ceremony.

Yeah. There was nothing that anybody ever could have said to me, my disappointment in the, the great realm of disappointment for me was that. Where does that come from? Oh, dude, you know, what are you talking about? But it was so, you know. Yeah, where does that come from for you? Where did that start from where you had that respect?

Because I really struggled during the first, like, you know, like, I don't know, 12 years of my life to understand people would be like they died for our country. And it's like, yeah, well, this is our country now. So what's the problem? And like I had a disrespect growing up with Remember and Stay and Understanding why. So where did that come from for you? I just think to me it's just a really great chance to honor some really courageous people. These were kids, man.

These were kids. I mean, we could look, we could do a whole podcast just on military service. but I want to talk about service above self. These are people, and most not by choice, were drafted, you know, literally fighting for your life. I think of World War I. I'm a history nerd, a totally history nerd. So, you know, I go back a ways. I'm an avid lover of a documentary, and I'm an avid lover of anything history.

I'm a warplane freak and geek, and I can tell you, I can talk about wars until the end of time. But the sacrifice is made for me. It is the very least that I can do to show up on that one day that in the very furthest way, I can pay a small respect. It means a world to me, and I know that to those old veterans that are still there, just hanging on, like the Harold Thorpe, who lives in my wife's, he's 94, who was in Africa fighting. I know that he loves every minute of somebody paying respect. It has to be there, it has to. And those stories need to be told. And I'm wondering now going back to you again,

have you been interviewing any of your elders? Are you going to do that as a series? That is part of the plan, yes. I'm working on having multiple different indigenous. You'd be a great. Yeah, I've had David Jimmy on, but I do have a whole list of people I'd like to have on in that area. I love you, look at Dave like an elder.

he's he's an amazing man which also again speaks to the future by the way with with dave jimmy and chief derrick ep and those are two that i've had the pleasure to spend some time with and boy again what a good time to be um to be to have those relations with those beautiful people and they're powerful and smart and and friendly and open you know it's just Again, it speaks to the time we're in here in Chilliwack. You know, we can keep coming back to say what you want about our little community. But boy, I'll tell you, so many good things going for it with the people, the rebar in the ground, the people that, not just that have been here a long time, but that have moved here and that are making a difference immediately. Yeah, we're pretty blessed here, man.

Yeah, I can't disagree with you. I feel very lucky to be able to have people like yourself on to share your story. And I do view it as a responsibility that I try and make sure that I ask the right questions and approach it in the right way because this is your time and this is your story. And there may not be an autobiography written about you one day. So this is my opportunity to share the story in the best way that I can think to do it. Yeah, there's no Jimmy Patterson in my future. There's no Jimmy book.

I won't be a billionaire. Okay. Let's answer that question though. What was it like to meet a billionaire? To meet a billionaire? Jimmy Madison? Yeah. Oh, well, let me tell you what.

Funny about that, Jim Patterson is a guy that I have looked up to since I was a kid. I just, I, and I was a nerd about these business guys that have done so well. And a lot of people say what you want to say about Jim Patterson, but you can't knock Jim Patterson for his business documented. So when I found out that there was a chance and big thanks again to Kevin Gamble from the drive because Jimmy bought a radio station. So in comes Jim Patterson. Now the fun story was the night before when all the big wigs were flying in from all over and they were doing their meetings, Jimmy drove out here in his truck. He's what, I think he's 90, 92. I'm going to blow his age. I'm thinking 92. There is this pickup truck driving from Vancouver to Chilliwai.

Checks himself into the hotel. He's eating dinner in the hotel. And all, I knew the front desk girl at the time she said, it was so funny because all these suits come out of the out of the, out of the, out of the, the elevator and they're leaving to go to a restaurant and she says, I think your, I think your boss is in the dining room. And they're like, oh, what? No, that can't be right. No, who? Jim? Yeah, he's in the dining room. So they go in there and he's half an hour ahead of them, ready to talk business. He had driven out in his truck. Like, that's a killer story for me to set it up. So when I heard that story, I wasn't intimidated meeting of the next day. He literally was just like meeting your neighbor who was going to ask you about the flower food

using for your flowers like he was literally that down to earth and he's a great man because he wanted to hear your story he wanted to he wanted to get he knew that you valued i don't even know how to explain it i think that he's just so good with people being star struck around him a bit so he just took it in he gave he threw the question out to me and let me talk and didn't interrupt and just took it in and i knew i was only get a get a few minutes with him and he let me have those few minutes. But the fun part for me was talking to our former premier, Glenn Clark, who works he's Jimmy's second at command there. And Glenn was a pleasure to talk to because I got to tell Glenn about my business model for the radio show, which is how we worked out this business model

about how I get paid for my advertisers. And he was just so interested and so over the moon, like, like, genuinely interested. And he's like, can you, can we go talk about this? Can we? And then someone pulled them away, of course. So that was my great opportunity to talk with Glenn Clark, and I got pulled away from Glenn. But yeah, so meeting Jimmy Patterson was a really great pleasure. But I met, I've had the pleasure meeting so many really, really cool people. And you know, in the end, they're just people, right?

Yep. I've been starstruck by people, but Jimmy was just pleasure and didn't make it feel. You would never know in a million years. And, you know, frankly, I didn't care anyway. If I was 17 meeting him, I would have lost it. I probably would have canceled meeting him because it would have been so intimidated. That's how I felt. I don't know if you know Alex Marks.

Yes, I love Alex. Yeah, he's another person. You would never know that he owns this hotel, that he's owned part of the block and worked hard. And he just dresses like a workshop person. Well, he is a workshop person. And for those who don't know, Alex, he's such a community pillar. and again another guy who lets guys like me shine and he goes in the background and does he's amazing

I could name 10 people right now but I won't because they would be mad at me for saying their names Alex would probably be mad at you for saying his name you know but these are the guys that just keep Chilliwack going they donate without they they donate with anonymity they keep our city with the with the

programs and stuff they the money just ends up getting there somehow right i could tell you a great story i'm not going to mention a name but i will say that every christmas their family doesn't do presents they do donations to bowls of hope every christmas for as long as i can remember hearing the story i'd never say their name because i i don't want to do that but i will say that's just one example of the beautiful people in chiloac and uh again i go back to it again i just I'm never going to leave here I feel I shouldn't say never but I could have left a long time ago

and I just knew a lot of my friends said why didn't you go you could have gone away a lot of my friends left and came back they had their babies here they've done what they've done I knew that if I stayed here and I knew that if I

kept building connections that it would pay off in the end with a good life here and it's been pretty awesome I feel the same way when I was going to Catholic school one of the people there, Sandra, they ended up giving me and my mom $200 just as a check, just as a, hey, we kind of know things aren't probably great in the financial department.

So here's $200. And my mom split that with me. And I was 10, 11, but she was like, when people give me something, it's not mine, it's ours. So I'm sorry, is your mom still alive? Yes. Okay, I would like to meet your mom. Yeah. I feel like I might know her.

Linda Pete, if you. I'm sure that I, she's downtown all the time. Just from what you've said. I feel like I feel like I should know her. How old would she be? She's just turned 45 or 47. Okay, so she's like, she would be like just a younger girl to me. Yep.

Which is, I bet you I know her though. Yeah. And what a good kid she's made, man. What I mean, I just hope, I mean, I know she's proud of you, but she should be really proud of you, buddy. I mean, she is. You would be a great flag to wave if I was your mom. I'd be pretty proud of you, buddy. She is, yes, definitely.

I'm very happy to be able to give back to. her because now seeing it through this lens of like, wow, you didn't have that much to start with and you managed to get me here. And the fact that we attended family place and relied on that a lot. But she was there taking parenting courses when I saw other kids parents drinking all night long and ignoring their kids and saying, here's $5 for lunch, bye, where my mom, she would show up in my school. She did the cupcake sales. She did the donation. She attended every field trip. I went on growing up. She gave everything that she could to try and make Sounds like you've been blessed.

You haven't been blessed financially, but you've been blessed in so many other ways that you were far from a poor kid. And I say that about everything that we've talked about today, I have to say firmly, my life was not terrible growing up. My mother loved me as best as she could love me. Yes, she didn't come to my Christmas concerts, but she taught me the value of real estate. she was book smart, not life smart. She didn't travel to Amsterdam, but she read about it so that when she went into a conversation with somebody,

they felt like she had been there. She was very book smart. She read almost a book a night. There was really wonderful, powerful things about my mom. In the end, I was too young, and I was suffering incredible anxiety. I went to the point of almost suicide, but I was just coming out of the nightclubs

when it was about 20, 24, I had anxiety to the point where I was really considering suicide. Like, have you had panic attacks? Do you? No. So when they're at their worst, you're literally your life, you wake up in the morning and it's okay for about 10 seconds. And then this tunnel vision goes like this literally with every passing minute. And you and I would be talking and I could hear a conversation 80 feet away. I couldn't concentrate, the voices, and it was all due to lack of diet, lack of exercise,

lack of sleep. I was running a nightclub. I was behind the desk most days, and I was drinking a lot as a young guy. So these anxiety attacks, so I would go to my mother, I would drive to Nanaimo to get away from the nightclub, and I'd go to my mom, and this was in her final days. She was so full of anxiety herself that the little bit of energy that I had left, that got me there and I just needed a refuel she would take it instead of giving something she would she would be this black energy that would take that last nodule and I would plan to go

visit her for a week and I would stay for a night and that I'd make up some excuse I had to drive and every mile I would drive away and it says terrible to say this now when I think about it but it's the truth every mile I would drive away from from the Nimo towards Victoria I felt like I could breathe a little bit more I could get a breath that because I just didn't have now as I'm older I I'm older now and once I got over my own anxiety and learned to understand it I wish I could have taken my mom and and and saved her and it was too late she's gone by then yeah you know so so she was she did the best she could but she had demons right yeah and we didn't get diagnosed back then nobody got diagnosed with anxiety and

I thought I was going crazy. I thought I was literally losing my mind. And it was a girl that I dated from out of town who said, you're just getting panic attacks, man. Have you never, you know, and I'm like, what? I'm just a guy from Chilliwak, I never traveled. There was no infomercials and anxiety. You just, I thought I was losing my mind.

Yeah. This girl came from out of town. She said, buddy, come jogging with me. Eat a sandwich. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, get, you know, be legitimately tired, not, you know, and she saved my life.

she literally saved my life through because I was I was done yeah yeah I definitely had a turning around point my grandmother so my mom was brought to Coqualeza hospital um which was an indigenous hospital and so um the the nurse working there was actually my grandmother dorothy kennett and so she was taking care of my mom she saw that she needed a lot of care uh she had problems with her eardrums she was malnourished there was a lot of health issues and so she ended up. This is your mom's mom. Not by blood. Okay. And so Dorothy Kennedy is not my biological grandmother. She's just this role model. You adopted her. Uh, she adopted my mother. Okay. And then, um, brought my mom home, raised her all the way up. And so that's why my mom has a different

footing. And then seeing what she did and she recently just this year passed away and not being able to say goodbye to her properly because of COVID, but also just looking at the dent. She, like, I wouldn't be here. Like I 100% wouldn't be here. If she did. didn't take in my mother. And so seeing this intergenerational effect of like a cure to the intergenerational trauma and feeling that and feeling whole. Like as much as I don't have a dad, I don't know who he is. I've had the opportunity for like the community to be like my father to for her roles to act as that father figure because I've always been supported. And that's what Chilliwack's been to me is having all these people support me. Not just one person, one male saying this is

what you do, this is what you don't do, but a community surrounding my mom and saying, you're doing, you're on the right path, you're trying your best. So we're just going to do these small things, these small acts to help you do better and feeling that every single day and getting to see Ron Laser and being like, wow, this is the role you played. And

as you said, when I said it to him, when I tried to explain, this is the role you played. It's hard for them to, oh yeah, I just do that for us. Well, we deflect. When people say stuff like that to me, when they're really generous, I'm a deflector as most people are. You don't, You don't do it to hear it.

And you don't know what to do with it when you receive it. You don't know what the right answer is. I don't. So I see why Rom was. Yeah. But feeling that community has what's led to this is because it's like, I think that this is more likely to reach my indigenous community because they don't, they don't read as much as other communities do. And so I believe a podcast is one of the ways to get your story to the communities that could actually benefit from the story, from hearing what you went through and hearing what else. hearing what other people went through because we are an oral tradition so why not take

advantage of the fact that podcasts are orally done and through a spoken word that makes it more accessible i did for law school i did research on freedom of speech and what that actually means and one of the tools of speech is the ability to communicate your thoughts in a clear way and that's where i think social media does us a disservice is because it it doesn't it confuses truth and popularity a lot of white noise yeah and so this ability to have a long conversation and have someone share a story and give that to the to my community and try and bring this back to the people who could actually go you know what i was struggling with that and that i really resonate with that so yeah you know what i'll i want to hear what he says next i want to be

able to offer that to people in a way that they can consume but i should be interviewing you i know you should really do a bigger than me where somebody interviews you here's why i think that you're a powerful example of the the flower in the grass that can that can come from all of the that terrible past, that even though you're literally two generations from that, that there's still that pillar of, I'm still here, and I'm still going to be positive. And I'm still going to do everything I can to make a difference. And I'm going to bring everybody up around me that I can until I run out of strength. And then I'll just find more strength and do it again. But your story needs to be told. In a time when a lot of people are mourning right now and I'm seeing a lot of stories

and I'm really trying to do as much research as I can right now. I did a lot of this reading a long time ago when it was reading. Now I'm trying to find all these documentaries as many as I can to really educate myself on what's going on and what's happened and remember and just try to be a better person in that respect, to be respectful of what's around me. So I don't misinterpreted or I don't cause pain by anything I do. My heart's in the right place.

But with you, I think someone should interview you and say, listen, this is a shining example of someone who has knowledge of their past, who is grateful for the fact and who is appreciative of the fact that you might not be here. Had something, the slightest thing, the slightest limb in the tree broke, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So you need, I think you need to speak as a voice, even at your age, you need to be. a beacon of hope, I think that you'll inspire as much as, and I appreciate what you're saying that our conversation might, what I say might inspire somebody, what you say has so much more meaning in your community because it's tangible, it's real. And it's, you're living proof that things can get better if you grab the ball. That is what my hope is. And that's

part of the motivation of going to law school and trying to complete that is because I'm the first of my community to attend law school. And that's a big accomplishment for the 600 members and knowing that I can go back there and I'm working with Alpine Legal Services. And Chanel Prasad, who's running that, works out of the co-work space. He's like, I don't need the big fancy office. I don't need a name on a wall. I'm here to do good work for the community. And it's such a pleasure to be able to work with him because he's teaching me wills and estate law and real estate law, which can help the community because we don't have these types of things. I really want to do a mini-series on how to start a business with

Nina Zectis who runs Luna Flow, with Tim McAlpine who runs co-work and other people like Chanel Prasad, who's a lawyer who also is an accountant. Like he has this, this background and this ability to offer knowledge. And that's where I really think I can bring value is by bringing together a story and then bringing it to the indigenous community and like, hey, this is five episodes with great people with amazing stories. Some of them are indigenous. And you can learn how to start a business and you don't have to go talk to anyone because that's that's my main frustration with the reserve system is that they go and live on their property by themselves and they don't get access to the knowledge of lawyers judges um accountants um business owners

they don't get that and so they they can't get themselves to an economically comfortable position if they're rural if they're out in the middle of nowhere where i see what dave jimmy's doing with his community and i see what derrick's doing with his community and i love it but i need to find a way to get that out to Chihuahua on low heat highway out in the middle of nowhere where there isn't going to be businesses where they'll have to do something in hope or something in Chilwack or something in Agassie and being able to bring them that knowledge. So is that is that, is that, and forgive my ignorance, but is that not, are they not reaching out in that respect? Are they not? Like, are they not, are those services not available? I think of Rosio, who I've had the

pleasure meeting through my job with the BIA, Roscoe with the solar community futures. and like she's an amazing lady just in the short time that I've got to know her. Like the resources are there, it seems like. Like I read the newsletters, like there's lots of resources if you want to take them. Like I go back to what your mom, you know, you said that all those resources were there, your mom chose to take them and use them.

Yeah. Right? You can't, you know, the old, you can lead a horse to water, right? Yeah. So your mom was one of those, wanted to use those resources. Yeah, but it's hard when you're, on reserve, a lot of indigenous people don't have licenses so they drive well prohibited. And I can say that without coming across the wrong way because I helped them

through the court process. I saw tons of driving well prohibited, driving without a license. And so that's commonplace. So they're not driving down to Stola or contacting them with their idea. It's usually something like if you have an idea that's kind of out there, you're usually like, huh, like who do I talk to? And if your whole, all your friends don't know what to do, you're not going to have the confidence to call and take the risk. And that's why I hope that through these small dialogues, people can consider, hey, you know what, maybe I can, maybe I should. And being able to, like, I would love to partner with a credit union one day and bring financial literacy to rural communities and be the spokesperson, the spokesperson for those ideas to explain, what is an investment? What is an investment in real estate?

What is an investment in the stock market? What is the TFSA? Just the basics, not how do you take a full advantage of it, but just teaching them the basics so that they can get themselves out. because my big fear right now is from my understanding of my taxation course, when you spend a lot of money, which a government has done at unprecedented rates, you cause hyperinflation. Hyperinflation doesn't harm people who know how to invest. It harms people who are on fixed incomes.

Who are people on fixed incomes, people in indigenous communities, people in poverty, people like myself, who started from this position. And so these people aren't aware of what's going on and what the consequences of all this spending is for them and for their ability to survive in the next time. 25 years. And so I'd like to teach financial literacy to prepare them for what I hope never happens. I hope we don't go through. Well, you say financial literacy, I would love every kid to have financial. You know, look, again, coming from a welfare family, there was no, you didn't,

you didn't learn how to budget. Yep. You waited for the check at the end of the month. You went to Mr. Mike's, if you were lucky, or if your mom was lucky enough to hit a bingo win, a bonanza at bingo. It was like, oh, there's an extra cash that we didn't expect. My mom, because, became the expert of borrow till you the next check comes and then you pay back that and it was a constant borrow. The one thing she did smart was by real estate and so real estate kept going up. So she kept, she always, if she sold, she had that money. But I would have loved a course in school that would have taught me how to balance a checkbook. I didn't need algebra. I didn't need the sciences. There's, you know, to be able to nail somebody at a certain age and say, okay, this

guy clearly is not going to UBC to be an engineer what can we give him give him a set of life tools yeah if I would have known what a proper credit card was when I graduated high school I would have never gone to buy my Woolworths get my Woolworth's card at 28% and jacked that up at 18 years old yeah at woeworths you know what I mean oh this is it seems to be free money oops interest rate oops credit rating right yeah all that stuff you need to know so that's just again, not just speaking to the indigenous community, but to everyone, that financial knowledge is gold. Yeah.

And it should be for everyone. And but that's one of the issues too is if you're on reserve, your land isn't worth anything because you can't really sell it. And so you're in a circumstance where they don't get to play the real estate game. They only get houses if the government funds them to build houses and then the rents are super low, so it's hard to maintain, which is why indigenous communities get a bad rap for having poorly maintained houses. You know you can't leave here.

Right. You know we need you here. Yeah. I'm going to just keep you in a little box, a little community box. I've already got your future mapped out for you. You're going to do a little bit of time. You're going to probably become the president of the chamber. Probably do a little bit of time. Then I'd like to maybe see a city council run for you. Maybe one, maybe two-term city council really makes a moose. And then mayor. Yeah. And then maybe like a nice MLA position, Victoria, where you can keep a good eye on us here.

Yeah. So I got your mapped out. Okay. I don't. I don't think I have. career in politics. I'm too brutally honest about the things I see and it's hard to... I'm hoping by the time you're ready to make that move that it's accepted to be honest and open and real.

I think it's getting there now. We've got some great politicians here in town. I agree with you. Some really good people in positions here that are as real as I've seen in many years. I had the opportunity to interview Jason Lum. I had the opportunity to interview Sue Not

and I'm hoping to have Bud Mercer on. because I think he sets a really good example with his police background. These are just real people that are in positions to make a difference because they have already been in positions to make a difference their whole life. Yep, exactly. So I'm very excited to do that. But yeah, I don't know about politics, but I certainly want to be a voice and inform people on just from what I see.

I'm always up to hearing how I'm mistaken or, and that's partly why, like, if you're on a text message chain with me, I send articles all day long because I want people to disagree and say, That news article is biased because of this or this is wrong because of that because I don't know. And then when I get informed, oh, this isn't a reliable source. It helps me understand the information better. And I never want to be a person who has the right answer. I just want to share what I've come to understand so far and receive information that might improve how we move forward.

Because I think there are ways to do better and help communities succeed. It's just about figuring out a way to partner with the right people to make the changes happen. Well, we're going to find hopefully more nuggets like you. And the trick is always, you know, you don't let the Wayne Gretzky's leave Edmonton and go to Los Angeles. You keep the errands around Chilawak as long as you can. And what I like the most, I think, is that there was a time

when somebody like you could not wait to get away from here to, it would have been way too small town for you, but have been way to, just frankly, not ready for you. And I think that our community is, you're just at that right page where you're just the perfect age at the perfect time to bloom and really make a difference here. Well, I'm very excited

because I'll be having, I don't know if you know, bright side eggs. I'm bringing on, I'm going to try and bring on their whole family because a family of farmers is a story.

There's something to that. And we all rely on the produce. We all rely on the corn. We all love the corn. And so those are, again, role models who I don't think get that. We all say like, oh, good fresh food, but do we ever get to hear from the farmer

who worked his whole life and then pass that on to his child, and then they passed it on to, it's a four-generation farm. And so to be able to share that, that side of things, and to be able to do the whole community, because I think that everybody has a story to share. And I think that that's something we overlook when we get egotistical in our own minds of, like, I'm going to leave this small town, is that you don't realize that people work hard every day just to make sure you're fed. And when you go to the store and it's only 90 cents for an apple, we just take that for granted. But somebody spent a long time making sure that all the trees were taken care of,

chose the best apples so that you were happy with your purchase. And it's in the blood. There comes a time now I'm finding with some of my farmer friends in the generations that, you know, the kids, the generation now is like, no, I'm good. You know, I'm good. This isn't for me. There's so many opportunities out there. And so I think that a lot of people who maybe weren't farmers before are becoming

farmers. Like the whole organic side of things is, is kind of. coming around right now. And I think you're finding entrepreneurs who have turned to that way of life who are finding that now. I don't know. There's so much organic goodness, even in the brew pubs, like in every way, like that really good, that organic entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. And we're seeing a lot of it here. I think Bill is a good example of that because you look at his store, you look at all the products he carries that he doesn't make. All locally sourced. Exactly, giving these other people an opportunity to be displayed.

And for those people who put in work into the bar of soap or for the popcorn or for the pie, that's their everything. That's what they've been working on in the background. And so to have it displayed in a business and to hit that point is a real accomplishment. That's the big time. And you know, one thing I'll say about Bill, there's a guy who could have literally the worst day ever. And you would never know in a million years the guys having the worst day. Me, I can't hide it.

If I'm having a bad day, it's out there. You know, I try to bury it, but it was a guy every day. You'd never know, you'd never know that something was phasing him in any way. Yep. He just always pushes the positive. Yep. And he puts in a lot of work just like yourself to try and bring awareness to local things. He's doing something to make a list of all the places that you can donate to.

Yeah. I don't remember what that's called, but he's bringing that about. Well, there's going to be, there's so many, there's going to be a web hub. There's a few web hubs coming up. I know that I'm also on the Chilac Economic Recovery Network and there is a website coming together for that, which will have employment resources, one big hub of employment resources. Bill is putting together, I think, and I might be wrong, but maybe with it around Chiluac, I don't know, but a resource hub. I don't know. Is it already out maybe?

I'm not sure. I don't think so. I think that they were just planning on it. Well, that's just what he does, man. that's what he does. It's again, you know, if you've got guys like me who are like lifelong circus carnies who just see an opportunity and want to kind of, oh, there's a piece of land. We can do something with this or we can put an event together here. We can, and you use all those years of event training and use all those years of stuff to do good. You take all the tools

from the shed and you sharpen up the right ones and you make something happen. Yeah. And nowadays, you just, everything you do, you do for good and you make it for a cause. That's probably the greatest part of you taking on this role is that you have all this network, but you're also a person who just seems to want to get things done. And there's no bureaucratic. Oh, and then we need to make it the perfect plan.

There's just this energy of like, let's just do it. Let's just get a camera. Let's start rolling. Yeah, let's start. How can we get her done? And, you know, we have a mayor right now who thinks along those same lines.

Obviously, we have to follow the bureaucratic process to a degree. Yeah. But there is a lot of that. And there is a lot of willingness for somebody like myself. Like I've been, like I said, I've been given pretty loose ropes.

Obviously, I have to stay within the parameters of, you know, whatever, but they've given me a pretty wide open scope to make a difference. And they knew what they were getting, like as a 53-year-old guy coming in, I wasn't a 35-year-old fresh from BIA school guy. I'm a guy who just literally probably, I promise you I don't fit the BIA mold in any way. But what was needed at this time was someone to call. the relationships, someone to bring unity and someone to, who has a genuine love and a passion for the success of downtown. I have no skin in the game. I don't own a business downtown.

There's no favorites. I just want everybody to succeed. And that's as honest as I could say it. And I think that the merchants feel that already in the short time I've been there if they don't know me. If they do know me, they knew it before I got the job. Well, I think that we should all be very grateful because I think that you bring a lot of value beyond just the circus and the energy. I think that you're an honest person who's really trying to raise up the community in the best way possible and to pull the next generation up. And I think that that is something we need to recognize, but we also need to look to you for the knowledge of what didn't work, what does work, how do we approach this better? How do we do this more effectively? And I think that

you're setting a huge example for all of us to look to and to know that there are people who have made it. And I think that that is the circumstance you're in. Well, I really appreciate you, Aaron, and this has been a, I mean, for me, it's more, it's really, I feel like I've got, it's like I went to confessional or something. I feel like I've gotten to, this was a good forum for me to talk on. I mean, I've been offered to talk on a few of them in a, the subject matter for which we're talking about, I think fits. And it was a good time. I didn't go on Facebook day one of my sobriety or even after a year. I thought about doing it after a year because I really thought if it affected one person, if one person, if one person, person saw that dude was a wild party and he quit. I can do it. You know what I mean? I think I'm just in a good place right now. So the opportunity to do this with you has been a, I'm really grateful for it. And I'm grateful for you letting me share in anybody listening to this nine-hour nugget. I hope that you can mine one little gem out of it because it's important that we really do look out for each other. And it's important to really put the rebar on the ground, do the work

on yourself. And I am far from completed, but I have a good start at 53. And I'm just going to keep on digging, man. And I'm just going to keep on searching for the same stuff you're searching for. You keep digging out people who can help me get there. Well, I think that it's, I'm honored sincerely that you were willing to share that. When you, when you mentioned that to me, like, it almost brought me to tears because that is what I'm trying to deliver to people is this idea that you can do different and you can admit your faults and that is just oh that is all part of the process and that's the frustration I have sometimes is that I've had a few people say like oh I don't want to get emotional I don't want to do that on your pod like that would be embarrassing and it's like

that's what it's that's why I'm doing this if you don't want to do that I don't really want to have those people on because it is I share a lot of things that I wouldn't share just in the save on foods but I do it because I hope that the people listening can get something out of it and so far I've had a lot of people reach out and say amazingly positive things that this is working for them and this helps them do better in their own lives and they relisten and keep trying to get that mentality instilled in their mind and so I'm grateful that you that you saw that you understood what I'm trying to do with this because that that really makes me feel understood as the host as someone well that makes me happy I mean I appreciate being here I think more than anything

people need to also take away that words are so powerful words are so powerful the smallest terror that you put in somebody at a young age is never forgotten and the smallest bit of encouragement you give somebody whether it be taking a picture with them with a guitar or teaching them a chord and they come back to you 30 years later and go dude you know a long time ago you don't remember this but you you took a picture with me with your guitar or you show me this cord and I was having trouble with this cord and you show me this and now I'm in a band and you know they come back to you all of it comes back to you

it's a life pension be careful with your words the words that you say to the negative people take it all the way to the grave they might be able to forgive but they take it right to the grave

I've been fortunate in my sobriety as well and I don't want this to be a big sobriety thing but I've been fortunate that people have been courageous enough to come up to me and say you know you said this one time and boy it really hurt

that's five years ago And I don't even remember saying it. I would have said it as some smart ass off the cuff, trying to be funny, maybe in front of some people. Who knows what damage was done? But words are very powerful. And you're doing the right thing by using this podcast to bring power to words, to positive words. But I think I'm in the same boat as you. If you looked at who I was grades 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, I'm sure there's lots of people who have a viewpoint of me of who I was, of how I behaved, of how I said things, of how

Because I was trying to cover up a lot of problems in my life. And so to those people, I'm always willing to apologize. I was in the wrong during that period. But that willingness to own it and move forward is what I think sets the example. Because we can't live in the past forever and we can't pretend that we're still those people when I really think that I'm a different person than I was when I was that age. How many podcasts have you done now, including mine? 22.

So you've had 22 therapy sessions for yourself. Exactly. If you really think about it, you get to, you get to purge you get to share and you get some counseling you get some advice you get to release it's 22 uh podcasts of being of bettering yourself yep and i've had the opportunity to have people say i didn't even realize that what i did last week had to do with what i did 10 years ago and i didn't even put the i've never had the opportunity to talk for three hours and put all my pieces together and understand my own story and that's been something that i've been so grateful for but

It's three hours of uninterrupted conversation. There's no, oh, hold on, let me just check my phone. Oh, hold on. I've got to just send it off this email and then keep going, keep telling me. I'm listening. And so that's one of the things I think is a real tool that I hope more people take advantage of, even if it's by themselves, is to be able to just go through the process, talk, and keep going because I know growing up, a lot of people, their parents aren't listening.

They're not paying attention. They don't have an ear of someone. And so this creates the environment for people to really be able to talk and share and really get out their thoughts in a clear, articulated manner where they can maybe learn something from what they said a long time ago or put pieces together. I try to walk every night after work. I try to walk.

And most times we'll put a podcast on when I'm walking. Jackson Brown or a podcast. But, you know, for me, these are the best times to really, you know, there's never been a better time to explore the human condition and to really, if you want it, all the resources are there to make you a better person. They really are.

You have to mind them and go get them. But the days of the talking book, the cassette talking book, it's as simple now as on your phone with your headphones. You can learn anything. You can be a better person. There's just never been a better time to mind yourself and to find out how to make yourself better. You know, I, this sounds like a Tony Robbins tape, but really, man, like, you know, all the tours are there, all the tools for you to give yourself a fighting chance, regardless of your situation, are all available.

Now more than ever. So you're running out of excuses, not excuses, but you're running out of walls and you're gaining way more opportunity to be a better human being now. I completely agree. I go on walks every night and I listen to. Jocco Willink, who's an A.V. Seal. I listen to Brett Weinstein, who's an evolutionary biologist. I listen to Jordan Peterson, who's a psychologist. I listen to all these different people, Joe Rogan, who are able to offer little different bits of ideas and approaches. And I've brought them all together, all these different styles of podcasts to do what I wanted to do, to do something

that reflected my past. But this opportunity to be able to listen to an evolutionary biologist explain things, I just, I never thought I would have the opportunity and making information more accessible is, I think, a real gift that podcasts have given, and they create this new space for learning from people like yourself and learning from people you would, like, in a crowd, if I saw you, I'd be like, oh, what would it be like to have lunch with Trevor McDonald and get to hear his thoughts on things? I don't think many people are, I think, I think you underestimate how many people go to your venues, see you, and go, and I don't say that disrespectfully. I appreciate, I appreciate

the sentiment. I'm being funny. I don't, I think that that, I can think of a few more people to, um, to, to, to line up for first. But I appreciate that. But if you're an artist and you want to learn about how you got there, people in the audience are like, how do I get a hold of this? How do I become like this person? But you know, I never really got there. I mean, you know, honestly, I wrote one CD in 2000 that went plastic. It sold five copies across Canada. And most of them were, I think, to my family. Um, you know, I never was going to be. I, I never was going to be. that guy. I was going to be the guy who needed some form of because I didn't have the control

as a kid. I needed the, and I think that's why I was so quick to grab a house and never let it go. I needed stability. So I was never going to go on the road as a rock star and go across Canada in an old van and have those stories. But I would always have the financial stability of home. And I think that's what Chilliwack gave me is that what I didn't have maybe as a younger kid Chiluac has given me that rebar that, you know,

and I've traveled a ton since then. I've had a great life but you need that rebar. You need, everybody needs a grounding rod. You need roots. Whether you have to go away and then come back and find them, you do need roots. But I think

you did make it because yeah, you might not have sold the copies but you have the respect of your city and when I think of like a lot of this podcast is based on Big Sean because he's one of my role models somebody who started, his family started from nothing, his mom started from nothing

and they worked themselves out and he made a song called Bigger Than Me and that song is about how he... I wondered how you named the podcast. Yeah, that song is about how he made all the money he wanted to make and still felt completely empty inside and realized that what he's doing here is bigger than him. It's about giving motivation and so

if you look at a lot of his songs They're like, go make it, go make the money, go be successful, go support your community. And he represents Detroit every chance he gets. He represents his community and where he started from. And he has a song called I'm going to die in the city. Like I'm going to, this is my home. This is what it's about and this is for me. And to me, you're doing the same thing.

It's the same message he has. It's just a different community. It's Chilliwack. It's not Detroit. It's here. And it's that same. I'm going to be here till the end. And I'm going to be representing.

sending my community to the best of my ability to the very end. I would just get bigger with it. You know, I know I can tell you for an honest fact that if I ever won the $80 million or the whatever million dollars or if I ever was in a position to be a world-renowned act of some type, I would always be this same person. I would just do it on a bigger scale. Like it would be a bigger chilo act. There'd be a bigger sense.

There'd be bigger charities to work with. You know, so that's kind of instilled in the roots, right? That's that whole thing of, but I've also been blessed with the payback of doing those good things. Like, instant, like I'm a guy like I would sooner paint a room because I can see instant results. Like with these charities, when we do work locally, you see instant results, instant. And that to me is, it's tangible win there, right? So I've been fortunate to be around that. So then you just keep you, it's addicting, right?

Goes back to your addictive personality. you want to keep giving because it feels good. This is call and response, you know. And once people start getting into the habit that, oh, there's Trevor McDonald, he probably wants money, then it's not a bad place to be, especially when they know that it's probably going to go to a really good place, right? Yeah.

I completely agree. Well, we just did three hours. That's amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time. I'm really grateful to have been able to record this. I was very nervous. I wouldn't be able to get you all. on. Well, I'm honored to be here. I honestly got, I saw who you already had and I was,

I was quite flattered that I could be a part of the list of people. So I, again, I think what you do is really, really important and really positive. And I would push again, and I hope that people hearing this maybe would write into you and really get you to be in the interview chair and share that, especially now more than ever, share your experiences and where you're going in a positive light. I think it's important. I think everybody needs to hear that right now more than ever. Well, thank you very much. Here's, buddy. Thanks, man.