Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #29 - Glenn Fagnan

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

Businessman, rotarian,  city councillor, executive director of the border city connects society, husband, father & community pillar. We dig into the life Glenn Fagnan. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healing. Hi, this is Brandon Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Ferre. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. I got the little man with me in the studio tonight. So if you hear some, yeah, if you hear some talking in the background, that's who it is. He's staring at me right now. playing with his trains. It is, well, it's parenting duty and trying to get a podcast out. So bear with

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about them from the podcast, right? Let's get on that T-Barr 1, Tale of the Take. Businessman, Rotarian, city councilor, executive director of the Border City Connect Society, husband, father, and community pillar. I'm talking about Glenn Fagnon. So buckle up, here we go. Well, how about we start there? It is January 24th, 2021.

I'm sitting with Glenn Vagnon. So first off, let's talk about passions. You say you're there right now. Well, I am. You know, fortunately, I, you know, a couple of my passions, I'm a city of Lloydminster counselor, just starting for my second term. Did my first four years.

And my other passion, of course, is helping people out and working with nonprofits and on the fundraising side of things and the volunteerism. And, you know, I am the executive director of the Border City Connect Society, which is the old handy van. So I've got two of those things that I go back and forth on, work six, seven days a week on, and love every minute of it. So I'm passionate about that, and this is the best time I've had it.

in my life, plain and simple. Hands down. Hands down. All the companies you've started helped, this doesn't compare. Nope. This is perfect. So you like public service? I do.

Yeah, you bet. Do you wish you would have gotten to politics sooner then? You know, this is good. This is good. I think that I'm able to, you know, take a lot of my business skills that I did develop over the years and use that, you know, gain some wisdom. and hopefully put it to good use on city council. And certainly I think with, you know, being in business all that time,

we had some businesses that had lots of people come through the doors. I mean, we had to tell us mobility dealership. And so we had literally, you know, every year, you know, thousands and thousands of people coming and getting their phones and communication side of things. So I did build a really good network of people through the business and through volunteerism. And I use that today to, you know, bounce.

When we have something, when we have something going on there, I like to bounce it off people and get their opinions. And certainly one of those right now is one of your hockey things there with the bobcats, of course, coming to the city, looking for some kind of reduction in ice rates during this period of time with the pandemic. So that's one of those that's a lot of people would be for it, But there's a lot of people that say, nah.

So this is my question of the next two weeks chatting with people. Well, by the time this comes out, that'll be probably a long, it will be. A long overdone resolved issue one way or not. Oh, for sure. You know, from a city of Lloyd's standpoint, I think you mentioned it in here, one of the toughest times is exactly what we're going through right now. Right now, this is something else.

got to be you know this isn't the high times of a hundred dollar oil and you're sitting on the not that people sitting on the council for the city of lloyd then it was easy but i mean probably a few more smiles back then oh yeah no question i mean this is this is unprecedented and i truly think though you know our administration has been doing a great job in keeping things under control and trying to do you know the best that we can do for for our public we were able to defer the taxes till November instead of, you know, which is a couple of months earlier than any of the other cities in the province. They were doing it back in September. They were taking it and August. So we were able, because of our charter, we were able to defer it a little bit longer. But,

you know, at the end of the day, the municipality has limited funds that we have access to. Most of our dollars come from taxes and from whatever grants we get. But other than that, There's pretty slim pickings on new revenue opportunities out there. So we're just trying to man the fort the best we can. Now, let's dig into as much as I want to sit here and talk about Lloyd politics. As you know from listening, that is not what I want to do. I'm curious about Glenn. I think a lot of people in town, if they know some of the things you've been involved in,

are probably curious about you as well. So why don't we do this? You were born in 58. Where did you grow up first? I was born and raised in Edmonton. So a little town just down the street from here. And I lived in Evanton until late 70s. So your first, what was that, 12 years?

No, late 70s. So the first you grew up. I moved when I was 18. What was Eminton back in the 60s? You know, I talk awful. a lot about Lloyd and everybody understands how small Lloyd was. What was Emmington like back then? Well, certainly, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, come a long way in those times, but it was, uh, it was a great little city. You know,

I certainly remember all the, the Klondike days and going to Evanton Oil King games. Um, you know, it was, uh, there was a, you know, a lot of activity and it was a, a growing community. Uh, in our neighborhood, we had, it was all young, it was all young families. So I think we had five, uh, through our age group, five, five, different midget and five different bantam groups all of the same age kids right because everybody moved in brand new houses same time and so it was pretty neat was pretty neat back then and certainly you know lots of things to do and you know going through high school they uh they they did get the the umiton colosseum built and uh at that time yeah it was called the colosseum and uh you know i was

I was fortunate enough to see Gretzky in his first game in Evanton. And we used to go. Well, don't, don't slide me by that story. Let's hear about Gretzky in his first game in Hamilton. Well, it was, you know, he was a 17-year-old kid going to Ross Shepard High. And, of course, we were going to the games all the times. He used to be able to get into the arena for five bucks and sit anywhere, sit anywhere in it, right? And so, five dollars.

Five dollars, yeah. So, I mean, and it wasn't, well, it was, you know, it held whatever it, it, you know, 12,000 people on the initial round. I think that's what it held. So, yeah, there was lots of space back then. So that was pretty neat, you know, having the privilege to watch Gretzky play and then living in Edmonton and then falling. When you saw him first play as a 17-year-old going to school, do you remember thinking like,

that kid's going to be good? Or what is this all the hype about? Well, you know, it was hard. to say, I mean, he's the same age as me. Yeah. Right? And I was, I was. But that had to be a little bit mind-numbing, like, that kid is my age.

Yeah. No question. Well, you know, it was, uh, it was pretty amazing. And it wasn't anything, but you could tell that he had, you know, he had that, uh, some ability out there. There was no question. He knew where the buck was and, and he had, you know, he had some moves. So you could see that it was like that.

And certainly there was a lot of hype about him coming through. So everybody was, uh, was well aware of him. And I'm sure that, you know, oppositions were, We're squeezing them a little bit harder and trying to slow them down a little bit. But it was pretty neat. There's no question about it. You remember those early years of the Oilers? Like the Coliseum coming in, the WHA playing back then.

The Oilers would have been, you know, there's a handful of guys that, even from the area that were a part of that initial. Dale Chipperfield, was that, is that a, I'm just trying to pull that name out. I always think of Skip. Al Hamilton, yeah. Skip. Craig. Yes, Craig. Yeah.

Played there right at the very tail end of his career. And, geez, now I'm drawing blanks on this. But there was a whole group of guys that had played in the original NHL, the original six, or right around that time era. And at the end of their career, we're playing for WHA teams. Yeah, well, and, you know, Al Hamilton was one of those. And we had Bobby Hall, Derek Sand. Anderson. So wait, this is, Bobby Hull played for the Oilers? No, no, no, no, sorry, did not, but he was with Winnipeg.

He was with Winnipeg. Did you get to see Bobby Hall? Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. And Gordy and the boys as well. They were in New England whalers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So no, that was, that was pretty, you know, that's pretty amazing seeing Gordy out there and his two boys. That was, that was, that was, that was. Like, that had been a pretty big deal for Amminton and the area for that matter. Oh, for sure it was. And, you know, and they were getting the, you know, they are getting the support. I mean, Ebenson is a great hockey team, a great hockey town, as you know. And, yeah, I mean, that was just amazing being able to have, you know, that quality of player come in and play in our city. Because, you know, certainly the oil kings were great in the oil kings, but, you know, to have professional hockey, that's a different level. Yeah, it's a different tier.

Yeah, sorry, you get me sidetracked around hockey. You know where I'm going to go to Glenn. Right? Yeah, I got you. Let's go back to you. So you stay in Empton until the late 70s. What do you do when you graduate or where are you off to? Like what was young Glens like, I'm going to conquer the world or young Glens like,

I just want to go to school? I want to earn a few bucks, put in my pocket. What were you thinking? Well, you know, I started working in the restaurant business when I was in high school. Started off, you know, cleaning tables and busing, doing dishes, and then started working in the kitchen. And so I found that I did have a passion on the kitchen side of things. And so actually once it would have been a year and a half, two years after I graduated from school, I went to Nate and took their culinary program.

And so when I had finished that, I actually had an opportunity for a new place, a new restaurant that was just getting going. And it was supposed to be a hot place up in Fort McMurray. So a buddy of mine was up there and I pulled up steaks and, and, and, and, and, moved up to when it went out, checked Fort McMurray out in the restaurant, and it was, it was great. And so I ended up moving up to Fort McMurray and they met my wife there and stayed there for 12 years. Now, in the sheets he gave me, and I skimmed them, so maybe I miss this. I see a lot of businesses in there. I didn't see anything about restaurants. That's correct. Yeah. I had, you know, when I did have, I did have, I leased our, it would be like the,

Communiplex in Fort McMurray of MacDonald Island. I leased the part of the food services out of there in my late, or my early 20s, I guess. And maybe it was actually after I got, because I got out of the food business when I was 25. And just because of family, you know, you're working crazy hours, working for, you know, one of the hotels up there, busy place, hard to get staff. And, you know, I had an opportunity to move, start selling food

with one of the wholesalers there. And so that was a Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, and it just turned out perfect so that I was hanging around the house a little bit more and spending some time with my wife and daughter. So, yeah. So that's what you learned off of being in the food industry. You really enjoyed it, but at the end of the day, it was a lot of work. It was. Yeah, and for a young family as well, right?

It's, and knowing that it's a lot of work, but, you know, it was very interesting on the wholesale side of things. and that was actually my first volley into business because I became a partner in that wholesaler business. So a small percentage, but that was my first business, so to speak, that I got involved in. Now, when you say wholesaler, what do you mean? Well, we sold different products to restaurants. So a lot of frozen products, such as, you know, all the French fries of vegetables, we had seafood where we had lobster tails, crab legs, and just a full array.

of. So you're traveling around Alberta? No, no, this is just in L. Just in Fort Montgomery. Yeah. Really?

Yeah. There's a number of hotels at that time. You know, the city was 25, you know, 25,000 to 25,000 to 30,000. Yeah. Back at that. So it was, and we did a lot on the camps side of things as well.

So Syncrut, Suncor, there was, you know, there was ample. We were diversified there was well. We had this North Bell group. We had the Colligan Water franchise. We had hostess potato chips. We had the food wholesale. And then we also had SC Johnson, which is industrial chemicals and janitorial products.

So, and we actually had a office coffee service, and we had a contract with Sincruid. So we sold coffee to Sincruid. We supplied the machines out of their plant. There was 400 machines that we had out there, and they supplied their work. with free coffee. And that went on for probably a dozen years. It was going on before I, before I started there. And one time they had an opportunity to get out of that because they always said they would never get rid of the coffee. It's not worth the hassle if people have to start buying their own coffee. But, you know, a good little price drop somewhere in the early,

early 80s there, they had the opportune time to drop it. And so they, and so they, and so they did. We still supplied them, but it was certainly a different setup instead of going to their to their dock, unloading it all at once, and then say, catch you later. This way we had to go out to the different areas of the plant and deliver it, so to speak. So, but yeah, that's, that's my initial off the restaurant side of things and into the first business. Yeah, but the first business It isn't like you're just selling potato chips. You're selling a lot of stuff. You've got a very big net there of what you can be doing.

For sure. And I just, I specialized obviously on the food side of things. And I did a lot. I learned about the whole chemical side of things as well, which, you know, when you take a look at it, another business down, that's one of the things that I got into when we first moved to Lloyd with relay distributing, starting that, was the chemicals. So we sold floor finishes and strippers and general cleaners, industrial chemicals to hotels, restaurants, a wide variety of stuff.

So initially at a high school, you start working in the restaurant industry. You enjoy it. You move up to the point of owning or running your own restaurant. Well, I was actually a chef at one of the hotels in Fort McMurray. So an employee. Yep, you bet. To switching over to being a part owner of a business, and that's your first taste of essentially being your own boss? Right. Yep. Yep. Yeah, you bet. After that point, do you ever go back to being an employee?

You know, yeah, I did, I did a one little point there for a short period of time in 1989. Well, I get my years going here. No, about 1998. And that was for, I had sold Page Industries. and I had gone into, I was interested, always been interested in communications. So a friend of mine, Brent Jaffrey, had tried on communications. And so I went and worked for Brent for about a year. And that opened up a great opportunity because we, myself and a partner, opened up Midwest Communications. We were approached by a company called ClearNet. and ClearNet was a

a company, a tele-smite was a mobility company from down east. They were established down there, but had no presence in Western Canada. So we were able to get their product as far as the cellular go, but they had a really interesting product as well. And that was, it was kind of a hybrid.

It was a part cell phone, and it was also a part two-way radio. And they called them mics. And I don't know if you've ran into, I remember them quite well, yes. Yeah, so that was pretty neat. That opened up a whole brand new world for us, and especially in the patch here. It was incredible because I know that we had, you know, the people that we had traipsed

into our office with $5,000 phone bills and $6,000. I mean, it's just ridiculous, right? And at that point in time, there was really no good long distance plans. It was terrible. And so this was the TSN turning point, as you would say. there Sean and it really made it really made a difference so the interesting thing how that all turns out is that we had the dealership for probably about six months and tell us purchased clear net across Canada so at that time it was the biggest communication deal were six billion dollars

and you know analysts were saying they're nuts for buying it but they did buy it and so our our little clear net store turned into a tellus mobility store and we became the third store in lloydminster uh with under the tellus under the tellus banner and that was it we were the only there was there was there was tell us opened a store you know a few a few years ago in the mall that's that's a corporate store but other than that it was just ourselves and and northwind they had they had two stores you know communications i was just just like I was saying, I was talking, Vernon Marlatt, who's 98, right? And I asked him about communications, and he talked about them using a digging telephone poles by hand and using

the fence wire as the cable in the beginning. I don't know how that's possible. I just nodded my head and I was like, I don't know. All right. But even since you started in the first communications business. You know, you talk about the microphone, and if I remember that, I'm pretty sure that was dad's favorite phone in the patch, because I think all of that, well, not all of us, not everybody listening or remember that, but I remember using the mic on those phones.

It was pretty slick, I thought. And actually it was surprising that it didn't carry on after that. You probably know more about that than the common man. But in your time, and all heck in my time, how quickly communication has changed, almost baffles your mind, doesn't it? It's amazing. You know, there's no question about it.

And it's usually, you know, we're going through something here right now with the 5G. You know, that's another new level. And so 5G has been around for a long time. The technology has been there, but they haven't had the equipment or the infrastructure to utilize it. So that happens quite often in that whole communication side of things. It's always waiting for the equipment to catch up technologies there. But technology, everybody equipment takes a little while. So, yeah, I've seen, you know, when I first got in it, it was the analog phones.

And so that was the bag phones. That was the old Motorola bricks. And, you know, it was, and there was older, there was older units besides that before my time. But, you know, it was, then we first got into our first digital phone. And, yeah, and it just keeps increasing. And, of course, the secret with the mic disappearing was, TELUS and the carriers lowered, became more reasonable on the long distance calls. And so they lowered their rates.

And then that was the big attraction, of course, what the mic was the instant talk. And I could talk to my buddy down in New Brunswick, and there was no long distance. Down in some, you could get down into Brazil and Mexico and be talking in no long distance. So it was pretty neat, very, very cool. Yeah, and going back to what you said.

a game changer, right? It was. It just completely flipped it on its head, so to speak. Yeah, you bet. Well, going back to Fort Mac and being a young guy and moving into selling bulk food, where do you go from there? Well, that was, you know, I had met an associate up there that had a business. And he was from Wade Minster, and that was Morris and Dean Nebue.

And so they had a restaurant up there, and they were selling it and moving back to Lloyd. So we had gotten to be, you know, fairly good friends. And they were, you know, chatting up about, you know, the upgrader was just going to be going to be started and coming under construction. They thought there was a lot of opportunity. So I came down with Morris for a weekend, and I met the, you know, the first people I met was the Coleris brothers. We were over at their place, and they had Felspar, and it was a successful business there. So, you know, I had some really good chats with them and, you know, how this was going to be looking in the future. So, you know, at the end of the day, we decided that my wife and I, we had, we were at a fork in the road,

and we could have gone to Evanston. I was asked by carnation foods. A friend of mine was involved in that company, of course, and that's a national company to go, work with them at carnation foods or do the do the start the the business down here in Leidminster why was that a fork in the roads well I could have gone could have gone either way couldn't it just I'm I guess I'm just curious why not stay in Fort Mac and continue to do the wholesale food yeah you know yeah no and that's and that's a that's a that's a good question I just thought that there was more opportunity on both either of those and and at that time as well she

on. Fort McMurray was the, there was a strike there with MIOWW, housing prices had gone, you know, were going down. It was a difficult time up in Fort Mac at that time. So we just thought, hey, we'd move to, you know, somewhere could be a little bit more prosperous. And so Lloyd became the place of choice. It did. Yeah, you know, it was, my daughter would have been, you know, 11 and, you know, we couldn't, that was kind of right at that time pulling the shoot on an 11-year-old girl. She wasn't overly impressed. I can just imagine. So, but, you know, it, it, uh, she was very fortunate. She's a, she's a great kid and got, got along great with people. So, uh, she came down here and met some really good friends and, and they're still friends today for crying out loud, right? It's been that,

that was that good. Uh, so, uh, yeah, we, you know, we came into the community, uh, started the business and, you know, the first thing that was, was truly amazing. And, and this is the luckiest thing was that I got invited to Rotary, you know, probably a month after I'd been here and had no idea what Rotary was. And it was just the strangest invitation, how it all happened. But needless to say, I accepted and went. You know, I enjoy when people say a couple of keywords, strange is one of them because it means so much more than just strange. So do you care to elaborate on the strangest, invitation? Well, it's a story, but it's short and sweet. You'll get the jest of it. We were,

we, in our product line, we had palm dairies, which is dairy products. And of course, there was the creamery here, the Saskatchewan producer. They produced milk right here in the city. And so we came in and we've got a full line of dairy. And we were having some success with some of the, you know, we were in the co-op and, you know, in the, in the major stores and the smaller stores. So, you know, they weren't real happy with us. And I was watching our local news one day. And that story came up. It was a reporter that was standing outside the post office.

And a gentleman came up to the ask of the guy, he came to the mic and spoke. And he kind of gave us a little bit of bashing for moving in. And, you know, we shouldn't be doing that. Leave it to the local guys. And, you know, hey, okay, that's fine. Well, the next day, I'm down in Vermillion. And I'm in the mall in Vermillion, doing some sales down there.

there and who walks beside me is Frank. I didn't know his name at the time and he's heading into the washroom. Well, I headed in right after him. And so here we are standing at the urinal. And he was a little embarrassed saying, hey, sorry, I didn't mean to, you know, to throw you under the bus there, but how would you like to come to Rotary? And I did. And that was 31 years ago, still a member. Off of a, off of a guy who bashes you on television. Television.

You follow him into a bathroom in a Vermilion and he goes, you want to come to Rotary? Yeah. Meaning you need to get more into our community? Community? Yeah, I think it was more just a reaction that he felt embarrassed that it was, you know, that he had done that. And it was just kind of, you know, hey,

because he was actually a fairly new member as well. And so, yeah, was that was quite interesting. And so yeah, so that was that was another game changer for me, Rotary by by any means, especially just being new to town. Okay, well, I got a couple of questions that come to mind. I want to go back before I go forward. And when you say it was a fork in the road, you're living in Fort McMurray, you can go one way or the other, you make a weekend trip down to Lloyd Minster. Did you bring your family with you or was it just, I'm going to buzz down and see what Lloyd's like.

I just buzzed down initially. Yeah. So you never brought your wife down? Not the first time, but before we made any kind of a commitment, she was... What were you impressed with the first time down Lloyd?

I know you said that the opportunity, was that the main attraction? Well, you know, that was part of it, but, you know, it was a nice... It seemed like a great little town. It just seemed a lot more distinct. Shall we say, like the downtown side of things with Lloyd Minster.

Fort McMurray is spread out all over the place, right? So you can be at one end of the city, excuse me, and it's actually 13 kilometers across the city, because you're on riverbanks and downriver valley. So this was much more compact. That's what I really liked about it. And it just seemed that it was easy to get around with. And with this upgrader coming in, I talked to, you know, more people when I was down. And, you know, the future was looking great for Lloyd Minster.

What was the business then that you brought to Lloyd? I started at Fresh Here. So it was part of the chemical side of things with the SC Johnson, all the janitorial. We were set up for doing dishwashing chemicals for restaurants and laundry and for hotels and hospitals. And we did that. We were working through another company doing that. We were just kind of their service guys. And then an opportunity came with a competitor for.

from down east. And we brought in, we were able to bring in their line of chemical. And I brought down my, my best friend from Fort McMurray. He's a McGuiver. And he can, he can do it all. So he's a journeyman electrician and he can, you know, he could do anything. And so I enticed him. I offered him a partnership. And who's that? Glenn Kerwin. Oh, yeah. And Glenn, of course, still has relay distributing. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. So he. came down and that was we and so that's the company his related strip that's correct yeah that's what I that's what I came down for to start and it initially got a start in linens and chemicals well not linens chemicals chemicals for for linens oh sorry for linens yeah that's yeah sorry that's

what I was mean yeah and and all the dishwashing come I mean you know we dealt with with the hospital on the dishwashers and laundry we dealt with you know 90% of the restaurants in town you know, we're taking our product, and we did full service on all the dishwashing machines, all the laundry. So it was for them to have that service here, it was really needed. Because if they ran into a problem at Bill at Greek Classic, his dishwasher cabs somewhere through supper, he's waiting for somebody to come in from Edmonton. And, you know, you're three or four hours, everything's. So when you started up that business, was there any competitors doing that?

Just from out of town on the dishwashing and laundry. So you offered an in-house or an in-town, yeah, which gave you a leg up on it. Oh, absolutely. And not only that. We did, you know, we had some, you know, books with all our references in it. And especially when we started branching out going out of town, if you're bringing those references out to the hospital in Wainwright. You know, it's a great door opener when the Lloydminster is using at the Pioneer Lodge. And, you know, it just goes right in there. So it gives you a lot of credibility. So, and there again, we're, you know, we're very, you know, we're, you know, very short distance away from, from Wainwright. And we would go out every, you know, we were doing kind of a circuit every, every couple

weeks. So we were there maintaining the machine and making sure that everything was running smooth. So, no, it was, it was very interesting. Strictly as a guy that when you see an opportunity, you see it for what it is, and most people would talk about it and maybe do something. But you seem like, nope, we're doing it. And let's go get it done. because you start out as a, you know, a chef, essentially.

Yeah. Work your way up. Realize what I think a lot of, I would say a lot of men find out once they have kids and you're working a job that, you know, you're working a crap ton of hours, man. It'd be nice to have something where I could actually see my kids. You make the change, but then you jump in an opportunity, which leaves another opportunity, which leads to a business, which, I mean, is in the line of what you're in. doing, but not anywhere remotely where you started.

That's correct. And yeah, you know, there was one of the other things as far as moving down, just to toss it in. And that's how I do operate. If it's, you know, if it's, you know, do a good, analyze it properly and, you know, weigh out your pros and cons, go through all the, the cash flow charts and do it, you know, do your homework and make sure that everything is viable. And, you know, and that was, that was the case.

the other thing was is that my mom was in Saskatoon, or sorry, in Saskatoon, it was in Evanton. And so, you know, instead of driving five and a half hours from Fort McMurray to come down for a visit or come to a hockey game, an oiler game, which we did regularly and drive back again. I think people from this town know all about driving to see a hockey game. Yeah, no, for sure.

Yeah. So, yeah, it's just a little on that five, you know, the five hour trip is a little different than the two and a half hour. So, but. Yeah, well, if you want to be able to be able to be a lot of time. a rough rider game. Yeah. No, yeah.

No, yeah, no for sure. Yeah. But I get what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. So, no, but it was, it was all calculated as far as. So I'm curious now. Because unless I met, unless I tuned out there for a little bit, where does the

calculation come in? And has that always been something you've been, is that something your parents tell you? Is that something that you learned along the way? Is that something you've always enjoyed? You know, I think, you know, for myself, it was just, you know, being, being, in the food business, you know, I was always on the chef side of things, it's a management side of things. So you're, you're always dealing with numbers and labor and food costs. And, you know, so you need to make those work, right? That's kind of, even as, even as a chef?

Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah, absolutely. When you're, if you're doing, you know, creating and doing menus, I mean, you've got to cost it out so that you're, you're making, you're making some money. You need to come in at a certain target. So, yeah. Yeah. I guess I never really thought. I I always assumed a chef was given the menu and this is what you got to make. Here's what you got. And go out of her. But that isn't the case. Not, you know, when you're, I mean, if you're, when you're looking, when you're

the executive chef, you're planning the menus, right? You're doing, you're doing all of that. And, of course, and, you know, we. So that'd be some hands on for you. Oh, yeah. No, for sure. And, you know, I mean, it's inventory every month. And, you know, so it's, yeah, it's lots of, lots of numbers.

Lots of, not much time in cooking in the kitchen. it's more on the whole management side of things, right? So, yeah. That makes a bit more sense, then. I was missing the part on this calculating, like you very, very, well, you said it analyzed. You analyze opportunities. And you're a guy that, from all accounts, has, when the opportunities come up to sell, you got no hesitation. Yep.

And, you know, I think, you know, going as well, you're 31, so it must be doing something right there. and, you know, I think that they've got, you know, a very good reputation. And, you know, certainly working with Glenn, it was, we formed a good team and a good base. And it was just a lot of good timing with the products that we were carrying and, you know, the service that we could offer. So, and, you know, with Glenn's mechanical and electrical skills, he was pretty darn good. I'm curious, when you were coming in and sit here, you said, before we started. I think it'll take an hour, maybe a little less.

Did you analyze that out then? Well, we're not, it could be a real quick ending here, so. So you have thought about it then. You're probably just, he's going to probably ask this amount of questions that this. Yeah, I haven't done that to be on the show. Well, in all of our conversations prior to this, I've never, and I don't mean this is a knock. I just never heard, never heard you talk about analyzing things so in depth.

But I guess that's one of your strong suits. It's probably why you're on the city council. I just, once again, I just now that I'm listening to you, and I see your track line, so to speak, like where you've been and how you've got there. It becomes a little bit of a theme with you, and analyzing when to move on and carry on. And now you've been in Lloyd for quite some time. So you've definitely enjoyed your time in this city. Love it. Yeah, wouldn't leave here.

My wife always laugh about that, but I'm in no hurry to go anywhere. This is... Even with it being minus 35 outside? Even with it being minus 35, you know? I love this city and, you know, what I like best about it, you know, one of the things I like about, obviously, is the people. But I can go anywhere and, you know, I go into a room. I know people. wherever I go, I know somebody.

So I'm never at a loss. If I walked into a room and I didn't know anybody, I'd be, that would be unusual. And it's just, like I said, living here 30 years. Yeah, maybe with a youth group, I'd be in trouble. How about the Rotary? It's talking about it. You mentioned getting in there in a strange way through a conversation and a bathroom, you know? Yeah, I've never told that to anybody.

So that's, yeah, that's correct. Well, what has it been about the rotary that, you know, to stay in it for, what did you say, 30 years? Yeah, 31 years. Yep. That's long gravity. I mean, to be a part of an organization and as active as you've been, obviously there's something there you like. Because if you didn't want to be in it, it's not like anyone's holding you to the fire, so to speak. You could have just walked away and, you know, dust your hands and said best of the way.

luck to you and I've served my time but obviously not. Yeah, no, for sure. When I first joined Rotary, I think there was 75 of us in the club and, you know, that was, it was amazing the individual as I met there because at that time, Rotary was business owners, managers. It was, it was, there was some restrictions on getting in, so to speak, and that's, you did have to own a business or be a business manager. And so I got to meet the Ray Nelson's and the Marshall Tindles and the Jim Hempstocks and, you know, so many people that were key, Richard Larson for crying out loud.

And he was our landlord as well with relay distributing initially. So to have the opportunity to meet these guys that have been made huge impacts on the community and have lunch with them every Monday and a variety of people. You know, Pat Gulac was the mayor and Bill Musgrave was part of our club. It was, there was just a huge amount of individuals that it's just a great way to come into the city and get to know a lot of people quickly. And it's not about the networking. It was all the things that we were doing afterwards.

We were doing different projects and doing different things in the community. being with these guys and having a blast. Oh, there's a wealth of knowledge in that group. Oh, huge. Huge. That's all part of a really good learning lesson and lots. There's lots of wisdom there, I'll tell you. What's some of the wisdom you learned out of that group?

Well, I think, you know, just on the, on the, a lot on the business side of things and, you know, how these guys were, you know, how they were operating business-wise, how they, you know, what they would do with the staff. you know, a lot of, hey, on the whole customer service guys and treating people like you want to be treated yourself. And so, yeah, just some general, you know, just some good standard stuff. I, you know, spoke to, you run into, when you're young in business, of course, you run into some, some difficulty sometimes, and you haven't really got it figured out when you're going to the bank, and the bank's telling you, well, you've got to start collecting some of the money you got out, right? And so learning, you know, a little bit as far as, you know, on the collection side and how to do that, getting advice on, you know, from some of these others, how they, how they do theirs.

And, yeah, no, there's just an overall, a really good, great experience from, in many different aspects. But it wasn't, it wasn't so much on the business side of things. It was more the camaraderie and, and the assisting, you know, helping the community and working with different things. Yeah, well, it's surrounding yourself with some great people. Absolutely. Yeah. You mentioned Rayne Nelson, Nelson. There's a guy I would have loved to have sat down with.

What can you tell me about that man? Oh, boy, he's a pretty interesting character. Very, you know, he was, boy, tough, tough to describe. You know, he was, you know, obviously, you know, very intelligent. I admired Nelson Lumber, the way they ran their operation. They were years ahead as far as, you know, how they, how they set their organization up and had sales teams, you know, out all over the place selling houses and packages. You know, they took their training very seriously, all their sales training. And, you know, there was a couple of friends that I had met over the years that had been trained by Nelson.

And, you know, they were top-notch, top-notch people. So they had a, you know, a very good group. And Ray was, you know, was very kind, very generous. And, you know, he helped out a lot of people, you know, within the city. And it's kind of interesting. We were just talking about him the other day, of course, with the border city connects. That was the, we changed the name. It used to be the Lloyd Minister Handyvan for 40 years.

And so it's a little, we're going through this branding side of things. So it's challenging. But, you know, someone was mentioning talking, we were talking the other morning at breakfast and about Ray Nelson and how, you know, how generous he used to be. And I said, what do you mean? Used to be. And, you know, they did. didn't realize, like we've been receiving our little nonprofit. We get, every December we've received,

you know, $10,000 from the Nelson Foundation. And so those are dollars that have been, you know, put away and Glenda and their group look after that. But, you know, Ray and the family are still giving in the community. So they were, you know, and these were, these were good friends of Ray, so to speak, but they weren't aware of the foundation. And so they do that with a, you know, with a number of different organizations. So I just think that that is, you know, that's just fantastic to, to have that legacy and to he helped so many people and then to just continue doing it. Yeah, people need to know. Yeah, for sure. Right. That's. And I was, I've been contemplating that. I talked with somebody else about it and just said, you know,

like, what can we do here? Is this something that, you know, we could do a little, you know, story in the source. And there's a lot of good people when you take, like a lot of good people. There's, There's some amazing people that have lived here. And I take a look that, you know, once you're gone, you're gone. And I just lost a good buddy with Ken Baker. You know, that's a toughie. So how do you get people to remember them? And, you know, to keep them, you know, to keep them kind of current and, you know, people know about it.

And, you know, we've lost so many good Rotarians over the year. It's just, and, yeah, they're just kind of forgotten. It's, I always, you know, you get to, I always share the, I'm turning 35 in May. And at 30, I thought I was pretty dang smart. And here at 35, I look back at 30 and go, God, I didn't know. That doesn't change either. And then at 30 and same thing, at 25 and 25 and blah, blah, blah, blah,

all the way back to probably 18. And 18, I thought I knew the world, right? Yeah. And I just stare across the, you know, in the last like three weeks alone, yourself, Vernon, Marlatch, who you know has us all beat in years yeah to work combined we're not as old as that's that's right uh and then you know before that was uh bill macaa or dave macaa and bill musgrave right yeah and i just what i love about these is i'm getting like you know you use the word

wisdom and i that's exactly what i'm after right like as much as i want the stories want to know what you know right because you've you know you sit around in the road And you got all these guys who are doing similar things or business owners or whatever. It's all the wisdom. It doesn't have to be in some course for the teaching. You can just be through the stories of like, yeah, yeah, that happened. You're like, huh, right? And that's what I get to do every Sunday.

It's fantastic. And that's helping preserve some of those guys like a Ken Baker was on the list. A Jim Hill was on the list. And the only time that's, the only thing that's against us, so to speak, is time. Yeah. Time just keeps marching on. Yeah. Well, you know, and I know that I'm a filling today, which is okay. Pretty dang good, Phil, if you asked me.

I was just thinking, I wonder, you know, like I'm not up at that age yet that they usually get somebody to go. I'm, you know, I'm only 62. And so I hope they didn't have a conversation with my doctor. That's all. And I didn't know about it. You know, I'll put this toward you, though. I've interviewed my father. My father's turning 65 this year.

And I interviewed him two years. ago so actually would have been 62 and what I love about and I've interviewed my father-in-law who would have been roughly the same age and they both kind of like I don't know why you need to do this right and I find even if you were 40 you'd go I'm not at the age and it's like why do you have to be 75 or 95 to sit down and have a friendly conversation and share some of the things you've learned sure in 20 years if we do it again you're gonna look back this conversation got I knew nothing.

I'm like, yeah, well, I'm doing this every Sunday. Believe me, I'm going to look back on myself and go, God, I sound like a jackass. But, I mean, it's fun because you just, here's the thing. You want to say at 89 I'll come back and sit and do it. What happens if tomorrow we both step out? You never know. And it's gone.

And that's what's lovely about this is we get to have a, you know. Could do part two. Could easily do part two. Mark it in for 10 years. Yeah. Yeah, right? I know I got lots on the go here, so I'm just getting going. Now, going back to, you said Ray Nelson had it named one thing and you named the other,

and now I'm forgetting the new brand. Oh, well, it was, we were known as the Lloydminster Handy Van Society. Thank you. And now the Border City Connects. Border City Connect Society. Why changing the name? Well, there's a couple things. We had some folks that, a good friend of mine, her husband's a quadriplegic,

and, you know, she always said he would never take that unit, you know, the handy van, right? It's just, it has some connotations to it. And that's not, that's not, that's, you know, that's an argument that's out there. And these, a lot of these folks are, are in that world. And so, and I get this, you know, I got like, you know, you want to see someone do somersaults. That's Ken Baker when I told them we're changing the names, right? Like, what? But the key is on this, Sean, is that we have.

We've had a really good, interesting board, and we've grown. We've grown. And, you know, we had, I was a president of the handy van, and I had a call from Wendy Plandowski. She was the CEO of the Health Foundation. And she said, you know, we've got a problem with getting some of our senior clients and people that have financial challenges. They're not going to Evanton to their medical appointments because they're

They can't get there. They have no way of going. They take a bus and it's going to take them 24 hours and, you know, a lot of been or longer. And there's costs of hotels and there's costs of cabs back and forth to the hotels to the hospital. Right. So she was wondering if there was anything from the handy vans point that we could do. So, you know, I took a look at some of the different things that are out there. Did a little bit of research.

And then Wendy and I got together and we came up with a made in Lloyd Minster solution. So we started the, it was the Lloydminster Caravan. And so that was the hospital foundation bought us the first unit. It was a Dodge Caravan. And we got a little bit of initial funding from them as well. I got some volunteers and we started doing non-emergency medical trips to as far east of Saskatoon and west to the Evanton area. And so it took, you know, it was a little bit of a slow start, but then people started, you know, we were just kind of growing with it naturally. We don't want to be ran off our feet here. Just go slow. And so, and that was done by a donation only. So they could, you know, we had a suggested price of a hundred bucks, return. If we pick you up at your door, we take you to your medical appointment, we wait for you and we bring you back and it cost you a hundred bucks. And for those that didn't have it, we had some funding that we, we had some funding that we,

would compensate and be able to to cover their costs. And so, you know, that was, that was pretty, a pretty amazing opportunity for, on the volunteer side of things. Well, you know, I had, I had a dozen volunteers that we got, you know, very early. And so before we knew it, that one van was, was being, you know, had to be in two places at once. And so our drivers would, they'd use their own vehicle to take them down. And we'd compensate them for the, for the fuel. And, you know, then we got our, one of our volunteers actually did a fundraiser. And in a few days, he raised $35,000 and bought us a Chevy Equinox. So we had two units.

And then we got our third unit, which was a wheelchair accessible, little caravan, a little Pontiac, Montana. And then through 100 men, we got our fourth unit. And days we have all four of them going. different at two in Saskatoon, two in Edmonton or three in Evanton because we try and keep the times if somebody has an appointment at 9 a.m.

and one at 3 p.m. We're not going to take, you know, haul them all down and hang around all day in Edmonton for the volunteer as well as for the so that was a pretty neat, you know, that was a pretty neat adjustment there. And then we put in, you know, we've got this, we have a tri-shot

and we started, we launched that here this last fall where we're taking seniors. People around town. Yeah, taking them seniors out for rides. We've got it parked at the Pioneer, and we've been doing the hemstock as well. And there again, all driven by volunteers. We organize it, we buy it, but then we let the volunteers, you know, run it. And we've had Don Duncan's been looking after that, and Paul Harris, a few key people that look after that, make sure it runs smoothly.

We've been offering that. And then, of course, you know that the Health Foundation gave us the pair of golfer to manage. and so we've been we've just been just getting going on that of course brew has been our guy that's been using it all the time and and getting mastering that and so he'll be sharing that as we move along and get out of this this COVID pretty cool what can happen when you get the right people pulling the right direction oh it's amazing you know and we've got one more that hasn't been launched here and so this is this is going to be this is going to be another game changer and this is it's called driving or sorry drive

happiness. And it's an organization that's based out of Evanston. And I've been watching them for a couple of years here. And I just think our timing is right. I contacted them there, you know, a month ago and just to see, you know, see if there was something that we could work on together and see how we could do that. And so they are, so we're going to, they're going to be providing the whole back end, all the administration for this service. And what this service is is that it's going to be for people, for seniors that have financial or have physical disabilities, could be eyesight, could be, you know, hearing, whatever it may be. And we provide them a ride by a volunteer that uses their own vehicle in town, only in town, and the volunteer is compensated for their

fuel use, and we take them to their appointment, whatever, if they're going shopping, if they're going to the dentist, whatever it is, and just give them the little extra care of helping them into the unit, you know, picking them up, going to the door and getting them, bringing them into the store or the doctor's appointment, and then, you know, doing the same thing on the return. So, so that hasn't been done here. And there is, you know, there definitely is a need for it. The city has a great program with, you know, the senior tab vouchers where a senior can get a ride anywhere in town for, you know, $5 one way with a taxi and the city compensates whatever the remainder of that tab is. And so that's worked out very well. But, you know, the taxi companies are

not in the business of doing that little extra care and, you know, making sure that they get in all right and, you know, just going that extra mile and making sure that, you know, some of our seniors that have been here for years and years are taken care of. It's plain and simple. So that's one that we're going to be that we're going to be launching. And it sounds like I'm bragging here, but you know. No, I don't think so. Well, and I just say it like that because it's my good friend George Dillon from Honey Lake would always say, you're just going to think I'm bragging when I tell you how good we're doing.

But it's certainly not me. And it's our whole group. It's our board. It's people within the community that we're going to utilize. Like our caravans, we've got 25 drivers that volunteer driving. the caravan. And these are long-time drivers. Like, we've had guys right from day one. Like, they've been there for five years, six years. And they keep on taking them. It's just, it's just amazing to see, you know, the satisfaction they get. They know that they're really making a difference for

these people. And it's really touching to see, you know, to see that. And, you know, our clients with the caravan are just, you know, they're tickled, right? I mean. Why seniors for you? Well, on the, the seniors for the, like, for the, for the, for the, for the, For the caravan, they're there, they're, that our highest user. We do all kinds of different, lots of different families, young people. We do people that are on Aish and different Saskatchewan, you know, Saskatchewan Social Services. So, so it's not, the caravan is for, for everybody.

It's just that our highest percentage of users are seniors. Our seniors. Yeah. Now, with the, with the smile driving, drive, drive happiness, that's, that is strictly a senior side of things. that's going to be, they will have a criteria that they have to meet in order to utilize a service. And like I said, the beauty of that is our counterparts in Evanston are going to look after all of that. So all we need to do is concentrate on is getting our volunteer group together for the drivers and just to promote it within the city of Lloyd Minster.

So let's rewind this back to almost the very start of this conversation. Now we've pretty much hit the spot where you say you're the happiest, you're passionate about what you're doing, you feel like you're making an impact. Yeah, well, and we, you know, absolutely. And, you know, I've got the freedom to work with our board and work with our people to do that. So we're looking for things that we can do to make the community a better place to live. It's just that simple. And we work with the olive tree. We drive the people from the olive tree for meals.

We do Grace United Church. What is maybe one of the things that as a community we need to be cognizant of that's going on that maybe is a need? Or is there anything that you see as a big need? I'm trying to phrase it in a way that makes sense in my head. But I go like there's the Slim Thorpe and there's Project Sunrise. and there's, you know, the hospital initiatives, and there's all the ones you're doing. And I think there's probably some out there that I don't even know about

that are directed right at kids. And you're just always got your ear on the, you know, open for the next opportunity to help whoever it is. Well, you know, in our wheelhouse, we're focusing on the senior side. Transportation is our big thing, of course. So everything is pretty much transportation related. So that's our, that's kind of our wheelhouse. But we do, you know, you take a look at, we're also working with this, you know, with this adaptive equipment.

And so right now we're also in the midst of working with Mount Joy with the B Fisher Center, as well as with the Canadian Sports Association for snow sports for people with disabilities. So this is a program, it's a national program, and it's on for, you know, downhill skiing for a number of of different individuals. So it can be, if you have, you know, somebody that's a quadriplegic, but it's young and healthy, you can get single, you know, single ski units that for them doing the skiing side of things. There's the, within this group, you're able to compete on a provincial as well as in on a national basis. But you also have it for individuals that may not have the mental capacity, intellectually challenged. And you've got people that are

taking them down the hill in a, you know, on something that they're hanging, they're inside, you know, a toboggan type thing and going down the hill at Mount Joy. So it's, you know, that's what we're kind of focusing on. That's our other focuses on the, because of our handy van, you know, we have some built in clientele and, you know, if we can help them get out and experience this, you know, new experiences, that's what it's all about as well, just making their quality your life better. I feel like this is going to be a really dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyways. Shoot. Why? Why does this mean so much to you? And what I mean is, I hear the business guy

talking about it. I hear all the good you're doing. And I see in your life all the businesses you've ran and the organizations you've been a part of. And now you're saying it is the best time in your life, you're the most passionate about what you're doing. I just feel like I'm missing something. And maybe I'm not. Maybe you've always been passionate about helping others, and I just didn't catch it. But for you personally, why is this so important? Well, you know, and I have been.

My mom was a big volunteer. She worked with Winhouse. She was the longest volunteer in Evanston at Winhouse for over 24 years, and she was always volunteering. And so that's where I think I started to get, that little seed planted. But you know, one thing that got me going here was with Rotary, we started a Rotary Employment Partnership. And I was down, I was out in Fort McMurray at a district conference, and Ray Nelson and one of the heart surgeons from the U of A were speaking. That was after Ray had his surgery. And so it was supposed to be a 15-minute lunch talk, just kind of in-between

to fill in between your dessert and your main course, well, an hour and a half later, they're still talking. And, you know, when I heard about the employment partnership, I said to my friend whose husband is quadriplegic, I says, like, why haven't we done this? Like, how come this is, they've done it in Evanton. Why aren't we doing this? And she says, well, it's going to take somebody to do it. So I said, hey, I can do that. And, you know, we, and it was simple. I just went to the club.

I got half a dozen guys. We had a meeting. We had Bruce Odinsky from Inclusion Lloyd Minster or Inclusion, Alberta, come up and speak to us and just give us the lowdown. And Wendy McDonald, who had thought about it, who had came up with this idea. And so we kicked in the program, and I was the first one that took on an employee. And Ryan was, he's got a number of different ailments. and you know but he he worked for us for seven years

and you know he was it was so interesting working with Ryan his vocabulary is incredible right he's he's got he's so talented in so many areas and then others not so much and but I learned lots from him and he really got me

you know got me thinking and realizing some of the the difficulties that people with these with disabilities go through and you know how tough it can be so that's kind of where I got the The C for that, and of course, with, you know, coming onto the handyband board, you know, and then doing a little bit of driving and helping out, you realize that. My favorite saying is that I think that a community is judged by how they treat their most vulnerable.

And if we can help out on that, you know, and just make a better lifestyle, but it's just, that's as simple as that. The only reason I push on it, and I really like that last line, the only reason I push on it is I'm just, I'm always wondering why a person is so passionate about whatever it is, right? Like, I was telling the wife, a little short story here, I was telling the wife I have no interest in coaching hockey. And it's never really, it's never really, I don't get it. Like, I just don't get it. And then my oldest was an intro to hockey right before COVID hit.

Like literally one skate. It's all it took. I'm on the ice with them. I can just see the happiness of him being on the ice. And I just, I could never see it until you see it, right? Like all of a sudden it's like, oh. And I tell her that. She goes, well, what do you think teachers do?

And I'm like, what do you mean? And I was talking about like seeing him getting better at skating and just like, just from being out on the ice with him and coming from frustration all the way up to like where he's at. And she goes, well, what do you, she did a grade one teacher. She goes, well, what do you think teaching is? And I'm like, honestly, I guess I never really thought about it. I never thought about it further than you're in a classroom. with a bunch of screaming kids,

and I don't know how you do it. She's like, well, we're teaching them how to read, right? We get to see that progression year after year. That's why I do. I was like, oh, light ball. All I'm looking for is I'm not trying to hold you the fire of you're doing it for wrong reasons or anything. Just more on, there's a lot of people in our community

who would never think to do what you're doing. And furthermore, to say that it's maybe one of the happiest times of your life and that you're very passionate about what you're doing. That's all. Yeah. I don't have any more of an explanation for you on that. Really, that's kind of just in my, in my nature.

Yeah, no, that's cool. And I mean, I think you've given a great explanation. I just wanted to make sure that you understood where I was coming from because I've asked the question like four times. And I'm like, this guy's going to leave her and go on. This guy keeps asking me the same question. Now, to flip to one other thing here, as we march on and pass the hour mark, I can see you getting squirming.

You're going, I thought it was going to be an hour. I have to bring up your wife because with every great man, there is probably a better woman standing right beside you. Yeah, absolutely. How did you meet? And what was it about her? Well, you know, that would have been, we met, we worked together. Actually got up in Fort McMurray, and there was a food establishment.

It was a camp that was actually in town. And this was the owner of the camp was an instructor at Nate. And I had heard of him and kind of, I'd never met him, but I heard lots of them when I was at Nate. And so when I went up to McMurray, we were at that, you know, that one restaurant that I had gone up for and was there for about a year and a half. And then they ran into some problems as far as just on the finances side of things. they shut it down. And so I had gone and talked with Ted. And yeah, with my Nate background, he hired me immediately. And then they had this cute chick that was, you know, working in the

back there. And so, yeah, so that's how we, that's how we, that's how we met. And we were, you know, young, 18. And we got, you know, we got together. We had brandy when I was 20. And we got, you know, we got together. We had brandy when I was 20. And so we were young parents. We never got married right off the bat. We never got married to 1984. And so yeah, so we've got, what, 36 years, I think we've been, that we've been married and together for, you know, over 40 years. And so, yeah, she's an incredible gal. You know, I just, I'm a pretty lucky, pretty lucky guy. She's, you know, has got a great sense of humor. She's a great-looking gal that is warm, and, you know, I just can't say enough about her.

But the big thing is that we've always got along. And that's the amazing thing is on that longevity. And, you know, I've people always say, so how do you, you know, 40 years, how do you do that, right? But, you know, and we've kind of, I've narrowed it down to a number of things. And I mean, it's, you know, it's certainly treating each other with, you know, with respect. and but probably the key one for us has been if you got a problem say it get it over with and let's move on and no festering of you know no playing games no none of that stuff and and that has been you know our golden ticket I think is just getting it what we need to say over and done with

and it doesn't happen that often and we spend a ton of time together even before COVID we did anyways as well so but yes and you know anybody that can put up with me for that amount of time. It's got to be, got to be special. So, don't let anything faster. That's, that's, that's, that's, don't go to bed, uh, angry at one another. Yeah. And not even, you know, anytime it's like, and we, that's what we do. It's just over with. Get it. Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm, I'm, I'm wrong. It's not pointing fingers and who's doing what, right? It's just let, let's just get this over with and not get it over with. But, and so like I say, it's been, it's been really key but you know we haven't you know we've gotten along all the time there's been you know

nothing really out of the out of the ordinary cause anything like that so I think if you live your life that way and and stay in the light and not stay out of the dark it's those are good words here's here's a fun thing to make you feel a little bit younger okay if I were to have you've been to weddings where they have they have the married couples stay on the dance for and they go whoever's been married five years can come off. You know what I'm talking about? Okay. In the archive episodes, you'd probably be the first couple off.

How crazy is that? You'd be one of the first couples off. Yeah, nope. Like, over 50s become the standard. You're too young. In 10 years, maybe you'll last. But, I mean, it's super cool. I'm not trying to poke fun and hot.

Oh, yeah. No, don't. It's any amount of years like that is always impressive because there's ups and downs of any relationship. And I think, you know, if you look around, round, we talk about an awful lot on these archive episodes when significant others are brought up, is that there's a lot of divorce right now. There's been a lot of divorce in probably the last 25 years.

And it's always interesting to hear what people do and have done successfully to make a marriage last. Because I think anyone who gets married, the first thing they're not thinking is, well, I can't wait to get out of this one, right? Like I think we all go in there with the hope that it's going to last for the rest the rest of time. But the rest of the time is a long time. And you've certainly done a good job thus far. Yeah, no, it's been good. It reminds me of one of my business partners that one of his best friends was getting married again. And he couldn't attend the meeting. So he says, I'll get you

on the next one. So yeah, that's, you know, unfortunately, I think a lot of times people get, But, you know, our wedding was very simple. And we just had immediate family. We were at the Chateau Lacombe in Evanton for a night. We, you know, it was nothing crazy. And when you take a look at, you know, nowadays, it's, oh my goodness. You know, if you're not dropping 60 grand, it's not a wedding. And so, you know, it was, there wasn't a whole pile of expectations.

And I think so often people get all hooked up. I was at a wedding not that long ago. And I was chatting with the bride, you know, after everything was, after everything was, done we're just out in the hallway and she goes wow now that this is done what do we do like it's like wow we've been planning this for years and and so I just I just found that very interesting well that's that's that's a that's a big day even if it's small it's a big day it's it's one of those I don't know not pivotal moments in your life but definitely hyped up moments in your life like oh for sure no no and that's I think so sometimes people are going down that path and and just

enjoying the whole thing about the wedding, but, you know, the consequences afterwards is that you're actually married and you've got, you've got commitments and things. You know, once you're back from Jamaica and, uh, but that's certainly not true with everybody. I'm just saying that, uh, no, no, I get, I get what you're saying. Here, the last one I'm going to leave you with, uh, is your surreal moment. Uh, so for listeners, I send out a little bit of a questionnaire and I have you fill it out. And you're surreal moment is that you've died. You've died at a time in your life in 2007. I did. Care to share? Yeah, no, that was, it was pretty, it was very interesting. I had, I had been traveling with,

with my wife for a couple of days down a red deer on a family family thing with, we stopped trying to work with her mom that was in a, in a facility down there. And so we hadn't been home for three or four days and I was having some problems kind of breathing. I would, you know, it was just a little difficult breathing, nothing serious. I'd lose my breath and take a couple minutes to get it back. And so I was saying, hey, you know, when we're back on Monday, I'm going to check it out with the dock. And so Sunday night, I woke up about three o'clock in the morning and I couldn't get my breath. And so this went on for a few minutes. And then I realized that I can't get my breath.

Like I couldn't walk to the kitchen from here. I'm done, so got my wife to call 911, and so ambulance was lickedly split. By the time I was probably awake for about another minute or so, and then that was it. I don't recall a thing. And the ambulance guys were there in a very short period of time. Took me to the Lloyd Hospital.

They did a little bit of an evaluation, The key was that the ambulance driver, my neighbor was in the emergency room. She's the nurse. And she said to me a few months later, she goes, yeah, you were pretty lucky. The ambulance guys usually don't work on somebody that long. And I said, what? Like, that's crazy. But so he did. So he got that, he got some heart going back and they were thumping. And so they, so they, they stabilized me. And they, what would happen was, a valve in my heart stayed open, flipped open. And so the blood was pumping out into my lung cavity and crushing my lungs in. So all the air was disappearing. And so I had little or no air. All my organs started to shut down and I went into a cardiac arrest. I had a heart attack. And so they were able to drain that blood off and flew me. They flew me into Ebon,

and I was put in, I don't recall any of this, of course, and I was put into, they induced me into a coma, and I was in this coma for a couple of days, and they were just, you know, letting things come back and letting things start to flow, and they had no idea, you know, what, what the outcome was going to be as far as not having oxygen for that amount of time. So, you know, it's, so, yeah, I, I, I, I wake up and I feel something coming like out of my throat and something feels like, you know, coming off my head. And there is my wife. And I'm in a hospital, at the U of A hospital in Evanton. So it was, it was pretty surreal to say the least. And I ended up being there for five weeks in the hospital. And they did, they repaired my valve. They didn't have to, they didn't have to replace it.

So it's my, it is my natural valve that was, was repaired. And so that all went, that all went smooth. But it was, yeah, it was a little bit of a rocky road getting there. And, you know, it's certainly interesting when you're, when I was going in for the open heart surgery, I'm like, you know, doesn't matter to me. I've just, you know, I'm lucky to be here. Like, I shouldn't be here. So I'm not worried about this surgery at all.

And so they were able to, you know, the skill of those folks at the, at the, at the U of A, it's amazing stuff and they were able to repair the valve and a couple of weeks taking her easy around the house and back at work back at Midwest Communications then so you would have been for in my math right 49 yeah somewhere in that vicinity yep it's a young guy well and you know like the doc said

as far as that valve flipping over he said it could be it could have you could have had that defect from birth you know they didn't there was no this brings me back to the when we were talking about you know it's better we record it now because who knows what the next day brings right like geez exactly that change having that happen anything change outlook on life or change what did you change after that well you know i i i think spiritually i changed because i figured there was something that's something's happened here i'm around for a reason you know there's no question that someone goes down that path and you're you know so uh i think i i

rekindled my belief in God and Jesus Christ. I think that, and I'm not a religious guy, but that was certainly, you know, a game changer. And everything, you know, I just appreciated everything, you know, a lot more and realizing that how, how fragile life is. And it can change, you know, change in a flash. And that it did. And I just came out on the cut on the right end.

So, yeah, it's, yeah, just more appreciation, Sean. no question about it. You pay attention to those little things and you know you just you realize how important family is and you know like as they as they say you know in seven habits book like you're not when you're on your deathbed you're not asking for them to bring your awards so you can see your awards once again right. I mean it's it's all about the family and being there and you know and that was great with my daughter and wife they were they were there all the time. It was it was perfect, you know, doing that little extra care. So yeah, it was pretty, pretty amazing to go through that. And didn't see, didn't see anything. It wasn't,

nobody was calling on the other side. It's like you know what my brain's doing. It was, and everybody asked that, of course, right? So, but yeah, it was, it was just, it was nothing. And, and, and then something coming off my head. And, and, and, and, I came out okay, I don't know how much damage my wife would argue. It's just different numbers and I, but it's all good. Well, I appreciate you coming in here today. Is there anything else that I've skipped over? I know I just briefly browse the sheets you brought in, and I'd hate to miss something because you just never know when we get to do this yet. Yeah, no, it's, no, I don't think so. We've covered it all. And like I say, I'm just, please.

please despise, you know, to be able to serve our citizens of Lloyd Minster once again. And, you know, I'm open always for, for coffees. And the interesting thing I found was when I'm shopping at the grocery store, I get through there a lot quicker now that I'm wearing a mask. That works out pretty good because people go, I don't know if that's him or not. Because a lot of times you get, when certain things are being talked about, you get, you know, that quick trip into Staples turns into an hour, right? Or, yeah, just running in and grabbing an egg croissant at Arby's. And, yeah, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you get pinned down.

I call it counselorized. Yeah. In 20 years when they ask, when someone young asked about 20, what are you going to tell? What's the one thing that's going to stick out? One thing. Boy, that's a, I see, that's a good question. Yeah. You know, it's, I would say cooperation, collaboration.

You know, everybody, everybody has got to try and work together and, you know, to nip this in the bud. And, you know, some people are following it very good and others not so much. But I think if we had a little bit more collaboration and cooperation, you know, we might be able to nip it a little bit quicker. Final one. If there's other people that I should be sitting down from the community, since you've been on the rotary and have been involved in all these different facets of Lloydminster, who are some names you'd suggest that we haven't got yet? Well, there's, I can... Would Fred North be one of those? Fred North would be, yeah.

Fred's very interesting, and I have the privilege on, you know, sitting on his foundation. And so, and I've dealt with Fred for many years. So it's, yeah, he. The listener doesn't know my joke, but the joke is I'm going to try. I'll try. I'm going to try. I've been asking for Fred now for about a year. So I got to keep, I got to keep twisting every way I know how.

Yeah, I think, you know, maybe we might be able to loosen him up a little bit here after this COVID's all over because he's been, he's been laying super low. Fair. Anyone else, though? Oh, yeah. No, I've got, we can talk. I mean, you know, like Dick Fokens, have you ever, you know, Dick Fulkins, he was just nominated for, uh, uh, for, uh, uh, uh, uh, chamber award for the, oh my goodness, I'm trying to think of the award, Lifetime Achievement Award.

That was just in September. And, you know, Dick has been in business here for 30 years. Jeez, that's probably an award I should just follow the winners on. Well, it's interesting. A lifetime achievement, that's a high award. Check it out. Go on, go on there. And I can tell you that there's, well, I was fortunate.

it and received that a few years ago. And, you know, the research I did on that, here's an interesting stat. So at that time, I think I was the 17th to receive that. And there was 15 people that were Rotarians or a spouse of Rotarians. And the other one was the one that I, when I was president, I selected a gal that was not a Rotarian, and I selected a gal that was, it's Lynn Manners. and I wanted to get somebody recognized in the community that's working, you know, way behind the scenes and not always in front.

And, you know, I really liked Lynn and I know she had done lots of stuff here. So I was happy to be able to select her. But I thought that was so cool with the Rotarians behind, you know, how that's, those were the individuals. Yeah, strong organization. Yeah. Yeah. So just kind of cool.

Yeah. But yeah, check that out. There's good. There's a lot of good guys. that's a there's a little nugget for you on that one yeah for sure well i appreciate you coming in and sitting with me for a little over an hour i'm glad i could uh uh beat what you predicted and and it wasn't that terrible of the conversation no no thanks sir shaner appreciate it and uh just glad to get out there and talk a little bit about our border city connects and uh yeah and and certainly about

the city and thanks for what you're doing here for the for the for the archives uh you've you've been a game changer i i'm on that board and And with you coming on, it's been, you know, you've gotten, you've been the golden child that's been able to nail these all down. And, you know, it's, it's fantastic. This is all part of history. I'm a very poor example of it, but there's been lots of good, lots of good individuals. We're all just part of it. Yeah, no, for sure.

But no, good for you. And we appreciate it from our perspective. Well, I'm just having fun every single day. So that's all I can ask for, right? That's all I can tell you. That's what you're after. that fashion. Thanks, sir.

All right, thank you. Hey, folks. Thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,

and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time.