- - - - - -
Standing left to right
- - - - - -
Dan Holmes
(local amateur – not a DOC person)
Michel Milot, Manager of Emergency
Telecommunications and former RI Quebec Region
Ray Perrin, P. Eng. DOC HQ
Jim Cummings, DOC Standards Officer DOC HQ
Bob Jones, Director-General Telecom Regs DOC
HQ
- - - - - -
Seated left to
right - - -
- - -
Hugh Clark, Standards Officer, DOC HQ
Perrin Beatty MP and Minister of
Communications.
Perrin Beatty
was the Minister of Communications in The Mulroney cabinet. In 1991, he
was asked to attend Field Day by a ham club in his constituency and was
pleased to attend since he had always had an interest in becoming an
amateur radio operator.
In 1992,
he had THREE invitations from three different clubs in his area. He felt
he couldn’t attend all three but didn’t want to disappoint anyone, so he
took the issue to the Senior Staff meeting at DOC.
George Zurakowski, P. Eng. was in
attendance at that meeting and offered a suggestion which Beatty seemed to
like. George said that since we have an amateur station in the DOC
headquarters building, why not talk to a “whole bunch of hams” all over
Canada. If he had stopped there, I would have been spared of a task that
I did not need. He told Beatty that he knew just the person who would
likely agree to set this up. YUP, you guessed it. Little old me!
At the
time, my wife and I were in San Antonio/Corpus Christi, Texas on vacation.
When I
got back on Monday, George called me to come to his office and sheepishly
told me what he had done, and that I would be getting a call from the
Minister’s office to discuss the details.
Sure
enough, I got a call from a young constituency assistant, by the name of
John Baird
(Yes, the “bulldog” MP from Ottawa and later Minister himself). Baird
said that he had set up a meeting for Tuesday at 10 am, for me to meet
and brief the Minister. Needless to say, I did some scrambling and
brainstorming to come up with a plan.
The
meeting took place on schedule in the Minister’s office. He was very
cordial and served me a flavored coffee. (I detest flavored coffee but
drank it anyway). The 20 minute briefing turned into 45 minutes as I
explained how he was going to be able to talk to so many people. He was
very interested and confided in me, “that he always wanted to be an
amateur radio operator but could never find the time”.
I
explained to him that I would not be personally present since I would be
in Detroit, Michigan, for the weekend but that I would make sure he was
taken care of.
Over the
next few days I got hold of some movers and shakers in the HAM world
mostly in Ontario and the Maritimes and had them spread the word to
various Field Day stations in particular, as well as others.
Jim Cummings, and
Hugh Clark, both DOC Standards Officers and
former RI’s, took the ball and ran with it.
I was
told when I got back from Detroit, that the Minister was in his glory and
was very pleased. He spoke to MANY amateur radio operators. I tried to
find the thank you letter he sent me but it was not to be found.
Cheers,
Joe MacPherson, VE1CH
May 12, 2017 |