WAITE-O-GRAM (RELEASE 231.0)

YOU HAVE TO LOVE THE GULF STREAM

Who would have thought that traveling to London, England, would bring relief from North America's unrelenting winter. But trust me, we were there for six days recently and temperatures were in the 50's (12 - 14 C) during the day, a far cry from the minus whatever of Ottawa, Toronto or Boston. This despite the fact that London is a good 400 km (or about 250 miles) closer to the North Pole than to Ottawa. Not only was it (mostly) sunny, but the crocuses were in bloom!  This is all apparently due to the Gulf Stream. Or the hot air emanating from Parliament.

PUTTING HER STAMP ON THE ROYAL MAIL

Our primary mission was visiting daughter Emily, who is undertaking graduate studies at the London School of Economics. But we (my long-suffering spousal unit, Karen, and myself) used the opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues, including my former Canada Post boss Moya Greene. It has been almost five years since Moya left Ottawa to become the first woman and non-Brit to head up the world's oldest postal administration and I can report she is in fine fettle. As she should be - she successfully navigated the Royal Mail to the firmer shore of privatization and has brought the venerable institution into the 21st century. Canada seems to be engineering a kind of take-over of the UK by stealth - not only is Moya heading up the Royal Mail, but former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is now heading up the Bank of England, to most good reviews. Perhaps Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper should consider jumping the pond and giving a go at heading up the UK Conservative Party. He might make people happy on both sides of the Atlantic...

I'LL HAVE 400 CASES YOUR 1926 CHATEAU NEUF DE PAPE

One of the stranger experiences we had on this trip involved staying at one of the Colleges at Cambridge. I cannot tell you which college. I cannot tell you which Fellow we were visiting. What I can tell you is that we got to dine at the "high table" and stay overnight in the "Old Guest Room", under a canopy bed and surrounded by enough dark paneling to outfit a major law firm. It was all very English, in a 13th century kind of way. Our host whispered a lot, as pretty much everything to do with the Fellows is secret. To my mind the best secret is that the Fellows are able to buy wine, port and champagne from the College's ample cellars at "cost plus 20%". Specifically, at cost in the year of purchase - be it 1977, 1968, 1922...whatever. Is this not the best academic perk ever? My Alma mater is the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sure, the local beer is on tap...and the cheddar cheese is sharp...but the prices are sadly contemporary.

GLACIAL - EXCEPT GLACIERS MOVE FASTER

Executive recruiting firm Rosenzweig & Company have just released their annual "Report on Woman at the Top Levels of Corporate Canada" - and the findings are sobering (much needed after that night at Cambridge). Women today occupy precisely 8.5% of the so-called "named executive" positions at Canada's top 100 publicly traded companies. There are eight female CEO's. The good news, I suppose, is that a bit of progress has been made in the ten years since Jay Rosenzweig began the survey - the starting number back then was 4.6%. But seriously, at this rate parity will come when - 2045? Doesn't anybody know that our daughter Emily (and hundreds like her) are on the march?

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Like many persons of a certain age, I find myself attending an inordinate number of retirement events of late. Given that part of my career was spent at CIBC, in recent weeks two were associated with that institution - one for Tom Woods, the other for Richard Venn. Tom, as many will remember, was CFO at CIBC during some challenging time and was a frequent spokesperson for the bank on BNN (often interviewed by the endlessly curious Howard Green.) Richard, a Vice Chair at World Markets, was more of a rain-maker type - and perhaps the most civic- and philanthropic-minded individual I have ever had the pleasure to work with. These events can be a little bitter-sweet - retirement evokes mixed emotions - but what struck me was the inclusiveness of the events. Current CIBC colleagues and former and departed co-workers were invited and the events had a reunion quality to them. A highlight, at least for me, was a video message honoring Richard Venn from former CIBCer Mike Petersen, who now heads up TD's U.S. operations. It was a classy moment.

A FOND FAREWELL

As some of you may recall, I served as press secretary to Senator Edward W. Brooke, the first African American elected to the U/S. Senate. Brooke, if you can believe it, was a liberal Republican - although that might be less surprising if I add that he was from Massachusetts. Senator Brooke passed away recently at age 95 and I will be heading down to his memorial service, to be held at the National Cathedral, in less than two weeks. He and I kept in touch over the years. Perhaps the most interesting conversation we had came a couple of years ago when he asked me if I had "heard all of this nonsense in the media" about his having had an affair with Barbara Walters (which she revealed in a tell-all book). I said I had, but that the Canadian media pretty much was ignoring it. Then I said, "By the way, I am glad it came out". Silence at the other end...then, "What do you mean, Bob?" And I said, "Because it is one fewer secret that I have to carry to my grave!" And he laughed. Such is the strange bond between press secretaries and Senators...he was a great, ground-breaking American political figure, one of a kind.

SPEAKING OF SENATORS...

If any of you happen to be in Lawrence, Kansas, on Wednesday, April 22, I will be delivering a lecture at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. The topic is the changing role of the media from Gerald Ford to Obama... and no, I haven't written it yet. I am hoping daughter Emily will make that her dissertation topic at LSE...and I can just read what she has written!

(The views expressed are entirely those of the author. Please feel free to cascade this missive to those whom you feel might enjoy it. If you do not wish to receive these, please reply saying so. But do so kindly - the author is very sensitive, especially after having consumed a bottle of vintage champagne; a 1967 Chateau Neuf de Pape and a very robust 1973 Ware's Ruby Port. Any reference to Barbara Walters was purely unintentional.)