Author & Letters
Here I am at
the Legion / Library / Community Centre in Rosseau, Ontario,
for Rosseau Farmers Market’s AGM in 2010.
I thoroughly enjoyed my five years as President of the Board (though
I don’t know if the Board always enjoyed me!).
I was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and lived my
childhood years
in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My father was from Lunenburg.(The Messers
were among the alpha settlers who arrived in Halifax in
1750, and founded Lunenburg In 1753.)
In 1953,the family moved to Toronto, where I attended Oakwood
Collegiate Institute. After finishing highschool, I travelled
and worked in Europe and lived twelve years in Sweden, where
I earned a Filosofie Kandidat (B.A.) at the University of Göteborg.
Subsequently, armed with a B.Ed. from the University of Toronto
(History, ESL, & Driver Education), I then taught English
as a Second Language and Driver Education.
Letters to the Paper
Norman Bethune
Canada / China Hero
Medical Doctor, Innovator & Humanitarian Extraordinaire
His birthplace
in Gravenhurst
is a National Historic Site
See Pics of the Doctor in Action
“The basis for cultural promotion and exchange
should be on further enhancing the Bethune spirit.”
(Quote from the twinning agreement between
Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada
and Tang County, Baoding City,
Hebei Province, China)
Books I Have Reviewed:
Fortune and La Tour:The Civil War in Acadia
by Molly Anne MacDonald
The Future of Driving
The Costs of Driving—in LivesShould we take drivers from the equation?
And let System Telematics do the driving?
Sustainability and the American City
(Has capitalism outlived its usefullness?)
by Tony Favro
Politics & History
I have always had a strong interest in politics and history, and I drew on it in writing my first book, The Conquest of Canada: A Novel of Discovery. This epic adventure is set at the dawn of Canada's history.Fraudsters & Tormentors
I also love to lampoon fraudsters and tormentors. I tackled tormentors in The Sink, a road novel with a unique perspective on the road behaviour of Canadians.Fraudsters are my target in Farmers Market, a novel that, unsurprisingly, cost me my membership in several (so-called) farmers markets.