I was introduced to The Globe and Mail in 1945 as a 12-year old newspaper delivery boy in Sarnia, Ontario seeking a little extra spending money. My mother was up with me at 5:30 am six mornings a week to prepare my oatmeal porridge before I cycled downtown six days a week to fold my 25 or so Globe papers into a G&M-supplied canvas bag hung over my shoulder and wend my way over what seemed like miles of streets, sun, rain, sleet or snow. I can tell you very few Sarnians subscribed to the Globe.
In addition, once a week on Saturdays, I called on each subscriber to try and collect the 25 cents weekly subscription fee owed (total $6.25). Fortunately, I was also drawn into reading the paper itself which was my real reward over the following 59 years.
I subscribed to the Globe during most of the following years, even as a young high-school student at Albert College in Belleville, Ontario. Imagine my delight in March 1951 in picking up my paper in the hall and seeing a published photograph of myself, brother and a best friend published in the Sports section as Albert College swimming champions. My (very) brief glimpse of fame.
However, the most significant impact of the Globe on my life took place in Lafayette, Louisiana. I had taken a job there in 1959 with Texaco Inc. as an exploration geologist. Even with a Ph.D. I couldn’t find a job in Canada. While it took about two weeks for my Globe and Mails to arrive from Toronto, one day in the spring of 1960 I saw an advertisement from the Public Service Commission for a research position with the Geological Survey of Canada in Calgary which I coveted most dearly. My job application through the mails reached the board, so I was told, only moments before the decision was taken. But I won the competition and left Louisiana for Calgary and a career with the Geological Survey in June 1960.
I had the good fortune to carry out research on the geology of Gaspé Peninsula, Québec in 1957-58 on my graduate thesis project and followed some of the footsteps of William E. (later Sir William ) Logan, first director of the Geological Survey of Canada who surveyed much of the coastline and interior in 1843 and 1844. I greatly admired the quality and objectivity of his observations, maps and conclusions. So much so that my wife and I named our first son David Logan Burk.
So I was thunderstruck on October 5, 2000 when the Globe announced on its front page that Jean Chétien had named the “Highest peak to be Trudeau Mountain,” replacing the long-existing name Mount Logan. My letter of objection to the editor of the Globe was the lead letter next morning, together with its own political cartoon and editorial piece supporting my position. For the sake of history the mountain’s name and his legacy remain.
Neil Burk
Nepean, Ontario