Every day since Rosemary brought our family from Mexico City in 1975, I have thanked her over and over. Now with her gone on 9 December 2020, I have not changed that. I think about her and how I live in a stable country that is free of the animosity in other countries. Thanks to her financial acumen I don’t have to worry about where my next Canadian Dollar is coming from.

For years It seems I was the only person around who knew the story of how the Canadian Maple Leaf Flag came to be. I was friends with the man responsible in finding a designer, Jacques St-Cyr, and how the ultimate design, adding an extra leaf point happened in Patrick Reid’s kitchen. Before he died, when I would spot him walking in Kerrisdale’s 41^st Avenue, I would talk to him marvelling at the fact that I was chatting with a living flag designer!

Today then, has to be a day full of red. For me there is nothing more symbolic of a BC Canada Day than my Rosa ‘Emily Carr’. It is a scandal that this rose introduced in 2007 in Morden, Manitoba is a rose that is hardy in every province in Canada. And yet, in the Lower Mainland, it is not available. By luck I found it five years ago at UBC’s Shop in the Garden.

Rosa 'Emily Carr' 1 July 2026