It was at the Ryerson Polytechnic Institute graduation ceremonies in May 1981, that I received my Fellowship in recognition of outstanding work in Small Business Development. In the photo I can be seen with Dave Sutton, the Dean; Brian Segal, the Ryerson President and on my right, Colin Graham, the Chairman of the Board.
It was a joyous occasion for two particular reasons. All of my former teaching colleagues were on the stage with me, and to my surprise, in the audience was Bob and Stacy Morrow who had come all the way from Vancouver at their own expense to share the occasion with Mary and I. Bob was a founding member of the CFIB Board of Governors.
Those were the days before Ryerson became a University and staff members like myself had to spend two summers obtaining a high school teaching certificate. I had been the President of the Faculty Association and the elected representative from the Business Department on the Ryerson Academic Council. Those teaching years were happy years.
I worked closely with Dr. Raymond Kao of the Business Department during my CFIB years, helping Ryerson develop an Entrepreneurship Centre from which course options in Entrepreneurship were made available to students. And we co-produced booklets on small business management which we distributed throughout Canada to teachers in the community college system. 
I was asked to give an address to the students at the graduation ceremony and remember telling them to look at the person on their left and on their right. One of you, I explained, will start your own business in five years.
And six years later, on the same platform, I was asked by the staff to give out a degree in Business Management to my own daughter Kelly, who had graduated with honours.
Few business leaders have top-level academics in their network. I have been the opposite. Despite having quality legislative staff around me at CFIB, I had a network of about a dozen academics from around the world that served as advisors. Listening to different voices helps you think outside the box.