We were celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary at the Airport Bristol Hotel in August 1915, and Dan Kelly announced that to celebrate our Anniversary, the CFIB Board had decided to name the CFIB Building at 4141 Yonge Street, the John and Mary Bulloch Building. For those who can stand excitement, the party celebrations can be found at www.johnandmarybulloch.com.
The formal announcement was made at the 2016 June AGM, and in the photo taken the next day, Mary and I are seen with Dan Kelly, the CFIB President and CEO.
The wonderful part of the announcement was that the honour was shared with Mary. All those involved in starting a new venture know how much of the burden is shared by both spouses. When I was running across Canada helping new District Managers get settled, Mary was raising two youngsters, looking after a home, handling all the finances, taking kids to swimming and music lessons and on and on.
And our daughter Kelly was into it too. At her grade one class, all the kids were required to stand up and explain what their father did for a living. One said he worked for Ontario Hydro. Another said he was a lawyer. And Kelly said, “My daddy fights government.”
But if any recognition needs to be shared, it is the building. I can take credit for building our cash reserves, choosing the location and the architect; but the credit for bringing the building in on time and within budget must go to members of the Building and Finance Committee of the Board of Governors.
The honour will live on beyond the lifetime of both Mary and I, but the CFIB Building itself will function as a financial reserve for CFIB into the next 100 years. In the short-term, the building enables the CFIB to live rent-free, but in an emergency, it will be the collateral needed for major financing.