11-01 A New Career

My father essentially pioneered what was called editorial advertising, which meant combining political, religious or social commentary with the sale of products and services.
It was November 1969, and I had just read the White Paper on Tax Reform published by Edgar Benson. This was during my period as a teacher of Finance at the Ryerson Polytechnic institute. And yes, I did read the White Paper in my bathtub. Ryerson today is Ryerson University.
Naturally I responded with anger in a letter to the Minister of Finance, written as if it came from my father and signed with the company name. And having my father publish this letter in one of his ads seemed a simple and straightforward idea. It was just a way of ensuring the message was read. In the attached ad, my father is saying he is just a small business owner that does the regular dirty jobs in his store like cleaning the washrooms. But with Benson’s plan to double his taxes, it looks like he will continue to clean the washrooms. Not what I would call an elegant advertisement.
But WOW. What an explosion that ad created! The phone at the clothing store was ringing off the hook all day. I was summoned over from Ryerson to help field the calls, and remember having over eight pages of names and phone numbers.
It was from that ad that a new career was created. The angriest callers met, and we agreed to create an organized opposition which was called the Canadian Council for Fair Taxation. And, of course, that organization evolved into the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, with a membership today of over 109,000 companies.
What few people do not know is that the ad was just the beginning of the kind of help I needed to start a new career. I mean, how do you start a not-for-profit organization when you cannot raise money in exchange for shares. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business was started like a family business, and that is the real story.
My father guaranteed my original lease and my operating loan, and one of my first employees was someone that was on the payroll of his company. And during the first year, when I had to sell memberships to pay my own salary, he used to slip me $200 if I had a bad day.
But it all started with one of my father’s ads.