Reader feedback is one of the many rewards of blogging. “When are you going to write something on your blog that interests me?” he asked. It was Kip Fotheringham on the phone – VP Hampton Lumber Sales Canada and fellow member of our Planning Committee for the 2015 NAWLA Regional Meeting in Vancouver. “That wouldn’t be hard,” I laughed.

So here, finally, are couple items Kip might be interested in. We share some family backgrounds of sorts. Kip is son of renowned columnist Allan Fotheringham, who graduated from Chilliwack High School about 1950. It happens that my dad also graduated from the same CHS – in 1957. Dr. Foth, as is his nickname according to Wikipedia, got his start in journalism working for Les Barber, publisher of The Chilliwack Progress. My dad also got his start working for Les Barber at The Progress. Divergence in our dads’ career paths became more pronounced after both went on to UBC, with stints working on the campus newspaper The Ubyssey. My dad went on to marry Les Barber’s daughter and a career trading lumber. Allan Fotheringham went on to become renowned journalist and one of Canada’s pre-eminent columnists, fashioning pithy writing in numerous books and periodicals like Maclean’s. With that storied journalistic pedigree, it’s not surprising that the posts here at Harderblog might be less interesting – and more wooden?!

“Canada is ten independent personalities, united only by a common suspicion of Ottawa.”
Allan Fotheringham in Macleans, 11 Feb. 1985.