Christmas Luncheon

MR. JACKMAN:

Your Honour, Ladies and Gentlemen: For the past three months now I have had the rather dubious honour of going to this lectern every week to introduce a speaker, who would talk on any subject, ranging from the world monetary crisis, to issues of a much more parochial nature. This meeting, however, promises to be different. Today we are extending a Christmas welcome to the wives, children and other friends of members, who have come here today on the express condition that they would not have to listen to a major address, After having listened to twelve of them myself in the past few months, and with the almost certain expectation of having to listen to another seventeen in the next four months, I can assure you that this change in pace is as equally refreshing to me as I know it will be to you.

There is one gentleman, however, sitting to my right to whom I would like to make special mention. His Honour, the Honourable Ross Macdonald is, as you know, the LieutenantGovernor of the Province of Ontario, and Honorary VicePresident of The Empire Club. He is the personal representative of our Sovereign Lady the Queen. His office not only symbolizes the historic connection between the Government of our Province and Her Majesty, but also reminds us of the historic traditions of The Empire Club of Canada and the abiding principles of Commonwealth, which our Club represents. This is the fourth time that he, and his charming daughter, Mrs. Haldenby, have been with us at our Christmas luncheons, and I know you will agree with me that his presence adds much to this occasion. It is my great pleasure to welcome you here today, and to thank you for the great honour you do The Empire Club family on this Christmas occasion. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario.

His Honour, the Lieutenant-Governor addressed the Meeting and brought greetings to those present at the Christmas Party. Dr. Harold V. Cranfield then presented a bouquet to Mrs. Haldenby, his Honour’s daughter.

MR. JACKMAN:

I will not embarrass our head table guests by introducing each of them to you personally–they are for the most part the executive of The Empire Club and their wives whom we are delighted to have with us at this time. There is one guest however, who deserves special mention–I refer, of course, to our immediate Past President, Harold Cranfield.

Harold Cranfield is a medical doctor, and thus his assumption of the presidency of this historic Club represented a very refreshing change to the rather monotonous parade of distinguished Queen’s Counsel and corporation executives, who usually occupy this Chair. Perhaps for this reason he brought to the management of the affairs of this Club, particularly in his choice of speakers, a breadth of wisdom, compassion and human understanding, which all our members found refreshing.

I should also say in tribute to Harold Cranfield, that one of his major contributions was restoring the financial health of the Club, eliminating a very large deficit at the start of his term of Office, and ending up with a substantial surplus when he finished his term. This is all the more remarkable as the stock brokers, chartered accountants and financial executives, who preceded him in office, ran up a continuous series of deficits. I can only suggest, that as a disciple of Hippocrates he took that famous physician’s oath to heart. For as Hippocrates once said: “Where there is love of man, there is love of art. For some patients ‘though conscious that their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through contentment with the goodness of the physician”‘.

In our case, Harold Cranfield was the physician and The Empire Club was the patient, and having served as a vice-president under Harold Cranfield I know I speak for all the directors and members of our Club when I say that our health too has recovered through our contentment with the goodness of heart of our immediate Past President.

I have the happy duty to present you with this illuminated scroll signed by our Honorary President, and former Past President, His Excellency the Governor-General, which I do now present to you on behalf of the Board of Directors and our entire membership.

MR. JACKMAN:

It has been suggested that Dr. Cranfield laboured under a considerable handicap in assuming the Presidency of this Club, as he did not have available to him a private secretary. This was not strictly correct, as this gap was more than adequately filled by his charming wife, who poured out a stream of closely typed three-page letters to his executive which, on occasion, seemed to arrive almost on a daily basis. I would like to assure you, Mrs. Cranfield, that speaking on behalf of the Directors, we too appreciated your letters, and I can assure you that even though Harold often thought otherwise I read every single one of them. I am not at all sure that in this case the principal honour today should not be made to Mrs. Cranfield, but in any event I would like, on behalf of our members, to present to you this bouquet of flowers.

Dr. Cranfield replied briefly.

MR. JACKMAN:

We now come to the principal part of our program, which I know all of you are anxiously awaiting. This year, instead of the usual church choir, we have with us the very talented and youthful group, The Ontario Place Singers. It is perhaps fitting when we have the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario in attendance that we have with us a group which is not only Ontario in name, but is rapidly gaining a reputation throughout Ontario as one of our Province’s foremost and exciting musical groups. This group is under the direction of Mr. Lloyd Bradshaw, who has been responsible for providing the music for so many of our Christmas luncheons. They were the feature attraction at Ontario Place last summer. For those of you who visited Ontario Place, you know of what I speak. For those of you who have not heard them, I can assure you that a real treat is in store for you.

I take pleasure, therefore, in presenting to you, The Ontario Place Singers.

The Ontario Place Singers.