I am nobody.  What is worse, I am a Canadian nobody.  Which means, at least from an international perspective, I am a particularly lacklustre nobody.

On the positive side, non-existence offers many freedoms.  In my youth I was never asked to take firm positions on controversial issues.  Hence, as I grew older I didn’t need to apologize for my previous beliefs.  I had no previous beliefs. 

After working twenty years I took leave from my employment and returned to university – for no better reason than to satisfy my somewhat scattered curiosity.  I completed graduate studies in political science and environmental policy. 

Afterward, I returned to work for another twenty years but somehow I had become addicted to writing serious commentary. Tragically, I was to discover few people read such things.  Opioids might have been a kinder, gentler passion.

To escape the accompanying frustration, I occasionally write totally goofy pieces as therapy.  However, not many seem able to tell the difference.
It turns out, by the way, that being nobody is a rather pleasant way to spend your life.

More to the point:

Mr. Urquhart’s academic education began at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, with a degree in Business Administration.  Later, in his early 40’s, he returned to university for graduate work in Political Science at Western Washington University, and Environmental Studies at Huxley College of the Environment.  He has been employed as a soldier, laborer, childcare worker, heavy equipment operator, municipal politician, chair of a business development center, and chair of a successful environmental coalition. He is presently too old and beat up to do any of those things, so he sits in front of a computer and tells others how to live their lives – few listen.  He is not deterred.  His wife fears it might be a sign of dementia.