Huron-Perth Boomers Spring 2024

A FREE magazine for adults 50+ 

SPRING 2024 — Volume 9, Issue 1 

FINANCE 

GENERATING 

CASH FLOW 

in retirement 

TRAVEL 

HEALTH AND WELLNESS 

SLEEP APNEA 

Recognize the signs for a better sleep 

B.C.’s finest 

Victoria and Vancouver 

make the perfect trip 

FREE!

Formerly: Mackhall Mobility 

Home Health Equipment Solutions 

Mobility | Accessibility | Home Safety 

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OntarioHomeHealth.ca 

1-800-661-1912

FROM THE PUBLISHER 

Ah... spring! Although you may be reading this in March, which is 

technically when we welcome spring in Huron/Perth, it often doesn’t 

feel like it. Rest assured, those longer, brighter days are ahead of us. 

It is often said that spring is a time of renewal, coming out of months of 

cold, dark days but I always liken spring to a ‘New, new year’ – when plans 

are being made for the year ahead. There are outside projects to prepare 

for, which seem to multiply under the snow, summer vacations to plan, new 

activities to sign up for (don’t forget that early registration!), and an overall 

sense of feeling hopeful, ambitious and somewhat alive again that coincides 

with the reappearance of the sun, grass and birds. 

I’m thrilled to share that this issue marks the eighth anniversary of Huron- 

Perth Boomers, and I couldn’t be prouder that we have made it this far. I’m 

always grateful for our advertisers, writers and readers who continue to 

participate in each issue, allowing us to publish the only magazine for adults 

50+ in Huron/Perth. 

CONTENTS 

Sleep apnea • 4 

B.C.’s finest • 8 

Preserving memories • 14 

Cash flow in retirement • 20 

Tiger Dunlop • 26 

Recipe • 30 

In this issue, we have something of interest for everyone! Jill Ellis-Worthington 

takes us along with her to the west coast to explore Victoria and Vancouver, 

while Ontario Home Health shares some great information about sleep 

apnea. Christine Wiedman also shares her expertise about creating cash 

flow in retirement, while local writer and history keeper Arlen Wiebe writes 

about the importance of recording your life 

story or that of your loved ones. We also get to 

know Goderich’s favourite son – Tiger Dunlop. 

Thank you for reading and happy spring! 

Amy Irwin, Publisher 

Huron-Perth Boomers 

SPRING 2024 

Publisher 

Amy Irwin 

amy@huronperthboomers.com 

Magazine Design 

Becky Grebenjak 

Advertising inquiries 

Amy Irwin 


Huron-Perth Boomers welcomes 

your feedback. 

EMAIL 


PHONE 519-524-0101 

MAIL 

P.O. Box 287, Ripley, ON N0G 2R0 

Huron-Perth Boomers is distributed for free in Huron and Perth 

counties, and is published each March, June, September, and 

December. Distribution of this publication does not constitute 

endorsement of information, products or services by Huron-Perth 

Boomers, its writers or advertisers. Viewpoints of contributors and 

advertisers are not necessarily those of the Publisher. Huron-Perth 

Boomers reserves the right to edit, reject or comment on all material 

and advertising contributed. No portion of Huron-Perth Boomers may 

be reproduced without the written permission of the Publisher.


SLEEP 

APNEA 

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNS AND TAKING ACTION 

BY TRACY GEORGE 

4 • HURONPERTHBOOMERS.COM

y Tracy George 


Sleep apnea is a common, yet often undiagnosed, sleep 

disorder that can have serious health implications if left 

untreated. It’s crucial to recognize the signs and symptoms 

and take appropriate action. 

In this article, we’ll discuss how to identify if you have sleep 

apnea and what steps to take if you suspect you may be 

affected. 

What is sleep apnea? 

Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by interrupted 

breathing during sleep. There are two primary types of 

sleep apnea – Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which is the 

most common type. It occurs when the throat muscles relax 

excessively, obstructing the airway during sleep. The other 

type is Central Sleep Apnea, which is less common and results 

from a failure of the brain to send the proper signals to the 

muscles responsible for controlling breathing. 

SPRING 2024 • 5


by Tracy George 

Recognize the signs 

Identifying the symptoms of sleep apnea is the 

first step toward diagnosis and treatment. Here are 

common signs to look out for: 

Loud and persistent snoring. If you or your 

sleep partner snores loudly and frequently, especially 

with intermittent pauses in breathing, it may be a 

sign of sleep apnea. 

Frequent awakening. If you find yourself waking 

up gasping for breath or experiencing a choking 

sensation during the night, this could be indicative 

of sleep apnea. 

Excessive daytime fatigue. One of the hallmark 

signs of sleep apnea is excessive daytime sleepiness, 

even after a full night’s sleep. 

Morning headaches. Waking up with frequent 

morning headaches, especially if they are severe, 

may be related to sleep apnea. 

Difficulty concentrating. Poor focus and 

difficulty concentrating on tasks can result from sleep 

deprivation caused by untreated sleep apnea. 

High blood pressure. Sleep apnea is linked to 

hypertension and cardiovascular problems, so if 

you have high blood pressure, consider it a potential 

risk factor. 

Suspect sleep apnea? 

If you recognize the signs of sleep apnea in yourself 

or a loved one, it’s essential to take action promptly. 

Here are the steps to follow: 

Consult a health care professional. The first 

step is to discuss your symptoms with a health care 

provider, ideally a sleep specialist or pulmonologist. 

You will need to discuss with your family doctor to 

get a referral. 

Undergo a sleep study. This will monitor your 

sleep patterns, breathing, and other essential 

parameters to confirm the diagnosis. 


y Tracy George 


Explore treatment options. If diagnosed with 

sleep apnea, your health care provider will discuss 

treatment options. Common approaches include 

lifestyle changes, such as weight loss and positional 

therapy, and the use of Positive Airway Pressure 

(PAP/CPAP) device. 

Compliance and follow-up. If prescribed PAP or 

other treatments, it’s crucial to use them consistently 

and attend follow-up appointments to monitor 

progress and make necessary adjustments. 

Recognizing the signs of sleep apnea and seeking 

treatment is vital for your overall health and wellbeing. 

By taking these steps, you can improve your 

quality of life, reduce the risks associated with sleep 

apnea, and regain restful, uninterrupted sleep. 

Tracy George is a Sleep Therapy Manager at Ontario Home 

Health. For more information, call 1-800-661-1912, visit 

www.OntarioHomeHealth.ca, or visit one of their six locations. 

GRANDPARENTS RAISING 

GRANDCHILDREN 

Peer support group for 

grandparent caregivers 

education • community • support 

Learn more here: 

www.rrhc.on.ca/grandparentsraisinggrandchildren 


TRAVEL 

B.C.’s finest 

VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA MAKE THE PERFECT 

COMBO FOR A VISIT TO CANADA’S WEST COAST 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JILL ELLIS-WORTHINGTON 

Above: Colourful floating homes line the 

docks of Victoria’s Fisherman’s Wharf. 

Right: Ralph Lembcke and Jill Ellis- 

Worthington ready to challenge the 

suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon. 


y Jill Ellis-Worthington 

TRAVEL 

There are many places around the world where 

you can look one way to see the ocean and the 

other way to see mountains. Aren’t we lucky that 

Canada’s most westerly province is one of them? 

Canadians’ interest in travelling inside the country 

has been reignited, partially sparked by the pandemic. 

We’re finding ways to explore our home that tourists 

from all over the world come to see. 

Last summer, low-priced Flare Airlines started 

flying non-stop from London, Ont., to Vancouver. 

Not having a layover in Calgary shortens the trip 

considerably, and the cheaper fare is nice because 

flights to both Vancouver and Victoria can be pricey. 

When you land at Vancouver International Airport, 

taxis will be waiting to whisk you to your lodgings, 

but Uber and Lyft drivers are plentiful in the nation’s 

third-largest city, and it’s good to know the price of 

the ride before you start. Once you’re settled at a 

hotel or Airbnb, using the Skytrain to get around is 

fast, clean and easy. Buying a Compass card at one 

of the stations makes getting around even cheaper. 

Note, the card costs $6 and then you load it up with 

rides as needed, but you can mail it back to get a 

refund. 

B.C. recently outlawed entire-home Airbnbs, 

but you can still use this less expensive option for 

accommodations by choosing one that is a separate 

suite or room in a home in both Vancouver and 

Victoria. We found one with a private suite in a home 

just a three-block walk from the Nanaimo Skytrain 

station. 

In Victoria, where there are many sumptuous 

places to stay, Dayna Wilson, who lives just outside 

of London, Ont., recommends the Days Inn by 

Wyndham on the Harbour as a cheaper alternative. 

She says it’s about half the price of “swankier” 

places. 

“It has a great view, has been updated, is clean and 

the staff were great,” Dayna said. 

In any large city, taking a hop-on-hop-off tour gives 

a wonderful overview and a taste of what’s worth 

experiencing fully when you have more time. We 

hopped on a Gray Line ‘trolley’ (a retired school 

bus) that took us around a loop that included Stanley 

Park, Granville Island, Chinatown and Gastown, 

along with many other lesser-known stops. The 

antiquated sound system made it hard to understand 

the drivers at times, but we liked sitting in the openair 

portion of the bus. 

Granville Island is one of the places you will want to 

explore further, so board an aqua bus at one of the 

eight stops on False Creek. The ‘island’ was created 

after the creek was dredged and became home to 

Vancouver’s industrial area. Many buildings have 

been repurposed and now house the renowned 


TRAVEL 

by Jill Ellis-Worthington 

Clockwise from left: The steam-powered clock 

in Vancouver’s Gastown. History buffs will enjoy 

Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria. The colourful, rolling 

grounds of Queen Elizabeth Park provide a respite in the 

middle of noisy Vancouver. The Fairmont Empress Hotel 

is one of Victoria’s iconic sites. 

Opposite: On the bow of one of the Prince of Whales’ 

whale-watching boats, the author and her husband were 

happy to see humpbacks and orcas during their excursion. 



TRAVEL 

Public Market. Take your appetite because there are 

dozens of delicious treats to consume while shopping 

in the many quaint shops. The lemon squares and 

canelés were particularly tasty. It was fun browsing 

in the broom shop and thinking about how Harry 

Potter would love it there. In a stall with imported 

rugs, I got an amazing bargain on a lovely deep 

teal pashmina a few doors down from other shops 

charging three or four times as much for the same 

thing. There are unique items and good prices if you 

hunt a bit. Give your shoes a rest by stopping at the 

Granville Island Brewing or the waterside patio at 

Tap & Barrel Bridges. 

On everyone’s must-go list, Stanley Park sits on 1,000 

acres in the west end. While the hop-on-hop-off bus 

ride through was good, we really enjoyed going back 

and renting bicycles to explore it further. One of the 

most convenient places to rent them is at Spokes on 

West Georgia Street, just two blocks from one of the 

park’s entrances. A shared path circumnavigates; 

walkers don’t always stick to their section, so caution 

is advised. Electric-assist bikes enabled us to go 

around the park twice, as well as explore some of the 

hillier interior paths. Riding under the Lions Gate 

Bridge and stopping to wade at Third Beach were a 

couple of highlights. Stanley Park Brewpub makes 

a great stopover for lunch and a libation to fuel the 

ride. 

For a cheap, active afternoon, we decided to visit 

Lynn Canyon, a lovely green oasis. At Canada Place, 

we took the Aquabus Ferry to North Van and jumped 

on a bus (both covered by our transit passes) to the 

neighbourhood adjacent to the canyon. A short walk 

took us to the edge of the park. After picking up a map 

at the visitors’ centre, we chose the three-kilometre 

trail that took us over the Suspension Bridge, past 

the Lynn Creek swimming hole, and back around 

to the entrance. There are longer and shorter trails; 

this seemed a good choice for my knees, but it can 

be challenging to hike over the rocky terrain and up 

several sets of steep wooden stairs. It wasn’t always 

fun, but the stunning beauty of the rainforest made 

it more than worthwhile, and all for free. Two other 

freebies include Chinatown and Queen Elizabeth 

Park. Walk through Chinatown to experience its 

architecture and food, and don’t miss the world’s 

narrowest commercial building (Sam Kee Building) 

or the peaceful Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese 

Garden. Queen Elizabeth Park is a serene spot in the 

middle of a busy area of town, offering the best view 

of Vancouver from a lofty 125 metres above the city. 

A walk through the 52-hectare gardens adds to the 

enjoyment. 

The journey to Victoria starts with a 90-minute ferry 

ride to Vancouver Island, during which you may even 

see whales. Since neither Vancouver nor Victoria are 

close to the ferry terminals on either end, we found 

taking a Viator ‘tour’ the cheapest way to do it. A 

bus picks you up at historic Pacific Central Station 

and takes you onto the ferry. On the other side, it 

drives you to downtown Victoria for one lower price 

as opposed to paying for the ferry and taxis or ride 

shares at each end. 

Victoria is a walkable city; we didn’t pay for 

transportation during our visit. Much of the action 

is centered around the inner harbour. Strolling its 

perimeter takes you by the famed Fairmont Empress 


TRAVEL 

Queen Elizabeth Park offers the best view of 

Vancouver from 125 feet above sea level. 

Hotel and around to the Legislative Assembly of 

British Columbia, with its architectural style most 

often described as “free classical,” Romanesque or 

Renaissance. Check out the lovely old buildings of 

the latter, and the grounds of the former. 

Downton Abbey fans will relish a self-guided tour 

of Craigdarroch Castle. While not nearly as grand 

as the Earl of Grantham’s residence, strolling the 

‘castle’ halls and climbing the separate staircases used 

by family and servants gives a sense of yesteryear. A 

short walk from the castle takes you to the grounds 

of Government House, the official residence of 

B.C.’s Lieutenant Governor. Walking through the 

expansive gardens is free, as opposed to paying to 

tour Butchart Gardens. 

Founded in 1862, Victoria is one of the nation’s 

oldest cities; its architecture exhibits a storied past. 

To experience it on the cheap, pick up self-guided 

heritage walking tour maps at Victoria’s Visitor Centre 

located on the harbour. They cover fun subjects like 

Haunted Victoria, Rollicking Boomtown, Law and 

Order and Mysterious Chinatown, which was once 

the largest in Canada and is well worth exploring. 

Hidden alleyways and exotic-looking buildings 

beckon visitors. 

A walk down pedestrian-friendly Government Street 

is good for people watching, appreciating buskers 

and window shopping. So many quaint eateries 

reside in this tourist-magnet district. 

While at the harbour, you’ll see little taxi and harbour 

tour boats scuttling along, and you can pick up tickets 

at the kiosk on the Empress dock. The captains relate 

tales of the harbour’s colourful history and geography. 

We jumped off at Fisherman’s Wharf to grab a bite to 

eat at one of the many floating restaurants and joined 

the crowds checking out the charming floating homes 

docked there. 

Walking along the waterfront area, you can’t help 

but notice all the businesses offering whale watching 

tours, and we chose the Prince of Whales. It offers 

both zodiac and catamaran tours – we picked the 

latter because of its more stable ride and bathrooms. 

This excursion was a splurge but well worth the 

cost. We sat on the bow, giving us the best view of 

the magnificent scenery as we skiffed the waters 



of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. The crew kept 

us informed of where to look for whales. We were 

fortunate enough to be in good viewing distance of 

a humpback and several orcas, including a baby. 

So that you can enjoy the experience fully without 

fiddling with your phone, the staff photographer 

takes pictures that are shared with all guests on that 

trip via a link. 

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Taking a float plane back to Vancouver to catch 

our flight to Ontario was a breathtaking once-in-alifetime 

experience. 

Recommended restaurants 

Vancouver 

• Fat Mao Noodles (fantastic bowls) 

• Chinatown BBQ (best fried rice I’ve ever had) 

• Little Bangkok Thai Kitchen (rated best Thai in 

Vancouver. Twist: it’s in a mall) 

• VJ’s Restaurant (excellent high-end Indian cuisine). 

• Sulbing Café Robson (bingsu – amazing Korean 

shaved milk dessert) 

• Local Public Eatery (great patio, Gastown) 

• Blue Fox (delicious breakfasts and mimosas) 

Victoria 

• Bard and Banker Pub on Government Street 

(charming and historic) 

• Lido Waterfront Bar (sit and watch the boats) 

• Floyd’s Diner (best breakfast and worth the wait) 

• Gozen Sushi (best miso) 

• Ocean Garden Restaurant (good and in the heart 

of Chinatown) 

• The Fish Store (best on Fisherman’s Wharf) 

• Chocolats Favoris (decadent dipped cones) 

A writer, public relations professional, traveller and football 

fan, Jill Ellis-Worthington celebrates life every day. You can 

follow her blog at writeoncommunicationservices.com. 

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COMMUNITY 

Saving your 

Memories 

THE “WHY” AND “HOW” OF SAVING YOUR PRECIOUS 

RECOLLECTIONS BY ARLEN WIEBE 


y Arlen Wiebe 

People have always been captivated by a 

compelling story. Since the birth of language, 

people from all cultures have been telling stories that 

both instruct and entertain. 

Long ago, people gathered around a fire at the end of 

a long day to hear myths, legends, fables, epic poems, 

proverbs, chants, rhymes, and songs. Storytellers 

preserved and passed a community’s stories down 

the generations. 

A big shift occurred when people created written 

language to record spoken words. People weren’t 

completely dependent on a community storyteller to 

preserve the oral stories anymore. With the printing 

press, books could be easily mass produced, and 

more people learned to read. 

Today, another huge shift has occurred. Instead of a 

communal experience around a living fire, families 

now congregate facing a glowing electronic screen. 

The storytelling task seems to be taken over by 

filmmakers and television writers. 

Why are stories so powerful? 

It’s incredibly fortunate that stories are both 

instructive and entertaining. While it might be 

possible to commit bits of knowledge to memory 

if we try hard enough, stories help us engage with 

our history, traditions and values much more easily. 

COMMUNITY 

Stories help us to create order and make sense of our 

lives. They help us appreciate how other people think 

and feel. Stories use language in a way that is unlike 

our everyday way of speaking and writing. Stories 

fashion ordinary words and events into extraordinary 

dramas. 

Should you record your stories? 

Yes! Our personal stories can be extremely valuable to 

ourselves and our families. We can preserve important 

family stories for our children and grandchildren. We 

can gain insight into our struggles and choices and 

share our wisdom. We can find direction for the rest 

of our lives and heal, especially if our lives have been 

shaped by pain or tragedy. We can connect names 

and stories to old family photos or add details to the 

family tree. 

Have you ever thought you’d like to know what your 

ancestors’ lives were really like, in their own words? 

Consider how your own life will be interesting to 

your descendants. Even people that don’t know us 

may be interested in our stories. Many people enjoy 

reading the personal anecdotes, stories and essays 

in the “First Person” section of The Globe and Mail. 

Maclean’s magazine publishes “My Arrival: The Lives 

of New Canadians” on the last page of each issue. 

CBC posts personal stories and experiences in its 

online “First Person” columns. 


COMMUNITY 

by Arlen Wiebe 

I’ve started writing about my own childhood 

experiences and coming to terms with how they have 

affected my adult life. 

A Canadian boy in California 

I could see my boyhood coming to an end when I 

was 12 years old. The curious warmth of springtime 

in Winnipeg had come back like a long-lost relative 

returning from a freezing and miserable journey. 

Light green leaves were budding once more on 

ancient elm trees as I walked south along Arlington 

Street, turned west onto Wolseley Avenue, and 

begrudgingly arrived at my weekday destination, 

Laura Secord School. 

Like all boys of school age should be, I was in a 

terrible hurry for the unbearable monotony of 

the daily academic ordeal to be done for the year. 

I was exhausted from trying to speak and write 

in my teacher’s funny foreign language. Pourquoi 

apprenais-je le français when my forebears spoke 

Plautdietsch, Nederlands, or Russki yazyk and wrote 

in Hochdeutsch? Other kids in my class came from 

families that spoke even more exotic languages. Why 

were we all being forced to learn a language not one 

of our families had ever spoken and likely never 

would? 

And why this inanely prescribed schedule? All this 

writing, reading, presenting, doing, and going here 

and there at the same time every day. Had the 

adults who ran the school given a maniacal villain 

permission to set up a labyrinth of torture? Why were 

we tested for our ability to remember the random 

order of letters in words or how numbers changed 

themselves when they met the funny symbols on the 

page? 

Once the clock on the classroom wall was finally 

persuaded to place a short stingy hand on the 

number three and its longer hand on six, I fled the 

prison and quickly reversed the route I had slowly 

walked that morning. 

Once at home, I put on a blue jersey, white pants, 

and cap and held my baseball glove in my hand. 

I finally felt free of all restraints. My mother had 

mercifully signed me up for a team through the R.A. 

Steen Community Centre, located on the far end of 

the field behind my school. We played our games in a 

sunken double baseball diamond circled by a gravel 

walking and biking path, near Omand’s Creek. 

I tried all the baseball positions in the field but I 

most enjoyed pitching. Standing high on an elevated 

mound. Controlling the start of each play. Deciding 

where to place the baseball to the waiting batters. 

I always held the baseball with the fastball grip. I 

hadn’t been taught how to throw any other kinds of 

pitches. Instead of variety, I tried to throw the same 

pitch again and again, laser focused on the shifting 

strike zone. Sometimes the ball would thread through 

that invisible rectangle between the elbows and knees 

of the cocky boy poised at home plate. Other times, 

it flew out of control, avoiding that rectangle, and 

rolling to the chain link fence behind our catcher. 

Most of my pitches flew past the boys at the plate. 

On the rare occasion when the batter made contact 

with the ball, my teammates organized themselves 

around the ball, stopped it, and threw it to first base. 

Midway through the baseball season, my mother 

got an emotional phone call. My absent father 

lay dying in a Regina hospital. She and I dropped 

everything and immediately drove 600 kilometres 

west across Manitoba and Saskatchewan to visit the 

man my mother had once given her heart to and 

that we barely knew anymore. When we entered 

my father’s hospital room, I saw a sickly, shriveled 

man in a hospital gown. He could barely sit up in his 

bed to greet us. Who was this person? I stood there 

stoically, listening to my parents catching up on years 

of missed time together. 

My father had three brothers. His brother Jake, from 

B.C., came with his wife and two kids to visit in 


y Arlen Wiebe 

COMMUNITY 

the hospital. Once his daughter, Shalom, had seen 

my father and left the room, she started to sob in 

the hallway. I watched her from my dad’s bedside. 

Why was she so upset? It wasn’t her father dying, it 

was mine. If anyone should be worked up, it should 

be me. I looked inside myself to find something 

that matched my cousin’s emotion but there was 

nothing there. 

We returned to Winnipeg and the baseball season 

continued. A few weeks later, there was another 

difficult phone call. We buried my father beside a 

little country church on the Saskatchewan prairie. 

Soon after, my mother was very surprised to receive a 

large payment from my father’s life insurance policy 

that had been kept active. This set the gears in motion 

for my mother’s next step. She had always dreamed 

of studying to become a pastor and now she had the 

money to do it. She wanted to study at a seminary in 

California. All that summer, my mother prepared us 

to move. I was devastated. I didn’t want to live in a 

foreign country without friends or anything familiar. 

In late August, my mother and I boarded an airplane 

that took us from Winnipeg to Minneapolis, then on 

to Los Angeles. We crossed that huge airport to catch 

a tiny airplane to take us to Fresno. We moved into 

a small apartment on the campus where my mother 

would study the Bible and theology. 

I would attend school as a light-skinned Canadian 

among a sea of black and brown faces. I would 

travel to Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, and 

Hollywood. I would be forced to adapt to many new 

things as I started Grade 7. My Canadian boyhood 

had come to an end in California. 

Learn how we make clean energy and medical 

isotopes at the Bruce Power Visitors’ Centre. 

Wonder. 

Explore. 

Discover. 

www.brucepower.com/visit 

3394 BRUCE ROAD 20, NORTH OF TIVERTON, WEST OF HIGHWAY 21. T: (519) 361-7777 


COMMUNITY 

by Arlen Wiebe 

to hear you telling your stories with your own voice. 

Would you enjoy hearing stories told in the voices of 

your ancestors? 

Books – A book can be narrative only or it can 

feature photos, documents, and other illustrations. 

Books can be paperback or hardcover, simple or 

elegant. 

What all is involved? 

Recording your personal stories is a way to connect 

generations and preserve memories. Sometimes 

called a personal history, it could be a memoir, a 

tribute, a life story, a family biography, an oral history, 

a legacy letter, or ethical will. 

If you work on your own personal history or that of 

a loved one, your only cost is your time and expenses. 

If you hire a personal historian, the cost will range 

in price from a few hundred dollars (audio and/or 

transcripts for oral history), to thousand dollars (a life 

story with photos), to tens of thousands of dollars 

(longer or more complex projects). 

What format does personal 

history take? 

A childhood 

photo of 

Arlen and 

his Mom. 

Personal histories can be recorded in many ways. 

Here are some areas in which personal historians 

may have expertise. 

Audio recordings/CDs – Recording your stories 

electronically in an audio file or a CD allows your 

children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren 

Art books, scrapbooks, handmade books – 

These are one-of-a-kind products that can include 

written stories, photos, drawings, scraps of fabric, 

pressed flowers, jewelry, and any other kind of valued 

memento. 

Photo books, collages, calendars – These 

products are mostly photos or drawings combined 

with very few written words. You could create a 

beautiful photo book, a poster-sized collage, or a 

photo calendar with pictures of family members 

included on their birthdays, anniversaries, or other 

important dates. 

Photo videos – You can use photos, home movies, 

slides, videotapes, and other memorabilia to create a 

memorable video set to music. 

DVDs – You can capture a person’s voice, personality, 

gestures, and spirit for posterity on video. This 

kind of project can be simple or complex, include 

individual or group interviews, and range from short 

tribute to TV-style biography. 

Ethical wills or legacy letters – An ethical 

will or legacy letter is a statement of your personal 

values, beliefs, life lessons, and a message you want to 

convey to your family, friends, and community. 

Legacy planning – Legacy planning helps 

you preserve your values and heritage for future 

generations. Tasks might include taking care of 

historical family documents and photos, creating 

an archive, preparing material for an obituary, or 

memorial service planning. 


y Arlen Wiebe 

COMMUNITY 

Family websites – It’s becoming increasingly 

popular for families to create a website to preserve 

and share family stories and information. These 

sites might include a family tree, genealogy, photos, 

letters, stories, videos, and sound files. 

Unique products – Some people enjoy being 

creative with their precious memories. A special 

quilt could be made of valued fabrics or decorations. 

Inspiring images and music can lead to a painting, 

drawing, mural, collage, memory box or multimedia 

presentation. Valued recipes could be collected into 

a family cookbook. What else could you imagine? 

Tell your story 

People now recognize that reminiscence and life 

review are important life processes. Working through 

our memories to find patterns, meaning, and values 

are key to a fully examined life. Many of us think 

about interviewing our aging family members but 

put it off until later. When we finally find the time, it 

may be too late – the loved one could be too frail to 

tell their stories, or their memories may have faded. 

Worse, they may have already passed away. 

If recording your own stories or that of a loved one is 

important to you, take the first step today to making 

it happen! 

Arlen Wiebe is a personal historian, writer, musician, and 

teacher living in Owen Sound. He enjoys helping people find 

meaning and purpose through writing their life stories, memoirs, 

and family history. You can learn more about him at yourlife-stories.ca. 

You can contact him by email at arlen.wiebe. 

writer@gmail.com or by text/phone at 226-668-3352. 


FINANCE 

GENERATING 

CASH FLOW 

in retirement 

TOO OFTEN, FINANCIAL ADVICE ONLY 

FOCUSES ON SAVING MONEY 

BY CHRISTINE WIEDMAN 


y Christine Wiedman 

FINANCE 

Throughout your career you were advised to save 

for your retirement, so you did. You opened 

a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and 

later a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). The 

government also required you to make contributions 

to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) each paycheque. 

You may have contributed to a company pension 

plan, and saved money in a non-registered account 

like a brokerage account through your bank. You 

became a very good saver. Perhaps you had a goal 

in mind for how much you needed to save for 

retirement, although you likely wondered if that goal 

was enough. 

Now you have retired, and that’s great! You no 

longer have to save and now you can start spending 

those hard-earned dollars. Life is good, right? Yet, at 

the same time you’ve found freedom, your financial 

life becomes much more complicated. You have to 

shift from automatically receiving a paycheque to 

creating a cashflow management plan to meet your 

needs. You have entered a whole new territory of 

personal finance. 

The cash flow you generate in retirement will likely 

not come from one source, such as a paycheque. 

Instead, you will be managing multiple sources of 

potential cashflow. Some of these sources already 

come in the form of a periodic payment, like 

government benefits – CPP, Old Age Security (OAS) 

and possibly the Guaranteed Income Supplement 

(GIS) for low-income Canadians – or a workplacedefined 

benefit pension. A big advantage of 

government benefits and many company pensions is 

that they are indexed to inflation, so you don’t have 

to worry about the purchasing power of your money 

eroding over time. The remainder of your cash flow 


FINANCE 

by Christine Wiedman 

will come from your assets, including equities and 

fixed income securities saved in your registered and 

non-registered accounts. But how do you convert 

these assets into cashflow? 

Meet “Phil and Prya” 

Take Phil and Prya (not real people) as an 

example. They are both 65 and have just retired. 

Phil contributed the maximum amount to CPP 

throughout his career, and is therefore entitled to the 

maximum benefit of $15,679 per year. He decides 

to start taking CPP right away. Prya did not earn as 

much as Phil so she is entitled to $7,840 per year. 1 

She was employed by the government for part of 

her career, and is entitled to government pension of 

$12,000 per year. If we assume that neither will have 

income exceeding $81,761 (2022) thereby avoiding 

OAS claw-backs, and have both lived in Canada 

their entire working lives, they will each be entitled to 

the maximum OAS of $8,383 per year. This brings 

their total pre-tax income to $52,285. All of these 

amounts are indexed to inflation and therefore will 

increase over time. 

Cash flow needs and pre-tax income 

Where should Phil and Prya go from here? First, 

they need to know how much they will likely spend 

each year. A detailed review of their spending in the 

past year could help them estimate their cashflow 

needs. Let’s assume they will need about $70,000 of 

after-tax cashflow in their first year of retirement. 

Assuming each pays taxes of about 15 per cent, 

this translates to about $82,000 of required pre-tax 

income. 2 

“Pensionizing” your assets 

The good news is that over 60 per cent of their 

cashflow needs will come from guaranteed payments 

that are indexed to inflation. However, they still need 

to generate about $30,000 per year to meet their 

retirement spending goals. To do this, they will have 

to convert their existing assets into cash flow. Authors 

Moshe Milevsky and Alexandra Macqueen coined 

the term to “pensionize” your nest egg to describe 

the problem, and defined it as converting money 

into income you can’t outlive; and creating your own 

personal pension, a monthly income that lasts for the 

rest of your life. 3 

Assets can include savings accounts, Guaranteed 

Investment Certificates (GICs), corporate and 

government bonds, individual stocks, mutual funds, 

and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). 4 They may 

be accumulated in your TFSA, which is exempt 

from tax, in tax-deferred vehicles like your RRSP 

or Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), in 

workplace-defined contribution plans, or in nonregistered 

accounts like a brokerage account. 

So how do you convert these assets into a regular 

cash flow? Let’s assume that Phil has a workplace 

defined contribution pension of $240,000 and 

$220,000 accumulated in his RRSP, while Prya has 

$120,000 accumulated in her RRSP. They each have 

$50,000 in TFSAs. They also have $80,000 invested 

in a joint brokerage account and $25,000 in their 

joint chequing account. 

Risks 

There are several risks that come with turning assets 

into cash flow in retirement. The first is longevity 

risk – this is the risk that you will run out of money 

before you die. While the average life expectancy at 

age 65 is about 20 years, a glance at the obituary 

section of the newspaper confirms that you could 

live well into your 90s. 5 Without knowing your life 

expectancy, you don’t know how long your money 

will need to last. Other challenges include stock 

market volatility, especially large market declines 

early in your retirement that erode your capital base; 

and, inflation, which erodes the purchasing power of 

the cash flow you do receive. There is also legacy risk 

– the risk that you leave nothing to your beneficiaries 

after you die. 



FINANCE 

Withdrawal rates 

So how do you convert a pool of assets into cashflow? 

One way is to withdraw a steady amount of cash 

each year from your different accounts, something 

financial planners refer to as a sustainable withdrawal 

rate. You may have heard about the four per cent 

rule – you can withdraw four per cent of your 

assets annually from your portfolio each year and 

still be reasonably certain that you won’t run out of 

money during your lifetime. The rule was originally 

determined by William Bengen in 1994. 6 He found 

that a four per cent withdrawal rate was successful 

over any 30-year period dating back to 1926. This 

suggests that a retiree could withdraw $40,000 from 

a $1 million portfolio and increase that amount every 

year by inflation and never run out of money. 

Subsequent research has shown that the withdrawal 

rate depends on your retirement planning horizon 

(higher withdrawal rates for shorter horizons); your 

portfolio mix of stocks versus bonds (bonds provide 

certainty but stocks provide more upside potential); 

and inflation levels (lower withdrawal rates for higher 

inflation). For example, researchers found that a 

withdrawal rate of four per cent on an inflationadjusted 

50/50 portfolio had 100 per cent chance 

of success over a 25-year horizon, whereas a five per 

cent rate had an 80 per cent chance. 7 

Let’s assume that Phil and Prya feel comfortable with 

a four per cent withdrawal rate. Phil withdraws four 

per cent of his RRSP and his workplace pension, Prya 

withdraws the same from her RRSP, and they withdraw 

four per cent of their non-registered brokerage account. 

They decide to keep the money in their TFSAs as a 

financial cushion. This strategy will provide them 

with an additional $26,400 of cash flow in their first 

year of retirement. Most of this will be fully taxable, 

but the tax implications of the withdrawal from their 

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FINANCE 

by Christine Wiedman 

brokerage account will depend on capital gains that 

have accumulated in that account. Their total income is 

$78,685, a few thousand below their target of $82,000. 

Dealing with a shortfall 

How should they deal with this shortfall? They need 

to either generate more cashflow or spend less. They 

might consider working part-time during retirement 

or starting a side-hustle to generate some additional 

cash flow, at least in the early stages of retirement. 

Alternatively, they could withdraw money more 

aggressively, say at a withdrawal rate of 4.5 per cent. 

While this would introduce the chance of them 

running out of money, they may be willing to take 

this risk, especially if they expect their expenses to 

drop over time when they become less active. If they 

own a home, they could later downsize or move to 

a less expensive location, thereby freeing up equity. 

Alternatively, they may decide to cut down on their 

expenses, perhaps dropping to one car, eating out 

less, or cutting their travel budget. 

Annuities and other insurance products 

A different approach to deal with longevity risk is 

to purchase an annuity from an insurance company. 

For a fixed upfront amount of money, you receive 

a fixed monthly amount until you die. A joint 

annuity will continue to pay the monthly amount 

to your surviving spouse until they die. The amount 

you receive depends on prevailing interest rates, so 

annuities have only recently been drawing attention 

once again as a viable investment option as interest 

rates have climbed. The amount the annuity 

pays will likely be higher than the four per cent 

withdrawal rate. For example, in September 2023, 

a $100,000 annuity for a 65-year-old man with a 

10-year guarantee would pay approximately $575 

per month, or $6,900 per year until their death. 8 

Note that a joint annuity paying 60 per cent to the 

surviving spouse would pay less. 

The longer you live, the greater the advantage of 

the annuity. Also, you don’t have to worry about 

the volatility of the market because you will always 

receive a fixed amount. However, a fixed annuity 

does come with costs. First, you immediately lose 

liquidity because the $100,000 upfront investment is 

no longer yours to invest. Further, while this option 

provides you with a stable cash flow over your lifetime, 

the amount you receive each month is typically not 

adjusted for inflation. There is also no benefit left to 

your beneficiaries when you die. 

Other alternatives offered by insurance companies 

include inflation-adjusted annuities and segregated 

funds (also known as seg funds), which are both an 

investment and a life insurance product, typically 

offering to guarantee 75 per cent to 100 per cent 

of your principal, but charging higher fees than 

mutual funds. 

The plan 

In the end, Phil and Prya decide to use $100,000 of 

Phil’s RRSP to purchase a joint annuity that provides 

$6,500 (or 6.5 per cent) per year. This brings their 

total before-tax income to $81,585, very close to their 

target of $82,000, providing them with a balance of 

security from fixed payments and upside potential 

from market investments (chart at right). 

Phil and Prya – Pre-tax income estimate 

Before finalizing their plan, Phil and Prya decide 

to consult their financial planner to review their 

investments to ensure they are suitable for their 

goals and stage of life; to consider the possibility 

of deferring CPP to increase annual benefits; to 

discuss the topic of asset location to minimize taxes; 

and to consider the impact of future minimum 

RRIF withdrawals on their plans. Finally, they plan 

to review their spending in more detail to look for 

potential savings. 

Generating cash flow from your assets represents one 

of the biggest financial challenges in retirement. Be 



FINANCE 

AAII Journal, February. 

8 Retrieved from CANNEX on September 19, 2023: https://www. 

cannex.com/index.php/services/canada/annuity-products/incomeannuities/ 

Christine Wiedman, FCPA, PhD, is Professor Emerita, School 

of Accounting and Finance at the University of Waterloo, and 

a CPA Canada Financial Literacy Program volunteer. Visit 

www.cpacanada.ca/en/public-interest/financial-literacy for 

information about CPA Canada’s Financial Literacy Program, 

www.linkedin.com/in/christine-wiedman-35427752 

for more information about Christine. 

sure to educate yourself about the issues and options 

available and consider consulting with a trusted 

accountant or financial planner to develop a detailed 

plan that works for your specific situation. You have 

worked hard to save money and deserve to peace of 

mind in your retirement. 

Footnotes 

See the Government of Canada website for more details of how much 

you can expect to receive from CPP: https://shorturl.at/jvzK3. Note that 

CPP entitlements increase each year you defer them after age 65, rising to 

a maximum of 42% more at age 70. Conversely, entitlements decrease 

7.2% per year before 65, to 36% less at age 60. 

2 There are a number of online tax calculators available to estimate your 

taxes for a given level of income. For example, see the TurboTax tax 

calculator at https://shorturl.at/myMRV. 

3 Moshe A. Milevsky and Alexandra C. Macqueen. Pensionize your Nest 

Egg: How to use Product Allocation to Create Guaranteed Income for Life. 

2010. John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., Mississauga, ON. 

4 Assets could also include real estate that could generate income through 

rental income or capital gains (or losses) if sold. 

5 https://shorturl.at/epqWX 

6 Bengen, William P. 1994. “Determining withdrawal rates using 

historical data.” Journal of Financial Planning: 14-24. 

7 Cooley, Philip L., Carl M. Hubbard and Daniel T. Walz. 1998. 

“Retirement savings: Choosing a withdrawal rate that is sustainable.” 

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HISTORY 

Tiger Dunlop 

Background: Dunlop Tomb, Garbraid, 

date unknown. Photographer: Reuben 

R. Sallows (1855 - 1937). From the 

Archival Collection of the Huron 

County Museum. 

Inset: William ‘Tiger’ Dunlop. From 

the Archival Collection of the Huron 

County Museum. 

GODERICH’S MOST FAMOUS SON 

BY MAT JOHNSON 

Much has been written about Goderich’s 

most famous historical figure, William 

‘Tiger’ Dunlop. The volume of coverage by local 

and national historians has led to a comfortable 

familiarity between Goderich residents and the man 

whose tomb overlooks the beautiful Lake Huron port 

town. 

Dunlop’s legacy embodies a spirit of restless 

adventure, and his exploits around the globe seem 

larger than life. History relies on extraordinary 

figures like Dunlop to keep the past alive. These 

individuals invoke critical thinking and investigative 

questioning. This leads to greater understanding of 

both their lives and the world in which they lived, 

helping us gain a better understanding of our own 

past. 

Through volumes of available treatises, we can 

gain a clear picture of Tiger Dunlop the man. It is, 

however, the inscription on the plaque adjacent to 

his stone tomb that conjures up questions about the 

world in which Dunlop lived. 

William Dunlop, born in Scotland, first came to 

Canada in 1813 as a surgeon assigned to the 2nd 

Battalion of the 89th Regiment during the War 

of 1812. Thankfully we can’t experience bloody 

combat at Lundy’s Lane, Chippewa, Crysler’s Farm 

and numerous small skirmishes in between, but 

we can strive to understand the general duties and 

responsibilities of a battlefield surgeon. It is through 

gaining this understanding that we can add another 

critical piece to the puzzle of who was Tiger Dunlop. 

For military historians, the time period in which the 

War of 1812 took place often falls under the general 

umbrella known as the Napoleonic Era. For British 

historians, the War of 1812 was a sideshow – many 

see it as an insignificant place where the British Army 

was engaged while the real fighting was taking place 

in Europe against France, which was the real enemy. 

Particularly between the years of 1808 and 1815, 

the British nation was wholly preoccupied with 

the ceaseless conflict in Portugal and Spain. Here, 

British armies and their Spanish and Portuguese 

allies waged a brutal war of eviction against French 

forces commanded by Napoleon’s Marshalls. When 

war between the U.S. and Britain commenced in 


y Mat Johnson 

June 1812, it barely served notice in the British 

press as the bloody siege of Badajoz (Spain) had 

just ended successfully, though in a frenzy of untold 

violence. Even today, in masterfully written books 

covering this era such as Redcoat by Richard Holmes, 

or The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History by Alexander 

Mikaberidze, the War of 1812 is seen as an aside, 

not a nation-building event. 

Conversely, until the current generation of 

American historians revisited the conflict through 

critical analysis, it seemed that the only War of 1812 

information from south of the border was the Star 

Spangled Banner and The Battle of New Orleans by 1960s 

folk singer Johnny Horton. 

Canadians have had a similarly long, confusing 

relationship with the War of 1812. Recognized 

internationally as a peace-keeping nation, it can be 

hard for Canadians to remember that their country’s 

sovereignty was saved twice through bloody conflict 

– Quebec in 1775-76 and the War of 1812-15. 

Traditional folklore sees brave, patriotic Canadians, 

many newly arrived from the U.S., rushing to arms in 

June 1812, to defend their homes from unwarranted 

American aggression. This romanticized view of the 

conflict became entrenched in Canadian psyche, 

particularly through the decades of the 1970s and 

’80s, as Canadians demonstrated their patriotism 

by emphasizing how ‘not American’ they were. It is 

true that many Canadian citizens became soldiers 

whether in the British Army or local militias. 

Additionally, recognition must be given to the 

Indigenous warriors who were crucial to battlefield 

success in several engagements. 

However, it was the presence of the British regular 

army in Canada, the Redcoats, who provided the 

backbone for defence of the colony. British officers 

organized the overall defence strategy for the war, 

and it was the highly trained, tough regulars whom 

the Americans were unable to defeat in order claim 

what they thought would be an easy conquest. Not 

until the American Army underwent wholesale 

changes over the winter of 1813-14, did they have any 

forces that were remotely a threat to the professional 

British ranks. It is into this context that William 

Dunlop arrived in Canada during the summer of 

1813 as a new surgeon in the 2nd Battalion of the 

89th Regiment of Foot. 

HISTORY 

Dunlop arrived just in time to tend to wounded 

soldiers following the Nov. 11, 1813, Battle of 

Crysler’s Farm. This clash near modern-day 

Cornwall, Ont., was a classic example of how British 

organization, tactics, professionalism, and firepower 

soundly defeated an American Army that woefully 

lacked these traits. As far as medical professionals 

like Dunlop were concerned, regardless of who 

won the battle, there were casualties. British and 

American soldiers lay about the field requiring 

desperate medical attention, and it was the surgeons 

attached to the fighting battalions, such as Dunlop, 

who would be the difference between life and death 

for many of them. 

The title ‘surgeon’ brings up different images to 

modern readers. Today, a surgeon in a general 

hospital, depending on specialty, will have between 

10 and 16 years of education and residency training. 

Highly skilled and (deservedly) highly paid, surgeons 

are one of the cornerstones of modern medicine. 

Surgeons save lives and add comfort to the suffering 

on a daily basis. Similarly, army surgeons and doctors 

receive the same intense schooling with the addition 

of rigorous army training, which prepares them for 

the challenges they could encounter in a dangerous 

combat situation. For Dunlop and his colleagues 

during the War of 1812, it was a shockingly different 

situation in every aspect. Education was short, 

and many surgeons left civilian practices or school 

directly to army units and were unprepared for the 

rigours of campaigning and combat. 

Using the advantage of hindsight, military medicine 

during this age seems crude at best. However, the 

medicine, techniques and pharmaceuticals used by 

the British Army reflected the overall state of medical 

understanding and technology at the time. In short, 

life in the army was hard, but so was life in the fields 

of Lincolnshire, the factories of Manchester, or on 

the docks of London. It was an era where death 

was dolefully familiar and always close to everyone. 

Medical situations that are taken for granted today 

such as a broken bone, laceration, or mild illness 

often meant terrible suffering and death. In the 

early-19th Century, it wasn’t that life was seen as 

cheap or expendable, but that it was comparatively 

hard to hold on to. 

One lifesaving advantage that British soldiers had 


HISTORY 

by Mat Johnson 

over their working-poor civilian brethren was that the 

government wanted, and needed, them to be alive. By 

the time an infantryman reached a front-line combat 

unit, significant resources and money had been 

invested in his training, equipage and transportation, 

the latter being especially pricey when sending 

soldiers to Canada. By 1812, the British Army was 

stretched dangerously thin. Almost constant fighting 

for nine years, in addition to resource-draining 

garrison duty in the far-flung corners of the empire, 

left precious few trained, experienced infantrymen 

in the ranks. Keeping soldiers alive meant more 

veteran, experienced soldiers in the line. And, as was 

consistently seen throughout the fighting in Portugal 

and Spain, as well as in Canada, it would be the 

steady, experienced soldiers who would decide the 

fate of nations. Keeping good soldiers alive saved 

money and won battles, and that responsibility would 

fall heavily on the shoulders of regimental surgeons 

like William Dunlop. 

During the age of musket, the battlefield wounds 

treated by surgeons were horrific to say the least. The 

typical infantry musket ball of the age was .68 calibre 

(for the British Brown Bess) with a muzzle velocity of 

around 1,600 feet per second. What this means is the 

weapon hurled a 1.14 oz lead ball at 1,600 feet per 

second at enemies who would typically be within 500 

feet at the commencement of firing. Modern studies 

have shown that muskets of the time had horrific 

killing power, though the smoothbore weapons 

suffered from woeful inaccuracy. By comparison, the 

.303 calibre Lee Enfield rifle used by Canadian forces 

during the First World War had a muzzle velocity of 

over 2,400 feet per second, and the pointed projectile 

itself was less than half the diameter of the rounded 

musket ball. Wounds created by these 20th Century 

metal-cased bullets, though painful, tended to be 

‘cleaner’ than those made by 19th Century firearms. 

The slower velocity and larger size of the musket 

round meant that instead of passing straight through 

a soldier’s extremity, the musket ball ricocheted 

off bone and organs becoming an irregular shape, 

creating massive exit wounds or getting stuck inside 

the body. Additionally, the blunt surface and relatively 

slow speed of the ball resulted in bits of equipment 

and uniforms being dragged into wounds causing 

lethal secondary infections. 

On paper, each British infantry battalion of this era 

had one surgeon and two assistants. By the book, 

before combat began, the head surgeon would 

set up a regimental aid station somewhat near the 

battlefield. If possible, this would be situated in a 

house, church or similar structure, which provided 

patients with protection from the elements. Once 

fighting commenced, the treating of wounds near the 

firing line was handled by the assistant surgeons. The 

main task of the assistant surgeons was to bandage, 

apply tourniquets and, in some cases, provide basic 

medicines. After seeing the assistant surgeon, soldiers 

were either ‘patched up’ and returned to the fighting 

or instructed to proceed to the regimental aid station 

should they be a more serious case. For wounded 

soldiers sent to the rear, this was simply the beginning 

of their journey. 

Transporting wounded soldiers to medical care was 

nothing more than an afterthought in many armies 

during this era. This reflects many factors. Firstly, 

though transporting wounded had been a burden in 

the past, the armies of the Napoleonic era had grown 

exponentially over their predecessors. More soldiers 

fighting meant more casualties, however adjustments 

weren’t made to accommodate this deluge of broken 

men. Secondly, it reflected the scarcity that armies 

on campaign operated. Transportation technology 

in the early-19th Century lacked efficiency seen in 

more modern military campaigns. This meant that 

ammunition and food were prioritized over medicine 

and casualty evacuation, as the latter didn’t translate 

into immediate battlefield success. 

Theoretically, in the British Army during the 

Napoleonic Era, it fell to a battalion’s musicians to 

act in a casualty evacuation role during combat. 

Wounded soldiers were transported from firing line 

to hospital in any number of ways. Stretchers, as are 

familiar from photos of the First World War, were not 

of standard issue in the early-1800s, though crude 

stretchers were occasionally made by stringing a 

blanket between two sergeant’s pikes or similar items. 

A handful of musicians were quickly overwhelmed 

by the volume of casualties and fell behind in their 

efforts (this doesn’t factor in the high likelihood of 

becoming casualties themselves). 

Usually, wounded men were left to their own devices 


y Mat Johnson 

HISTORY 

to find medical aid, many succumbing to shock 

or dying of blood loss in their attempt. In friendly 

territory, as the British were for much of the War of 

1812 in the northern theatre, a helping hand from 

caring civilians was quite common. The soldiers 

fortunate enough to find themselves in somewhat 

private care of a Canadian household could expect 

cleaner and more sanitary conditions than what 

would be present in a military hospital, which 

resulted in slightly better survival odds. 

Not all injuries treated by surgeons in the British 

Army during the Napoleonic Era were inflicted 

by enemy forces. The British Army had a strict set 

of disciplinary rules meant to keep soldiers in line. 

Officers of the time, such as Dunlop, were from 

the higher echelons of society and often viewed the 

soldiers under them as a ragged mob who would only 

respond to threats of violent punishment to keep 

them between the lines of discipline. Even the great 

Duke of Wellington, victor at Waterloo, referred to 

his soldiers as “the scum of the Earth.” 

The standard form of corporal, or non-lethal, 

punishment in the British Army and Navy was the 

cat o’ nine tails, or a whip with nine extensions that 

when struck across the offending soldiers back caused 

deep lacerations. The number of lashes for certain 

crimes was somewhat standardized, however it often 

depended on the discretion of the commanding 

officer how many times the perpetrator suffered 

the sting of lashing leather. Offending soldiers were 

tied to a stake or sergeant’s pike, typically with the 

rest of the battalion drawn up as observers. The 

actual whipping was carried out by the battalion’s 

musicians, alternating as they became fatigued in 

order to keep the lashes at maximum forcefulness. 

The role of the battalion’s surgeon was to inspect the 

convicted man to make sure he could continue to 

receive the treatment. Standing in close proximity 

to the accused would have been a sobering 

experience as the punishment was draconian at 

best. The surgeon could halt the brutal punishment 

at any time he felt that the accused was in mortal 

danger. Though this sounds like a humanitarian 

consideration, in truth it was so the accused wouldn’t 

get off easy by dying, and could come back to face 

the remaining punishment another day. 

There are many documented cases of British soldiers 

being condemned to over 1,000 lashes, however only 

a portion of the punishment was carried out before 

the surgeon put a stop to the suffering. However, once 

the accused had healed sufficiently, the punishment 

recommenced. 

It is important to remember that for Dunlop and 

many British personnel sent to Canada, the conflict 

with the Americans was, as British historians still see 

it, a sideshow. There was a feeling of missing out 

on the real war against the French that the British 

were currently fighting in the Iberian Peninsula in 

Portugal and Spain. Being returned to Europe in 

the spring of 1815, Dunlop writes ruefully about the 

disappointment of missing the Battle of Waterloo, 

which was fought on June 18 of that year. 

Once Napoleon was locked up in Saint Helena, 

and with the war with the Americans having been 

settled by the Treaty of Ghent, the British no longer 

had the need for a massive standing army. The 

nation had been stretched to the limits financially 

following many years of constant fighting, and naval 

arms races. Many soldiers were discharged and the 

officers, Dunlop included, were put on half-pay, a 

purgatory state that left adventurous souls restless. 

This restlessness took Dunlop to many locations 

before eventually making his way back to the colony 

of Canada, the place he had fought to protect. 

Today, Dunlop lays at rest surrounded by family 

members in a shady park that is easily reached by 

hikers just off of the Goderich to Guelph Rail Trail. 

Like the preserved battlefields in which he fought, it 

is a peaceful place that encourages reflection. We live 

in a time where threats to Canadian sovereignty are 

almost non-existent, but it wasn’t that way in 1812- 

15. Violent combat and the reverberations of musket 

fire emphasized the danger faced by early Canadians 

whose very survival depended on the thin red line of 

British soldiers and the brave army doctors who kept 

them alive. 

Mat Johnson is a professional historian and owner of 

Marathon of History, a historical interpretation company 

located in Durham. To learn more visit marathonofhistory.ca 

or follow Marathon of History on Instagram and Facebook. 


FOOD & DRINK 

Asparagus stuffed 

chicken breasts 

Baking time: 30 minutes 

Broiling time: 3 minutes 

Preparation time: 25 minutes 

Serves: 4 

INGREDIENTS 

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts 

2 tbsp dijon mustard 

2 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves, chopped 

Salt and pepper 

4 slices provolone cheese 

16 asparagus spears, trimmed 

2 tbsp butter, melted 

¼ cup fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs 

Instructions 

Place chicken between waxed paper; pound with mallet to 

flatten to ¼ inch thickness. 

In small bowl, combine mustard, tarragon, and salt and 

pepper to taste; spread evenly over rough side of each breast. 

Top each with cheese slice and four asparagus spears. Roll 

up chicken, letting asparagus protrude on both ends; secure 

with toothpicks. 

Place seam side down on parchment paper-lined baking 

sheet. Brush with a little of the butter. In small bowl, toss 

crumbs with remaining butter; pat onto stuffed breasts. 

Season with pepper. 

Bake in 400 F oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until juices run 

clear when chicken is pierced. Broil for two to three minutes 

to brown topping. Remove toothpicks to serve. 

Recipe courtesy of Foodland Ontario 


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