Date: 2025-08-22 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028384
PETER BURGESS
A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
VISITONG CANADA AS A CAMBRIDGE STUDENT
A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
VISITONG CANADA AS A CAMBRIDGE STUDENT
Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
I was an undergraduate student at Cambridge from 1958 to 1961. Initially I studied engineering, and then went on to study economics. After graduating, I went through an industrial management training in Sheffield and then Chartered Accountancy articles with Cooper Brothers & Co (now PwC) in London. By this time I had a pretty good foundation for a successful business career!
During my Cambridge years, I spent two summers in Canada. The Canada Club at Cambridge Chartered two Boeing 707s from Air France to carry Cambridge students from London to New York west bound in late May and rturn east bound in mid September. We were allowed to do paid work in Canada, but not in the United States. Most of us travelled from New York to either Troronto or Montreal in Canada within hours of landing in New York.
In my case, I spent one night at an hotel in New York. Two of us booked a room at an hotel in Tumes Square for that night in New York ... then packed 13 of us into the room to sleep! Next day we did a bit of New York sightseeing before taking an overnight Greyhound bus to Montreal.
There were about 15 Cambridge students on the bus. Everything went according to schedule until we got to the US/Canadian border at about 5 am. Canadia immigration did not know this bunch of British students was coming and did not know what to do. There were no 'higher ups' in the Canadian immigration awake to make decisions and we were held up for more than 2 hours. The rest of the bus passengers were furious ... for good reason!
I had paid just 75 pounds for my return air ticket and had $50 cash to fund everything I was to do in the next four months. Getting paid summer work was an urgent priority! Half that group got work with the Canadian Fire Service as observers around Canada doing early warning for forest fire outbreaks ... mostly in British Columbia, as I recall.
I tried to join The Foundation Company of Canada on a surveying assignment in Labrador, but was rejected because of inadequate 'white water canoeing experience'! Instead, I found myself working as a laborer with a wheelbarrow in the hole where the newest Montreal skyscraper (Place Ville Marie) was being built.
And then a break ... I was reassigned to another Foundation Company project. This was to do with the removal of a ship that had sunk in the middle of the St. Lawrence River and needed to be cut up and removed. I got the job of 'safety boatman ... working from 4pm to 8am ... a double chift, 7 days a week ... at Canadian Union wages!
Better yet ... I was able to read for hours on end while being on duty just in case a safety issue happened.
For a long time, it appeared that I was the only English speaker working on the site ... all the chatter was French Canadian and I was really not welcome as an student from England! And then there was a safety incident ... a workboat engine failure and they needed my help, at which point everyone suddenly was able to give me specific instructions about what they needed to be done in 'perfect English'! Funny thing!
I accumulated a good sized amount of money during this time. I was working 80 hours at regular rates, 16 hours at time and a half (Saturdays) and 16 hours at double time (Sundays ... the equivalent of a 136 hour work-week ... and the wage rates were 'union' and about 5 times what they would have been in the UK at that time!