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 I was born September 17, 1950, the fifth of eleven children, in the farming and logging village of Saint-Léon-le-Grand, Quebec. Coming from such a large and poor family, my upbringing was less than ideal. At the age of 14 my parents pulled me out of school to work with my father in the family trucking and construction business. Dissatisfied with my lifestyle and working conditions, at 16 I decided to leave Saint-Leon permanently and make my own way west of my country.
 In 1967, after a brief stay in Montreal, I began a long journey west. After a five day train ride I found myself in Revelstoke, British Columbia, and will never forget seeing the majestic Rocky Mountains when I arrived. This was the beginning of my adventurous struggle in a land whose culture and language were completely foreign to me. This is where I began my hazardous career as a logger, and where I learned the skills that would eventually help me achieve success as an entrepreneur.
 Not a year after I established a life for myself in this town, I was already on the move after finding a better job 1,200 kilometres west in Terrace, B.C. My experience in Terrace was not far off from that of a first year student in university - I worked hard when I needed to but always jumped at the chance to unwind in my time off. From Monday to Friday I spent long hours learning what it takes to be a logger but spent many of my weekends in local bars. I arrived in Terrace a clueless adolescent and left a mature, seasoned adult. My six years there gave me the experience and maturity that would prove to be essential when I embarked on my first entrepreneurial endeavor.
 Tired of this adolescent lifestyle, at 24 I moved west once more, this time to the Queen Charlotte Islands, where I worked for two years to build up the finances I needed to start my own company. I worked long hours for six days a week and by the end managed to save enough to invest in my first piece of logging equipment. It was a rubber tire skidder that I used to skid logs out of the forest to the loading yard. It was here that I was hit with the harsh reality of owning one's own business. It was much harder than I expected and I initially thought that I had made the biggest mistake of my life.  But as time went on, through persistence and perseverance I saw hope in my future. Over the next eleven years I slowly expanded and extended the range and magnitude of my logging endeavors up until 1988, at which point I had 18 pieces of heavy machinery and 40 employees. But that year marked the end of my logging exploits and I made the decision to exit the logging industry due to the governmental restrictions and pressure on the industry.
In my 13 years on the Queen Charlotte Islands I met my first wife Johanne Larose and had two beautiful children: Jonathan Denis and Corinda Genevieve. They are my greatest pride and I consider the years in which they were born as the most wondrous of my life. While on the Islands we lived a modest but busy life in a very secluded area, but after deciding to close my business we changed our surroundings drastically by moving to Vancouver. The decision was made in consideration of my children's education as well as the fact that there was not much for me left to do on the Queen Charlotte without logging.
 Vancouver marked a drastic change in every aspect of my life, as I found myself in a situation completely foreign to me for the first time in my life. Because I have worked very hard throughout my life, I decided that I needed something new in which I could exercise my talents. This is when I decided to enter land development and construction where I could use my unique knowledge in working land with machines. I began this endeavour in Nanaimo, which at the time was a rapidly growing city near Vancouver. The proximity of my new project to Vancouver allowed me to start skiing at Whistler which is a world renowned resort. This sport became a passion for me and consumed my winter months - within the first five years I skied over 400 days.
 But towards the end of my first five years in Vancouver, my wife and I did not see eye to eye anymore and we decided to part ways. It was at this point that I forced myself to regroup. One year later I purchased a hotel in Fort Nelson, British Columbia - the Blue Bell Inn, where I spent the next decade. Not long before I moved to Fort Nelson, I met Nathalie Gagne, who would become my second wife and mother to my third child, Matthew. He is also another of my great prides in my life. After a decade in Fort Nelson I met many people and made several friends from worldwide travellers that stayed in my hotel, but I had to make many sacrifices by moving to this small isolated town. I had to give up all that was dear to me, such as skiing and Vancouver's natural beauty, in order to follow my next dream in Northern B.C., where I was isolated and forced to endure the region's extreme weather conditions. Throughout my stay, I always had to be ready to deal with any problems that arose from temperatures as low as -50 Celsius, knowing that help from the closest major city of Edmonton was up to 12 hours away. Toward the end I came to appreciate this small town and the friendships I had developed during my stay here.
After ten years my second relationship ended. I sold the hotel and decided that  it was finally time for me to retire - this is when I discovered Nicaragua. Oneyear earlier a friend Richard Hape had sent me down to Nicaragua as an advisor on a logging project. It was at this point that I discovered this country'sbeauty and all it had to offer. On my 54th birthday I landed in Managua and challenged myself once more. I learned how to speak Spanishand have now fulfilled one of my greatest dreams by finishing my first book, ‘The King of the Emperor’. |
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