Crease Harman News & Resources

Order of Canada 'just like Oscar,' Foster beams

By Sandra McCulloch

Times Colonist staff

David Foster said Tuesday being named as an officer to the Order of Canada “is right up there with getting a Grammy or an Oscar.  It's huge.”

The 54-year-old former Victoria resident has won 14 Grammys since he started in the music business in 1973.  In 1986, Foster established the David Foster Foundation Society to assist families of B.C. children in need of major organ transplants.

The Order of Canada, established in 1967, is the country's highest honour for lifetime achievement.   Appointments are made by the Governor General on recommendation of an advisory council.

Foster has been promoted a notch since he was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1988.  The newest members of the Order of Canada include two men with Victoria connections - UVic chancellor and lawyer Ron Lou-Poy and pioneering archeologist Boyd Wettlaufer.  They join former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, former federal finance minister Michael Wilson, writer Guy Vanderhaeghe, sportscaster Johnny Esaw and media magnate John Honderich.

Foster said from his recording studio in Malibu, Calif. that being promoted from member to officer of the Order of Canada is very meaningful. “The fact of the matter is I'm extremely proud of being Canadian. And I'm extremely proud of Victoria because it's such a beautiful place. America is the greatest place to realize your dreams, but Canada is the greatest place to be from.”

Wettlaufer, 90, is a pioneering archeologist who chronicled early man on the Prairies. His publications are still used in classrooms.  “I was able to establish a calendar for others to work with from the present back 5,500 years,” he said Tuesday afternoon

Lou-Poy, 69, said he was very proud and honoured when he was told earlier that he was being appointed as a member of the Order of Canada.  He was told to stay mum about the news until the official announcement Tuesday.

“It was hard to keep it a secret,” he said.

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