Don Drummond, a guest on tonight's program on Aboriginal Education, retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist with TD Bank last June. Before his decade-long career with the bank, he spent 23 years with the Finance Department in Ottawa, holding various senior positions.
You would think with retirement, Drummond would spend some time smelling the roses, sitting on his laurels, and basically living a clichéd and restful life in retirement. Instead, he still holds the titular post of Economic Advisor with TD bank, is an adjunct professor of public policy at Queen’s University where he commutes to from his new home in Ottawa to teach each Wednesday. He also holds the university’s Donald Matthews Faculty Fellowships in Global Public Policy, which allows him to pursue another interest: the economic and educational well-being of aboriginal Canadians.
He’s not that different than former Prime Minister Paul Martin. Five years after leaving politics, you won’t find Martin on many corporate boards. Instead, he remains active in public life through the Martin Aboriginal Initiative and his work addressing poverty in Africa. Martin spends most of his time working to alleviate income inequality between our First Nations people and the rest of Canadians.
They join a growing group of power-brokers including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who are now spending much of their time, energy and wealth addressing the world’s social ills. They often say being out of office or their former careers, allows them more leverage and the time needed to truly make a difference. It also allows them to fully devote themselves to issues they care passionately about and where they want to leave their mark.
Drummond co-authored a landmark report while still with TD called “Aboriginal People in Canada: Growing Mutual Economic Interests Offer Significant Promise for Improving the Well-Being of the Aborginal Population" (2009). These days, he travels the country speaking to groups on the importance of a post-secondary education for Aboriginal students, with this report still in hand. Just yesterday, he co-wrote an op-ed in The Toronto Star on the importance of funding post-secondary education for Ontario’s citizens. And if that weren’t enough, after today’s taping, Drummond had to run off to Queen’s Park for a meeting about his new role as economic advisor to the Liberal government. His task: to find a way to pay off the province’s record deficit while protecting our valued social services. Quite the restful life indeed.
