BRENDA LUNDMAN

After grade six at Queenston, we moved to Pinawa and were the fifth family to move into this brand new town.  It is important to note that I quit growing soon after (at 6 feet tall), but was the tallest in my class until grade 11.  I completed grade 11 there and then experienced life in a large American high school and did my last year of high school in Wellesley, Mass. (a suburb of Boston) while my father did a Masters degree in Management at MIT.  Luckily for my parents, I did not get into any of the US schools I applied to, and I went to McGill.  I started in chemistry, but finished in physics and maths and then took a Masters in Economics at McGill.  Then it was off to Vancouver and UBC for five years of PhD studies in economics.  I eventually got the degree (1982) with editorial assistance from my mother.  My field was health economics and I did a thesis on measuring the quality of hospitals.

I liked being a graduate student (I spent a lot of time playing squash and tennis), but eventually one has to find a job, so I taught economics at Trent University for two years and then joined the federal public service in Ottawa in 1980.  I went to Ottawa because there were jobs there (the academic market was poor), those jobs paid twice as much as assistant prof jobs, and my spouse, François Dumas (who I met at McGill), was already working there.  And, except for 15 months in Sheffield, England working on exchange with the British civil service, I have lived in Ottawa ever since.

After 22 years with the feds, I am now a senior manager at the Department of Finance, in the social policy area.  I have had variety of jobs with a range of departments over the years ñ most in social policy analysis, project management of program changes and consultations.  I worked on the Canada Health Act, the Canada Jobs Strategy, Unemployment (and Employment) Insurance, the Prosperity Initiative, anti-tobacco legislation, the ìblood fileî, to name of few of the ìhot filesî and, in the last 5 years, several budgets.  I spent almost 5 years at the Privy Council Office (PCO) where I was the health analyst and got to see the federal decision-making system at close hand (but never got to brief the PM directly!).  As I have written far too many briefing notes and memos to the Minister/Prime Minister in my career, I now spend my time trying to delegate such tasks and help others do the analysis.

I work fairly long hours, but try to find time for exercise and home each day.  I quit playing squash about 5 years ago, and now ride my bike to work each day (longer rides on the weekend) in the summer, and cross-country ski weekends in the winter.  We have some torture machines (rowing machine, bike) in the basement that I use in winter.  We have a large house and garden that has to be maintained and we seem to have difficulty resisting garden projects involving more vegetables or flowerbeds.  We are currently replacing grass with gravel. 

François took advantage of an early retirement scheme 5 years ago and now does some contract work in the communications area (mostly quality control of French texts) from home.  We have no children.  Because Françoisís family lives in France, we have travelled quite a lot in Europe.  Recent trips have included St. Petersburg, Greece and Turkey.  We also try to do some camping in North America each year.

My parents and my two sisters and their families live in Ottawa.  My parents are now live in a condo, but continue to be independent.  My father remembers all too well being the Sunday school teacher for some of the boys in the major work class!  He never did that again.