Blowing the Whistle: Ready for the Track Ahead
Brock Wealth Management - Jul 01, 2025
For a number of years now I've had the opportunity to write our summer newsletter while enjoying a week of cottaging with my wife and our three boys, as well as a few close personal friends and their children.
Summer 2025 - Newsletter #25
For a number of years now I've had the opportunity to write our summer newsletter while enjoying a week of cottaging with my wife and our three boys, as well as a few close personal friends and their children. We've gotten into the habit of renting a particular cottage just outside of Bala, Ontario in the heart of Muskoka. This has become one of my favorite places and I have fond memories of watching our kids learn to swim in the lake and enjoying the company of friends we've known for over two decades. One of the characteristics that makes this place special is that across the lake (which is called Long Lake, and is fairly narrow), behind a bit of forest runs a CP Rail line. Many times a day, off in the distance, we can hear the slow build of rattling tracks, inevitably followed by the haunting sound of the train’s horn (do they still call it a whistle?) as it approaches a few local crossings.
There is something about that sound: the combination of nature and tranquility and industry and history that makes this already very special location just a bit magical. At a time when the world seems completely out of sorts, I find the consistency of the train’s presence to be a comfort.
If this seems at all sentimental, dear reader, I will ask you to indulge me this once. This happens to be the final newsletter that will bear the image on the front cover of this train’s Chief Engineer, and my longest-standing teammate, Patricia Butler, as her retirement, planned for December 31st of this year, approaches like a speeding locomotive.
Patricia began working at BMO Nesbitt Burns as a Sales Assistant in 2004, after serving in a similar role at Scotia McLeod, and working in banking at Scotiabank – both in Ottawa and Montreal – and at Montreal Trust and CIBC, before then. In all, a career – entirely in the financial services industry – that will have spanned 38 years. Many of our clients will know her from her initial collaboration with Elizabeth Cosgrove, with whom she worked in the capacity of Associate Investment Advisor. It is in this role that I came to know Patricia, especially after Elizabeth and I merged our practices in 2011. Since then, Patricia has been instrumental in my professional life, and most importantly the financial lives of many our clients, as the person whom you call when something needs to get done. To say that she has been my “right hand person” would be diminishing her contribution – but still very true. She has been councillor (indeed it can be said that her degree in special care counselling was put to good use – if only in an unlikely context), therapist, confidante and most importantly a friend to me, to every member of our team, and to our clients alike.
There will be future occasions to highlight Patricia’s significant contributions to our team and to our clients, but for now, please allow me to wish Patricia a long and fulfilling retirement, spent with her husband Mike, her two children, and her four adorable grandchildren.
Given all of this, I hope you will understand why I thought that for this newsletter, it would be appropriate for trains to play a starring role in my message to clients – after all, the tactical shift in our asset allocation recommendation implemented six months ago was done with the sole intention of keeping our clients’ financial progress steady, despite having to navigate recent periods where it seemed like markets had gone completely off the rails. Most importantly, our team will remain laser-focused leading up to Patricia’s retirement, and beyond, on keeping the trains running on time for our clients.