By Andrew Macdonald
- Greg MacEachern, Nova Scotia Son, Ottawa Lobbyist Remembers His RBC Banker Sister At Fundraiser For Ovarian Cancer Research
An Ottawa lobbyist with strong roots in Port Hawkesbury & Parrsboro is remembering his late sister, a retail banker at RBC, who died of ovarian cancer in Halifax in 2019.
The fundraising event was created by government relations pointman, Greg MacEachern, and his Ottawa pals to remember his sister, Andrea MacEachern.
Greg MacEachern was recently in The Macdonald Notebook news cycle, having launched his entrepreneurial lobby firm, Kan Strategies, a web link to that recent article is embedded at the end of this story.
The fundraiser took place this past week at one of the nation’s most popular watering holes and eateries, Metropolitain Brasserie, near historic Chateau Laurier to benefit Ovarian Cancer Canada.
With a knack for working the media, Greg MacEachern had both The Hill Times & Ottawa Business Journal cover the event, which had tickets retailing for $65, and 125 folks attended the event at the Ottawa pub and eatery.
“It was encouraging to see the subject of ovarian cancer become elevated from lowly wallflower to centre of attention at a popular fundraising party held Thursday night to support research into the deadly female disease,” wrote the Ottawa Journal.
“The benefit called The Dance for Her, was fittingly back for its third year at the Metropolitain Brasserie, where it all began. George Wamala, director of regulatory and government affairs at RBC, and Bobby Sutherland, senior director of government affairs at Gilead Sciences, had met at the downtown restaurant several years ago to console their buddy Greg MacEachern over the recent loss of his sister to ovarian cancer. Wamala had lost his mom to the same disease nearly two decades prior,” the Ottawa Journal reported.
Ovarian fundraising organizers: L-R Shannon Kot, Greg MacEachern, George Wamala, Heather Bakken (Bobby Sutherland was in Europe on business) Photo credit: Cynthia Munster
There is an East Coast background among the founders of the Ottawa ovarian cancer research. Bobby Sutherland is from Port Hood, Cape Breton, who used to work for former NS cabinet minister, Chris d’Entremont, now West Nova MP. He also worked for Tory Peter Christie, now deceased.
MacEachern befriended Sutherland when MacEachern worked for the NS Liberal caucus back in the early 2000s. “We met at the NS Legislature working for opposite teams, he is a really good friend.”
The other event organizer, RBC’s George Wamala previously used to be a political aide to PEI’s Lawrence MacAulay, a Trudeau cabinet minister.
“The men decided to launch a new fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer Canada in early 2020. They’ve since welcomed Heather Bakken, partner at communications firm Pendulum Group, and Shannon Kot, a partner at Deloitte, to the organizing committee, the media outlet reported.
ACOA Minister Gudie Hutchings and Ovarian Cancer Canada CEO Tania Vrionis (photo by Cynthia Munster)
The Royal Bank of Canada was one of the corporate sponsors at the sold-out event.
MacEachern says since 2020 the event has raised $75,000 – including nearly $20,000 at Thursday’s event, held on Jan 25th, 2024 – also known as Robbie Burns Day, named in honour of the Scottish poet from the 1700s.
The Dance for Her: A Fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer Research launched a month before the start of the pandemic in 2020, the 2021 event went virtual and in person fundraising returned in 2022, MacEachern tells The Macdonald Notebook.
His sister was 58 when she passed in 2019. She had ovarian cancer twice. “There are people who have responded really really well to treatments. It is just one of those cancers that hadn’t gotten a lot of attention prior to the last number of years,” says MacEachern.
As a retail banker with RBC Andrea MacEachern had a personal touch with customers and worked at branches on Quinpool/Oxford, Portland Street and then at regional head office at RBC Waterside in downtown Halifax.
“We’d be out for lunch and people would come up to say hi to her. I asked her who was that? She would say, ‘She was my customer when I worked at Portland Street, Dartmouth’. People take their banking very personably, especially older people in those days.”
Greg is proud that RBC is a major sponsor to the event he helped to create because it connects to his late sister as a banker. Andrea started working for RBC in 1980. “She was a lifer.”
MacEachern grew up in industrial Port Hawkesbury, the son of Allan MacEachern, and Anne Marie. They are now both deceased. His father was a community college teacher and his mother worked for Liberal MP Francis LeBlanc, who served between 1988-1997.
There were four children in the family, and now there are three as brother Ian MacEachern died at age 24 tragically in a mining accident.
“Andrea was equal parts kind and fun. After my brother died she became the eldest child. When we were kids – my parents had kids over 13 years – Andrea was kind of a second mother to my younger brother and me.”
Greg’s other brother, Stephen is a teacher in Oshawa. The two brothers have equity in a craft beer maker in Parrsboro called Two Islands Brewing. Their mother grew up in Parrsboro.
His sister is a retired Halifax City Hall civil servant, living outside of Windsor, NS, who is named Sheilagh.
“What I hope this event shows is that you don’t have to have a lot of glitz to raise money for a good cause and have fun at the same time,” MacEachern tells The Notebook. “We’re trying to build the event and there are a lot of worthy causes competing for attention. We had a really good first go in 2020 and then took three years off. The feedback has been extraordinary with people wanting to get involved or sponsor the event next year.”
Housing Minister Sean Fraser, of NS, and Minister of Rural Economic Development Gudie Hutchings, who’s also the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency attended the event. Hutchings spoke and thanked the patrons for supporting the cancer research.
“There are many, many organizations you can support, there are many, many organizations you can volunteer for, but find one that’s true to your heart. Greg and his pals did,” the ACOA minister is quoted as saying by the Ottawa Journal.
ACOA Minister Gudie Hutchings speaks at the ovarian cancer fundraiser. Photo by Cynthia Munster)
There was a snacking buffet, including a poutine bar, at no cost to event goers as a sponsor picked up the tab, MacEachern tells The Notebook.
“A highlight of the night was the music and dancing. Attendees had the opportunity to influence the playlist, but it would cost them. Partygoers were encouraged to make a $100 donation (with instant tax receipt) that would allow them to make a song request — or a cancellation, if they deemed a tune too cringe-worthy,” the media outlet noted.
The newspaper added: “The buzz surrounding the fundraiser was enough to bring the CEO of Ovarian Cancer Canada to town. “I have heard so much about the event over the last few years that I had to come from my home in Windsor, Ontario to check it out,” said Tania Vrionis before expressing her sincere gratitude to everyone in the room.”
“In Canada, more than 3,000 women learn the bad news each year that they have ovarian cancer. “One in two diagnosed will not live to see another five years,” said Vrionis. Outcomes have seen little change for decades, while research has lagged behind other cancers, such as breast and prostate cancer, she added,” the media outlet reported.
Former CBC News journalist Neil Macdonald was among political partisans attending the fundraiser, The Dance for Her: A Fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer Research.
For a Nov. 2023 Notebook story on Greg MacEachern becoming a lobbyist entrepreneur click here.
For Greg MacEachern’s political and ST FX University background, click here for a Notebook story.
