By Andrew Macdonald
Scott & Max are back in the political world big time with the election of Mark Carney and his Liberal party.
As alert Notebook readers will recall, back in March we published a story that Scott Brison took a leave from his Bank of Montreal post to become a campaign advisor for Carney, traveling with the party leader across the nation on the campaign trail. He also had a dedicated seat on Carney’s campaign airplane.
I am expecting Brison to have a large role with PM Carney going forward, either in the Prime Minister’s Office, or as a backroom advisor
Brison has hosted Carney at his Cheverie compound in past years, when Carney was Bank of Canada governor. During those frequent Carney visits to the Noel Shore, Scott & husband Max would fire up their Big Green Egg – grilling meat cuts from Oultan’s, near Martock. Scott even successfully bakes bread on his Egg BBQ.
The Macdonald Notebook is going to ramp up our political coverage of Max & Scott because the handsome couple are good for Notebook readership traction and readership growth.
Once a politico, always a politico.
That is the best way to describe Scott & Max. In March, Scott took a leave from his vice-chair position at Bank of Montreal/BMO. He had been working out of Montreal offices, but his LinkedIn account shows a Cheverie, N.S., address.
The reason Brison took a bank leave is so he could join the inner circle of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s now successful election bid.
Brison made the announcement on LinkedIn in March about the leave from BMO.
“I would like to share an important personal decision,” wrote Brison on social media. “I will be volunteering on the Liberal Party’s election campaign; as such, I have taken an unpaid leave of absence from my work at the bank.
“You may be hearing more from me on social media over the course of the campaign, and those views will be mine in a personal capacity, and not that of BMO’s,” added Brison.
“As we navigate these unprecedented times, I want to do my part as a citizen to help ensure we have the right leaders in place. Politics matters, government matters, and leadership matters now more than ever.”
From left, Scott Brison, Mark Carney and Max St. Pierre. (social media)
A Visit To A Rehab; A Private Meeting With Bishop Colin & Being The Son Of A Famous Stockbroker
Why do I write so often about Scott & Max? Simply put, stories on Scott & Max generate high readership, according to my Google Analytics readership measurement (and, since it is a Google APP, you can take it to the bank.)
Scott & Max are the ultimate power couple in these parts.
For the last 36 years, I have focused my unique journalism take on chronicling the region’s Movers & Shakers. I am fascinated by the politico movers and shakers and the business world movers and shakers — and Scott & Max straddle both politics and corporate business.
The archived story below from Jan. 18, 2019, had the third-highest readership over my last nearly nine years of publishing – and there have been 9,005 stories posted on The Notebook since 2017, our founding year.
Scott Brison Makes Notebook History: A Rehab, Bishop Colin and A Famous Stockbroker.
By Andrew Macdonald
My Macdonald Notebook news article published in 2019: Scott Brison: A Rehab House, The Bishop & A Famous Stockbroker, broke readership records.
According to my website, that article has been the third most-read news article I have published in my nearly nine-year existence as the owner of The Notebook.
Like Peter MacKay, fellow political powerhouse Scott Brison had been a dedicated politico tending to his constituents.
Scott Brison, left, with property developer Peter Polley, of apartment and condo developer, Polycorp. They are pictured at the AGM of the Investment Properties Owners Association of Nova Scotia (IPOANS) in recent years.
The greatest political legacy of Scott Brison — perhaps on a societal and human face, his single largest contribution to his Annapolis Valley riding — was his significant involvement in the founding of a rehab home in his riding in 2006.
I refer to the establishment of Crosbie House in 2006 in New Minas, which has counseled more than 1,000 drunks, druggies and gambling addicts.
Scott Brison’s great legacy was to help ensure the Crosbie rehab house in New Minas would re-open after the Hamm government closed it in 2006. Brison lobbied his chum, billionaire John Risley, to chip in $50,000 to reopen the rehab. The Notebook
Scott Brison in 2006 personally got involved in establishing the home – and it would rank, perhaps, in my books, as his single largest political contribution to his riding and the region. It is now known as The Betty Ford Clinic of the region, and draws addicts from across Atlantic Canada.
Back in 2014, Scotty actually visited me while I was seeking solace and resolve at a 28-day rehab house in his riding, at a time in my life when I used to try and drink the ocean dry.
That’s me in 2014 at Crosbie House, a facility that saved my life.
A rehab patient and I will only give her first initial, K, quickly recognized Scott Brison, and thought it impressive a political superstar would visit a patient at Crosbie House, in New Minas.
The man who made political history when he ran as a leader for two political parties – the PCs and Liberals – also leaves a less well known legacy. Back in 2006, Scott Brison got involved with the folk trying to bring back Crosbie House, after the Tory Hamm government shut it down.
Various governments, including the recent McNeil government, have been very unkind to addiction services. Thankfully, current premier Tim Houston is a real friend of addicts and mental health files now with progressive gov policies on those two files.
Under McNeil, detoxes across the province, as I wrote in 2018, closed down. But, Brison helped ensure a not-for-profit could buy a single-family home in New Minas, and today Crosbie House has seen well over 1,000 drunks since 2006.
Brison took the lead on the Crosbie House file, and he approached his close friend, ‘Fishtocrat’ John Risley for help.
Risley gave Brison $50,000 towards the house purchase. Brison also went to Michelin, and they gave lots of dough, and the end result is that the not-for-profit rehab society could buy a home, which can now accommodate 12 folk at a time. I’d say Brison’s significant involvement with the creation of the booze, drug and gambling rebab home in New Minas would rank as a significant achievement and legacy of Scott Brison’s dedication to his Kings Hants riding.
Among my fond memories of a 35-year association with Brison: Back in 2014, when I booked into a 28-day rehab program in New Minas called Crosbie House, one Scott Brison came to visit me!
This was a history-making Christmas card showing a same-sex family Scott Brison & Max St. Pierre with twin daughters, with PM Justin Trudeau. It was issued in 2014.
I was the 804th person since 2006 to go to Crosbie House seeking salvation from the bottle. A little-known story is that Crosbie House was partially created by Scott Brison when a provincial Tory government made the strange decision to close it. The Hamm government – considered a good government – closed the publicly run rehab.
Brison personally intervened in the fate of Crosbie House in 2006, and asked his billionaire chums for financial support. For the record, John Risley gave $50,000 towards the cost of Crosbie House being able to buy a 12 bedroom single-family home in New Minas.
Martha Crosbie lost her prominent doctor husband, Jack Crosbie to the bottle. He died at a young 42. He was related to Newfoundland politico, Mulroney minister, John Crosbie, who sadly died in 2019.
I remember Brison’s visit one day in 2014, while I was at Crosbie House because I asked Brison to drive me to the Giant Tiger department store in New Minas.
Despite that chain being owned by an Ottawa business person, and there are close to 300 Giant Tiger stores in Canada, when Brison took me to that discount retailer, he refused to go inside. The reason: Brison was very tight to the billionaire Sobey brothers, the late Donald and David, so he did not want to darken the door of a competing retailer. That is immense loyalty to Mr. Sobey’s stores.
A past Christmas card from Scott Brison featured his beloved Simba in the berry bush in Cheverie.
I’ve known Scott since 1989. He came to my Antigonish home when he was a Dalhousie University student. He had borrowed my road-building dad’s half-ton so that he could lug his mini-fridges that he was renting to university students all over the Maritimes.
In that era 36 years ago, he was known fondly as Dal’s Fridge Magnate.
And, I’ve had a connection to Brison’s late dad, Clifford, a Cheverie corner store operator who turned into a leading stockbroker to Nova Scotia’s biz titans. Everyone from trucker and nursing home tycoon Joe Shannon to legendary Antigonish road builder John ‘Nova’ Chisholm had Clifford buy stock for them.
Joe Shannon’s stockbroker was Clifford Brison, the dad to Scott. Shannon is the founder and owner of Nova Scotia’s largest nursing home chain, Shannex, and also operates liquid carrier Seaboard Transport across North America. He is from North Sydney.
With earnings in grade 8 in 1982, from my teenage Halifax Herald paper route, I was able to buy 100 shares in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce through Clifford. Over 35 years, those shares would split many times.
Because I had delivered the Herald to three seniors complexes, I learned a lot of Scottish Gaelic words from the transplanted Cape Bretoners, and some of these elderly folk taught me Scottish Gaelic curse words (the seniors were very generous with paper money tips at Christmas time).
While Clifford was my teenage stockbroker, today I may be foolish since I self-direct my stock portfolio.
Over his 20-year career, whether in Opposition or in two cabinets under Paul Martin and later Justin Trudeau, Brison always took or returned my call.
Although one time, Brison’s overzealous political aide would go on to tell me: “Government politicos do not like to take your news calls, because they are afraid you will ask tough questions.” Imagine! (Maybe that is why Premier Tim Houston does not talk to me!).
Scott Brison’s dad, Clifford, was a leading stockbroker to the legendary road-builder John ‘Nova’ Chisholm, who died in 2014 in his hometown of Antigonish. John Nova in his lifetime proved you can be a successful business leader in rural Nova Scotia.
Still, I consider Brison among the great politicos of our times. He is ranked up there in my books with the wily Allan J. MacEachen, and even ranks along with the immense power that Tory Peter MacKay wielded.
Although, MacKay over his own 20 year career, always gave me ‘crickets’.
Brison has been a political warrior since his teen years. Back then, and later at Dalhousie University, he had ambitions for elected politics. But, he was deep in the closet, at a time when being gay was not as widely accepted as today.
A Protestant in the Annapolis Valley, where God-fearing Baptists carried large power and sway, in his teen years, Brison secretly feared his being gay would impact a future political career.
Scott Brison’s dad, Clifford, was a famous stockbroker in his day. He died in 2019 at age 96. The Notebook photo
Today, Brison is proudly out, but when he was deep in the closet, his father, Clifford, decided to whisk his son off to seek the advice of a Roman Catholic bishop in Antigonish, known as Cathedral Town, Little Rome, and sometimes Little Vatican. They visited then prelate, Bishop Colin Campbell at the Bishop’s Palace.
Campbell was the most controversial cleric to rule in the Diocese of Antigonish, and in the former Bishop’s Palace, he looked Scotty Brison in the eyes, and told the then young teenager: “It’s no one’s business, just lie to them.”
The bishop would later be forced by Vatican City to resign in 2002 although he had five years left to rule as bishop.
He had crossed the line and upset then religious bureaucrat Joseph Ratzinger, because he ordained the heretical Quebec group Fils de Marie. Ratzinger later became Pope Benedict.
While he was running for national Tory leader in 2003, Brison engineered a page three Jane Taber article in The Globe & Mail in which he came out. When the Globe article was published, a proud and beaming Clifford Brison called up his wealthy stock brokerage clients, such as John Nova Chisholm and Trucker & Nursing Home Tycoon, Joe Shannon, telling them to go out and buy the newspaper. I know this because at the time, Clifford also called my father at 11 p.m, with that news.
Clifford Brison began toiling as a corner store operator and shopkeeper in Cheverie with his wife, Verna. He would later go on to a lucrative career as a stockbroker to Nova Scotia’s well-heeled business tycoons.
Back in 1997, there were whisper campaigns that Scott was gay – as he ran for the Tory nomination – and at one such public meeting, it was raised by a card-carrying member.
Well, Clifford Brison stood up at the meeting and torpedoed the anti-gay commentary, and it was a spectacle to see Clifford defend his son, and suggest the family has always been held in high esteem in the riding.
Scott Brison made it easy for other gay politicos to get elected across Canada.
I spoke to PEI premier Wade MacLauchlan after he won the 2015 PEI vote, and he said Scott Brison being an out gay politico, made it easy for him to be an out gay politico in tiny PEI.
