BC NOTARIES
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
John Salvador, Notary Public (Retired), 92 In conversation with his daughter Laurie Salvador, Notary in Sidney, BC LAURIE: Dad, please tell our readers when you became a BC Notary. JOHN: I became a Notary in 1968. I first practised in Coquitlam with Jim Robinson Sr., father of current BC Notary Jim Robinson. I decided to move my family to Sidney By the Sea because a Notary Seal was open due to the death of Gordon Hulme. Sidney had that small-town feel like Creston, where I grew up. I practised in Sidney until 1986.
For me, the most enjoyable aspect of being a Notary was helping clients with their problems. LAURIE: Please share some stories about your career. JOHN: I had a client who was an oldtime fisherman with his own fishboat. He told me he had come past Ripple Rock after an extended fishing trip. It was stormy and his boat capsized.
John at the Oil Sands in Alberta
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The Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia
He was able to hang on to some debris and drifted in the choppy water all the way down to Campbell River. Later he invested his life savings with a fly-by-night outfit that promised him 14 percent return on his money. I always said that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That client paid his bills in honey, fish, and garden produce. I became friends with Notary Harry Noakes on Salt Spring Island. Harry had started his career up north, working for the US Government in Dawson Creek and Whitehorse when they were building the Alaska Highway. When he came back to Salt Spring, he became a Section 15 Notary who was able to witness signatures but he did not have the education for the other services that BC Notaries provide so he asked me for help. Whatever work he got, he would pass on to me—other than signatures. For me, the most enjoyable aspect of being a Notary was helping clients with their problems. I also enjoyed going to the Notary Conferences. The most memorable Conference was when we all went to Dawson Creek. In those days, our Conferences were held in various places around the province, which gave members a chance to see the rest of the province. I guess these days the smaller towns cannot accommodate the number of members The Society has now. Volume 26 Number 1 Spring 2017
