Saturday was both sad and so beautiful.

David Butterfield took a chance on me, hiring someone basically straight out of university, to be the Head of Government Relations & Communications for his company, the Trust for Sustainable Development. We met at a couple of political fundraisers in 2014 and apparently he saw something in me which prompted an out of the blue “I want you to come work for me.”

Working for David for almost 2 years was an absolute pleasure. I learned a great deal from him and he was always pushing me to strive for more in life. When the opportunity came up to manage a campaign for the Federal Liberals in 2015, I barely even had to ask to take the time off from work for the writ period. He understood my passion for politics and told me to go.

We had the best political conversations and I always had a sneaking suspicion that half the reason he hired me was so that he had guaranteed regular access to someone to talk politics and world affairs with in the middle of the work day. I certainly didn’t mind.

We also both liked to drink and had many a night at Clive’s talking cocktails and mixology. We often hosted events up at the Spirit Bay development site and “Resident Bartender” ended up as part of my responsibilities over time because I always loved making drinks. Near the end of my time working for him I think I had almost mastered “David’s Margarita” a drink that required a truly unprecedented tequila to everything else ratio. To me it was barely drinkable and so far off of standard margarita measurements, to him it was delicious.

It is a regret of mine that life got so busy that the “Let’s grab drinks and catch up” never got around to happening so I didn’t get a chance to see him this year before he died. I know he was proud of me for taking a job at the Legislature in January but I also know part of him was sad to see me go. We sure had some good times.

Thank you for everything David.