Our Picks For Seven of The Area's Most Awesome Jobs
7
Stuntman
DARRELL J. HICKS In a world where nothing is what it seems, no illusion is more concrete than the work of a stuntman. Or cooler. C’mon – they die for a living. Or at least tempt death, having the kind of full-on fun that usually demands small-print legalese about not attempting any of this at home. You know: serpentine slaloms through tense cross-town traffic, bearing the brunt of a bar brawl, crashing through plate glass windows while bathed in flames, bounding between buildings and occasionally taking headers off them. Let’s face it – long after the eyeball-numbing CGI bombast of the current crop of Hollywood mogul-omaniacs loses its zest, flesh-and-blood stuntwork will still pack a punch. And its practitioners will have the cracked ribs to prove it.
6
Firefighter
CHRIS WIEMELINK Doesn’t every kid want to be a fireman? Playing cards in the firehouse loft, sliding down a pole to go to work – it’s like a tree fort with moral prestige. Because instead of playing hero you’re being one (the fact that it’s all in a day’s work makes it even more noble). Not only are you saving the day, but the aerobic intensity of your work means that you’re generally in good shape, making for the sort of hunky physiques that variously provoke envy and explicit thoughts in men and women. And even that beefcake is sainted – between charity calendars and fashion show fundraisers, members of the hook-and-ladder set are an unlikely and entirely un-cartoony cross between Superman and Chippendale dancers. Post-9/11, they’ve become recognized as something more esteemed, another Band of Brothers. Saving the world house by house, block by block, day after day – what’s not to like about that?
5
Personal Shopper
MARGARITA MACHURA, POISE BOUTIQUE It’s like some twisted version of a Visa commercial: You go on shopping sprees and get paycheques instead of bills. Teaching clients how to find their fashion voice, helping them edit their wardrobe, offering style and colour consultancy services and acting as personal shoppers for time-challenged fashionistas – selecting the perfect personal items for their clients. And it’s not simply frivolous. Shopping can be a transformative experience, a way of becoming a different, newer person or achieving a more deeply accurate representaton of self. It’s a social job but also a deeply personal one, wherein the shopper becomes a kind of analyst-therapist, a confidante who advises clients of what is currently in fashion and helps them to determine what looks good on them, occasionally taking them on a journey of self-discovery. In the ego-heavy world of fashion, that’s practically Zen.
4
Pilot
DAVE BABIAK, PRESIDENT/CHIEF PILOT, DB AIR From a young age, we are enchanted with the romance of flight, dream of soaring in the clouds like kites or birds. What if that were your reason for getting out of bed? What if you woke up with the birds and then spent the day among them at altitude? That’s all part of the job. Pilots balance art and science, dazzling spectators while putting passengers at ease, masking the complex and ever-changing factors that keep these gravity-prone machines aloft. And when the rest of us get bogged down in petty distinctions and arbitrary divisions, a pilot enjoys a perspective on human life second only to the astronauts. Need proof? With all their unrivalled access to mortal domains, A-listers long for flight – John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood are just some of the celebrity pilots drawn skyward, looking to slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of God.
3
Mayor of Burlington
CAM JACKSON You’re in charge of a city that’s prosperous, safe, clean, scenic, stable and historic, loaded with greenspace and low on budget bringdown. National surveys rank your quality of life up there with the best of them. It’s kind of like being Mayor of Mississauga, only without the stigma of being Mayor of Mississauga. (Even saddled with criticism and heading into what promises to be a boisterous 2010 election, Burlington has nothing to rival the ugly McCallion-Parrish cage match.) A bedroom suburb with more than its share of ensuite amenities, Burlington’s advantages aren’t entirely economic. A wrinkle of lake dynamics means that Burlington suffers through considerably less inclement weather than its neighbour across the harbour. And that means you can spend your mayorly downtime working outreach and developing strategy out on the North Shore links. All in all, a pretty sweet gig.
2
Teacher
SARAH KONDO OF ADELAIDE HOODLESS You’ve heard the sales pitch, usually delivered in a rant of some sort: golden benefits, an enviable retirement plan, near-bulletproof security and summers off. What gets left out is actually the biggest draw. A great teacher is a rudder for humanity, shaping the creativity and curiosity of young minds and sending them off into the future, where that early influence is magnified and scattered out into eternity. Teachers lay the foundation of all other professions, even those that don’t yet exist. Occasionally, they’re even something like proxy parents, offering compassion and quality time that’s missing at home. And of course you’ve seen the headlines. What job is more important than equipping future generations with confidence, knowledge, skills and a ravenous intellectual appetite? Teachers may make easy caricatures and be natural touchstones of Hollywood schmaltz, but they’re also much, much more.
1
Michael Lee-Chin
MICHAEL LEE-CHIN What’s not to like about being the town billionaire? True, his Forbes ranking has tumbled in recent years – the 618th wealthiest human in 2007 is now a humbling #701, thanks to market forces that have staggered the financial sector – but the tall, handsome 58-year-old chairman of Burlington’s AIC Limited and Jamaica’s National Commercial Bank still flies to work in a helicopter, bankrolls architecturally eye-popping museums (the Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum), lends business advice to Caribbean leaders and is heaped with humanitarian awards, honorary doctorates and citations for his philanthropic work and community service. And when he needs a breather, he can chill out in one of his Port Antonio villas or catch rays on his beachfront acreage in Ocho Rios. Is it any wonder he’s got a famous smile?
