The global influence of Teck Cominco is quite amazing. When I moved to Kimberley BC, Cominco was known as Consolidated Mining and Smelting. Most people just called them The Company or CM&S. During the war years and into the late 50's Cominco had a fully functioning dairy farm in Marysville, so their employees and their families could have fresh milk and cream. The Company had a major role in building the Kimberley Curling Rink and Civic Centre so the residents of Kimberley could watch their hockey team the Dynamiters play in a high calibre league the W.I.H.L.

Cominco brought in many outstanding hockey players gave them jobs, arranged for housing and paid their wages when the team was on road trips playing Spokane, Trail, Nelson and Rossland. When the 1937 Kimberley Dynamiter went to London England to play for the World Championship of Ice Hockey (which they won!) Cominco paid all of their wages and the round trip ocean liner tickets. Shifty Wilson, the last remaining member of that team passed away in Kimberley just last year.

Cominco took good care of all their employees. Even the ski hill was donated cable, tools and equipment to build the T Bar when the ski hill was known as North Star Mountain.The T Bar was known as the longest in North America and if it were in operation today , it stll would hold that record

A mining engineer named Kambiz who works for Cominco out of Vancouver approached me in England recently because I was wearing a 2010 Winter Olympic vest with Cominco patch on it. I actually had bought the vest at the Marysville thrift store (an excellent place to shop by the way) for $1.50.

The mining engineer who is originally from Iran turned out to be something of an expert on Cominco's history. Kambiz knew that Pat Sullivan discovered the mine which bears his name in Kimberley, and that Sullivan was killed prospecting in Couer d'Alene Idaho around the turn of the century. I was impressed with this mining engineer when he told me that Kimberley BC was the highest city in Canada (elevation). We are now officially second, just behind Banff. The Teck-Cominco connection took another turn which I will explain in a minute.

During my high school years everybody I knew would get a summer job at Cominco. That is, of course, if your dad worked for Cominco. My dad Tony did not, but being 16 I was too clueless to figure that out. Kenny Campbell the personnel director for the Company (and an old Kimberley goaltender) flat out told me that I had no chance of getting a summer job with Cominco. But he did me a huge favour by calling Man Power in Cranbrook, and a fews days later I was working at the Castlegar dam. That summer job was very significant for me as it gave me the money to go to college in Spokane. My Kimberley friend Bob "Nizer" James (who still resides in Kimberley) was the captain of the Gonzaga University Bulldogs and a straight A student at Gonzaga I might add. Bob gave me a room to rent in his house and took me under his wing. Living in the USA is much different than Kimberley. I have always been grateful to Bob for his friendship and support that year .

By the way I have always said that Nizer was one of the most underrated athletes in Kimberley when I was growing up. Want a super smart baseball catcher with an accurate arm, who could hit? Look no further than this guy.

Getting back to the present I have always though that Cominco was a pretty good company. They built the infrastructure of Kimberley BC and Trail. Sure they took a lot of ore out of the mine, but they gave back too. They donated a lot of money to sports and recreation in town so their employees could enjoy themselves on their time off.

The fact I was wearing my Cominco vest provided another benefit to me. Kambiz the mining engineer was chatting with a Ms Ingrid Cobham-Cruyff at the yoga class we were attending in England. I had noticed Ingrid earlier due to her colourful ski socks. Ms Cobham-Cruyff is a step-daughter of the legendary jazz drummer Billy Cobham, and is a child psychiatrist specializing in mentally challenged youngsters with severe learning disabilities. Turns out she does not ski but wants to go on a ski vacation with the family and learn. What better place to come than the Kimberley resort? Wayne "Nip" Bradford the ski school director at Kimberley specializes in getting European first time skiers up and enjoying the mountain in a day or two. With Kambiz and myself extolling the beauty of the East Kootenys and what a great place Kimberley is to do a ski vacation, Ms Cobham-Cruyff is coming over in early 2012. Ingrid is from a family of four doctors. Christmas family dinners must be interesting conversation to say the least. The world can sometimes be a small place.