Canadian dream: Wayne Gretzky at the opening of my parents’ first insurance office

By Goldy Hyder

August 16, 2024

Fifty years ago today my parents, my brother Sheroo Hyder, BA CIP and I arrived in Canada to start a new life, landing in Montreal then connecting on to our new home in Calgary.

Ours is in many ways the classic immigrant story. We knew nobody here apart from our aunts who had arrived earlier. We had little in the way of money, ($28 in my parents’ wallets) and only the promise of a better life.

Canada has more than lived up to that promise. Five decades later, in four different Canadian cities, three generations of Hyders are well settled including my wife Fatima and our three daughters – Alisha Hyder, Azana Hyder, and Alaina Hyder.

But it wasn’t a straight line.

Back in Hyderabad, India, my father had been an accomplished journalist. Dad would have loved to continue that here in Canada, but it wasn’t possible. We couldn’t afford for him to start over as a junior cub reporter.

Mortgage rates for our first home in NE Calgary in 1976 were 10-12% which seemed like a bargain when we moved to SE Calgary in 1979 and on that mortgage the peak rate was 21%.

Mum might have wanted to stay home to be with my brother and me, but – like so many other working parents – she had to take up multiple jobs including over weekends to ensure the family had sufficient income. After far too many of those odd jobs, my parents ultimately founded and built a successful insurance agency.

Like any young Canadians, my brother and I weren’t impressed by their accomplishment because of the number of clients it had or how much money it made. We knew my parents had created something special when Wayne Gretzky came to the opening of our first office! Link Insurance went on to have fifteen locations across Alberta in its forty-five years of operations.

Another thing I’m very grateful for is that my paternal grandparents were able and allowed to join us in Canada, as they really took responsibility for my brother and me as my parents worked hard to build our family business. (My brother was even more grateful. Before they arrived, I was his de facto babysitter. He got what he paid for.)

Our house was the focal point for my and my brother’s friends. For starters, they always knew they would all be well fed. Our friends and the community in which we lived was a multicultural mosaic. We all had come from somewhere else but were all in on being Canadian. For my brother and I that meant a lot of street hockey and eventually learning to ski.

My wife, Fatima, and our three daughters, Alisha, Azana and Alaina

Sadly, that is not to say we never experienced racism. I have visible remnants on my left hand of sixty-four stitches I had from splitting it open as I tried to leap a fence to avoid being beaten to a pulp by three other grade three kids who were calling me “Paki” – which I felt showed them to be doubly ignorant. Yet, those wounds healed with time thanks to the overwhelming generosity and acceptance we experienced.

I am fortunate that my career has afforded me the opportunity to travel the world, and I cannot describe how proud I am to be a Canadian and how fortunate I feel that my parents chose this country as the place to pursue our dreams. For a half century my family and I have been blessed to live in the greatest country on earth.

It’s why I’m so determined, and motivated to ensure, in my professional and personal capacity, that we do all that we can to continue to build on our history as a welcoming nation. One that respects others. One that celebrates diversity. One that competes hard. One that provides opportunities. One that cares. A Canada that remains the envy of the world for future generations of my family and yours.

Goldy Hyder is the President and CEO of the Business Council of Canada. This article was first posted on LinkedIn.