A Celebration of Miles' life will be held at the Calgary Golf and Country Club, 50th Avenue and Elbow Drive SW, on Friday, January 21 from 3 to 7 pm. If you wish to participate in the full program, please be seated by 3:15.
We also invite you to share your happiest memory of Miles by posting a comment below or emailing it to emccoy@macleodinstitute.com. Your memories will be included in a Legacy Scrapbook which will become a family treasure.
Miles Hudson Patterson, QC, died at home peacefully on Saturday, January 15. He is lovingly survived by his wife, Senator Elaine McCoy; his four children (Pip, Jack (Eva), Pam (Joop) and Neil (Judith)); 9 grandchildren; and 3 great grandchildren.
Born 88 years ago in Calgary, Alberta, Miles lived a life inspired by intellectual curiosity, a fierce loyalty to family and friends, and a commitment to principle. He was kind, generous, and genuinely funny with his dry wit and abiding love of the English language.
Miles graduated from high school at the age of 16. Son to Ward and Gertrude, his early years were filled with an eclectic mix of studies and outdoor pursuits. He loved the Boy's Own Annual and one of his fondest memories was attempting to build a radio following its instructions. Everything went well until he tried turning it on … nothing worked! He tried and tried again; finally Ward took pity on him and brought home a magnificent cherry wood console radio for Christmas. It was Ward, too, who introduced Miles to the joys of mountain hiking, fishing and canoeing.Miles' lifetime love of cooking was also rooted in his childhood years. Because Gertrude was frequently bedridden, she enlisted Miles' help from an early age. He often spoke with affection of his mother's great sense of humour and how she instilled in her young son a love of wordplay. He recalled making his first pun on board a ship taking him and Gertrude to England in 1926. When a fellow shipmate asked how old he was, he replied "I was four when I left but I've been sicks (six) on the ship!"
After high school, Miles got his first full time job at the Commerce Bank as it was then known. Although still too young to enlist, he was nevertheless eager to join the war effort which he finally managed to do in 1941. Lying about his age and fudging his eye examination, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals with the 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division and served overseas in WWII until 1945. He fought his way up through Italy, participated in the Battle of Monte Cassino as well as many others, and then continued north to liberate the Netherlands. Ever afterwards, Miles said he'd been lucky to have a Grand Tour of Europe – he only wished he hadn't been wearing a brown suit the whole time.
Back in Canada, Miles attended the University of Alberta. His initial thought was to become a history professor, until he found out that their annual stipend was only $5,000. His father's advice to follow him into the law suddenly became much more attractive. He therefore enrolled in law, at which he excelled. Along the way, he met and married Phyllis Owen. Their first child, Philip, was born in 1949. Miles promptly nicknamed his son 'Pip' after the character in Dickens' Great Expectations. He spent many hours with Pip perched on his shoulders as he studied for his final exams.
Three more children arrived in quick succession – Pam in 1952, Jack in 1953 and Neil in 1954. Miles devoted himself to his young family. Although busy building his career as a court room lawyer, he always came home at dinner time to play with the children, have dinner with them and then put them to bed, often reading them classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows. He would then return to the office where he worked until the wee hours of the morning.
In 1957, Miles was appointed Counsel to the Royal Commission on Energy (the Borden Commission) which had been established by Prime Minister Diefenbaker. The key issue was whether or not to build an oil pipeline from Edmonton to Montreal to open Canadian markets for independent Alberta producers. The Commission concluded that a pipeline should be built only as far east as the Ottawa Valley. The government accepted its recommendation, which became known as the National Oil Policy. Markets west of central Ontario, as well as those south of the border, therefore became the preserve of western Canadian producers. In addition, the Commission suggested that the National Energy Board (NEB) be created to administer the policy; it began operations in 1961.
Miles next became intrigued with the possibility of producing oil offshore, which at that time was a frontier that few people could fathom. He undertook extensive studies of geological formations in the North Sea, and hit upon the idea that Norway, with its great shipbuilding tradition, could leverage its expertise to build floating offshore platforms. For most of the next decade, Miles regularly commuted between Calgary and Oslo as he helped establish Norway's offshore oil and gas industry. In 1967, he took his entire family on a trip to Norway to christen the first ever drill ship.
In the meantime, Miles at the age of 40 became an accredited Level Two ski instructor. He received top honours in his graduating class for his prowess in teaching as well as for his ability to ski. He became famous for two techniques … the 'outhouse crouch' (a tuck designed to optimize speed in downhill racing) and the 'OMG turn' (the moment at which you're sure you're going to fall, which is the precise moment you make those skis turn and execute the perfect downhill manoeuvre). He also got all four children involved in competitive downhill racing, volunteering endless weekends as a race marshall, chauffeur and coach. His love of coaching and rhetoric transferred easily to the dining room table. His children recall neverending debates on a wide range of topics as they learned to digest ideas along with their father's experimental menus.
Miles became Chair of the Alberta Public Utilities Board (PUB) in 1972, and married his secretary, Joy Chapman, the following year. They subsequently moved back to Calgary where he went into private practice (later becoming Counsel to Howard Mackie). His first big case was representing the City of Edmonton in its succesful bid to break into the Alberta power generation business. Against all the odds, Miles convinced the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) that a municipality could and should generate electricity both for its own needs and for other customers.
Another landmark case arose in 1980. Atco Ltd. initiated a hostile take over bid for Calgary Power, now known as TransAlta Utilities (TAU). Miles was retained by TAU to represent its interests before the PUB, where Elaine McCoy was Senior Legal Counsel. Again against all the odds, Miles' innovative arguments won the day all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In 1988, two months after the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Miles and Elaine were married and celebrated their wedding at the Calgary Golf and Country Club. Miles' penchant for coaching immediately came to the fore. While snow was still on the slopes, Miles was keen to initiate Elaine into his skiing world. He took her to the baby slope on Sunshine – nothing worked. Pixie dust, nothing! He ever afterwards maintained that she was his one and only failure as a ski instructor. When the snows melted, however, he introduced her to flyfishing. Eureka! She took to it immediately … for the next two decades, Elaine and Miles passionately pursued the sport on the Bow, the Crowsnest, in the Canadian Arctic and all along the great barrier reef on the east coast of the Americas.
1994 saw Miles once again back in front of the National Energy Board (NEB), this time representing InterProvincial Pipelines Ltd. (now Enbridge) in another historical first – the Multi-Pipeline Cost of Capital hearing. The hearing went on and on. As proceedings finally drew nearer to closing arguments, Miles conceived of the idea to present his client's position by way of a poem, in order to introduce some sense of proportion to the issues. His were the final words in the hearing. In rhyming couplets, he summed up the arguments pro and con in brilliant fashion … everyone in the courtroom hung on his every word. When he sat down, the entire room erupted in spontaneous applause. Never before had a lawyer received a standing ovation for his presentation.
Miles retired from public practice after helping the Government of the Northwest Territories establish its own Public Utilities Board. Miles drafted its enabling statute, acted as Board counsel and served as a member of the Board.
In retirement, Miles continued to explore ideas, support his family, and espouse the basic principles of fairness and respect for others. He was, to the very end, the mainstay his family relied upon. We shall miss him, but his legacy of laughter and love will live on.
