Acclaimed Nova Scotia writer Budge Wilson has died at the age of 93.
Wilson died Friday evening in a Halifax hospital with a friend by her side. Wilson had been dealing with complications from a fall in early March.
Best known as a children’s author, she wrote more than 30 books for all ages.
“She isn’t entirely gone,” Andrea Wilson, Budge’s daughter, said Sunday. “She’s left a legacy through her writing, and through the people she’s inspired.”
Wilson began her writing career later in life, publishing her first book in 1984 when she was 56, according to a biography from Dalhousie University, her alma mater and the home to her personal archives.
Andrea remembers how Wilson would curl up with her daughters in the evenings and tell them a story she’d made up that day. It was usually a “continuing saga,” and Wilson always left them on tenterhooks wanting to know what happened next.
“But first my sister and then me, we wanted to read our own books and read ourselves to sleep,” Andrea said.
“So she didn’t have anyone to tell stories to, but they kept on coming. So she started writing them down.”
N.S. author Budge Wilson accepts flowers at her 92nd birthday party held at Halifax’s Woozles bookstore in 2019. (Andrew B. Conrad)
Andrea remembers her mother as a “spitfire,” who stood under five feet tall and was always surrounded by many friends from different generations.
Wilson was always inspiring, real living proof that you could do whatever you wanted to, Andrea said.
She never made the switch to computers, and always wrote long-hand. Andrea said that might have been what attracted Dalhousie to compiling her many notes and drafts, since one can actually trace all the edits and changes that went into Wilson’s finished books.
Her works include The Leaving, a collection of short stories which won many awards, Lorinda’s Diary, and Thirteen Never Changes.
The Leaving is currently being recorded for Unbound, an audiobrook project with Neptune Theatre and the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.
“It’s every bit as good as Alice Munro, it’s those coming of age stories that really stick with you,” said Marilyn Smulders, the executive director of the writers’ federation.
Smulders said Budge was not only a gifted storyteller, but supported many younger artists in the province.
One of her most successful recent works, Before Green Gables, is a prequel to L.M. Montgomery’s famous series of books around Anne Shirley.
At 80, Wilson spoke about her work, life and stepping into Anne’s world as part of a series with Mount Saint Vincent University.
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Wilson was born and educated in Nova Scotia, but spent many years in Ontario.
She returned home in 1989, and lived in Northwest Cove on St. Margarets Bay. In recent years, Wilson and her husband, Alan, were living in a retirement facility in Halifax.
Friends and family remember Wilson as spirited, kind, and someone who loved interacting with young people when she visited schools across the county.
A mentor to many Nova Scotia writers, and good friend of fellow Canadian literary icon Margaret Laurence, Wilson was a member of the Order of Canada and Order of Nova Scotia.
A book of poetry, Wilson’s first, about the Swissair crash of 1998 came out just five years ago.
Information Morning – NS9:28Budge Wilson: After Swissair
Jill MacLean, also a Halifax children’s author, said that collection was very important to Wilson, whose former home overlooked the waters where the plane went down.
She’ll always picture Wilson perched up on her bed with a notepad in a corner room during a writers’ retreat, MacLean said, “writing away with a smile on her face.”
The pair also had a tradition of strolling down Spring Garden Road to have brunch at the Smitty’s, where Wilson always wanted a “warm beer in a wine glass,” MacLean laughed.
The servers got to know her after many visits and always obliged, MacLean said.
MacLean also wrote an introduction to a book compiling people’s memories of Wilson, simply titled Budge, which she shared with CBC.
“She embraces adventure and makes us feel safe,” MacLean said in the introduction. “She redefines what an elderly woman can be. And most of all, her presence clarifies our own stories.”
Halifax author Budge Wilson, centre, attends a Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia event celebrating her work in 2018. Wilson died on Friday at age 93. (Nicola Davison)
In 2003, Wilson was awarded the Municipality of Halifax Mayor’s Award for Cultural Achievement in Literature, and has earned 19 Canadian Children’s Book Centre “Our Choice” awards.
Her books have been frequently read and dramatized on CBC, American and international radio.
Wilson leaves behind her husband, two daughters and grandchildren.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
