SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Bruce Templeton, O.N.L.

Honourable senators, today I am pleased to present Chapter 99 of “Telling Our Story.”

With the spirit of Christmas in the air, I want to tell you about the man in the red suit. While he may answer to being called “Santa” or “St. Nick,” his real name is Bruce Templeton of St. John’s, and he was the embodiment of Santa Claus, spreading hope and happiness throughout our province for over 40 years.

On an October night in 1978, he received a call from his Aunt Anna, who asked him if he would dress as Santa Claus at the church Christmas party. Bruce said he could not turn down his aunt, a celebrated individual in Newfoundland and Labrador through her lifelong involvement with craft development. She went on to design a suit just for him, and his life as Santa began.

He volunteered as Santa at the annual St. John’s Christmas Parade for 40 years, where he was instrumental in establishing the parade’s food drive effort, the largest single gathering of food in our province each year.

Throughout the years, Bruce made more than 1,500 visits to children, community groups, organizations, palliative care units and retirement homes. He often visited terminally ill people, some of them young children who wanted to see Santa.

When he walked through the door during his numerous visits to the Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre, the place would light up with smiles from the children, the parents and all the medical staff.

Bruce said:

The thing I really enjoy is bringing the reality of it all. I do it to keep the dream alive for children. It’s all part of the ministry of providing hope and happiness to families . . . . I also want to make it incredibly believable for children. I don’t want any child to doubt.

Bruce made the not-so-normal seem normal again, if only for a few moments. He participated with Provincial Airlines and a local radio station each Christmas on a “magical flight” for 18 children to the North Pole. Of the children, 17 are selected by the radio station, and 1 is selected by the hospital, as it is likely that it will be his or her last Christmas.

They board an airplane, and when it touches down, they are met by Santa, all dressed up and covered in snow. Bruce said, “There’s no question in the minds of the children that they are at the North Pole.”

He would fill a local church with new Canadians and bring joy and laughter to many children who were celebrating their very first Christmas in Canada.

Bruce Templeton has never charged for his appearances and is a long-time member of Rotary International, which undertook to eradicate world polio. Any money paid to him by corporations is matched by the Gates Foundation, and those funds combined have paid for more than 600,000 polio vaccines throughout the world.

He has personally contributed to paying the cost of the vaccines by donating all the proceeds from the sales of four books he has written. One of those books, a memoir called The Man in the Red Suit, sold more than 20,000 copies and was on The Globe and Mail bestseller list.

Bruce has been recognized for his many years of charitable work by being invested in the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, and he was the recipient of an honorary doctorate of law from the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Bruce is also the only living Canadian inducted into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame, which is an ongoing project that celebrates, studies and preserves the historical documentation of the many men and women who have greatly contributed to the legend of Santa Claus. There is a voting process that judges nominations from throughout the world.

A phrase that Bruce Templeton truly believes in is, “It’s your presence, not presents, that counts.”

Bruce’s presence in the lives of so many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians throughout his many years of giving back to his community has brought much joy and many smiles and treasured memories. His lifelong contribution made a world of difference.

Thank you, Santa Claus. Ho, ho, ho.