Michael Hanson was “born in 1932,
and educated in Sheffield Yorkshire during the last of the depression years. He grew up in wartime when the German bombing
was at its height. After his National Service in the R.A.F., he joined the Metropolitan Police and served in Uniform in the
West End of London before joining the Criminal Investigation Department as a Detective. When he brought his young family to
Canada in 1968, he worked for a while for Pinkerton’s the famous Security Organization before becoming the first Consumer
Affairs Officer in the Government of British Columbia. He went on to become the Director of Trade Practices, enforcing the
first Legislation in Canada which dealt with misleading, deceptive and unconscionable business practices. Happily married
with three children and four grandchildren he is now retired and living in North Saanich, British Columbia. Michael Hanson
is the author of Will You Walk A Little Faster.
According to the book description of
Will You Walk A Little Faster, “The author describes uniform and detective duties in London,
emigration to Canada and working for Pinkerton’s. He was British Columbia's first Consumer Affairs Officer as Consumerism
peaked in the seventies.”
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According to the preface of Will
You Walk A Little Faster, “In responding to society's demands to live life faster, many people rush
through the present to reach the future and are then surprised when they cannot remember many of the events or circumstances
which should have registered as turning points in their life or career. They hear but they don’t listen and they see
but they do not take the time to understand. Walking a beat in London as a Police Constable sees you continually observing
and assessing the things which are going on around you and when dealing with an incident you resist the urge to......walk
a little faster.
You have to listen, question, then
decide what to do and must very often remember everything in detail for a Court proceeding. As a result I have a rich store
of memories to call on. Growing up in Sheffield, which was visited twice by German bombers, through a number of career changes
until retiring in Victoria, British Columbia, after emigrating to Canada. Sitting in the back seat of an early R.A.F. jet
aircraft being thrown around as a Squadron leader puts student pilots through their paces, or trying to help a Detective Inspector
arrest a violent criminal in a pub, where the glasses and chairs are flying are just a few of these memories together with
the challenges of bringing a young family to Canada when the Immigration Department had said that they would not lift a finger
to help us. A policeman, a detective, a farmer and a short stint working for Pinkerton’s before an appointment as British
Columbia's first Consumer Affairs Officer are all departures from the British practice of following one career from leaving
school until retirement. In living through an exciting era which has seen another World War and substantial changes in living
standards and human attitudes, I have always had the good fortune to work at something I enjoyed. Like Omar Khayam I acknowledge
that the past cannot be changed and in a life which has been at times exciting, never predictable and seldom dull, I find
that there is little that I would wish to.”
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