Publius

Publius was born in Toronto, Ontario during the dying days of disco to a family of iterant trapeze artists. After a brief stint as a child musician in The Parachute Club the young Publius attended a variety of public schools in Metropolitan Toronto. During this time he acquired a fierce dislike of both formal education and the Ministry of Education itself. After leaving school at the age of 12 he worked a variety of odd jobs, among them delivering pizzas and performing small engine repairs in a mechanic’s shop on Coxwell Ave. At night he taught himself political science, classics, history, and Austrian and neo-classical economic theory.

At the age of nineteen, on the advice of his career counselor, Lady Shauna, one of the leading Tarot Card Readers in the Junction District, Publius enrolled at the University of Toronto. After contemplating, and then rejecting, majors in engineering, physics, tapestry and library sciences he enrolled in a double major in History and Economics with a minor in Commerce and Finance. Finding himself, inexplicably, unemployed after graduation the enterprising Publius started a series of business ventures that were subsequently found to be in violation of both Criminal Code Statues 13.1 and 13.4, as well as the British North America Act (1867).

Later on, through shrewd speculation in both Bre-X and Nortel stocks, Publius was able to acquire a substantial fortune and currently lives off the interest. While not exactly a “conservative” in his intellectual perspective, or life style, Publius has always been an enthusiastic supporter of right of center political parties at both the federal and provincial levels. The only exception to this was a momentary lapse of judgment in 1988 when he supported the Liberal Party during the famous Free Trade election of that year. This was due to a misunderstanding of the terms of the FTA deal, particularly as regards the arbitration mechanism for textile and softwood lumber disputes. His autobiography, I Am Publius: Confessions of a Canadian Blogger, was published in 2003 and was awarded the Governor General’s prize for Best Non-Aboriginal Southern European Ethnic Narrative and Short Story. He currently resides somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area with his wife and cat. They have two children.