Driving in the city on Thanksgiving weekend is not recommended.. I much prefer an afternoon at my desk overlooking the farmland and river, sipping a chilled coffee and munching on a crisp apple from MacLaren Orchards in Renfrew County. We get so few of these days, time to just sit and enjoy.

The necessity to go to Bayshore to collect a couple of fitted sheets at the Hudson’s Bay Company was soon exhausted. Though not without having to confront an uncommon swarm of people and cars. It is however a best kept secret to park at the top tier on the west end. The exit is somewhat prolonged but never unaccommodating.

The Hudson’s Bay Company is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, it became the largest and oldest corporation in Canada, before evolving into a major fashion retailer, operating retail stores across both the United States and Canada. The company’s namesake business division is Hudson’s Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay (La Baie in French).

After incorporation by English royal charter in 1670, the company was granted a right of “sole trade and commerce” over an expansive area of land known as Rupert’s Land, comprising much of the Hudson Bay drainage basin. This right effectively gave the company a commercial monopoly over that area. The HBC functioned as the de facto government in Rupert’s Land for nearly 200 years until the HBC relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869 as part of the Deed of Surrender, authorized by the Rupert’s Land Act 1868.

Until March 2020, the company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “HBC.TO” until Richard Baker and a group of shareholders took the company private. HBC is, as of 2022, the majority owner of eCommerce companies Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th, both established as separate operating companies in 2021.

As though to punctuate the holiday festivities the harvest of the nearby field has begun. But of even more fortuity was a FaceTime call from ancient friends in the South Pacific.  We gabbed for about an hour, skirting upon medical matters, a recent death, politics (American, Canadian and New Zealand), relatives, vegan food and worldwide weather patterns.