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When Lofty MacMillan was appointed CUPEs National Director of Organizing and Servicing in 1967, the unions membership was 86,000.

As a result of his leadership CUPE had grown to 286,000 members by the time Lofty retired fifteen years later in 1983. He oversaw the period of CUPEs most dramatic growth.

This is the story of his life as told with all the colour of a Cape Breton storyteller.

Union blood flows through Loftys veins every hour of the day. From the day he went down into the coal mines at age 16, to the day he was delegated to be the youngest delegate at the Mine Workers Convention in Washington, to the time he became a Saint John police officer and eventually president of the police union, the union was the driving force in his life.

When Lofty became a union staffer, he covered the four Atlantic provinces solo. On top of that he became a city councillor and president of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour.

Throughout his life Lofty cherished his Gaelic traditions and on retirement he became president of the Clan MacMillan.

This is a vividly told story of the struggles and commitment that shaped CUPE as well as the social and political life of our age.