Moses Znaimer has gone back to the place where his family entered Canada in 1948.

The founder of ZoomerMedia, which owns this radio station, was at Pier 21 in Halifax last night to honour Bill VanGorder, an advocate of CARP – A New Vision of Aging. VanGorder is someone Moses calls “a model Canadian.”

(Bill VanGorder, photo credit: CBC)

Moses’ family came through Pier 21 when he was five years old. In fact, Moses says there was a foretelling of what his life would be as he arrived in Canada. Before setting foot on Canadian soil, he was going down the gangplank and was photographed, and that picture later appeared on the front page of what was then the largest circulating magazine in the country. The caption read Displaced Person with a Future, which Moses says he loves to this day.

(Moses upon arrival in Canada, 1948)

His parents were Polish and Latvian Jews and fled the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during World War 2 ending up in Soviet Tajikistan. After the war, they found themselves in a German displaced persons camp, ultimately leaving on a small boat headed for Canada and then a train to Montreal.

Moses Znaimer is a co-founder and former head of CityTV. He also created the 24-hour music channel MuchMusic. His vision continues here at ZoomerMedia, where we target “baby boomers with zip”.