Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/162483
Y ou could call it a case of lawyers in love. As soon as Merle Alexander laid eyes on Tamara Olding at the annual gathering of the Indigenous Bar Association in Calgary in 2004, he was smitten. Both were attending a crowded cocktail reception that evening, and as Merle tried to make his way across the room toward Tamara, his path was repeatedly obstructed by other aboriginal lawyers like himself, and by the aboriginal law students with whom she was attending the event. The two were eventually introduced and connected right away. "We both share a passion for aboriginal law and hope to assist First Nations in becoming big economic players in Canada," says Tamara, 30. "But what I noticed that night was Merle's charm, confidence and warm personality. He's the type of person that people naturally gravitate towards." As a first-year University of Victoria law student, Tamara was attending her first conference at the IBA and she remembers feeling a little intimidated. Merle, 40, was one of the younger lawyers there and put her right at ease. She googled his name as soon as she returned home, even showing his picture to her mom. "I could feel something right away," she recalls with a shy smile. "I knew I had met an incredible man and I was amazed by his determination, the passion for his beliefs and his endless, mischievous humour. I knew, even though we didn't yet have the timing right, that he had left a mark on my heart." Merle, a lawyer with Bull Housser Tupper in Vancouver, had given her his business card at least eight times that evening. "I was trying hard to impress her with all my best qualities," he says. "She just radiated in the room." After the conference, he made quasi-professional inquiries about Tamara under the guise of hiring her at his firm. The two were both dating other people at the time, so over the year that followed they discussed professional matters, keeping the brewing romantic chemistry to themselves. It wasn't until the 2005 IBA conference that they declared their true feelings and launched a long-distance relationship. By then, the pair knew they had plenty in common. Both hail from Northern B.C. — Tamara, a member of the Saulteau First Nation, is from Smithers, while Merle grew up in Terrace and belongs to the Kitasoo First Nation. Like Tamara, he had attended law school at UVic, and both were passionate about putting their degrees towards the aid of aboriginals. Over the next six months, the two spent weekends commuting on the ferries to visit each other, until Tamara arranged to complete her final semester of law school at UBC in Vancouver. Moving in together, the couple was more than ready to build a life under one roof. Top: Merle rented a classic "I'd dated quite a bit before I met Merle, but once 1959 white Jaguar to drive I met him, I honestly could not imagine my life his bride to the wedding. without him," admits Tamara. "When I thought of Middle: Burning sweetgrass in a First Nations our possibilities together, I always felt excited." soul-cleansing ritual Merle says he knew early on that he wanted to known as smudging. Bottom: Tamara and Merle marry Tamara. "She swept my heart away immechose North Arm Farm at diately," he confesses. "But in the winter of 2010, the foot of Pemberton's Mount Currie for their I began counting my pennies and saving for her ceremony, a venue they engagement ring, and that was when I started the felt aptly showcased the beauty of B.C. official process of preparing to make her my wife." p56-63_Law of Attraction One Fine Day.indd 57 4/24/12 3:14:29 PM