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41148318•03/25/14 12 2014 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA ABC 83188 2013/11 By SCOTT SCHMIDT W
ho would have thought bucking a very successful family trend could lead to the most public
position in all of Medicine Hat? Maybe about the same amount who thought the son of a man who hated government would eventually become mayor of the city he was born in.
Strangely enough however, both scenarios are true for Ted Clugston, who at 45 years old is halfway through his first year in the city’s top chair. But if you’d had an opportunity to speak with his father while he was still alive, you’d probably hear that a young Clugston was somewhat expected to go a different way.
Clugston’s father, a family physician and son of the one of the country’s first veterinarians, came to Medicine Hat from Ontario in 1967 with his wife, a nurse. He was chasing the Alberta Advantage, and possibly even running from a certain political mindset.
“He came here because he saw this as a province of opportunity and he saw this city as the best," said Clugston. "My father hated government and taxes, so he came here because it was the lowest tax city in the lowest tax province.”
A year later Ted was born, followed by his brother Tim. Brother Tim did what Clugstons do, attended medical school and is now a practising family physician in town.
Older brother Ted simply couldn’t make himself go through it.
Clugston did start off with medical intentions, as he received a bachelor of science from the University of Calgary and was expecting to go into dental school. It just didn’t happen.
“I was the first male Clugston in three generations not to have a PhD,” he jokes now, even including his uncles on the list he’s excluded from. But the answer as to why he quit before really getting started is very simple.
“Hated it,” he says. “I just didn’t like school, couldn’t sit still. I get bored very easily.”
He did have his science degree, majored in biology, but in the early ’90s jobs weren’t exactly plentiful and when teachers can’t even get work, a biology degree isn’t going to get many offers.
One thing he could do with his degree apparently was go sell life insurance, which he says several in his graduating class did, including Clugston. He toughed out the hard times of the insurance industry and eventually built himself a clientele that provided
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