It is a farewell concert that is going to be a night to remember for fans of local music and Canmore’s The Last Order.
John Paul McBride and Tara Brehaut have been the core of the band over the past few years, as the galavanting couple travelled the world.
In October, 2012 they arrived in the Bow Valley after deciding to travel west to east across the country before finding a place to live. They didn’t make it past Canmore and have in the meantime made the mountain community their home.
“We naively thought we could drive across all of Canada in a summer and then choose somewhere to live,” Brehaut said. “We were in Alberta in October and we were torn between Banff and Canmore.”
She said after a day of exploring, it was clear Canmore was a community they wanted to be a part of and they soon began playing music to local crowds beginning with a St. Patrick’s Day concert.
Since then, the band has additional local members Grant Hilts and Larry Jarrett, released a CD of Celtic covers and sold out all their live shows. That includes a Friday (Aug. 8) farewell that will also feature Sully’s Garage and Celtic dancers during a three-hour show.
Brehaut and McBride don’t want to leave, but have to due to the fact Brehaut could not find a solution to her working holiday visa expiring. Originally from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, she has used up the two one-year visas a U.K. citizen can get. McBride, with Irish citizenship, could stay for another year without a problem, but has chosen not to.
“This is why we are leaving, because of the mismatch,” he said. “I can stay and legally work until September next year, but Tara’s visa, because she is from the U.K., finishes in August, so I’m not going to stay on my own.”
Brehaut decided to apply to the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program in February and was sponsored by her employer as well. But changes this past summer to the Temporary Foreign Worker program country-wide have affected the AINP process.
“They changed the processing times in June and they are not going to look at my application until next year. The stipulation is that you have to have a current work permit visa and mine runs out in August, so it makes my application void,” she said.
McBride said had they known the processing times would be changed to eight to 12 months in June for the AINP, they would have looked at other options to stay in Canada and may not have had to leave.
“If we had known, we would have done it differently,” he said.
Ogho Ikhalo, a spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour, said the AINP program regularly updates processing times to let applicants know how long it is going to take.
“In terms of why we did that or why it is taking so long is that we did see a high volume of applications over the last year, not necessarily due to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, but obviously it was a factor to the applications we were receiving,” Ikhalo said. “The application has always been a first come, first serve basis. We are keeping with that and processing applications as quickly as we can.”
The couple tried every angle to prevent their departure, bringing in an immigration lawyer, MLA Ron Casey and MP Blake Richards, but the last minute call to say they could stay never came.
With airline tickets bought to take them back to Northern Ireland, where McBride is from, the farewell concert, which is already sold out, looks to be a legendary evening of song and dance at the Legion Hall. A few raffles include a tin whistle and the very last copy of The Last Order’s CD.
“The Legion is our home base and they have been very good to us, along with The Last Call,” McBride said.
There may be a few teary goodbyes, but McBride and Brehaut haven’t given up on Canmore yet. The pair plan to go through job skills training back home to better their chances to return in the future to live here permanently.
“We generally are in awe and we want to thank Canmore and all the people that like our music,” McBride said. “We have never had this before; I don’t know if we will ever have it again, but sure as hell we’ll remember it and that is part of the reason we want to come back as well, it is such a lovely feeling.”
It may not be that long either before they return for a visit, possibly even a St. Patrick’s Day concert in 2015. But in the meantime, McBride said they plan on working on their own music in order to put out a CD of original songs to release.
The Last Order may soon be gone from Canmore, but if McBride and Brehaut’s passion for the community and music is any indication, they’ll return soon.
