The deliberately crafted plan that Faculty of Law alumnus Carman McNary, QC, has lived his life by is this: collect amazing experiences, forge fascinating relationships and gather wisdom. On paper and during lively conversation, it appears he's nailed it all.
McNary, '78 BA, '81 LLB, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Alberta on June 5, for a lifetime of professional and volunteer service that is profoundly varied, meaningful and inspiring.
"Carman McNary is admired throughout the Edmonton legal, business and philanthropic communities as a generous and effective champion of their most pressing issues," said Paul Paton, dean of the Faculty of Law. "He has been a loyal supporter of the Faculty and in particular, our new initiatives on mental health and wellness, and we are delighted to celebrate his contributions as a lawyer and citizen with this honorary doctor of laws degree."
While becoming one of Canada's top tax lawyers, the former managing partner of Dentons Edmonton and a sessional instructor at the Faculty from 2001 to 2006, McNary also served at sea and on-shore, part-time and in active-duty, as an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy.
"The Navy really satisfied my desire to learn and my curiosity. said McNary, who entered the Navy at 17 as a summer job, and worked his way through posts as a navigator to commander of ships at sea, including being the first commanding officer of HMCS Glace Bay. "It trained me both technically and in leadership, but also to engage actively, to be organized and time- efficient."
By arranging breaks in his law career, he served at sea and progressed to command of HMCS Glace Bay and commander of HMCS Nonsuch (Edmonton's Naval Reserve Unit), and then served as president of the Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers (CIOR) at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He retired with the rank of Captain (Navy).
Keen to serve in other ways, McNary has since become a leader in disparate areas of Alberta's legal, business, philanthropic and arts communities, and it's fair to say that his legion of extracurricular efforts have benefited almost every citizen in Edmonton.
He has chaired the Edmonton Community Foundation, which distributes hundreds of grants annually. He co-chaired Edmonton's 2017 United Way campaign, was vice-chair of the Metro Mayors Advisory Task Force, and served on the Mayor's Task Force on Poverty and on the Edmonton Homeless Commission.
"I don't think you can have a broad range of personal experiences and a network of other people with personal experiences without learning empathy and realizing the importance of supporting humanity and challenging the problems," he said, explaining his passion for helping eradicate poverty and homelessness.
"The first question is, what level of poverty are you prepared to tolerate? Are you willing to step over someone on Jasper Avenue who is living on the street? If not, then you have to say how are we going to solve this? What do we need to do?"
McNary also sits on numerous boards for private corporations, authorities and not-for-profit entities. In those, his interests are also far-flung. He's a director of the Regional Airport Authority, chair of the Alberta Advisory Board to the cannabis retailer Fire & Flower Inc., and chair of the Edmonton Screen Industries Office, whose mandate is to make our city a centre for international media productions.
"I grew up curious and with a willingness to try stuff," said McNary. "I give my dad credit for that. He was a voracious reader; I'm a voracious reader; he had broad taste in music, I have broad taste in music; he had an interest in art, I have an interest in art."
McNary's father was a large-animal veterinarian and his mother a professional pianist who raised their family in Stony Plain, Alta. Their circumstances were modestly middle-class, he says, but their lives and that of their extended family was rich.
"Nobody had much but with my parents and family, including uncles and aunts, we had great conversations around the dinner table. We argued, we discussed, we debated. That set the tone."
Professionally, McNary practices in the areas of taxation and corporate law, acting for Canadian and international companies, and also offering advice in respect of structures with First Nation enterprises. He's been recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada as "Lawyer of the Year" in tax law (Edmonton), and made its list as one of the country's leading tax lawyers every year from 2013 to 2018.
"I love my legal career," he said, noting that the breadth of clients and the complex and innovative issues in tax litigation law have afforded him opportunities many lawyers never get. He's worked for government and in private practice, argued a case at Supreme Court, and another in functional French (because of a perhaps ill-advised point he made to the judge).
Another advantage of being a tax litigation lawyer, he says, is that it created in him the skill to quickly learn all about a new topic, its processes and structures, and then convince others of its value - all traits that have served him well when he sits on a board for an issue new to him.
His zest for tackling new experiences prompted him to consciously create a balanced life. Working with his wife and life partner, Averie (also a classmate and '81 LLB), long-term goals and plans were developed that, with Averie's unflinching support, allowed McNary to pursue his non-law interests while not short-changing his family or his primary career.
"If you have a good reason to control your calendar, clients respect it, courts respect it, the system respects it," he said. "If you're deliberate about that, anything is possible in our profession."