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By Susan
Hickman
 You
can’t keep a
man like
Cliff Poulin
down. This
86-year-old
real estate
agent, who
has been
known to put
in a 70-hour
week, and
works out at
the gym
three
mornings a
week, says
if he won
the lottery
tomorrow, he
wouldn’t
change what
he’s doing
today.
Quick to
admit, “Age
has a way of
catching up
to you,”
Poulin says
he stays
healthy by
maintaining
a regular
weight-lifting
program and
taking
natural
vitamins. He
also keeps
abreast of
health-related
issues,
which he
shares with
his
colleagues,
and loves to
experiment
with new,
healthy
recipes at
home.
Certainly
not a health
nut in his
younger
years,
Poulin
struggled
with heart
disease,
likely
exacerbated
by a 35-year
one-pack-a-day
smoking
habit and
eating fatty
foods. One
of
world-renowned
heart
surgeon Dr.
Wilbur
Keon’s first
patients,
Poulin’s
open-heart
surgery at
the age of
50 was
televised.
The drastic
intervention
influenced
him to quit
smoking, but
within six
weeks he was
partying in
Mexico. It
wasn’t until
this Second
World War
veteran was
in his early
60s that he
started to
pay more
attention to
his health.
His current
fitness
routine,
health
regime and
outright
enthusiasm
for life
keep him
young at
heart and,
according to
his boss at
Bank Street
Royal LePage,
a “flirt.”
Not at all
influenced
by the fact
that he has
a son in his
late 60s who
is already
semi-retired,
Poulin began
his real
estate
career at
the age of
64 when he
left his
25-year job
with a
janitorial
supplies
manufacturer.
“I retired
on a Friday
night,”
recalls
Poulin of
that day in
1984, “and
on Monday
morning, I
was taking a
real estate
course. I
had no
intention
then of
doing what
I’m doing
today. I
just wanted
to find out
what it was
about and I
thought I
might dabble
. . .” But
Poulin’s
dabbling
turned into
serious
study of the
business,
and he
became a
licensed
representative.
“People who
retire and
do nothing
are just
waiting to
die,” says
Poulin, who
has been
working
since he was
five years
old, when he
helped his
father dig a
foundation
under the
house, and
polished
shoes in his
father’s
barber shop
on Albert
Street.
When the war
broke out,
Poulin
enlisted
with the
Governor
General’s
Foot Guards.
At first, he
was turned
down because
of a heart
murmur. But
he tried
again the
next day and
was
accepted.
Three months
later, while
stationed at
Lansdowne
Park, the
letter
detailing
his heart
murmur
arrived, and
Poulin tore
it up. “I
didn’t want
anyone to
know,”
Poulin
recalls.
Poulin
served in
the Canadian
Army for
five years,
and went
overseas as
part of the
Armoured
Corps in
early 1943.
In 1944, he
went into
battle in
France as a
tank
commander.
Within two
weeks, he
was wounded
in the arm,
but
recovered
quickly and
returned to
the front.
Later that
year, he was
wounded
again at the
Leopold
Canal in
northern
Belgium.
“I was
looking out
of the tank,
stubbornly
not wearing
a helmet –
it bothered
me – and I
saw the
sniper in a
tree. I saw
him shoot
me. The
bullet hit
me in the
head, but
didn’t
penetrate
the skull.”
Mr. Poulin
lost his
power of
speech
immediately,
but
gradually
regained it
after
several
months, by
reading
aloud.
“The life
you create,”
Poulin
philosophizes,
“is up to
you. You
have to make
your own
personal
choices.
Nobody can
be forced to
do
anything.”
“We are all
born with a
paintbrush
in our
hands,” he
says, “and
every day we
add
something
new to the
canvas of
life.”
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