I covered a conference today whose attendees were leading lights in Canada's tech industry. I haven't covered a tech conference in a long time but, throughout the 1990s, as a technology reporter for The Hamilton Spectator, National Post and, later, The Globe and Mail, I went to tons of tech conferences here and in the United States. The executive uniform for these was invariably khaki pants, a crisp blue shirt (possibly a button down) and then, if there was a dinner, you brought the all-purpose blue blazer to dress the whole thing up. (You'd been wearing a pair of penny loafers, of course, because they dress up or down.)
I was surprised — and a little saddened — to see the male attendees of this particular tech conference in Ottawa today wearing business attire, which is to say, a dark suit with a tie. Even my old friend Michael Geist had a tie on! Me, I showed up in khakis and a very bright pink-and-tan gingham patterned shirt which my wife says looks like a tablecloth, and felt decidedly as if this group had definitely passed me by.
So you can understand how relieved I was when the Prime Minister's Office e-mailed their handout photo-du-jour to press gallery reporters. It is a picture of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty reviewing Important Documents today at Willson House which overlooks beautiful Meech Lake, Quebec. I reproduce the photo below (pic taken by Jason Ransom, the Prime Minister's official photographer), if only to reaffirm that khakis and a crisp blue shirt is still a classic look for business wear anytime between June 1 and Sept. 30.
Are you sure the prime minister isn't actually sporting cords? It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks too dark to be khaki.
Oh, puh-leaze. Cords? On a day when it's 28C?! 🙂
I think they 'wrinkle' to nicely to be cords, no?
With/without blue blazer?