Canadian Lawyer

TODAY IS YOUR DAY! SO . . . GET ON YOUR WAY! YOU'RE OFF TO GREAT PLACES! YOUR MOUNTAIN IS WAITING. BE YOUR NAME BUXBAUM OR BIXBY OR BRAY OR MORDECAI ALI VAN ALLEN O'SHEA, I Sandra Leduc on top of Switzerland's famous Matterhorn. — OH, THE PLACES YOU WILL GO, DR. SEUSS magine, if you will, Leo Leduc passing time in an airport bookstore in 1990 when he sees Dr. Seuss' last book Oh, The Places You Will Go, just after it is published. The Canadian diplomat spies it on the shelf with the other new releases and smiles to himself as he thinks of his children, Kevin and Sandra. The Leducs, you see, lived the book in the 1970s and 80s. Long before it came to be in print, Leo made it a real-life movie and the kids got to star as themselves. The places they went. The places his daughter continues to go. "My father very much believed in taking us wherever he felt like going and seeing the world, dent in Moncton, N.B., in 2000. He hit a vehicle that had abruptly come to a stop ahead of him. Sandra says he led the family on a tour of the world to sat- isfy his thirst for adventure. As an adult, she continues to follow his teachings, having been to 60 countries by her current age of 34 and continuing to see as much of the world as she can. In June of this year she began a stint with the Representative Office of Canada to the Palestinian Authority, working for the Canadian International Development Agency in Ramallah, West Bank. She describes her father as "an adrenaline junkie"; it is also what Leduc says in the days following her most impressive adventure, climbing Mount Everest. "I get it from him." Leo Leduc was 56 when he was killed in a motorcyle acci- " Sandra, a lawyer, comfortably calls herself. But after challenging herself in anonymity for many years, she was thrown into the public eye and a media whirlwind last May when she successfully attempted a most-treacherous trip, climbing the world' peak. The Canadian media wasn't asking for her phone number in 2011 when she returned from an equally dangerous trip, living and working for two years in Afghanistan, but they followed her every move up Everest. Leduc reached the top of the world on May 26 on her second summit s tallest attempt. Six days previously, her party had to abandon its initial attempt due to weather. That itself came a few hours after six people had died trying, including another Canadian woman, Shriya Shah-Klorfine of Toronto, in what was an especially unwelcoming spring climbing season made more difficult by what many believe were over-crowded conditions. www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com OCTO BER 2012 25

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