Shawn McCord of belairdirect joins Mega Recruitment Drive winner Janet Harrison for a congratulatory photo. Harrison is going to Japan with her husband, thanks in part to her win of a $10,000 travel voucher from Collette and $5,000 spending money from belairdirect.
Janet Harrison is Japan-bound thanks to her efforts to recruit members to the National Association of Federal Retirees.
“I was just telling my friends and family — my sister, my husband and a girlfriend of mine — that they should sign up,” says Harrison, whose friends and family noted that she referred them when they joined and she was therefore entered into the association’s Mega Recruitment Drive (MRD). She won one of two grand prizes — a $10,000 travel voucher from Collette and $5,000 spending money, courtesy of belairdirect insurance.
All members are invited and encouraged to take part in the MRD that takes place in the autumn. For every member you recruit, your name is entered into the draw for the prizes listed here. The 2024 MRD generated 1,016 new members, which means the odds of winning amazing prizes and travel experiences are good.
“Japan is somewhere I’ve always had in the back of mind, but it’s expensive so it was always slipping down on my list,” says the member who lives in Manotick in suburban Ottawa. “I’m a passionate traveller, my husband less so, but he allows himself to be dragged here and there. So I thought if we’re ever going to make it to Japan, this is what will spur us into action. It doesn’t cover it fully, but it takes a big chunk out of it. I probably never would have gotten to the point of spending that much money. This is the time to bite the bullet and go now that I’ve had this delightful surprise.”
She says she likes to explore different cultures and Japan is intriguing because it’s a beautiful country with incredible history.
“I like to go to places that are different from where we live,” Harrison says. “I’m not a fan of sushi, but my husband is so that’ll be an enticement for him. And I’ve travelled with Collette before to New Zealand and on another trip to Australia and I’ve had good experiences with them. I know it’ll be great.”
Harrison has also had good experiences with MEDOC travel insurance (to be rebranded as belairdirect travel insurance on July 1), which is an exclusive perk of membership in Federal Retirees. She recalls having booked a trip to Italy and putting out her back just before their departure.
“I couldn’t sit and I was facing a five-hour flight,” she says, and “we had to cancel. I found MEDOC very good about helping me out with the cost.”
The gift of travel
Gilles Cantin of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, a city about 40 kilometres north of Montreal, also won a grand prize of a $10,000 travel voucher from Collette and $5,000 spending money courtesy of belairdirect insurance. But Cantin can no longer travel so he generously gave the prize to his son and daugheter-in-law, Philippe Cantin and Caroline Levesque.
“I looked at the Collette site and found a couple of trips,” Philippe says. “We are looking at Italy in May 2026 and we’re probably going to go with a couple of friends. We considered May this year, but that’s coming too quickly.”
Philippe is also a member of Federal Retirees, having recently retired from Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).
“I’m a third-generation correctional services officer,” he said, adding that his father and paternal grandfather both worked in the profession. “It was a good career for 29 years.”
Levesque also works for CSC and will retire in three years.
Best recruiter
Once again Joanne Morrissey, of tiny Bay Roberts, N.L., has won the prize
for top recruiter, which this year was a $1,000 pre-paid credit card, compliments of Arbor Memorial. Morrissey says there are about 6,000 potential members in her area and the branch only has 2,300 members so her job isn’t done yet.
“This is the first time I’ve ever received $1,000,” she says, adding that she hasn’t decided what to do with it, but she’ll likely give it to her children. “I have two kids and my husband had five kids and we have 12 grandkids so I have lots of people to give it to. One year, I used it to pay for my extra luggage when I took a bunch of things to Cuba to donate.”
Morrissey says her fellow members of Federal Retirees don’t work hard enough at recruiting.
“I do it because of the challenge, but not to get the prize,” she says. “I challenge myself. So if I got 17 referrals, next year I have to get 18. I do work at it. She says she reaches out to people she knows. “If I know they’re eligible and haven’t joined, I call them, and then I follow up with an email and send them a brochure. And then I keep following up until they join. Some people I worked with at Service Canada haven’t joined, but I keep at them and every year I get one or two. There’s still about four left who haven’t joined. Those people who haven’t joined were all union leaders when they were working.”
She says she referenced the fact that the federal government diverted some of the federal pension surplus to general revenues. “That was a good thing to bring up with my pitch,” she says. “It got people’s ire up.”
Early bird gets the prize
Deirdre Keane became a member of Federal Retirees when she was looking into travel insurance for a big trip to Africa in 2026 to celebrate her 65th birthday and her husband’s 70th.
Over the course of her research, the Ottawa resident discovered how expensive travel insurance can be as one gets older. Then she remembered hearing about MEDOC travel insurance and looked into it.
“I read all the benefits of being a member and realized it was nothing in terms of costs,” Keane says. “We travel at least three times a year, and they top up your insurance if you get sick while travelling, so I joined. And then I have a group of retired friends and we were chatting and they decided to join, too. I didn’t even know about the recruitment drive or the prizes.”
When Keane got the call that she’d won a prize of a $1,000 pre-paid credit card compliments of IRIS Advantage, she says it was a pleasant surprise.
Asked what she did with her prize, she said spent it on a very luxurious spa day for her husband, herself and her daughter.
“My daughter is a foreign service officer,” Keane says. “She works in Lebanon, and she came home at the beginning of December after living there during that very tumultuous time. It was very hard for her and hard for us, so the three of us went and spent it all at Nordik Spa Village in Chelsea, Que. “That bought us our entrance fee, massages, head massages, mimosas and a beautiful lunch. It was nice just to put that card down and spend it on that.”