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In mid-October 1980, a current and former environment minister and a group of environmentalists sat down for coffee at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel to plot the demise of acid rain.

The coffee party included John Roberts (federal environment Minister), John Fraser (his predecessor), George Rejhon (Canada’s environment counselor from the Embassy in DC), Monte Hummel (WWF
Canada head), Adèle Hurley (head environment researcher for Ontario’s Liberal opposition leader Stuart Smith), Michael Perley (Canadian Environmental Law Association) and Mark Rudolph (a student of Mr. Hummel’s).

Mr. Fraser and Minister Roberts laid out the situation: “In two weeks, Ronald Reagan will win the election. We cannot beat up on him. We need a third-party to kick up a fuss to keep the issue of acid rain alive. This group will need to have an office in Canada and one in the US to build support for action against acid rain in Congress and with other US officials.”

The consensus was that the stunningly beautiful and plain-speaking 26-year old Adèle Hurley would be just the person to get the acid rain message across to Washington power brokers. Ms. Hurley said she would go on the condition that “Mark takes my job at Queen’s Park.”