As a child, Lora-Lee Miller often got up at dawn, walking through a muddy barnyard in her typical outfit – rubber boots and a long dress – to milk the cows on the family farm.
Later, she could be on top of a tractor, carrying bales, only to help cook dinner afterwards for her father, uncle, grandfather and others, who looked after the big one. dairy farm near Clavet, Saskatchewan.
Lora-Lee and Jeff Miller at their wedding in 2003; the two had been inseparable since they met in the 1990s at a local nightclub.
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Lora-Lee and Jeff Miller at their wedding in 2003; the two had been inseparable since they met in the 1990s at a local nightclub.
To boot, Miller took care of his younger brother, Dallas, while often doing homework for his older brother Mark because he was busy doing farm chores.
It was a typical day for Miller from the age of 10 until she moved to Winnipeg as a teenager. In Manitoba’s capital, she rose through the ranks of the investment industry to become one of Canada’s foremost experts in financial market regulation.
Whether it was the mud on the farm or the boardroom table, Miller’s life was marked by one characteristic, older brother Mark Tisdall says, “She was a very, incredibly hard worker.”
Investment Industry
“She was very, very thorough and… smart as a whip,” said colleague Keith Riddoch, President and CEO of RJ O’Brien in Canada.
The two worked together in the industry in Winnipeg before RJ O’Brien launched his Canadian subsidiary in 2011, which Miller was instrumental in commissioning.
“She was really the one who did the research, filled out all the paperwork and submitted everything to the regulators,” Riddoch said.
investment industry
“In this predominantly male world, she thrived – not to show people, but to show that a woman could do it,” he says.
Miller was well positioned to work as a regulator, with the strength of character to stand up for what is right. It didn’t hurt that she also had a great sense of humor.
“Compliance people have this reputation for being stuffy,” says Riddoch. “But she was the opposite: witty, and had no problem fighting back against the brokers.”
Passages
Kevin Rollason’s Sunday Bulletin honors and recalls lives well lived in Manitoba.
Miller also had a deep affection for animals; Marty, the family’s rescue cat, loved her just as much. When Miller was recovering last year, recovering from what started in May as an abdominal infection, Marty stayed by his side.
Unfortunately, she never recovered, eventually hospitalized when the infection spread to major organs.
“She just wanted to get better but she couldn’t, for some reason,” said Jeff.
His death – at the peak of his career – was made all the more difficult by COVID-19 restrictions, limiting hospital visits and attendance at his funeral, Tisdall says.
Still, the older brother finds solace in a “heart to heart” they had by the pool at her home last summer.
“She said, ‘I’ve had a fantastic career; my husband is my world, and I’ve been so lucky in my life that I could die tomorrow, and I would feel whole and very lucky.'”
