After the university drug bust, there was considerable pressure from our family for Reggie to stop dealing drugs and find another direction. Reggie later described the decision in his own words:

“But after getting busted there was a lot of pressure from my family to go straight so I decided to give it a try. Not in Souris, but in Toronto.”

Before making the move, Reggie returned to P.E.I. It was during this period that he met the woman he would eventually marry. As Reggie later wrote:

“After I wrapped things up at St. Mary’s, I moved back home to P.E.I. That’s where I met my future wife. She and I were perfect together (or so I thought). She had a good sense of humor and she didn’t mind me selling drugs or hanging out with my friends all night. She never complained about anything, and she tolerated all my bad habits.”

At the time, Reggie had no conventional job and, by his own account, wasn’t particularly interested in finding one:

“But I didn’t have a job in P.E.I. I didn’t want to work anyway. I could make a lot more money selling dope. But after getting busted there was a lot of pressure from my family to go straight so I decided to give it a try. Not in Souris, but in Toronto.”

Reggie decided that if he was going to try a different life, he would do it somewhere other than Souris. He chose Toronto.

Trying to Go Straight

Toronto probably appealed to Reggie for several reasons. He loved music, and the city offered access to music and culture that wasn’t readily available in Eastern Canada at the time. Its much larger economy also offered more possibilities for finding legitimate work, even with a criminal record.

Most importantly, Toronto offered some distance from his old life.

Reggie found work at a record and tape distributor. He later wrote:

“I took a job there at a record and tape distributor making not much more than minimum wage. But I had over $10,000 in the bank from when I was in Halifax so I was comfortable.”

For someone who had openly admitted that he didn’t want an ordinary job because he could make considerably more money selling drugs, taking a job that paid little more than minimum wage represented a significant change.

For a time, at least, Reggie was doing what his family had been urging him to do. He was trying to go straight.

Making a Start

Reggie’s move to Toronto became more than a short-lived attempt to find an ordinary job.

Over the next few years, he would work a variety of jobs, live modestly and continue his education while trying to find a career that suited him.

His attempt to start over was real, although Reggie’s own writing makes clear that drugs remained part of his life during these years.

By September 1987, I had moved to Toronto myself and was living only a short distance away. For the first time in years, I was able to see much more of Reggie’s day-to-day life for myself.