Richard's Watermark is the St. Lawrence River, Quebec.

The Canadian Commissioner reminisces about fishing and how it connected him with the St. Lawrence River and to boundary waters. Richard was raised in Quebec on the Canada-U.S boundary on the St. Lawrence River.

"I’m Richard Morgan and I’m an IJC Commissioner based in Ottawa. I’m a Canadian and grew up in the province of Quebec. I was actually born in Sherbrooke which is near the Canada-US boundary.

As a young child, my passion was fishing so I learned how to fish on some of the lake, like Lake Memphremagog, where we are Quebec on one end and Vermont on the other end. I found that quite fascinating and got to understand how the rivers and the streams work, and what streams and rivers were good to fish in, those that you could drink. After having lived near that boundary, I grew up closer to Montreal actually on the south shore of Montreal which was near the St. Lawrence River and also near the Richelieu River. Within two hours, we would be off to Lake Champlain.

Later on in life, I was involved in public policy with the government of Canada where we led the way in the late 1980s in advancing some pretty significant plans and programs to deal with acid rain. I was working to Prime Minister Mulroney and we negotiated an agreement with the US government – the Clean Air Act. I think to this day, we keep improving on that very important act. It’s been an interesting ride. Water has always been a part of it and uppermost in my mind."