Liz Smith: COMMunications Director

Liz Smith is currently the Society’s Communications Director and immigrated from Scotland as a teenager with her family in 1968. They lived in a rural area in the northeast, near Dundee. She says it was an exciting adventure coming to Canada, although no matter how many years later it may be, “one misses aspects of home.”

Later, Liz studied at Carleton University's journalism school and undertook six months of on-site research in Scotland about its initial vote on devolution in 1979. To this day, she remains closely interested in this topic and all current affairs in her home country.

Liz spent years working for non-profits and the federal government, focused on issues of international development - including seven years of living in Southern Africa. She now works as a communications consultant. She remains keen to engage Canadians, especially in the Ottawa area to enjoy and learn about traditional and modern Scotland and the many ties that bind our two countries. She plans to remain a source of information and activities, and invites SSO members to share what interests them.

A note on her last name Smith. She remarks that many people tend to dismiss it as “English.” Not so, she says. She explains it is a trade name from centuries ago, just like “Baker.” While the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'smitan, meaning “to smite or strike”; like a metal worker; in Scotland, Clan Smith is closely associated with Clan Macpherson, with its own tartan, insignia, motto and extensive membership! She says today, Smith is the most common name in the country.

And like almost any Scot, she says, she enjoys “a wee dram, a good joke and a blether!”

Contact: Liz.Smith@ottscot.ca