Times letter-writer ‘Bob from Calgary’ actually Edmontonian

“Bob from Calgary” is actually from Edmonton.

The man behind the most popular comment ever posted to the New York Times website revealed himself on Twitter to be Robert J. Summers, an earth sciences professor and researcher at the University of Alberta. He was travelling in Calgary when he wrote the comment — hence the handle.

Summers’s comment, written in response to a Paul Krugman column from 2010 about wealth and privilege, garnered more than 7,000 recommendations. A comment on a Times story about a mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., took second place, with 5,400 recommendations.

Summers felt that Canada’s healthcare and education systems are much better than services in the U.S.

“My household makes just over $250,000 here in Canada. One of the best bargains I get for my money is living in a place where I and everyone I know sends their kids to public schools because they are really good,” he wrote. He went on to address the importance of consistently funding these services — even if it means higher taxes. In his view, the U.S. has not been doing this in recent years. Summers said Saturday that he didn’t believe he had said anything special.

“I think the reason the comment was so popular is that Americans themselves are not particularly different than Canadians — maybe in some ways — but I think most people in the U.S., Canada and really around the globe, like the idea of looking after our fellow human beings,” he told the Star. “There may be some debates around how efficient government is but people like the idea of being supportive of other people and I think it’s good for society as well as our economy.”

It’s not the first time Summers has set the record straight. He clarified that he was actually from Edmonton on a Times story from November about the site’s most popular com- ments. He also offered an apology to anyone he had offended.

Summers, who also wrote in a piece for the Globe and Mail that his comment was “off the cuff,” was surprised when news outlets caught on to his words’ record-breaking status. He was congratulated Saturday by Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.

“I admit to a little bit of unbridled Canadian patriotism, and to not fully reflecting the many challenges we face in this country,” Summers wrote in the commentary published Friday.

He also quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes, a former U.S. Supreme Court justice: “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” With files from Fakiha Baig