The matchmaking industry in B.C. Executive Search Dating is just one of the many services that has put love up for sale. In a discreet, unmarked office in downtown Vancouver, a man is photographed, his driver’s licence photocopied and personal references taken. He is asked to complete numerous forms, including a Myers-Briggs personality test, and his vital statistics are entered into a computer database. This information will be circulated among a select group of people who will scrutinize his appearance, education, mental stability and career. Is he part of a new crackdown on terrorism? Enlisting in the Armed Forces? Joining CSIS? None of the above. He’s just trying to land a date. This lonely heart has signed himself up with Executive Search Dating, one of the many new dating services that have opened doors in B.C. Once his personal details are registered, his profile will be sent out to potential mates who have likewise undergone the same rigorous screening process.
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If a woman likes what she sees, they’ll agree to a meeting. And if all goes according to plan, what began rather unromantically will end in love, marriage and possibly even a baby carriage. The matchmaking industry in B.C. Thanks to operators of social clubs, date-headhunters and boutique introduction services, singles are being recognized as a market with enormous potential for revenue. The Yellow Pages now lists 30 entries under Introduction Services, about a quarter of which appeared in the last five years or less. At last count in 2004, B.C. 1,019,507 never-married adults. Five years ago there were only 920,918, which represents a 10-per-cent jump in four years (the total population growth in B.C. Not only are there more singles, there are also fewer opportunities for them to meet one another. According to the 2005 Small Business Profile, an annual joint publication by BC Stats, the Ministry of Small Business and Revenue, Small Business BC and Western Economic Diversification Canada, 40 per cent of small businesses in the province consist of self-employed individuals.
With small businesses making up 57 per cent of the private workforce, that means close to a quarter of all private-sector jobs are held by the self-employed. It’s not a scenario that favours singles, given the lack of jobs in generously populated offices where workers rub shoulders all day long in the coffee room, elevator or hallway. Consider those numbers along with the results of the National Work-Life Conflict Study released in 2001 by the Public Health Agency of Canada. That report found that while one in 10 respondents in 1991 worked 50 or more hours per week, one in four does so now. What you end up with is a large singles population working long hours in solitary conditions with less time to socialize than ever. So it makes sense that some folk, when confronted with the bleak reality of their non-existent dating lives, decide it might be time to hire help. Esther (not her real name), a 50-year-old crisis communications management professional, has been divorced for more than 20 years.
After a series of disastrous dates (she once listened to a lawyer expound on the virtues of brushing your tongue - for an hour) she decided to enlist with ESD last June. Three months later she was matched with 56-year-old executive coach Jack (not his real name, either) and they agreed to a date. The two are now in a committed relationship, with all signs pointing to a solid future together. "I’m a solo entrepreneur, so I have a really small workplace," she explains. "Even though you get out and meet people and you have clients, that doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to meet anybody who’s suitable and available. So I thought, if I haven’t been successful, why don’t I give this to somebody else? " Plus, she says, it was an efficient process. "I feel like it took a lot of the stress and strain out of it. At least you know that they’re introducing you to someone who meets some basic criteria.
You don’t have to get 20 minutes into it to realize, ‘Oh, you’re unemployed? Oh, great. Waiter, cheque please! ’" The one hitch, Esther admits, is confessing to people about how she met her new beau. Her reluctance proved warranted recently when Jack inadvertently spilled the beans at a dinner party with old friends. "It was painful," she recalls, cringing. "They spent the entire evening ragging on me about it." Her friends may now be in on her secret, but Esther has yet to reveal to her mother how she met the man in her life, for fear that her relationship may not be taken seriously. Vancouver Sun. She actually married a guy out of this little adventure and it’s been very successful," she explains. "But my mother still sniffs and says, ‘Well, you know, she got him out of the newspaper.’" Taking credit for Esther and Jack’s relationship is 39-year-old Paddi Rice, a graduate of the International Institute for Management Development MBA program in Lausanne, Switzerland.