Stephen Jarislowsky’s den is festooned with birthday cards, glowing greetings paying tribute to him on his 100th birthday, Sept. 9. Among them is a card from King Charles and Queen Camilla, adorned with a photo of the Royal couple.

“They actually sent that card a month before my birthday,” Jarislowsky says with a chuckle. “They may have had their doubts I would actually make it to 100.”

No doubts necessary.

The man remains a force of nature, ever lucid and witty. And as opinionated as always.

Jarislowsky has long been viewed as one of this country’s most astute investment analysts. He founded the investment counselling firm Jarislowsky Fraser in 1955, and it didn’t take long for him to become one of the most sought-after financial advisers in the land. He was to become mentioned in the same hallowed breath as U.S. guru Warren Buffett — a man he has never met.

Jarislowsky retired from dispensing financial advice professionally after selling his company to Scotiabank for $950 million in 2018. But he is far from retired when it comes to his philanthropy, donating $15 million yearly in the areas of higher education, medicine, science, the arts and the environment through his Jarislowsky Foundation, which he started in 1991.

And he is far from retiring when it comes to expressing views, often rather piquant, about the state of the planet.

“But what gives me some kind of hope is to see all the scientific and medical advances that have been made and are being made. That’s why I’m trying to make more inroads in higher education.”

Which best explains where he chooses to direct his foundation’s donations.

Suffice to say, he has seen plenty over the course of his 100 years, not all pretty. He was born to a Jewish family in Berlin, and his parents fled the Nazis, moving first to the Netherlands, then to France, before ending up in the U.S.

“What’s so discouraging........

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