Rod McQueen's Blog, page 14

Going, going, gone

Since the April death of Galen Weston, his son, Galen G. Weston, has been busy selling off what were once among the crown jewels in the family empire. It’s almost as if he didn’t want to make any of these moves as long as his father was still alive. Unlike many family businesses, this one has prospered since founder George Weston went into the bread business in Toronto in 1882. But what to make of all this recent activity? Among the many aspects of the business sold in recent months was the very core of the company — the bakery....

Wishin’ and hopin’

To all my loyal readers: May your Christmas be merry and bright. And may the year ahead bring good health and much happiness amid the turmoil that surrounds us.  Rod McQueen

All in the family

Family businesses provide millions of jobs in Canada. Anyone can start a family business on a shoestring, in a basement, or a garage. Growing them beyond a hobby with a few hundred dollars in annual sales is difficult. Keeping them alive for the next generation is even tougher. Less than half of family businesses make it to the second generation. Only about 10 percent get to the third. “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” said Seagram founder Sam Bronfman. His grandson, Edgar Jr., fulfilled that prophecy through a foolish merger with Vivendi that slashed the family fortune from $8 billion...

Foreign affairs

A recent report by the Auditor-General of Ontario underscored an issue that has received too little attention. Among all the provinces, Ontario gives its twenty-four publicly funded colleges $1.6 billion annually, the lowest level of support on a per capita basis in Canada. Meanwhile, enrolment by domestic students has fallen 15 percent over the last eight years. Money to run these institutions has to come from somewhere so they have turned to foreign students whose numbers have increased 342 percent during the same eight-year period. Foreign students now account for 30 percent of enrolment and because they pay three or...

An open letter to Justin Trudeau

Dear Prime Minister: You and your staff may have seen the story in the Globe and Mail Wednesday morning about a number of Liberal MPs and others who have their eye on your job. Now you know how Erin O’Toole feels. The list of your hopeful successors is lengthy and is said to include Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, man-of-the-world and my personal favourite Mark Carney, former Quebec MP Frank Bayliss and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. The piece, written by Robert Fife, who usually gets things right, is careful to keep most of his sources...

Sauce for the goose

Don’t you just love Quebecers and their views on language? Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau gave a speech recently that was almost entirely in English. He admitted that he couldn’t speak French and allowed as how he’d got along just fine in Montreal for more than a decade without speaking French. He even congratulated Montrealers, saying, “I think that’s a testament to the city.”  Rousseau might as well have admitted to committing sexual harassment so noisy were the complaints that ensued. “Anglophone privilege,” said one, “with a touch of contempt on the side.” Rousseau has since undertaken to learn French....

The new regime

Last summer when the federal election was called, I assumed that Mark Carney would run for office. Everything looked to be in place for the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England who had previously declared that he was a Liberal. He had just published a book, Value(s), that The Guardian called “magnificent” and a “landmark achievement,” high praise not usually given by the British newspaper. He was living in Ottawa and the safe Liberal seat of Ottawa Centre beckoned. But the man with a doctorate from Oxford did not run. At the time, I thought he’d...

Rowdy U

Back in the day, the 1960s to be exact, when I showed up for first year at the University of Western Ontario, there was an organized frosh week. Purple Spur, a group of senior students, kept us busy all day, doing their bidding. I don’t remember all the indignities we were put through but picking up trash, barking like a dog, and generally feeling degraded were among them. The purpose, of course, was to create a community among the new arrivals. Western had only 5,000 students in those days, compared to 28,000 today, so it seemed easy to make friends....

Shouting and sharing

In just the past few days I’ve heard several stories about how our society is breaking down. Three involve doctors. In the first case, a patient shouted at a doctor during an in-office visit. In the second, a doctor shouted at a patient. The third involved a patient seen by a specialist who identified an uncommon ailment. “I wish I could call on my residents,” he said, then explained how Covid had reduced the opportunity in hospitals for residents to spend time with doctors. As a result, there will be cohorts of graduates who conclude their studies without seeing some...

If I ran the world

If I ran the world, here’s what I’d do: * make vaccinations mandatory for all, even the anti-vaxxers and religious pull-backers; the rest of us have constitutional rights, too; * ban any and all tattoos on women; they’re reprehensible; * while we’re at it, lets’s ban those stretch Lululemon-style yoga leggings when they’re worn on the streets as the only body covering below the waist. Some women might be able to carry off such attire, but not many; * send Justin Trudeau to a voice coach to get rid of his annoying habit of pausing to draw a breath on...