Rod McQueen's Blog, page 60

Road to redemption

Glad to see Stephen Harper reach out to Brian Mulroney by asking for his advice and counsel on Quebec. Mulroney’s been in the woodshed long enough. As you might guess, I’m a fan of Brian. I’ve known him for forty years. The former prime minister has admitted he was wrong and I think it’s high time Canadians forgave him for taking cash from Karlheinz Schreiber.

What is it about Canadians that we are prepared to forgive Bill Clinton for his sins but not Brian Mulroney? Clinton was impeached by Congress and besmirched the White House with his antics but Canadians don’t care. Every few months Clinton flits into Canada, fills some hall for huge fees, and raises millions of dollars for worthy causes. We can’t get enough of Slick Willy but we hold Lyin’ Brian hostage.

We could learn something from Americans, and that’s respect for the office of former leaders. All prime ministers, past and present, are called Right Honourable. In the U.S. former presidents work together and the office is revered. Here, pettiness abounds. At a recent event sponsored by the Public Policy Forum, five of the six former living prime ministers spoke. The only one who didn’t show up was Jean Chretien who said he wouldn’t come if Paul Martin attended.

All former living prime ministers – Joe Clark, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin – deserve our respect and the respect of each other. I can only hope that Stephen Harper’s overdue embrace of Brian Mulroney moves him forward on the road to redemption.

iPhone in my future?

I’m sure there are a lot of BlackBerry users facing the same dilemma as I am. My BlackBerry is elderly; I’ve been patiently waiting for the new BlackBerry 10 that’s coming later this year. And happily so until yesterday when Research In Motion announced that the first models would not have physical keyboards. Those versions would come later, presumably sometime in 2013. As an author who wrote a book about the company and praised its former co-CEOs, and as a fan, this is deeply disappointing. I must be typical of many BlackBerry owners – I’m loyal. A physical keyboard is why we own one. Shouldn’t RIM offer us a crumb in return?

My first BlackBerry was the 7290, maybe eight years ago. Then I moved up to the 8700 and used it for five years. Next I got a new(er) model. You have to understand that these were all hand-me-ups from my son Mark. Sometimes when he got the newest model, I’d inherit his previous one. The last time that happened, when he bought the Bold last September, a week later I was out birding and my “new” BlackBerry, case and all, fell from my belt into a river and sank out of site. I’d had it such a short time I couldn’t even tell you now what model it was.

So I reverted to my trusty 8700, a workhorse if ever there was one, and decided I might as well wait for the BlackBerry 10. Why buy a Bold when a whole new raft of models with brand new software was coming? But the dates kept getting pushed ahead. In 2011, it was going to be 2012. Now, in 2012, it’s going to be 2013 before I can buy one with a physical keyboard.

So I went into my local Rogers store yesterday and learned that I can upgrade to an iPhone for no money up front and a three-year contract that only costs $10 a month more than what I’m paying now. The increase in data under the new plan appears to be plenty even if I go crazy on downloads.

Why wouldn’t I switch to the competition as have so many millions? Where has my loyalty to BlackBerry got me? And yet. I can’t quite pull the trigger. But I might.

Up with lower prices

The price of gas at the pump is down to almost $1.20 per litre, nearly a twenty-cent drop in just the last two months. And have you noticed how the posted prices of all the different brands have been dropping in lock-step. Doesn’t this kind of behaviour smack of a cartel? Ever notice how this always happens with the approach of summer?

And have you also seen how much faster Big Oil shoves through price changes on the way down compared to when prices are headed up? Why, there should be a Parliamentary inquiry called into this unprecedented collapse. Or maybe a Royal Commission. Bob Rae could be chair; he certainly needs the work.

And think how these bargain prices will cause a drop in inflation. We can’t have that. Consumers might get feeling confident again and go out and buy a house. Such frisky behaviour needs to be controlled, not promoted. Mark Carney, are you with me on this?

In fact, I’m going to my nearest Shell station and duct-tape myself to the pump as a protest to this unwarranted activity. Didn’t Big Oil realize we’d see through their pernicious ways?

Next thing you know they’ll be giving gas away by the tankful. And what will become of capitalism then?

Looking for leadership

Bob Rae made the right decision not to run for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. His announcement yesterday that he would continue as interim leader until the convention next April means he can then return to being an elder statesman who does helpful things for society in general.

All eyes are now on Justin Trudeau who, so far, has been saying ‘no’ to running for leader. Now that there is an actual race, he will have to make up his mind. Media reports say that, boxing prowess aside, he is not a substantive politician. I hear differently. He certainly has been busy of late out speaking in venues as diverse as schools and party gatherings. Those who have heard him recently were impressed with his style and his delivery. His speeches are both passionate and pithy. He delivers them faultlessly without a note – no mean feat. Moreover, he has respect for his elders in the party, a good way to build bridges to the future from the glory days of the past.

Trudeau is one of the few men his age who wears his hair long and tangled, which is part of his charm or something he should attend to, depending on who’s talking. He looks like his mother, Margaret, so is handsome in the way Prince William resembles Lady Di. Justin’s biggest political problem is that his wife, Sophie Gregoire, does not want him to run. When the question is put to him about that conundrum, he says, “There’s time.” Does that mean he thinks he can convince her in time for this leadership convention, or that he’ll wait another four or more years until the next one? On such matters, he is like his father, Pierre: enigmatic.

My preferred candidate for leader hasn’t changed since I last wrote about these matters on April 17: Dominic LeBlanc, the New Brunswick MP. Liberals who are in their 40s like him, too, and that’s who should be making the choice. Whoever becomes leader has a rebuilding job as tough as the Progressive Conservatives after 1993 when they were reduced to a paltry two seats. The way back for the Liberals might include merging with the NDP just as Stephen Harper and Peter Mackay brought together the right. Bob Rae, as a former NDP leader, could not have pulled that off.

If there is a merger, and we end up with two main parties instead of too many, that will help the cause of democracy in Canada. Voters will have a clear choice between two parties, either of which can form a majority government, rather than repeat the years of “pizza parliaments” when we suffered because too many parties siphoned off enough seats to deny any one party a majority. Pizza’s fine once in a while but not as a regular diet.

Faces of the future

Yesterday I was the afternoon convocation speaker at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont. What a wonderful institution! I had a 90-minute tour in the morning and met many students, faculty and members of the board of governors. President Maureen Piercy and I were colleagues at Maclean’s so we were able to catch up on times past and exchange news about others we’d worked with.

The 3,300 Loyalist students take one, two and three-year courses in a wide range of well-equipped facilities that include a bioscience lab, a spa for esthetics, engines for rebuilding, kitchens for culinary arts, radio and television broadcasting studios, a day care centre, and vehicles for budding border guards to dismantle in the hunt for contraband. There’s even an unheated construction site so students learn to work in cold weather.

Set on 200 acres, the buildings are architecturally beautiful with pastoral views of farmers’ fields and stands of hardwood and pines. Across the road is Quinte Conservation, a living laboratory for several programs. A domed playing field and student residences form part of of the property.

The student-to-faculty ratio is 22:1, a level that urban universities haven’t offered in years. The results speak for themselves: 83 per cent of Loyalist graduates have a full-time job within six months. In specific courses, like civil engineering, it’s 100 per cent with an average starting salary of $43,000.

My ten-minute message was simple: be passionate, always take the toughest road rather than the easy route, enjoy the day, work abroad (but come home, we need you), be an optimist, and start your own business, Canada needs entrepreneurs. One young man nabbed me as I was leaving to say that I had inspired him to go on to do his Bachelor of Commerce to fulfill his dream of one day running his own company.

I can also tell you this. As I sat among the other platform guests watching the hundreds of graduates pass in front of us to collect their diplomas amid cheers from friends and family, I thought, I have seen the faces of the future and we are in good hands.

Signs of the times

Here are a few signs I’ve seen recently that speak volumes.

1. Apple Store opening soon. Just kidding. It’s a Jack Astor’s.

2. Please refrain from playing loud music or making loud noises.

3. PIGS. The Politically Incorrect Gas Station.

4. Please do not put trash in toilets. It is extremely difficult to remove.

5. And this, written on the rear window of a van piled high with personal belongings:

Just divorced. Wahoo!

Treasure chest

The Pirates of Penzance at Stratford is nonsensical, glorious and funny, all the elements you want from a Gilbert and Sullivan romp. My daughter Alison and I saw the comic opera (still in previews) this afternoon at the Avon Theatre. It officially opens June 1.

I grew up listening to my father’s D’Oyly Carte versions on vinyl and this production ably captures all the frivolity and word play of that famous troupe. David Johnson does a wonderful rendition of the tongue-twister song, “I am the very model of a modern major-general.” Amy Wallis as Mabel has a voice so beautiful it could make you weep and Sean Arbuckle is a suitably brave but sensitive Pirate King. The only weak player is Kyle Blair as Frederic, the orphan around whom everything revolves, who appears tentative.

The staging is flawless and appropriately foolish. No digital special effects  to create waves, just two men pulling on wooden boards. Need a dirigible for the major-general’s arrival? Here it is, a three-foot-long one-dimensional version traversing a painted backdrop sky.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s anti-establishment parodies used to be a staple at Stratford but they disappeared for a while. I, for one, am happy to have them back.The theatre was 95 per cent full and three more performances have already been added to the season. Looks like they have a hit on their hands.

Of course, there is no plot. There is, however, a message. Even in stiff-upper-lip Victorian times, when the choice is between duty and love, love wins. And that’s just as it should be.

Curly, Larry and 99Mo

I’m a newspaper publisher’s dream. I not only read news stories, I also read advertisements. The most spectacularly silly ad in recent days was one for Canadian Light Source. I was drawn to the prominently displayed and decently sized (5″x11″) ad because I was intrigued by the name of the organization.

Hoping to find out more, I read the first paragraph. Turns out it’s a national synchrotron light facility located on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon. OK, I now knew where, but I still didn’t know what. The next sentence told me the organzation “is engaged in the design, construction and commissioning of a pilot 99Mo production facility at the CLS, based on a high-power electron linear accelerator (linac) producing 99Mo through a photo-nuclear reaction on 100Mo.”

The ad went on to say that CLS is looking for expressions of interest to help them develop a “full envisioned” downstream processor. Too bad, I thought, I only swim upstream. Downstream’s too easy.

You have to ask yourself, why didn’t CLS just call the three people in the world who know what the heck that all means to see if they’d like to help. A full envisioned approach rather than a $7,500 (my estimate) ad would surely be more likely to find a partner than this broad and blathering brush.

I can only hope no public money was involved.

Hard time

I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how I feel about Conrad Black’s return to Canada. Should I forgive or forever denounce what he did? Not that it matters to him, but Conrad has been a part of my life since 1978 when he granted me an exclusive interview for a cover story in Maclean’s, The Argus Grab.

The last time I spoke to Conrad was at a party ten years ago. He congratulated me on my book, The Eatons, calling it an “archeological dig.” Watching him acquire newspapers in the U.S. and the U.K, as well as launch National Post where I worked for three years, made me proud to be associated with him.

When hubris befell Conrad, I took my hat off to the American justice system. Whether you agreed with the finding or not, so little similar determination occurs in Canada. Surely there must be other Canadian businesspeople, beyond Garth Drabinsky and Myron Cohen, who fiddled the system. I don’t know Myron, but I admire Garth, and spent a lot of time interviewing him over the years. Maybe I just hang out with the wrong crowd.

Some people are filled with righteous indignation and have turned their backs forever. They can’t seem to forgive such men and move on. Yet we have so few such colourful and creative figures in Canada that we should welcome Conrad as well as Garth when he is released. They’ve paid the price. I’d be happy to be seen in the company of any of them should the opportunity arise.

Spring cleaning

Regular visitors will have noticed a few alterations to my blog during recent days. The title, BlackBerry by Rod McQueen, has become the less specific Musings by Rod McQueen. My book about BlackBerry was published two years ago; it was time for a change. There’s also a new author photo and a new section called Next Book, another reason to change the blog heading.

Driven to Succeed, co-authored with Susan M. Papp, almost didn’t happen. In August 2010, I received an email from Dan Bjarnason, a CBC-TV reporter I met in Ottawa in the 1970s. He said he had a friend who was interested in advice about a business book. My first reaction was, “What a waste of time. I’ll just have my brain picked.” But after further thought, I decided to find out more.

Dan’s friend turned out to be Susan Papp, an award-winning journalist. She and Dan had worked together at CBC in the 1980s. Susan established her own production company in 1993. Among other creative work she produced and directed a documentary, The Young Rebels, featuring half a dozen individuals who’d fled Hungary after the 1956 Revolution, come to Canada, and risen to prominence in a variety of fields. Among them was Frank Hasenfratz who launched a one-man shop making oil pumps for Ford in the basement of his Guelph, Ont., home. Today, Linamar Corp. has almost 16,000 employees in eight countries.

When Hasenfratz decided he wanted a book about Linamar, he turned to Susan, who is also of Hungarian descent. Susan told him she felt comfortable writing about him growing up in Hungary and his participation in the Revolution but admitted she knew very little about business. That’s when she asked Dan to recommend a co-writer. When Susan and I first talked by phone I thought the idea was excellent but told her I’d had trouble with collaborators in the past. I then gave a lengthy list of things that could go wrong.

After I hung up, I thought, “Why are you so negative? This is a great entrepreneurial story.” I phoned Susan back and apologized. She just laughed and forgave my wet blanket ways. The result, Driven to Succeed, will be published in October by Dundurn.

Think about it. The Auto Pact has been in existence since 1965 but only two Canadians have taken advantage of that special access to the U.S. auto parts market and gone on to create a global firm. The other is the better known Magna and Frank Stronach. Driven to Succeed gives Frank Hasenfratz the prominence he deserves.

For me, the lesson is this: always to be open to new ideas. You just never know what might come about. Even a wet blanket can catch fire.