Yearly Archive: 2012

There are many whose deaths signal the end of an era but none so much as Florence Mary McEachren (nee Eaton) who died this week. Florence was the last of the children of Sir John and Lady Eaton. Sir John was the merchant prince of Eaton’s, the son of Timothy, founder of that great institution. Sir John died in 1922, when Florence was just a toddler. Lady Eaton carried on as the family’s public face for almost 50 years before dying in 1970. Florence lived a life of privilege of the sort that no longer exists. Her mother adopted an...

Here’s the continuation of the dozen reasons why I think Research In Motion is in trouble: • Seven: Too few at the top. For most of the last ten years, upper management at RIM remained  little changed. I admire a lean machine but as the company grew from a bit player to a Goliath, more talent at the top would have been helpful … particularly in marketing. They hired an outsider but he didn’t last. Jim took over the job despite the fact that he already had plenty on his plate. • Eight: Too many outside interests. I greatly admire and...

In May 2010, I went to Washington, D.C. as part of the U.S. book launch and had lunch with two friends who live there. One of them arrived at the restaurant excitedly holding a new iPhone and she would not stop talking about it. Right then, I knew BlackBerry was in trouble. I’d read about the lineups at release dates, but this was my first encounter with a devotee. I thought to myself, I published that book about BlackBerry just in the nick of time. Since then, it’s been all down hill for Research In Motion (RIM). At the peak,...

The TV ads, paid for by the Conservative Party, attacking interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae are devastating. “He couldn’t run a province. He can’t run Canada” goes the tagline along with a voiceover about the deficit he created. The words are rough enough, but what really impales Rae is his own laughtrack, a “heh-heh-heh-heh” that sounds smug and uncaring. In the background is some music that reminds me of the Three Stooges. I like Bob Rae, but I don’t think he should run for Liberal leader. By the time the next election occurs, he will be 67. The country needs...

I heard Anna Porter deliver a delightful talk last night at McMaster University about her career in Canadian publishing and the future of the book. Unfortunately, the past looks better than what’s coming next. Porter was a co-founder of Key Porter Books, one of Canada’s great houses. She sold her interest in 2004 and the company has since gone bust, as have several other former major players. An author of six books herself, most recently the award-winning The Ghosts of Europe, Porter is uniquely qualified to talk about publishing. Of all the publishers I’ve ever worked with, she was unique....

1. Why whenever a plane crashes is there always so much earnest blather about finding the flight recorder when the resulting information won’t be available for months? 2. Why did Stephen Harper run for office, finally win a majority, and then show no particular vision of the country as a whole place in the recent budget? 3. Why are Canadians so introverted? Yesterday I came upon a lineup of maybe fifty people outside my local fish and chip store. I asked those at the head of the line, “What’s happening? Are they giving it away?” No one said anything. Not...

The last episode has run in the wonderful HBO series, Luck, which has been cancelled. Alas, it was witty, intelligent, dramatic, and filled with wonderful characters – just the sort of television show that should succeed. They included: Dustin Hoffman as Ace Bernstein out of prison looking for revenge and redemption, Nick Nolte as the old trainer looking for a comeback, and the ragtag collection of misfits seeking a Pick Six. Every character was pitch perfect. When HBO cancelled the show after one season, they appeared to be caving to complaints by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Indeed,...

Nina, The Bandit Queen is Joey Slinger’s best book yet. As a previous winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, Slinger has another winner here. But first, let me declare a conflict. I am a friend of Slinger and was the titleist on two of his previous books: No Axe Too Small to Grind and If It’s a Jungle Out There, Why Do I Have to Mow the Lawn? But I had nothing to do with Nina. Maybe that’s why it’s so good. Nina Carson Dolgoy, the lead character, is the kind of person who would steal your...

My hometown of Guelph has been wracked by allegations over robo-calls made in the last election by Pierre Poutine. When the perpetrator is eventually found and charged, I hope the court will go easy on him or her for the deliciously ironic nom de plume. This is no ordinary scallywag! While I’m not that worked up about such electoral fraud, I am miffed at another form of robo-calls that promote goods and services in which I have no interest. Like a lot of other Canadians, I naively signed up for the “do not call list” in the hope that this...

The past few months have been stellar times for my two offspring, Mark and Alison. Forgive a father for feeling such pride, but while they were both already very successful in their chosen fields, their recent accomplishments are particularly compelling. In addition to his day job as CEO of Wellington Financial, Mark is also chairman of the Toronto Port Authority. Among other roles, this federal agency oversees Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. In the last six years, the airport saw a fifty-fold passenger increase and this year will handle two million people. The short ferry trip works, but there is...

Canada doesn’t have enough millwrights, manufacturing engineers and others with the right training required for highly skilled jobs. Time was when such workers were taught elsewhere: Germany, Austria, Hungary and England. Those easy sources dried up long ago. Our misdirected immigration system is focussed on family reunification, a noble cause, but not a policy that produces ready-to-go workers. Each spring another problem becomes apparent. Too many graduates head for jobs in the United States and never come back. According to a story in the March issue of ROB Magazine, there are 350,000 Canadians working for Google, Apple, Facebook and hundreds...

The wins yesterday in Arizona and Michigan by Mitt Romney, known to the media travelling with him as Mittens, show that Romney is nowhere near the Republican candidate presumptive. Michigan, in particular, was too close – he won by just three three percentage points – given the fact that he was born and raised in the state. Romney has the money to sustain a campaign through tough times, but even if he wins the nomination, my earlier prediction that he will beat President Barack Obama is beginning to look tenuous at best. The more I see of Mittens, the more...

Two recent stories provide welcome news for Research In Motion at a time when some bloggers and analysts have declared BlackBerry to be little better than the devil incarnate. First, this piece from Nextgov saying that the U.S Air Force has cancelled a planned bulk purchase of 2,861 iPads because they fear a security breach from the Russian-made GoodReader software that’s contained therein. The second positive citation comes from a story in The Catholic Register about Tom Collins, who grew up in my home town of Guelph, Ont., and was last weekend made a cardinal. “The call of God comes...

I’m just back from some time away in southeast Arizona looking at birds. I’ve been a birder ever since moving to England in 1987. You grow up in Canada knowing the 15 birds that inhabit your backyard at various times of the year, then suddenly, you’re confronted with birds you have never seen. I bought a birding guide published by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and I was hooked. One time I even met members of the Surrey Wildlife Trust on Wimbledon Common at 3 a.m. We stood in the dark and listened over the next few...

Nordstrom, the U.S. luxury department store, has supposedly been scouting locations in Canada for months. Last May, a spokesman confirmed the story, and every once in a while there’s another reference. A recent article on Larry Rosen, now CEO of men’s clothier Harry Rosen, talked about how he was gearing up for their arrival. Nordstrom. The very thought makes me salivate. During the research for my book The Eatons, published in 1998, I visited two of the more decrepit Eaton’s stores in Brantford and Sarnia. Then I crossed the border into the U.S. to take a look at the Somerset...