Musings by Rod McQueen

Of all the unnecessary imbroglios you might imagine, the resignation of Anthony Rota as speaker of the House of Commons must rank right up there. And, of course, all the participants climbed on their high horses and played their parts as if this were some dark Shakespearean tragedy. Let’s begin at the beginning with the focus of this public hanging. Yaraslov Hunka, a constituent of Rota’s, was invited by the speaker to hear Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky address Members of Parliament last week. Hunka was introduced from the speaker’s chair by Rota as a “Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero”...

After serving five years as press secretary to Robert Stanfield, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, I tried to get back into journalism, but no one would have me. I guess they thought I would sneak Tory propaganda into my writing. So I became director of public affairs for the Bank of Nova Scotia. Two years later, suitably drycleaned, I tried again. Peter C. Newman, editor of Maclean’s, was about to take the magazine weekly in 1978. My job interview with him took place during his lunch hour. He was sitting in the slot of a kidney-shaped desk, unwrapping his...

The troubling aspect about Justin Trudeau is that we know his every wonky policy proposal and his detailed travel schedule including what leader he’s meeting with in what far-off country. But we don’t know the answer to the most important question of all – who is his paramour? Since the announcement that Trudeau split with his wife, there has been total silence on who he’s been seeing. Oh, I’ve heard four different rumours, but I don’t know the truth. Yet there must be at least one hundred people in Ottawa who know the name of the person in question. Many...

There’s been a lot of foorfaraw lately about the 800,000 foreign students in Canada including: whether it’s all just a smokescreen for immigration, a trip through a diploma mill, or working underground for less than minimum wage. Among the numbers I’ve recently read was that foreign students comprise 17 percent of Canadian university enrolment and supply cajllions in annual revenue for those institutions. I’m going to address an even thornier and far-less-discussed issue: what are those foreign students actually learning in university classes? A few years back, I was regularly invited to speak for several years running to a university...

Let me begin by telling my favourite Hugh Segal anecdote. In 1972, Hugh ran as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Ottawa Centre. Although the riding had been a Liberal stronghold for years, he managed to finish second, falling only 1,202 votes short. Another election was likely within two years, so while he continued campaigning, he was made a special assistant to Opposition Leader Robert Stanfield, and moved into the leader’s Parliamentary office next to me where I was press secretary. Among his early assignments, Hugh was asked to write the annual Christmas message for Stanfield, words that would be distributed...

It’s been almost a month since Olivia Chow was elected mayor of Toronto and I have to admit I like the tone and tenor of her comments and comportment far more than I thought I would. I also have to admit I did not vote for her. My ballot was cast for Ana Bailão who came second with 37 percent to Chow’s 40 percent. With the vote counted I realized how important former mayor John Tory’s late-in-the-campaign endorsement of Bailão was. But let me add an aside. Once Tory resigned as mayor because of an affair with a staffer, he...

At the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby the other night, we viewers were treated to a wondrous version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by American Idol winner Iam Tongi. When he was done, T-Mobile Stadium in Seattle resounded with cheers. And that was it. There was no “O Canada” sung by Tongi or anyone else despite the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays had the third-highest number of players in the game after the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers. Tongi later apologized for not taking off his hat during his warbling but Canadians got no acknowledgement for our...

My definition of a conflict of interest goes like this: If you have to think about it, you probably have a conflict. I hereby declare that I knowingly have a conflict but I’m going to write anyway about the proposed merger between Postmedia, a public company, and Nordstar Capital, run by Jordan Bitove. Here are my two conflicts. I used to work at Postmedia. Indeed, I was among the first group of National Post journalists fired in 2001, a week after 9/11. Postmedia has fired hundreds more journalists in the last twenty-two years and never once made a profit, proving...

In a world where the Saudis have taken over the PGA Golf Tour, money is everything. Even those professional golfers who scoffed when the Saudis set up their own tour last year – and lured away some big names with massive payments – are now on side. Rory McIlroy, my favourite player, refused to join the Saudis despite being offered a reported $300 million. He’s apparently okay with the new arrangement. Word is that he might get that mullah moolah after all.  The Toronto Blue Jays have decided to join the greed gang. A friend of mine has been a...

So much in business is based on perception, from the feel of a handshake to faith in the system, that it’s hard to imagine the suffering of a man burdened by an unusual name. Take David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media, who had a role in the hush money payment that kept Donald Trump’s name out of National Enquirer. Being stuck with a surname of that ilk must haunt a man throughout his natural born days. Just as a surname can mark a man in business, nicknames can backfire badly. Look at what happened to “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap,...

There’s been a lot of talk about who should replace our late Queen on the $20 bill. King Charles is an obvious candidate, but let’s consider some alternatives first. We sure don’t need another former prime minister. We already have Sir Wilfrid Laurier on the $5, Mackenzie King on the $50, and Robert Borden on the $100. Queen Elizabeth is also on the $1,000 bill so there are actually two openings available, although I can’t imagine anyone other than a criminal actually having any $1,000 bills. Former Finance Minister Bill Morneau made a brilliant choice when he selected Viola Desmond...

My name is Rod McQueen and I want to be a CEO. Not one of those home-based businesses or some tiny tech firm, I’m scaling the corporate cliffs and getting ready for the pinnacle by looking like I deserve to be there. First, I have to assemble the appropriate accoutrements. There will be no casual Fridays, puh-leez. I plan to get myself a few Kiton suits (at $10,000 each), a raft of Brioni shirts ($800 each), and a shelf-full of Ferragamo shoes ($1,000 per pair), and then accessorize the dress-for-success wardrobe with a top-of-the-line Cartier watch costing up to $250,000....

I was talking recently to a friend with whom I worked at the London Free Press. He still lives in London and told me that the Free Press building was being demolished. Demolished, I thought, it was just built in 1965. Then I thought, oops, that was fifty-eight years ago. We must have been teenagers at the time. I was lucky enough to win the London Free Press Editorial Award as a result of writing a high school news column in Guelph, my home town. The award paid for half my tuition at what is now Western University plus $1,000...

My book on BlackBerry, published in 2010, took four years, twice as long as any other book I’d written at the time. Convincing the company to grant access was a lengthy effort. Even then, getting interviews on a timely basis was problematic. In all my years as a journalist and author, I’d never run across such a poorly organized company. The book came out in March 2010 when the popularity of BlackBerry was at its peak with 75 million sold and a 50 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market. Another book, Losing the Signal, by Jacquie McNish and Sean...