The CBC has suffered through numerous budget cuts, but it still takes a lot of people to get something on air. My appearance early this morning on The Current, Radio One’s national public affairs show, began yesterday afternoon with a call from the “chaser” who tracks down possible participants, checks their availability and picks their brains a bit. We spoke three times over a one-hour period. Today I talked to three more people before finally chatting with host Jane Hawton, sitting in for Anna Maria Tremonti. The topic was boards of directors, how the world of corporate governance has changed,...

Our new life in Florence had its beginnings after the death of Sandy’s mother in 2000. Sandy had been her mother’s major caregiver for many months so she knew she would need something to fill the void and help her deal with her grief. Art had always tugged at the hem of her life but there never seemed to be enough time available to nourish her talent. Sandy had taken some lessons from watercolorist Pat Fairhead who praised her natural ability and urged her to enroll at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in order to improve her...

Two years after returning home from in Florence, Italy, our book about our time there has finally been published. “Fantasy in Florence: Leaving Home and Loving It,” is very different than anything I’ve ever written before. My wife Sandy has long been by muse, but this time she is a collaborator. The words are mine, the illustrations are hers. The result is part travel book, part celebration of artisans we met, and part sheer joy at the ability to step outside our normal lives. If you take risks, there are rewards. The appearance of the book in stores during the...

As regular visitors will have noticed, I haven’t posted a new blog since November. That’s because I’m busy writing the book about BlackBerry and have precious little time for anything else. Meanwhile, you’ll be interested to know that in December I began conducting interviews in Waterloo, Ont., with executives and others at Research in Motion. The story they have to tell is even more exciting than I dared imagine. Look for the result in bookstores soon. It’ll be worth the wait.