John Stall

Happy New Year — from our place to yours.  I’ve been laying low for the last week-and-a-half enjoying the holiday season in the country.  It was a picture-and-family-perfect Christmas.  Hope yours was what you hoped it would be, and if not, then at least not too painful.

I was reflecting on the eve of a new year on some of the news events that moved me (for better or for worse) over the past year and thinking ahead about some of the developments I think will take place.  Here they are:

As one who has followed Conrad Black’s business career for decades, including a period of time when I worked for a radio station he owned, it was surreal to sit close enough to hear his heart beat on the opening day of his trial in Chicago. It was arresting to hear the prosecutors present their opening statements to the jury, while circling the accused and pointing their fingers at them likening them to robbers who wear masks and carry guns.  I sat right behind his beautiful wife Barbara Amiel and wondered what was going through her mind as they viciously portrayed her husband as a criminal.  It was among the many front-row seats I’ve had in my career that I will never forget.  I was also terribly embarrassed to be the first journalist to have my cell phone ring so loudly as the drama was unfolding that I was thrown out of the courtroom for the rest of the day by Judge Amy St. Eve.  Cell phones going off became an ongoing disruption throughout the trial, but she never got to the point (I don’t think) of banning them from the court.  I must say that on that first day of the trial, I did not think that Conrad Black would get a jail sentence of six-and-a-half years. I don’t think he did either.

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I wasn’t convinced before the Ontario Election in October that John Tory could win, mostly because I didn’t sense the people of Ontario were mad enough at or disappointed enough in Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government to re-elect it on election day.  In fact , I didn’t sense that the people of Ontario thought an election was necessary at all.  We only had one because of the fixed date legislation the Liberals introduced shortly after they defeated Ernie Eves.

I sure didn’t expect the religious school funding policy to form a major plank of the Tory campaign and I sure didn’t expect John Tory to loose his own seat.  What a difference a year makes.  Last year at this time I was being asked by Conservative insiders and fundraisers if I thought Tory was committed enough to stick around as leader if he didn’t become premier in October.  That tide has turned to weather or not the party wants Tory to stay around despite his own intentions.  He faces a tough early new year as the party considers a “Leadership Review” in February.  Despite the significant loss,  I still think John Tory is the most able candidate to lead the Ontario Conservatives.

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The victory for Dalton McGuinty, in my view, provides him with a wide open field in Ontario to do anything he wants.  Now that the promise breaking monkey has been lifted from his back, I expect the Premier will focus on a legacy before stepping aside for a new Liberal Leader before the next election.  I expect he will be more accessible than he has been and will assume a much higher profile than he did during his first term.

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I didn’t expect the federal Liberals to be shutout of by-elections including the Liberal stronghold of Outremont in Montreal.  I think that loss sent a strong signal to the federal party that it chose the wrong leader at its convention last December.  I don’t think that Stephane Dion is electable by the country.  I think the current Harper government will fall on a vote of non-confidence over it’s spring budget and that we will be into a spring election.  I think that election will result in another Harper minority government and that Stephane Dion will step down sending the Liberals in search of a new leader.  I think it will be “Iggy.”

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I shook my head in amazement at the site of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney before the Commons ethics committee admitting he took “cash money in an envelope” from German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.  It may not have been illegal, but it’s the kind of stuff I expect to hear from two-bit municipal politicians who aren’t smart enough or ethical enough to keep a distance between them and the business sharks who may try to curry favour — not former prime ministers.

So these are just a few thoughts I have as the year comes to a close.  We at 680News of course continue to appreciate the time and commitment you give to our daily programming and promise to return that commitment.

 Talk to you in 2008.  Have a good one!

Clearly for some, like Conrad Black, it’s never enough.

I probably won’t ever be in a position to know what it feels like to be tempted to push the legal or moral envelope in a situation that would get me absurd amounts of money if I got away with it, but if the end game is what Conrad Black got after a lifetime of work, strategy, risk , scheming , profile and the shameless pursuit of enormous wealth, then I thank the Lord or my family of origin for instilling in me a set of values that taught me there is a joyful enough life to be lived without it.

 Those values were no doubt instilled more by default than by design, but they are more in line with the values upheld by Judge Amy St. Eve, who made sure she told Conrad that in her world “nobody was above the law” — not even him, with all of his wealth, all of his high-level friends,  all of his lawyers, all of his brains and all of his confidence.

There are lots of musings about how Conrad will cope behind bars.  Some think he will write another epic book perhaps about the experience, or how the system ought to be reformed.  He thinks it will be boring, but endurable.  I can’t think of anything worse! 

Conrad Black will no doubt have a library available filled with all kinds of books, perhaps even the ones he wrote about Roosevelt and Tricky Dick Nixon.  Maybe he’ll be able to find a copy of Robert Fulghum’s best seller, All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten. Yes, it would be light reading for Conrad Black, not the kind of stuff that stimulates his mind, but for my money he could learn what millions around the world already know but are reminded about when they read some the main tenants of Fulghum’s book, which are: share everything, play fair, clean up your own mess, be aware of wonder, say your sorry when you hurt somebody, and the most important thing we all learned in kindergarten — don’t take things that aren’t yours!

I have occasionally admired those who claim to have achieved more than most of us, measured by the amount of money they possess and have wondered on occasion why I haven’t pursued the accumulation of more.  Today I’m glad I haven’t been afflicted by, or instilled with, the need or the greed, because I like sleeping in my own bed.