Who owns Canada now?
I had an interesting chat today with Canadian author and National Post columnist, Diane Francis, about changes to the business landscape of Canada over the last 20 years. Her latest book titled Who Owns Canada Now has just been released and is the hottest business book on store shelves. If you are interested in business generally and who’s ”currently” who in particular, then it’s a must read for you (you can also listen to my interview with her here on the 680News website by clicking on the audio link: here
I have a ton of admiration for Diane , who I first met and became friends with in the early 80s. She revolutionized business journalism in Canada. She made it sexy, understandable and interesting. Like many of the self-made entrepreneurial billionaires she writes about, Diane is ambitious and self-made as well.
A lot of people may not know this, but it all began for Diane when she decided one day, as a young mother in the late ’70s, that she would take a creative writing/journalism course at Sheridan College. After only a few weeks at Sheridan she was encouraged to bail for an internship at the Brampton Daily Times where she spent 15 months flogging freelance pieces to magazines and papers around the world!
It wasn’t long before the Toronto Star came calling for her to help expand it’s business coverage – which she did through a sexy little column called the “Insiders.” Diane used the column to cultivate the persona of an insider herself — which essentially led other insiders to tell her inside information and sexy tidbits about people, places and business deals that no other business journalist would ever know about, much less be able to spin into gossipy, but discreetly factual tales that readers (including the establishment) couldn’t get enough of.
The “Insiders” column and a growing international profile led to regular appearances with Barbara Frum on The Journal, with Peter Gzowski on Morningside and with me on the radio interview show I was hosting at the time on CFRB. Along the way she was snapped up by the Toronto Sun, Maclean’s magazine and The Financial Post, which Conrad Black bought and re-tooled into the National Post.
What distinguishes Diane from most journalists in Canada is that she has been willling and able to cultivate real and personal relationships with many of the business leaders she writes about. She’s earned their trust, friendship and admiration to the extent that they socialize with her and share their knowledge and experiences knowing that when they may be the subject of her stories she’ll be discreet, but thorough.
Who Owns Canada Now is from the perspective of Canada’s consummate business insider.