I LIKED HIM from the moment we met in early 1976. Amazingly, that was right after I read his 1,530-page manuscript (not including the notes) on Maurice Duplessis, once premier of and certainly the most powerful man in Quebec. Barely thirty-two years old, Conrad Black already had the deportment of a corporate man. He was immaculately dressed in a pinstriped suit that looked as though it had been especially crafted for his six-foot, broad-shouldered frame. His dark curly hair had a perfect part.
I was impressed by his dexterity in turning his master’s thesis into a book that was, for all its unwieldy length, readable and interesting. He spoke both English and French with a nineteenth-century bravado that would have been admirable in an ambassador. Barely out of university, he had bought The Sherbrooke Record with a couple of partners and said he planned to expand his media holdings.
Our introductory lunch with Jack to discuss Duplessis was a disaster. Jack drank a lot, Conrad did not. Jack talked of economic nationalism and the Canadian business elite’s greed and self-interest, its easy sale of the country’s assets to the Americans. Conrad, self-confident and loquacious, was already a member of that elite. When he suggested that the solution to Canada’s Quebec separatism problem might be for the nation to merge with the United States, Jack was outraged. Conrad tried to explain that he had not been seriously promoting such a merger; he was merely pointing out that the Americans would take a much tougher stance with a breakaway state than English Canada had taken with a province that wanted to leave Confederation. We, the rest of Canada, must stop trying to appease Quebec by acceding to its unreasonable demands. Still, Jack departed in high dudgeon, leaving Conrad and me to finish the wine and discuss publishing his book. The main topic then and later in my office was how to diminish the sheer size of the manuscript. He agreed to some proposed cuts but resisted others, and the manuscript was still way too long when it went to production.
During that year, I got to know Conrad better. I was impressed with his feats of memory. He could describe historic battles in detail, knew the name of every ship in the Spanish Armada, and talked about Bismarck, Disraeli, and Cromwell as if he had recently dined with them. His portrayal of US presidents and Canadian prime ministers was memorable and often acerbic. As Peter Newman said, “He could recite anything he had ever read and mimic almost anyone he had ever heard.”
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JULIAN AND I hosted a modest book launch at our home and invited Isabel and John Bassett, formerly part owner of The Toronto Telegram, and journalist Peter Worthington with his wife Yvonne Crittenden, book reviewer for the Toronto Sun. John at that time owned Baton Broadcasting and was part owner of CFTO-TV, later CTV. We were frequent guests at their Rosedale home.I
A couple of years earlier, John had closed his newspaper and sold its subscription lists to the triumvirate that started the brand new Toronto Sun. Peter Worthington, its editor, was one of the owners. The book launch turned into a long evening with memorable speeches, toasts to Conrad’s success, and jokes about the Tories’ chances at the next election.
Most of the reviews of Duplessis were excellent—in part, I think, because none of the reviewers knew as much about the subject as Conrad did and most of them were astonished by his erudition. Sales in English Canada surpassed our expectations, and it was a bestseller in Quebec. That Conrad could engage in discussions and debates in French was a happy surprise for the Quebec media. The 1978 CBC/RadioCanada television miniseries based on Conrad’s book drew sizable audiences.
Eventually Jack and Conrad settled their differences, but Jack remained suspicious of Conrad’s views about Canada.
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WHEN PETER NEWMAN decided to write a whole book about him, Conrad was only thirty-seven. I confess that I tried to dissuade Peter from writing it. It was too soon, I argued. Conrad had a long way to go before he reached his full potential both in business and in life. Peter countered that Conrad was the quintessential establishment figure and would form a perfect part of his Canadian Establishment series.
We were both right. Conrad did go on to lead a storied life well beyond the 1982 publication of The Establishment Man but the book was, as Peter predicted, a bestseller. Conrad was already famous for having completed his takeover of one of Canada’s most significant financial empires, the Argus Corporation, thus increasing his fortune twenty-fold. Argus had been founded in 1945 by E. P. Taylor, with minority partners Bud McDougald, Wallace McCutcheon,II and Eric Phillips—all portrayed in The Canadian Establishment. Its assets included Dominion Stores, Hollinger Mines, Domtar, Standard Broadcasting, and Massey Ferguson. A photograph of its pillared and porticoed headquarters at 10 Toronto Street was featured on the cover of Peter’s The Canadian Establishment.
The Establishment Man was launched on a passenger ferry moored in Toronto’s harbour. There were several speeches and free booze for the media. Everyone except Conrad wore casual clothes, and a couple of the over-refreshed media members jumped or fell overboard. It was one of the last big-budget M&S launch parties I attended. The interest-free loan of $961,000 had been used up long ago, and additional loans had now run the company’s debt to the province to $2.9 million. Jack’s many efforts to find outside investors had failed, the Iran adventure ate up what little was left in M&S’s coffers, and Jack’s deep unhappiness cast a shadow over everything he said.
By then, of course, I had left the company.
I. Isabel, Yvonne, and I were all second wives. Divorce was still anathema among the Rosedale set but not at the Bassetts’ table. Isabel’s The Parlour Rebellion was published by M&S.
II. Wallace McCutcheon had been Julian’s father-in-law while Julian was married to his first wife, Susan. Julian had worked on Wallace’s election campaign. Susan and I became friends after we met and I was delighted to be able to share her and Julian’s children with her. They grew up to be two remarkable women.