Train
By Eric Dowd
Toronto – A gravy train that has helped maintain many retired
Ontario premiers in their comfy Florida condos is no longer providing an
easy ride and some must feel wary of stepping on board.
The ex-premiers have long accepted well-paying posts as directors
of wealthy corporations to keep their heads above the poverty line, but
the former Progressive Conservative premier, William Davis, is the latest
to show it is not all benefits.
Davis
has resigned from the boards of two companies dominated by auto parts
manufacturer Frank Stronach, citing personal and health reasons, while
they explained he wants `less corporate involvement.’
But
anyone who knows Davis has been waiting for this other shoe to drop since
Frank’s daughter Belinda, who had never been elected to any public
office, announced he supported her for leader of the federal Conservative
party.
Stronach
was awkward and wooden and could not answer key questions including
whether she would have sent Canadian troops to Iraq, explaining she did
not want to comment on what she would have done.
She
is not the same shade of Tory as Davis -- more to the right, while Davis
is to the left.
She
could not speak French, while Davis’s inability to speak French was
among reasons he would not run for federal leader when he was under huge
pressure in the 1980s.
Davis
also believed politicians should work their way up and almost never gave a
cabinet post to anyone who had not served an apprenticeship on his back
benches.
An
exception was when he appointed his friend from university days, Roy
McMurtry, attorney general, but McMurtry had been a noted trial lawyer and
turned out a dominating attorney general and, more recently, an activist
and progressive chief justice of Ontario.
Davis
would never have freely endorsed a Belinda Stronach for leader, but must
have felt he had no choice, because her family’s companies paid him
highly.
Davis
was not seen lobbying for Stronach in her optimistic, losing venture, as
was Mike Harris, another former Tory premier who also was on a Stronach
board, closer to her philosophically and probably needed the money more.
But
Davis must have been embarrassed and concluded he could no longer be in a
position where he had to give support, even lukewarm, to a candidate
because her family paid him.
David
Peterson, the former Liberal premier, has had more than his share of
problems over directorships and last year was criticized by an Ontario
Securities Commission disciplinary panel.
Peterson
had become a director of a high-tech company, YBM Magnex International
Inc., incorporated in Canada but with headquarters in the United States,
which police there suspected was linked to organized crime.
The
company raised $50 million through a stock issue and then collapsed and
its shares became worthless, and the OSC claimed Peterson was aware of the
police suspicion beforehand, but failed to make it public.
Peterson
countered he tried aggressively to find if the company had organized crime
ties and was told this was only an unconfirmed rumor that did not need to
be made public, but the panel concluded he should have offered more
insight and leadership.
Peterson
chaired a high-tech company, Microforum Inc., but resigned after a
departing chief financial officer accused its then chief executive and
largest shareholder of mismanagement and it was revealed he had been
convicted of fraud.
Peterson
also chaired the board of giant book-retailer Chapters Inc. when
publishers complained it used high pressure tactics to force them to cut
their prices, small booksellers complained it sold at cutthroat prices and
forced them out of business and writers complained it had too much power,
and the federal Competition Bureau said it had concerns, which damaged his
party, which claims it helps small business.
The
OSC also is trying to draw up guidelines on qualifications people should
have to serve on company boards, so the future may not be as bright for
former premiers who want to cash in.
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