Monthly Archive: June 2011

Some things in life are immutable. Conrad Black is among them. You have to admire the force of his personality even as he heads back to prison flinging emails to inquiring journalists that resonate with phrase-making from on high. The sentence was no surprise; I look forward to prison; my efforts have changed the system; my wife is fine. I first met Black in 1978. I had just joined Maclean’s as business editor when his purchase of Argus Corp. became public and thus began his rise to fame and fortune. He was refusing all interviews. For my first story in...

Among all the senior bankers of recent vintage, Don Fullerton possessed the most grace and the quickest wit. As a sometime thorn in the side of the banks, I had been particularly scathing in my books and magazine pieces over the years about Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) where Fullerton was chairman and chief executive officer from 1985-1992. As far as I was concerned, CIBC was the worst run and the most political – a toxic combination – of the Big Five Banks. CIBC always seemed to be the last bank in the door with the biggest wheelbarrow full...

Sandy, my wife and high school sweetheart, died peacefully at home on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Sandy was the loving mother of Mark (Andrea Whiting) of Toronto, and Alison (Ken McLeod), of Hamilton; beloved sister of Robert Illingworth (Sharon) and John Illingworth (Elizabeth) of Thunder Bay; proud and fulfilled Pippa of Molly and Emerson. Sandy was a woman of high spirits, eternal optimism, common sense and an old soul with the touch of a rebel. If anyone needed a friend, they could always turn to her knowing that she would not only listen but also offer wise advice. Sandy lived...