Pierre Karl Péladeau running in Saint-Jérȏme for the Parti Québécois, brings back fond memories of John Bassett. This is the John Bassett that was famously publisher of the Toronto Telegram and the founder of CTV. And he relished having the reputation of being something of a womanizer, a sports enthusiast and an incorrigible bastard. When he died in 1998, Canada lost a legend.
Pierre Karl Péladeau is not in the same league. While Pierre Karl was whooping it up in Paris during the 1990s, purportedly running Quebecor World, which was claimed to be the world’s biggest printing company, it was his father who was building the empire in Quebec. Whether Pierre Karl is the astute businessman that some claim him to be is very much open to question. Especially since Quebecor World has gone the way of most mismanaged companies.
It is not that John Bassett did not have his ups and downs. He was not so happy when Stafford Smythe and Harold Ballard forced him out of Maple Leaf Gardens and separated him from his favourite hockey team. At the same time, the demise of his Toronto Telegram might have been the answer to building CTV.
Similar to Péladeau père creating Le Journal de Montréal, John Bassett’s father was the publisher of the Montreal Gazette and young John trained as a reporter with the Toronto Globe and Mail before the Second World War. He came back from the war and ran in Sherbrooke for the Conservative Party. He lost. That was when he bought the Sherbrooke Daily Record from his father and launched himself as a publisher.
That was not John Bassett’s last foray into the minefields of politics. In 1962, John was involved in a Keystone Kops attempt at winning Spadina Riding in Toronto for the Conservatives. He had more Telegram reporters and other functionaries who liked their jobs running around thinking they knew something about politics. It was a funny scene. He lost.
Whether there is a moral in this for Péladeau is hard to say. Luckily Saint-Jérȏme riding does not have a large union-based vote so his well-deserved reputation for being nasty with unions might not hurt him directly. His candidacy might just annoy enough union leaders though to pull some of their support from the Parti Québécois.
But, frankly, Péladeau would go further in politics running for his friend Stephen Harper and the federal Conservatives. He is hardly a credible péquiste. He might be a sovereignist with deep pockets but the thought of him wanting to be in a cabinet run by Pauline Marois is a thought that simply does not compute. It spells trouble.
-30-
Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]