We know so little about Canada’s largest corporations, which makes this episode of The Paul Wells Show, from early 2024, such a revelation. My guest is Alexandra Posadzki, whose book Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Control of Canada’s Telecom Empire recounts the amazing period when just about everyone in Canada’s leading telecomms company was suddenly saying the quiet parts out loud.
Posadzki’s book recounts the extraordinarily public falling-out among the heirs of Ted Rogers’ $30-billion telecoms empire. At stake was a fundamental question of direction: who the company’s CEO should be. And an important question of governance: is a company better run if most shareholders get ordinary shares while a few get special super-powered shares? All of this drama unfolded while Rogers was trying to close a $20-billion merger with Shaw Communications that would test the limits of competition regulation in this country.
The story features cameos from David Peterson, who was Ontario’s premier more than 30 years ago and has since become a key figure in just about every important Toronto story. And John Tory, who was Toronto’s mayor while this story was happening, even as he was moonlighting as fixer-in-chief at the company he helped build. There’s even an appearance from Brian Cox, the star of HBO’s Succession. Look!:
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I am grateful to be the Max Bell Foundation Senior Fellow at McGill University, the principal patron of this podcast. Antica Productions turns these interviews into a podcast every week. Kevin Breit wrote and performed the theme music. Andy Milne plays it on piano at the end of each episode. Thanks to all of them and to you. Please tell your friends to subscribe to The Paul Wells Show on their favourite podcast app, or here on the newsletter.
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