Maclean's

COVER

King of the road

If the Canadian business community handed out awards in the same way that Hollywood bestows Oscars, Ted Rogers would walk away with an armful of statuettes this year. Decorating his mantle would be prizes for the best deal, best direction, best annual meeting, a lifetime achievement award and maybe even the Mr. Congeniality banner. By BRENDA DALGLISH

28

BUSINESS

RACING IN THE STREETS

Ray Husak isn’t used to being at the centre of attention. For the past decade, the Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. assembly plant he manages in Oakville, Ont., has been responsible for building the compact Ford Tempo and its corporate twin, the Mercury Topaz—staid, boxy models that automotive analysts complain are as boring as sliced white bread. By ROSS LAVER

12

CANADA

THE BATTLE FOR QUEBEC

As a harbinger of what lurks ahead, the exchange was telling. It occurred last week within the eggshell-blue walls of Quebec’s National Assembly, not long after Daniel Johnson finally settled into the premier’s chair once occupied by both his father and his brother. By BARRY CAME in Montreal

14

CANADA

PLAYING THE FEDERAL CARD

If Quebec threatens to secede but the rest of Canada chooses not to listen, is that a good or a bad thing? And does it help or hinder the cause of federalism if the federal Liberals are seen to be involved in the coming provincial election campaign? By Anthony Wilson-Smith

52

Backpack

Calendar

March 19-April 4: Whale festival, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Tofino and Ucluelet. Hikers can watch the annual migration of nearly 19,000 Pacific Gray whales north to their summer feeding waters. March 26-April 23: Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company.

56

ART

SNOW STORM

The challenge: to condense more than 40 years of a deepthinking, astonishingly versatile artist’s career into a message that will fit on a T-shirt. The artist, Toronto’s Michael Snow, is a renowned 64-year-old painter, sculptor, photographer, holographer, experimental film-maker and jazz musician. By PAMELA YOUNG

42

COVER

Life in the fast lane

The defining anecdote about Ted Rogers, the cable czar who became a media mogul last week by swallowing Maclean Hunter Ltd., dates back to the time when he was a Big Tory on Campus—instead of just looking like one, which, at 60, he still does. This was in 1961 when Ted was a law student at Toronto’s Osgoode Hall but hyperactive in Conservative politics. By Peter C. Newman

16

CANADA

A change of heart

A valet brings coffee in china cups and juice in tumblers of cut glass. A curtain of tinted windows offers a fine view of Sussex Drive and the riverfront homes of the Prime Minister and the British high commissioner. The elegant offices of Canada’s minister of foreign affairs seem light-years from the workingclass streets of Papineau/St. Michel, in Montreal’s east end, that André Ouellet has represented in Parliament since 1967.

18

CANADA

A new deal for aboriginals?

Canadians with even a passing interest in native issues might have been forgiven a sense of déjà vu last week as federal Indian Affairs Minister Ronald Irwin predicted the eventual demise of the department that he runs. Irwin made his statement in response to a question from Manitoba Liberal MP Elijah Harper about federal plans to give native leaders in Manitoba full control over programs for the province’s 84,000 Indians.

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FILMS

Muse, model or slave

In Bitter Moon, a young French woman is the love slave of an American writer twice her age. In Sirens, a trio of happily naked women serve as live-in models for a painter in the wilds of Australia. And in The Scent of Green Papaya, a Vietnamese servant girl steals the heart of a handsome composer by cooking, sewing and cleaning for him in submissive silence. By Brian D. Johnson

54

Backpack

Mountain mania

His yellow-and-black snowboard makes scraping, scratching noises over the tightly packed snow as 13-year-old Jay Magis manoeuvres into position atop Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park. Clad in baggy Gore-Tex pants, a padded purplish jacket and a woollen tuque, Magis noses down into the ski slope’s “half-pipe,” a 100-m-long, groomed snow run that looks like a wide bobsled track.

20

WORLD

THE WHITEWATER AFFAIR

The mob scene outside the U.S. district court in Washington on March 10 bespoke a major media sensation. Packs of reporters and batteries of TV cameras besieged the courthouse doors. A gaggle of demonstrators waved placards—“Fess up” and “No coverup”—as some of the drama’s key players arrived or departed during the day. By CARL MOLLINS

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THEATRE

Napoleonic ambition

There is something fittingly Napoleonic about the way Timothy Williams and Andrew Sabiston have burst onto the mega-musical scene. On March 23, the Canadian writing-composing team will launch their $4.5-million production, Napoleon, at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre. By John Bemrose