From Amazon
Titans, the third volume of Peter C. Newman's Canadian Establishment series, chronicles the lifestyles of the modern business elite in Canada. Witness, for example, Scott Paterson, CEO of Yorkton Securities, negotiating a deal while flying first class from Toronto to Vancouver: "The phone bill, which ran to $3,910, stated that the flight time had been four hours and fifty-five minutes, and my call had been four hours and thirty-one minutes." Canada's power brokers, says Newman, made their mark through pluck and merit rather than connections and inheritance, and along the way they changed the nature of how business is conducted in Canada. Instead of quiet arrangements between relatives and private-school mates in the panelled dining rooms of exclusive men's clubs, the current style of deal-making includes entrepreneurs from any culture or background with brains and a buck. Newman looks for power in all the regions of Canada, but he hones in particularly on the swashbucklers--Power Corp.'s Paul Desmarais, TrizecHahn's Peter Munk, CanWest Global's Izzy Asper, Gerry Schwartz of Onex Corp., Izzy Sharp of Four Seasons Hotels, Hollinger's Conrad Black and Scott Paterson of Yorkton Securities--none of them modest or timid in style. And Newman does more than name-drop. He refines the art of reporting on business, giving substance to the characters behind the numbers and seasoning to their stories.
Canada's "titans" are reminiscent of the Greek mythological giants who overthrew their father to take over control of the heavens. In the ancient telling the Titans were in turn displaced by the next generation. While Newman's account is journalistic and sociological, he makes his own oracular prediction that it might not be very long before the modern-day titans and their story are history--ousted by their own ilk. --Edward Trapunski
About the Author
Peter C. Newman is one of Canada’s most successful and honoured writers. He has been editor-in-chief of the country’s largest newspaper, The Toronto Star, and most influential magazine, Maclean’s. Newman resigned from Maclean’s in the spring of 1982 to concentrate fully on his three-volume chronicle, Company of Adventurers, Caesars of the Wilderness and Merchant Princes. His recent work, The Canadian Revolution, was a #1 bestseller that has helped to define our times.
