1975 – 1985 - Alberta Venture

Oil rig outside Calgary, 1975
1976
Lougheed establishes the
Alberta Heritage Trust
Fund, putting a portion of
oil revenues into long-term
investments.
1978
Syncrude opens its second
oilsands project in Fort
McMurray, a $2.3 million openpit mine and processing plant.
1978
Edmonton hosts the
Commonwealth Games.
1979
Albertan Joe Clark becomes
prime minister. His minority
government is dissolved
by a confidence vote nine
months later.
1980
Prime minister Pierre Trudeau
announces the National Energy
Program, increasing Ottawa’s
take of Alberta oil revenues.
1975~1985
Diversity Danger
Wildly swinging fortunes emphasized the danger of a single-industry economy. In this
context, the 1976 establishment of the Heritage Trust Fund to save energy monies for a
“rainy” day was a portent for the future.
Prosperity continued into the early 1980s. While agricultural prices rose and coal
production increased markedly, oil and gas primed Alberta’s economic pump. Prices
skyrocketed in 1981 to nearly $40 a barrel. Construction cranes dominated Calgary’s
skyline. In 1978, more than 400 companies were listed on the Alberta Stock Exchange.
Public spending increased from $1.1 billion in 1974 to $10.8 billion in 1985.
The good times were over by 1982 amid a national recession, a despised National
Energy Policy, falling oil and agricultural prices, lagging construction, and diminished
investment capital. Unemployment hit double digits and many left the province. Trust
and mortgage companies collapsed. This depression, the first since the 1930s, awakened policy makers to the need for a more diverse economy. The new focus was on
high technology, forestry and tourism, with the latter two alternating as the third largest
industry after oil and gas, and agriculture.
1981
Ghermezian brothers build
the first phase of West
Edmonton Mall.
1982
Fearing further NEP-style
intervention, Alberta leads a
lengthy legal battle with Ottawa
that results in a constitutional
“notwithstanding clause.”
1982
Separatist stirrings increase as
Gordon Kesler, a candidate for
the factional Western Canada
Concept Party, wins a provincial
by-election.
1983
Mayor of Eckville and highschool instructor James
Keegstra is fired for preaching
racism to students.
1984
Captained by Wayne Gretzky
and bankrolled by Peter
Pocklington, the Edmonton
Oilers win the first of four
Stanley Cup victories.
“We’ve more or less
purchased an entire
crescent. And yes, the
houses are connected.”
Ghermezian family
T
BY NORM SACUTA
HE BOARDROOM AT TRIPLE FIVE’S CANADIAN
Eaton’s Centre. At one time, Eaton’s Centre was set to
offices has windows that look out over the
rival WEM, with planned twin 50-storey residential tow-
north parking lot of West Edmonton Mall. I’m
ers. Those blueprints were shelved during the oil bust and
waiting to talk to Don Ghermezian, the current
neither of these early developments are in Ghermezian
mall president and second son of Eskandar, the eld-
hands. “At present, the largest property we hold in Ed-
est of the four famous brothers who have changed the
monton is the mall,” says Don. “We’ve divested ourselves
retail face of Edmonton over the past 25 years. The door
of many smaller properties.”
to the boardroom opens.
Don Ghermezian, 31, is certainly not his father – or
1990s, the Ghermezians re-mortgaged the mall through
rather, not the image of his father’s generation, all suits
Alberta Treasury Branches to the tune of $350 million
and hats splashed across newspapers. Trim and fit, he’s
and a secured $60-million credit line. The financial deal
dressed entirely in black: a designer T-shirt, dress pants
became one of two controversies that dominated head-
and shoes. “What can I do for you?” he asks.
lines surrounding the family, the other was a protracted
“Well, I want to know about your family. I know you’re
very private. This city has always been rife with rumours
about you all. I’ve got friends who insist the Ghermezians
aren’t even living here anymore.”
108
As the real estate market remained soft into the early
battle to regain control of their other colossal venture, the
Mall of America in Minnesota.
But the Ghermezians are nothing if not resilient.
Amid claims of bribery and alleged political interference
“No,” he says, smiling. “We’re still very much here.
to secure the ATB loan, a confidential out-of-court settle-
We’ve never left. I’m just building a new house which
ment was reached with the bank in 2002 and the family
should be ready in a month.”
retained control of WEM. Anticipated expansions in the
The basic history of the Ghermezians is easily gleaned
next decade include an 8,000-seat arena, a third hotel,
from magazines. Orthodox Jews from Tehran, they
300,000 square feet of retail and an apartment complex.
moved first to New York and then in the 1950s in stages
Mall of America also came back into Ghermezian hands
to Montreal, where the four boys – Eskander, Nader, Rap-
with a court victory in 2004. Billion-dollar expansion
hael and Bahman – went to college and made a fortune
plans will double its size, making it nearly three million
selling Persian rugs. The family came to Edmonton in
square feet larger than WEM and the single largest real
1971 and settled into the city’s oldest neighbourhood to
estate complex in the world.
begin managing and developing the land holdings they
If there’s a specific gift the Ghermezians have, it’s for
had purchased throughout the 1960s. Don says the Gh-
anticipating the value of real estate and potential markets
ermezians didn’t experience oppression in Iran. “It was
well ahead of their actual emergence. They did it in the
entirely a business decision to go. There were just more
1960s, speculating with vigour on the emerging Alberta
opportunities elsewhere.”
oil boom, and they’re doing it again now in the fastest
WEM was preceded by other smaller properties in Ed-
growing market in the U.S. – Las Vegas. The “Great Mall
monton, including a hotel and downtown’s ambitious
of Las Vegas” is already in development in the city’s sub-
ALBERTA VENTURE | THE CENTURY
The Ghermezians: back row (left to right):
Bahman, Raphael, Nader and Eskander,
with parents Miriam and Jacob
urbs. “The real estate we have in Vegas was purchased
over the past 20 years,” says Don, attesting to the family’s
foresight.
“Are more of the children involved with the business
now?” I ask. “How many of you are there?”
“Not all of you?”
“All of us,” he says. “Of course, with so much business
now in the United States, we have our American head
office as well. But Edmonton is home. It’s a great place to
live in, do business and raise a family.”
He laughs and then counts his brothers, sisters and
My older brother once worked a summer job in the
cousins. “Eskander has 8 ... Nader 10....” He stops after
kitchen of the Ghermezians’ Convention Inn South, 20
several rounds of fingers. “33.”
years ago. He regularly watched patriarch Jacob Gher-
“And you’re all involved in the business?”
mezian sample desserts in the kitchen and chat with em-
“Just the older ones.”
ployees, often with a young grandson in tow. He would
I wonder aloud about another rumour – the living
take biscuits off trays in the kitchen and feed the boy,
arrangement of the extended family. A private Jewish
school, tunnels between houses, a self-sustaining town
within the upscale Glenora neighbourhood?
then walk off to teach him another part of the job.
Perhaps Don was that boy. One thing is for certain:
with 33 new Ghermezians on the ascendancy, the next
“Well,” Don replies, smiling as if a little wary. “We’ve
generation must have learned well from someone. The
more or less purchased an entire crescent. And yes, the
world of investment and real estate in the 21st century
houses are connected. We all live there.”
best be on its guard.
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109
“Now that I look
back, I wonder
why on earth
I wasn’t more
frightened.”
Jean Paré
C
BY JENNIFER COCKRALL-KING
OOKBOOKS ARE FUNNY THINGS. THEY’RE NOTORI-
by her father that no obstacle is too great to overcome.
ously difficult to turn into profitable ventures,
Maybe it was having to pick up after a troubled marriage
yet for every closet novelist, there must be two closet
left her a young, single mother of four with nothing but
cookbook authors eager to lose their shirts. The
the debts of an alcoholic, compulsive-gambling ex-hus-
other odd thing about cookbooks is that successful
band. Somehow, Paré’s clear-thinking prairie practicality
ones come from very unlikely places.
110
landed her squarely on both feet.
A case in point is Jean Paré, a wedding and banquet
“My first catering job in 1963 was for over 1,000 peo-
caterer who launched Canada’s most popular cookbook
ple,” Paré laughs, still able to recount the menu of that
series from a spare bedroom in her home in Vermilion,
successful first banquet. “Now that I look back, I wonder
just west of Lloydminster. With the help of her son, Grant
why on earth I wasn’t more frightened of it. I didn’t have
Lovig (the co-founder and now CEO of Company’s Com-
enough sense to be scared.”
ing), she built a publishing powerhouse with $10 million
After 16 years of catering, she dove into cookbooks
in annual sales that releases eight to 10 new titles and sells
just as fearlessly. On her son’s advice, Paré concentrated
more than one million cookbooks each year. Oh, and late
on one subject, rather than appetizers to desserts and
bloomers take note: Paré didn’t publish her first book un-
everything in between, like most other cookbooks at that
til she was 53 years old. Almost 25 years later, and with as
time. Not interested in handing a manuscript over to a
much clarity and spring in her step as people half her age,
publisher, Paré wanted to write, design, sell and distribute
she’s still going strong, arriving at work at 6 a.m., often
the book herself. In 1981, she self-published 150 Delicious
with baking in hand – because she just can’t wait to get
Squares, a book that is still in print and that has sold well
going on another day doing the work she loves.
over a million copies. “I fixed everything that I didn’t like
Maybe it was her depression-era upbringing in Irma,
about cookbooks,” explains Paré. A lay-flat book binding,
Alberta. Jean Paré (pronounced “Gene Perry”) learned the
user-friendly indexes, tried-and-true recipes, full-colour
art of putting a solid meal on the table and how to turn
photos cross-referenced with recipe names and page num-
that meal into an occasion from her mother, and was told
bers, slightly larger text for readability, and simple recipes
ALBERTA VENTURE | THE CENTURY
with ingredients most people have in their kitchen are
still hallmarks of the Company’s Coming brand.
Edmonton-based food journalist Judy Schultz is
currently at work on Paré’s authorized biography, to be
Paré decided to print 15,000 copies. “I had no idea
published in 2006 for Company’s Coming’s 25th anni-
that a bestseller was 5,000 copies in Canada, so when I
versary. Apart from the obvious business successes that
got my first book printed, I thought I’d get 15,000 copies
Paré has achieved, Schultz credits Paré with compiling
to make it worth my while.” Using her daughter Gail’s old
miniature histories of food on the prairies by recording
bedroom as an office and shipping out of the garage, this
recipes that have been passed along through three and
sales force of one took her books around to every place
four generations. “She has become an archivist of prairie
she thought they might sell. “In three months,” Paré re-
food,” says Schultz, “and also of women’s history on the
calls, “I had all 15,000 pretty much sold.” She had de-
prairies.”
cided that cookbooks were like any other product people
At 78, Paré still defies the odds with one successful
needed; why limit them to bookstores? Though it seems
cookbook after another and a company built on one
commonplace now, Paré was the first publisher to intro-
simple rule: “Never share a recipe that you wouldn’t use
duce cookbooks into grocery stores.
yourself.”
“If the story needs to
be written, we write it
without fear of reprisal
from anybody.”
Bert Crowfoot
I
N 1990, WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERN-
ment killed the Native Communications Program, nine of its 11 aboriginal
publications died. Not Windspeaker.
Founded by Bert Crowfoot in 1983 as part
of the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of
Alberta, Windspeaker thrived. It became a
national newspaper known for not pulling
any punches – and it started turning a profit.
Crowfoot, the paper’s publisher and CEO of
AMMSA, calls himself a capitalist; he says
he started Windspeaker because he needed a
job. Now AMMSA runs four more aboriginal
publications and a radio network. The following quote is
happens is what the politicians want the people to hear. We are
from the July/August 2004 issue of Alberta Venture, when
100% independent and it is especially important on the political
Crowfoot was named one of the province’s 50 most in-
side because our writers are respected because of the objectiv-
fluential people.
ity. We’ve taken federal politicians to task; we’ve taken our own
politicians – whether they have been national, provincial or local
It is important to have independent media. There is aboriginal
chiefs – to task. If the story needs to be written, we write it with-
media controlled by political organizations. In that media, what
out fear of reprisal from anybody.
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111
Bernard Callebaut
I
On March 23, 1983, just as oil prices were bottom-
Curious customers wandered in
wondering how a gourmet retailer
could open when other businesses
were getting out of Dodge.
ing out, the well-heeled were pulling out and banks
they would enjoy it,” says Callebaut, whose eponymous
were beginning a sweep of foreclosures, Callebaut cut
company today has 35 locations in Canada, the United
the ribbon at his high-end shop on 17th Avenue SW. “I
States and Japan. “Coffee went through the same thing
was convinced by more of a gut feeling than anything
30 years before. It was hot brown water worth 25 cents
else that if people were exposed to gourmet chocolate,
until people discovered they could pay a little more to
N 1982, SEDUCED BY THE MOUNTAINS AND ON A WHIM,
Bernard Callebaut moved to Calgary from Belgium
with a dream of producing some of the world’s best
chocolate. He didn’t realize Alberta’s economy was
about to tank.
Walter Twinn
W
ALTER T WINN WAS A CON-
troversial figure. Succeeding his father as chief of the
Sawridge Cree near Slave Lake
two years after oil was discovered
“He lived in the world of corporate
jets, but he never forgot the world
from which he came.”
on the reserve, he led a number
of profitable ventures that trans-
Senator Twinn bridged the gap between his aboriginal roots and
formed the northern band into
what was best described at the service yesterday as the domi-
a $100-million conglomerate: a
nant society that has encircled our aboriginal people. Walter
hotel, shopping mall and truck
Twinn transcended all racial, business and political barriers. The
stop in Slave Lake; hotels in Jasper
best example I can give of what the man really accomplished in
and Fort McMurray; a bottled water
some ways is what happened when I decided to attend the serv-
business and stakes in oilfield serv-
ices yesterday. For me, transportation was a problem. However,
ices companies. But Twinn, a boxer
it did not stay a problem, because his family decided that I should
turned fight promoter, was also
use their family aircraft, be picked up in Edmonton and flown to
criticized for fighting legislation that allowed women
112
Slave Lake in order to participate in the service.
who married non-natives to restore their Indian status,
The contrast is that while I was picked up in one of Walter’s
and for being Canada’s most absentee Senator in 1993
private corporate aircraft, when his casket was taken to the small
after Brian Mulroney named him to the upper house
Roman Catholic church in Slave Lake, it was placed on a simple
(a decision that was deemed “a clever move to appoint
wagon, which had been used for that purpose by Cree Indians for
one of their people from among our people,” by George
generations in this country. The wagon was drawn by a team of
Erasmus, then head of the Assembly of First Nations).
horses and driven by an elder, with an honour guard of aborigi-
The following comments were made by Senator Gerry St.
nals riding on horseback. That best epitomizes the world in which
Germain in November 1997, a month after Twinn died
Chief Walter Twinn lived. He lived in the world of corporate jets,
of a heart attack.
but he never forgot the world from which he came.
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get something really good. I knew with chocolate that
would happen too.”
Callebaut’s first customers were curious people who
wandered in wondering how a gourmet retailer could
open when other businesses were getting out of Dodge.
“They were taking bets on whether I would survive,” he
says. But the skeptics hadn’t anticipated the potent lure of
the cocoa bean. One taste was enough to convince a city,
then a province, then a country.
Asked how he managed to not only survive the lean
years but expand, Callebaut offers a delightfully simple
assertion: “Chocolate is an affordable luxury. Sure, it was
a time of doom and gloom, but anybody could afford 80
to 90 cents for one really good piece of chocolate. And for
that instant it spent melting on your tongue, you were
pampered.”
– Natasha Mekhail
Jack Donald
J
“You don’t want
to work extra
hours? Get
used to it.”
ACK DONALD BEGAN HIS CAREER WITH A PAIR OF GAS
your capital available. You
stations and a truck. Under his leadership, the Fas
don’t want to work “extra
Gas chain swelled to more than 400 outlets; he also
hours”? Being in business
ran a refinery and trucking fleet under the umbrella of
for yourself is not seven-
Red Deer-based Parkland Industries. The origins of the
and-a-half-hour days, so
name go back to 1976, when Jack and his wife Joan bought
get used to it.
Parkland Beef Industries, which had a single feedlot. They
• Save – old fashioned, but it
steered the business away from beef and into oil, building
works! You can never have
a central Alberta empire. The following is an excerpt from
too much capital.
a signature Donald speech entitled “Jack’s 10 Rules: Advice
for Prospective Entrepreneurs.”
• Do market research. Does anyone want to buy what you have
or do? Really? At what price? How much or how many?
• Get spouse/family committed. You’ll be away long hours and
• Enjoy what you’re doing – 12-hour days get really long if it’s
not fun.
• Try what you want to do on a part-time basis – evenings, holidays, weekends or whenever. Besides, a part-time job adds to
be mentally at work even when you’re not there.
• Seek and heed advice. Talk to professionals and other entrepreneurs who have “been there” and will share their experiences with you.
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113
Reg Isley
W
BY DEANNA KENT-MCDONALD
HEN REG ISLEY WAS GROWING UP ON A HOME-
stead outside Beaverlodge, his father, a trapper
in summer and a construction worker in winter,
was away for weeks on end. Young Reg spent count-
less hours in his father’s dusty, dirt-floor workshop, de-
vouring stacks of old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics
magazines, studying the fantastic designs. He learned
how to remove the gas engine from a washing machine
and attach it to his bicycle – “it was seven miles to school
“Everything we dream
of having can be built
with a good design.”
on a dirt road,” he explains.
Isley didn’t want to trap or farm.
head that cuts trees faster and with less fibre damage than
At 17, he desperately wanted to be-
other logging mechanisms. Isley’s RotoSaw revolutionized
come an aeronautical engineer. But
the forestry industry. With 32 other patented products in
his family couldn’t afford to send
its arsenal – such as the Lim-mit de-limber and the Timber
him to university. Instead, alone and scared to be away
King feller buncher, eventually sold to Caterpillar –
from home, he found himself on a bus bound for Edmon-
the Risley Group was generating $30 million in annual
ton, and after a 2 a.m. transfer, onward to Calgary. His
sales by 1996. “Thanks to the industrial revolution,”
destiny was a practical education in welding at SAIT and
Isley says, “everything we have today, and everything we
later NAIT, one that has served the founder of the Risley
dream of having, can be built with a good design and
Group of manufacturing companies extremely well over
some skills in welding and machining.”
the past three decades.
Employing 180 workers today, the Risley Group re-
A juxtaposition of brilliant and down-to-earth, with
mains firmly rooted in Grande Prairie. Its diverse range of
an intense voice and eyes that never rest, Isley returned to
products, mostly for niche markets in the forestry indus-
Peace Country after graduation. He got a job in the steel
try, have been sold throughout Canada and the United
trade in Grande Prairie, and later opened a machine shop
States as well as Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Ja-
with a friend. In 1978, Isley started his own small busi-
pan. “But we would not have this success elsewhere,” says
ness, Fluidic Power Ltd., designing, repairing and servic-
Isley. “Mine was the right vision in the right place at the
ing hydraulic equipment and systems.
right time.”
When economic collapse hit the province’s oil sector
Despite all of his accomplishments, however, past
in the early 1980s, service industry businesses like Fluidic
dreams have never waned for Isley. In the Risley board-
suffered. Jobs became scarce. But unwilling to submit to
room hangs a large colour photograph of the Voyager
the pervasive pessimism of a stagnant marketplace, Isley
aircraft, the first plane to fly around the world, non-stop,
stepped back and looked at the big picture. With advice
without refueling. Isley’s eyes go saucer-round and his
from friends in the forestry industry who speculated
voice fills with a marvelous child-like energy. “You see
about future trends, he saw a niche. “If we’re going to do
that?” he asks. “Now that’s amazing.” Even more ama-
this,” he thought at the time, “we’ll do it differently.”
zing, the boy who dreamed of flight in his father’s work-
In 1984, after investing about $750,000, Risley Equip114
ment unveiled the RotoSaw, a mechanical harvesting
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shop is today building a helicopter in his own garage.
“I want the
customer to
come in, buy a
pair of shoes
and talk to
us, dripping
with sweat.”
John Stanton
T
HE STORY BEHIND JOHN STANTON’S TRANSFOR-
better. Over a period of time, I lost weight, I got into shape and I
mation into a runner – and entrepreneur –
felt really good. In business, you can do the same thing – be the
has been repeated so frequently it’s practically
best you can be.
legend. In 1983, weighing in at 238 pounds and
I like the term “rumpus room.” We’ve spent a lot of time, ef-
smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, the grocery ex-
fort, skill and money designing our stores. I want the customer to
ecutive did a three-kilometre run with his son. It felt like
come in, buy a pair of shoes and talk to us about their running.
a marathon. Stanton quit smoking, began jogging, and a
I also want that customer to visit in the middle of a run, drip-
year later launched the Running Room in an old house in
ping with sweat, to get a drink of water, say hello and pick up a
Edmonton. The company now has 75 outlets in Canada
race form. The frequency of customers visiting our stores is very
and the United States. The following Stanton quotes are
high. Often, they’ll come in just to talk to our staff about a local
from the May/June 2003 issue of the Retail Council of
run, or ask a question about training. We’ve created a clubhouse
Canada’s Canadian Retailer magazine.
atmosphere. We don’t want it too fancy because it wouldn’t be
comfortable for people who are running.
My motivation was fear. When I finished that first little fun run, I
I’m passionate about people, I’m passionate about running,
thought, “My goodness, I have two sons and I’m in bad shape. I
and I’m passionate about being successful. And I want to make
have to do something about it.” I just wanted to enjoy my family
sure I can share that with the team. My biggest achievement to
more and enjoy life more.
date is the fact that we’ve built something far bigger than one
The thing I learned about running is that I had to be the
best I could be that day. The next day, I wanted to be a little bit
person. I’m part of it. But if I’m out for a jog and get clipped by a
bus, the Running Room will go on.
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115
“The individual
always has their
own choice as to
what they will do
with their life.”
ton now lives in California, where he is involved with a
golf club company and medical products firm, and races
a jet boat named Free Enterprise. The following excerpt is
from a 1982 speech he delivered to the Canadian Women’s Club in Edmonton during his unsuccessful run for
leadership of the federal PCs.
These days, free enterprise has been getting a lot of criticism in
certain quarters. And it’s about time somebody spoke out in its
behalf....
Any society which attempts to regulate enterprise – while at
the same time it attempts to supply everyone with things – is a
society which is bound to fail. Democratic capitalism does not
strive to provide everyone with an equal number of things – but
only with an equal degree of opportunity. The individual always
has their own choice as to what they will do with their life....
This has always been my understanding of the Canadian
Peter Pocklington
O
further and further down a socialist path of state control. And
we’re not marching anymore – we’re stumbling!
It is not the job of government to act as big brother to a whole
N HIS WEBSITE, PETER POCKLINGTON SHARES AN ANEC-
population. There’s a big difference between helping the little
dote about his first entrepreneurial venture: at age
guy – the guy in need – and so orchestrating his life that it’s virtu-
five, he picked cherries, put them in jars with water
ally impossible for him not be in need. The responsibility for the
and sold them to neighbours as his mother’s preserves.
person in need can not be solely the responsibility of government.
Some might consider this a metaphor for his years in Al-
Among a free people who believe in free enterprise, some of the
berta. After arriving in Edmonton from Ontario in 1971,
responsibility for those in need must be taken up by the family,
he made money selling cars and speculating on real es-
the church, the community... and the individual himself. Broadly,
tate. Buying and selling dozens of businesses, he made
what I advocate is that each individual must be given the chance
headlines during the ugly strike at his Gainer’s meatpack-
to develop his own life: according to his own desires; according to
ing plant (which drove the company into receivership)
his own aspirations; according to his own abilities.
and for infamously “selling” Wayne Gretzky to the Los
Angeles Kings as owner of the Oilers in 1988. Pockling116
way of life. But today, we are a people who have been marching
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If the government controls your life, you are being disenfranchised from your own destiny.
“Rather than
bragging that we
are debt-free, the
province should
be bragging to the
rest of the country
that Alberta has no
homeless, hungry
or disadvantaged
children.”
Bruce Saville
I
N 1982, WITH CITY-OWNED EDMONTON TELEPHONES
battling provincial rival Alberta Government Tele-
speech he made at a social policy conference at Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan College.
phones for long-distance revenue in the newly de-
regulated telecommunications industry, Bruce Saville
Rather than bragging to the rest of the country that we are debt-
put his three-person company to work for Ed Tel. Saville
free, the province should be bragging to the rest of the country
developed an innovative billing system, giving Ed Tel the
that Alberta has no homeless and no hungry or disadvantaged
edge and putting Saville Systems on the map. The com-
children. Let us not forget that we are the government. We
munications software company grew into a global op-
choose our representatives, we hold them accountable and if we
eration with 1,400 employees by 1999. And then Saville
believe that homelessness and hunger should be eliminated and
sold it for $700 million, allowing the part owner of the
that the government should do more in this area, then we must
Edmonton Oilers to concentrate more on philanthropy.
withhold our vote from those who do not support us.
The following comments are from a November 2004
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117