Shareholder

I seem to recall CP had both Peter Laugheed and Bob Rae on its board in the last few years. Many large corporations have ex-senior politicians on their boards: ADM has Brian Mulroney [as does Barrack and a half-dozen other corporations including Forbes], George Bush is on a few, and David Petersen littered so many he lost track. How many has Mike Harris turned up on? Don Mazinkowski sits on Shaw Communications board. The banks tend to prefer former deputy minister, like Marshall Cohen and Ed Clark, to their political bosses. But I notice a few, like TD, also keep big "customers" on their board: Ted Rogers of Rogers Communications and Darren Entrwhistle of Telus.

BTW, AC's new board chair is the former head of Bombardier Aerospace, who replaces Fraser, which seems to escaped many commentators. Not sure how much more industry experience one can get without bringing Don Carty on board!

parnel

Now you are starting to convince me you're not a pinko

msn

Why stop there - it's time for the full monty - bring him on!

B767

Airline deregulation in far, far from partial! If you want to see just how "regulated" the Cdn airline industry was read Max Wards book. Domestic airlines are now allowed to fly wherever they want, whenever they want, provided a slot is available. They can charge whatever they want, provided it is not predatory pricing. Where do you think the "Saturday night stay" comes from? These are HUGE differences that where not the case before deregulation. You could start Air Parnel tomorrow, flying domestically if you chose to and had the adequate capital. That couldn't have happened under a "regulated" airline industry.

How Schwartz and liberal cronies got the best of RM and the AC board is totally different than re regulating the industry.

I repeat, AC's board has watched over as an airline with virtually not debt has amassed $ 13B in debt and a negative market capitalization of -$2B. Certainly this has to be someone fault? If nothing else it happened on their watch!

exAC

You missed the biggest political hack of them all. CAIL had Jean Carle on their board. Of whom Jean C said "He is like a son to me".

Abby

Thank you, parnel!

I think I worded my original post badly. No anti-Quebec sentiment was intended! I think I am just feeling a bit exasperated with politicians these days. (I think there is more anti-Fed sentiment out this way...)

And Shareholder, I did read about the guy from Bombardier (can't remember his name, now) coming in to replace John Fraser. And that seemed like a pretty good move to me. What do you think?

But why didn't they bring in people like that sooner? I'm not saying everyone on the BOD for an airline has to have worked with airlines, but what does make for a good composition?

Maybe I'm wrong, and it certainly seems that there is a lot of disagreement (or uncertainty) about how a BOD should be selected, but it seems to me that you really SHOULD have people who can help make tough decisions within your industry.
And if they don't or can't help when it comes to a crisis point, I am not sure they should simply be seen as innocent bystanders.

exAC

Heaven help you if there were only former airline people on the board. You would end up with a bunch of people that collectively had never purchased an airline ticket or collected FF miles. They would be lacking a great chunk of knowledge.

YOWkid

Former and not former, it's not like anyone on the BoD pays for their tickets...

airbus320

exAC Are you suggesting that a frequent flyer be on the board?

Is this some leading edge thinking that Rupert alluded to on FT chat?

Seriously, some non airline execs have little first hand experience booking flights and reedeming points. The executive assistant takes care of those details.

exAC

At least someone from outside the airline world understands what FF points are. I had an Aeroplan card for 10 years prior to retiring and managed to collect less than 10,000 points. I did not understand [or care] what the program was all about. If I had at least taken one trip on points, or used some for an upgrade, I would have understood things better.

When I took trips on pleasure or business I was in a different category than a Revenue passenger. For one thing I was not allowed to complain.

The biggest thing is that as an airline employee you learn to make excuses for everything that goes wrong at the airline. [That is probably not much different than someone working in any other field. Most everyone has some pride in who they work for.]

Shareholder

"The biggest thing is that as an airline employee you learn to make excuses for everything that goes wrong at the airline. "

So that explains why I do it: Three years working summers in AC res. Thanks, exAC. Now everyone can understand why I post what I post.

exAC

I did not realize what I was doing and it took at least a year to quit making excuses. I have spoken with people back at the airline since then and they still don't understand when I say, "I don't work there anymore, so I don't need to make excuses".

InTheAirGuy

Lots of interesting comments to my original post, but let me followup with the National Post column of today from Terence Corcoran. Granted, his views are often harsh, but it makes for a good read.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?V5AF237A4

"Air Canada, model corporation"

"Air Canada's board is a model of independence. But guess what? It is now conventional wisdom that the airline's board, in bed with CEO Robert Milton, jointly and dubiously ran the airline into insolvency."

"Where were Air Canada's independent directors as the airline flew into crisis? Judge Farley certainly has his doubts that Air Canada's directors did the best they could."

"On the other hand, Air Canada -- the Judge acknowledges -- encountered "particular circumstances." Many of its troubles were unpredictable, brought on by SARS, the Iraq war and 9/11. Still, the Judge seems unwilling to give the board much slack, or to allow the possibility that Air Canada's great 15-year tailspin may have more to do with outside forces than with decisions made by the board or the airline's executives."

Maybe the judge hangs out in Flyertalk!

Shareholder

Ah, yes, Terrance. I have waited over 30-years to read something he has written that I can agree with* once again, and it came a few minutes ago when I read this column. This was the same board that stood down the pilots' outrageous demands for parity with their US counterparts, but paid heavily in a major strike at peak summer. This disruption created bad will for the airline, but would giving into the pilots have not led to a quicker path to financial decline? Then a year later, the FAs were pulling the same number and AC gave into them. Such were the types of imponderable issues the Board has had to deal with in the past five years. It is a no-win game: dam*ed if you do, dam*ed if you don't.

I am glad to see somebody recognizes what board members had to do. They took hard decisions, which a lot of boards do not. They also had to deal with the most significant external forces to hit any industry in the past half-century. Were AC the only airline in this financial situation, then I say it had a lousy board who made bad decisions. But this is not the case, so TC is correct in his assessment.

As for RM's remarks yesterday, he is also correct to note had badly Ottawa has responded to the needs of the industry since 9.11, when compared to the US or even EU. This is not a question of subsidizing AC -- aside from the debatable initial IPO "subsidy" and legacy when has Ottawa subsidized AC in its private sector garb? -- but assisting the entire airline and travel industry by removing or reducing usurous levies on its customers. In addition to any direct compensation for "acts of God" which shut the airline system down after 9.11, and to an extent SARS.

Good analysis, TC.
______________

*TC's secret is that he was first published as a poet in a literary/arts magazine I edited at Carleton U back in the late 60s. I thought the man had hidden talents and insight, albeit certainly not another Leonard Cohen or Irving Layton. Though I now recognize from his writings in the Financial Post that he was actually following in the footsteps of that capitalist banker poet, Rayound Souster.

[This message has been edited by Shareholder (edited 05-22-2003).]

thoglette

Yup, I'll never forget watching a gate agent yelling at a passenger before throwing her passport back at here.

But otherwise, as BB said, OK if not sparkling.
Compared to say, BA, where many of the overworked longhaul cabin staff (yeh, I buy cheap seats) are clearly trying to make the best of an otherwise grim experience :-)