Part 30 (1/2)

Ken has force-fed his father's business empire from annual revenues of $725 million in 1976, when he took over, to $11.5 billion a decade and a half later. The total equity value of the companies he controls has sky-rocketed from less than $1 billion to more than $11 billion, exponentially surpa.s.sing Roy Thomson's impressive rate of annual growth.

In 1989, following sale of the Thomson Group's North Sea oil holdings for $670 million, its publis.h.i.+ng and travel a.s.sets were combined into an umbrella YOUNG KEN 499.

organization (the Thomson Corporation). Ken uncharacteristically boasted that it would allow him to set his sights on any target. ”I can't imagine any publis.h.i.+ng company anywhere in the world that would be beyond our ability to acquire,” he gloated.

KEN THOMSON LEADS A DOUBLE LIFE, and enjoys neither. In England--and most of non-North America where t.i.tles still mean something-he is Baron Thomson of Fleet of Northbridge in the City of Edinburgh, the peerage bestowed on his father on January 1, 1964, two days before he lost his Canadian citizens.h.i.+p for accepting a British t.i.tle. ”I regret giving up C anadian citizens.h.i.+p,” Roy Thomson said at the time, ”but I had no choice. I didn't give it up. They took it away from me. They gave me the same reward you give a traitor. If I had betrayed iny countrv, that's the reward I would get-taking away my citizens.h.i.+p. Canada should allow t.i.tles. If you get a t.i.tle from the Pope, there's no trouble accepting that.”

During their visits to England, Lord and Ladv Thomson live in a four-bedroom flat (purchased for E90,000 in 1967) in Kensington Palace Gardens, off

*Roy Thomson turned down Prime Ministerjohn Diefenbaker's 1959 offer to appoint him Governor General of Canada. ”It wouldn't have suited me verv well because I'm too much of an extrovert for that,” ROY declared at the time. ”I can't conceal mN, feelings very easily. I talk too much, everybody says, but I talked myself into more deals than I ever tAked myself out of, so I'm still ahead of the game. At any rate, it worked out for the best. Since then, I've got a hereditary peerage. And I'm a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, that's a GBE, which is the highest degree of the Order of the British Empire. That ent.i.tles you to be 'Sir.' If I hadn't got a peerage I'd be Sir Roy, so I'm right at the top of the heap.”

500 FAREWELL TO GLORY.

Bayswater Road.* A secluded street with extra police protection, this is where many of the amba.s.sadors to the Court of St. James's have their residences. While abroad, the introverted Ken and Marilyn Thomson of Toronto are transformed into the introverted Lord and Lady Thomson of Fleet, using their t.i.tles, with two sets of clothing and accessories as well as stationery and visiting cards. ”I lead a dual life and I'm getting away with it,” Thomson declares. ”It actually works.”

One place it doesn't work is in the House of Lords. Ken has never taken up his father's seat in Westminster's august Upper Chamber, nor does he intend to. The older Thomson glowed with pride the day he received his t.i.tle.

After celebrating by queuing up at Burberrys for a cashmere coat reduced from Y,75 to Y,40, he had his official coat of armst carved on his office door, and when one elderly London dowager persisted in calling him ”Mr Thomson,” he barked, ”Madam, I've paid enough for this G.o.dd.a.m.n t.i.tle, you might have the good grace to use it.”t Having been elevated to the House of Lords, Thomson seldom attended its sessions and didn't particularly enjoy it when he did. ”I've made a lot of money, but I'm not the brightest guy in the world, by a h.e.l.l of a long ways,” he once commented. ”I've found that out since I've been in the House of Lords. About

*During the Second World War the flat was used for interrogating high-ranking n.a.z.i officers.

t It features the bizarre image of a beaver blowing an Alpine horn under the inotto, ”Never a Backward Step.”

tThe reason for the granting of a tide is never promulgated, but in Thomson's case it was thought to have been mainly for his initiative in donatingY5 million to establish a foundation to train Third World journalists. It is still active and recently helped revive the New Cbina Daily.

YOUNG KEN 501.

90% of the things they discuss there, I'm a complete ignoramus about. I've got a one-track mind, but I b.l.o.o.d.y well know my own business.”

”For Dad, the t.i.tle symbolized what he had achieved from nothing, and he made me promise I wouldn't give it up,” Ken recalls. ”He told me he'd like to see me carry it on because he rightly suspected I was the type of person who might not want to. I remember telling him, 'Well, Dad, I think you're a little naughty to ask me to do that. Because everybody should have the right to make his own decisions in this world. But after what you've done for me, if you really want me to, I'll make you that promise.' Now, I didn't promise him I'd use the t.i.tle in Canada or that I'd take up my seat in the House of Lords. So now I'm happy to have it both ways.”

Another of the inheritances from his father was the att.i.tude that while making money was holy, spending it was evil. The Thoinson style of penny-pinching-father and son-goes well beyond sensible parsimony.

”n.o.body has any sympathy for a rich man except somebody thats richer again,” Roy once ruminated. ”I mean, h.e.l.l, I eat three meals a day and I shouldn't. I should probably eat two. And I only have so many suits of clothes, and I'm not very particular about my dress anyway, and I can't spend, oh, not a small fraction of what I make, so what the h.e.l.l am I doing? I'm not doing it for money. It's a game. But I enjoy myself I love work. I like to be successful. I I ike to look at another paper and think, Jesus, if only that was mine. Let's have a look at the balance sheet.”

Roy Thomson's approach to spending was best summed up in the marathon bargaining sessions he staged when he was renting s.p.a.ce for his Canadian head office at 425 University Avenue in downtown Toronto. The landlord, a promoter who had a Scrooge-like reputation of his own to uphold, despaired of reaching any 502 FAREWELL TO GLORY.

Ist Lord Tbomson of Fleet

reasonable rental agreement because Thomson's offer was so far below rates charged for comparable s.p.a.ce elsewhere. When the press lord finally wore him down, the building's owner gasped in reluctant admiration, ”Mr Thomson, you really are cheap!” To which an indignant Roy Thomson responded, ”I'm not cheap! You're cheap! I'm cheap cheap!”

The photographs of the original Lord Thomson weighing his baggage so he wouldn't have to pay extra on his economy flights across the Atlantic, going to work on London's underground, or lining up for cafeteria lunches created a comic mask that somehow took the hard edge off his business deals. His outrigger spectacles, with lenses as thick as c.o.ke-bottle bottoms, magnified his glinting blue eyes as he peered at the world with Mister Magoo-like good humour, hiding his touch of icy cunning. Thomson carefully cultivated the image of himself YOUNG KEN 503.

as the living embodiment of the profit motive on the hoof Seated next to Princess Margaret at a fas.h.i.+on show, he spotted a lam6 gown on one of the models. ”My favorite color,” he told the Princess. ”Gold!” During Thomson's much-publicized 1963 encounter with Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian dictator teasingly asked what use his money was to him. ”You can't take it with you,” said Khrushchev. ”Then I'm not going,” shot back a determined Thomson.

Ken Thomson's scrimping habits are equally mingy, if less well known.

Although he is a member of six of Toronto's most exclusive clubs-the York, Toronto, National, York Downs, Granite and Toronto Hunt-he prefers to have lunch by himself at a downtown yogurt bar, if he's not home walking Gonzo, that is.* He does most of his shopping on department-store bargain days. Murray Turner, a former HBC executive who knows Thomson slightly, was shopping in the Loblaws store at Moore and Bayview when he heard a shout, ”Murray! Murray!” and saw Thomson beckoning to him. As he reached the side of the world's eighth-richest man, it was obvious that Thomson could hardly contain himself ”Lookit,” he exclaimed, ”lookit this. They have hamburger buns on special today. Only $1.89! You must get some.” Turner looked in disbelief at Thomson's shopping cart, and sure enough, there were six packages of buns, presumably for freezing against a rainy day. ”I'd walk a block to save a dime at a discount store,”

Thomson readily admits. On the same day he spent $641 million on a corporate takeover, Thomson met George Cohon, the Canadian head of McDonald's, and asked him for a toy Ronald McDonald wrist.w.a.tch.

*He occasionally frequents fancier restaurants but takes the uneaten portions home in a Gonzo-bag.

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Cohon sent him one of the free timepieces (used mainly for internal promotions), but the verv next day Thomson's secretary was on the phone claiming the watch had gained four minutes over the past twenty-four hours and asking where His Lords.h.i.+p could get it fixed. Cohon ordered another watch sent to him, but the messenger had strict orders to bring back the original gift.

The press lord appears to dress well (his shoes are from Wildsmiths on London's sw.a.n.k Duke Street), but his suits are made for him by a cut-rate tailor in Toronto's Chinatown at $200 apiece from the discounted ends of bolts he picks up during his Journeys to Britain. He lives in a twenty-three-roorn mansion behind a set of handsome gates at the top of Rosedale's Castle Frank Road, built in 1926 by Salada Tea Company president Gerald Larkin. A prime example of Ontario Georgian-style architecture, the dwelling is run down, its curtains left over from its first owner. The Thomsons (Marilyn's parents live with them in a coach-house) usually eat in the kitchen to save electricity, and the family is unable to retain housekeepers because of the low pay. Even the help's food is rationed. Most cookies are kept in a box with the Thomson name lettered on it. A strict allocation of two of Mr Christie's best is placed on a separate plate to feed the rotating parade of disillusioned cleaning women.*

Thomson owns a Mercedes 300-E but usually drives his ancient Oldsmobile (”it clunks around but it's the car that Gonzo prefers”) and once purchased a red Porsche

*Besides the London flat, the only other Thomson residence is in Barbados, where he ou ns the Southern Palms Hotel. To maximize profits, Ken and Marilyn stay in a third-floor walk-up apartment whenever thev visit instead of occupying one of the more luxurious main-floor suites. Toronto travel impresario Sam Blyth has occasionally booked them aboard West Indies cruises on a travel agents discount.

YOUNG KEN 505.

turbo. (”Honestly, not one of my more practical expenditures. I was thrilled at first but I hardly use it-I've probably driven not more than twenty-five miles in it this summer.” The car is for sale.) The Thomsons never entertain and seldom go out. When they do, preparations include discreet calls to find out precisely what other guests have been invited, whether anyone will be smoking or drinking, how soon they might comfortably leave, and so on.

The world's eighth-richest man is one of the country's most reluctant philanthropists. When TorontoDominion Bank chairman d.i.c.k Thomson (no relation) and Fred Eaton, head of his family's department store chain, called on Thomson to solicit funds for the Toronto General Hospital, a favourite Establishment charity, they were warned by a mutual friend that the only way they would get any money was to pledge construction of a veterinary wing to treat Gonzo. They thought it was a joke, and came back almost empty-handed.

There has been much argument among his headquarters staff over how much cash Ken Thomson actually spends per week. Some insiders claim it's twenty dollars; others insist it's at least forty. No one bids any higher. He has credit cards but seldom if ever uses them. ”It's an idiosyncrasy,” saysjohn'rory, his chief confidant. ”It's just very difficult for Ken to put his hand in his pocket and spend money. Yet he's extremely kind and generous. When we're rus.h.i.+ng to a meeting and we're late, if he sees a blind man, he'll stop, miss a couple of lights, and help him cross the street.” Tory didn't need to add that the blind man gets no money. Thomson himself won't discuss his spending habits. ”I agree with my father that you should use only a small portion of your money on yourself and that you have some kind of obligation to do something useful with the balance.

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