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OFTY BY LISA GREGOIRE ail Asper is clutching a metallic, Thermos travel mug of coffee with her left hand and, with the other, swing- ing a bulging crimson purse near an electronic security pad by the door leading to the Canwest Place under- ground parkade. "Don't tell me I don't have the right keys," she groans, turning the handbag this way and that near the gray square, hoping her security card buried be- neath the cosmetics and cellphone will trigger the mechanism and open the door. "Come on," she commands, and it relents. We buzz through and head to her cherry-red, hardtop convertible BMW. Trained as a lawyer in a family of lawyers — including her late father Israel H. (Izzy to most) and brothers David and Leonard — Gail is a live wire. She plunks the purse onto the trunk and fi shes out her keys, telling me how she wanted a Porsche but that 20 years ago, when she went car shop- ping, the Porsche people were conde- scending and aimed the sales pitch at her husband instead. Fools. He's the reliable sedan type. "Do up your seatbelt," she says. "We've got fi ve minutes before the luncheon and we're 15 minutes away. www. C ANADIAN ASPER-ATIONS G GAIL ASPER WON'T REST UNTIL THE CANADIAN MUSEUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION, AND LIKELY NOT EVEN THEN. We'll have to hurry." Seatbelt? Where's my helmet? The woman snaps through downtown Winnipeg traffi c like a fuse. We get to the hotel convention centre a mere three minutes late — every- thing bends to Asper's will, even time it seems. She marches into the lobby in navy, slingback stilettos and asks the fi rst lanyard-yoked man she sees if he knows where the Mel Myers Labour Law Conference is. He points down the hall to where crowds are disgorging from a room. "I hope it's not over. Did I get the time wrong?" She hastens for- ward. "Hi, Gail," a man says, and sud- denly she's swarmed. Someone's taking her coat and introducing her around. She's cutting jokes, shaking hands, in- quiring after friends, doling out cred- ible good-to-see-you-agains, and then mentions, a little self-consciously, the henna tattoo on her left hand. "I got it at my friend's 50th birthday party," she explains. "I didn't think it would be this dark." Paul McKenna, a partner with My- ers Weinberg LLP, which hosts this an- nual not-for-profi t conference, ushers her into a room of 200-plus union ex- ecutives, labour reps, board members, and a smattering of labour lawyers. "Is there coffee on the table?" she asks. "I hope there's coffee." We sit down near mag.com M AY 2008 33 PHOTO: BRIAN GOULD