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cent, will be third-highest in the country this year, after Calgary and Edmonton. If you ask politicians and other local The Asper family attending the Canwest Global Communications annual general meeting in January 2002 in Vancouver. Left to right: Leonard, David, Izzy, and Gail. at that firm." Life was civilized then. People opened actual mail, took lunch breaks, and rare- ly worked evenings. "I remember I was working on some transaction and I was there at 10 o'clock at night for several nights in a row, and one of the partners said, 'Here's the rule: you can do this two or three times a month, but I don't want to see it becoming the norm. You have to have a life.'" She considers those years in Halifax some of her best, help- ing enthusiastic entrepreneurs get ideas rolling and absorbing Maritime history and culture. She also gained confidence in a place where people didn't know her father or the increasingly prominent Asper name. It's sunny and three degrees in the Manitoba capital. Cars and pant cuffs are splattered with khaki meltwater, but nobody's complaining. Nothing makes this city giddy like a warm day in March and the Brier. Special Brier buses ply the T OFFICE & FURNITURE PRODUCTS C streets. Clusters of flag-waving fans bus- tle about like patriotic gangsters. Ubiq- uitous TVs broadcast those telltale con- centric circles. Curling is officially hip. It's an apt metaphor for the city it- DD CL GRLBBA-02 OP b&w 4/3/08 12:15 PM Page 1 self. Winnipeg has endured its share of name calling since the grain-trade hey- day at the turn of the 20th century. The cosmopolitan "Chicago of the North" became "Winterpeg" and "Murder capi- tal of Canada." Eschewed by the East, adopted orphan to the West, there it is: middle-of-the-road Winnipeg. But the city's cool again. Trendy shops and res- taurants crowd The Forks and Osborne Village. Revitalization of the derelict Exchange District, now a national his- toric site, has attracted budding artists, nightclubs, community groups, cafés, and galleries. A labyrinth in honour of late author Carol Shields is set to start blooming this spring, and the Confer- ence Board of Canada predicts Winni- peg's economic growth rate, at 3.4 per Office Products he popular Philips Digital Pocket Memo LFH9600 offers voice comands, on-board file encryption and password protection. Ergonomic design lends itself to unparalleled user friendliness to create dictations. Packaged with SpeechExec Pro Dictate, Network-based dictation software and a docking station for uploading files. To order please quote code #40075-00 dyedurhambasics.ca 1-888-393-3874 Fax: 1-800-263-2772 Choose Dye& Durham your ONE source supplier 36 M AY 2008 www. C ANADIAN mag.com power brokers, they'll tell you the Aspers and Canwest Global have contributed much to the city's invigorated success and pride. Say what you want about the perils of one company owning most of our daily newspapers and Global TV — and critics do say a lot about homogeni- zation of news, local media vulnerability to bottom-line corporate management, and a broadcast mentality superimposed on newspapers — there's no denying what the Aspers have done for this city, not the least of which was to stay here. "Did Izzy throw his might around a little bit? Sure. He was a self-made man. But at the end of the day, he's done more for the city and province, probably, than he did for himself," says Bob Freedman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Win- nipeg. David Asper's recent $7.5-million donation to the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law notwithstanding, Win- nipeg gets a fair share of Asper benevo- lence. Canwest employs roughly 450 people in the city and has donated, on average, about $1 million annually to local hospitals, universities, social agen- cies, sports facilities, arts organizations, Jewish causes, and other recipients, not including the $10 million each Izzy do- nated to the Winnipeg Foundation and the University of Manitoba in 2000. The Aspers are like a Prairie royal family, only less prim. Asper never planned to join the family business. When her dad called, in 1989, asking her to join Canwest as general counsel, she was reluctant. David was starting law school and Leonard was just finishing up his arts degree. Izzy was PHOTO: PETER BATTISTONI/VANCOUVER SUN W e ' r e a y C a n a p d i m a n o a n