Building a sales force and developing a Mandate product that made our sales force a key part of our research effort was just the beginning of the many problems I faced. My biggest challenge was figuring our how I would lobby politicians in Ottawa when I could not afford the plane fare, or the time to drive there and back.
I struggled to figure out a way that I could entice the politicians to visit me in Toronto. It was not a problem, of course, for politicians from the area like Barney Danson, who had attended the White Paper rally at the Royal York Hotel.
Then, an idea hit me like a flash. A cable program based on interviewing politicians. Before and after each interview I could explain the Mandate process and the position of our members on current issues.
I took the idea to Ted Rogers of Rogers Cable, and he loved the concept and gave it his full support. He said he would bicycle the material to about 20 cable networks across Canada and they would use it because it would count as Canadian content.
Working with his staff, we called the 30-minute show, Bullseye Ottawa, which was a play on my name. And we went into production with the program produced twice a month for a period of two years. Interviewing is a different skill set than acting as a spokesperson, but after about six months I started to get reasonably competent.
I remember with affection having the former Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker as one of my more notable guests. And one of the side benefits of the program was getting photographs of the politicians that I could use in the Mandate. The photo in the Mandate of Opposition Leader Robert Stanfield was taken in the Rogers studio.
When Liberal MPs and Cabinet Ministers agree to come on my show I expected some bitterness because of the aggressive way I had opposed their tax proposals. But, it was just the opposite. Instead, I was continuously propositioned to runs as a Liberal MP.
And, it was very flattering when we closed down the show at the end of 1973 that the CBC copied the idea and created a program that interviewed politicians called Some Honourable Members. And, it was hosted by Patrick Watson.
Lessons Learned
Large companies engage in research in the hope of developing new and innovative products and services. However, the overwhelming number of small business innovations are the results of their owners trying to solve their problems. Our cash flow problems in the early 1970s stimulated more innovation than at any period in our history.