05-01 The ISBC in Ottawa
You know you have hit the big time when the CFIB is able to bring a huge international conference on small business to the nation's capital. That is the story of the International Symposium on Small Business held in Ottawa in 1981.It was an organization that began as a Pan-Pacific Partnership in Hawaii in 1974,…
05-02 Reorganization
The only problem with rapid growth is that you can outgrow your management and governance capabilities, so that inevitably you face the need for painful and challenging change.In the early days of CFIB, the relationship between the Board and CFIB was awkward and difficult. We were a not-for-profit that was undercapitalized, we were engaged in…
05-03 Provincial Affairs
Staff at CFIB were always surprised to learn that creating new departments was about taking the yellow telephone slips off of my desk. The largest number of slips were calls from members needing help, then calls about provincial issues, then calls on national matters.The Member Services function, called the Member Counsellor function today, began in…
05-04 The Joe Clarke Government
The spring election was a blessing in some respects because at that time, CFIB was undergoing significant internal changes and conflict. One week after Joe Clarke's PCs won the spring 1979 election with a minority of seats in the House of Commons, I received a call to come to Ottawa and join a private meeting…
05-05 National Affairs
When the Trudeau government came back into power in 1980, we finally had a real player on board at CFIB. That was Jim Bennett, hired the previous year. Jim had worked as a senior policy advisor to Jean Chretien when he held major cabinet posts. The first thing we did was get a meeting with…
05-06 4141 Yonge Street
There are wonderful stories associated with the history of our physical facilities that ended with our amazing 4141 Yonge Street. It started with our first 400 square feet at 745 Mt. Pleasant just below Eglinton Ave. We sublet 100 sq. ft. to an agent who sold shelving equipment which is now in our supply department…
05-07 The Forum of Private Business
When I received a call from Wilson Johnson, the President of the National Federation of Independent Business out of San Mateo, California, congratulating me on achieving our goal of 50,000 members, I told him I was helping a colleague start a similar advocacy organization in Britain just as he had helped me start CFIB in…
05-08 Remembering the Builders
After about fifteen years from start-up, the basic advocacy model that took us forward was in place. This chapter recognizes the strategic builders who made it possible. The first was our first District Manager, Bob Brouse, who was hired from a referral from the tenant in our first office at 745 Mt. Pleasant. We then…
05-09 Education Activism
It had been a decision by the Board to continue the work of the Canadian Centre for Entrepreneurship after it was shut down at the end of 1973 at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Firstly, we helped Dr. Rein Peterson of York University develop a book called “Small Business, Building a Balanced Economy”. It…
05-10 Unfair Taxation
The CFIB research function under Pat Johnston made history in 1979, when we published solid data, showing that small firms were creating the majority of the new jobs in the economy.And using unpublished 1979 data from Statistics Canada's Business Finance Division, CFIB's research department made history again by showing clearly how unfair the tax system…