Great-West

"When David Kilgour resigned at the end of 1970, he was replaced by James Bums, who had been Great-West’s u.s. director of Mar¬ keting. A man who enjoyed Desmarais’s support and confidence, Bums orchestrated one of Desmarais’s prime intentions for Great- West — penetration and expansion into the huge, lucrative u.s. mar¬ ket. Desmarais’s other intention, amalgamation of Great-West Life and Imperial Life, never occurred as it was blocked by the federal insurance regulatory agency. It may seem that acquiring and integrating Great-West into Power would be enough to occupy one man’s attention and satisfy his am¬ bitions, especially considering that this was all occurring during the fundamental restructuring of Power. Such is not the case. Desmarais had Jean Parisien, trusty chief of staff, to depend upon to deal with the details of corporate architecture. Parisien, in turn, had inherited the staff of Power and had conducted his shuffling, bringing in some people from his support staff at Trans-Canada, moving out some of the Power staff that didn’t fit in to the new regime, and generally"

"could be had by whomever could break the stalemate. Desmarais found out from Saddlery that they would sell their Great-West holdings for $140 per share. He took this information to The Investors Group board of directors, over which Power wielded no small influence (33.1 percent or effective control). The potential investment was analyzed according to Investors’s normal procedures, and methods of financing an offer were examined."

"Also working against Campeau’s hopes for financing from within Power were the legal limits on the extent to which an insurance company could participate in an affiliated company (Great-West and Imperial Life were in the Power fold). As well, Power policies on inter-corporate dealings wouldn’t allow major internal financing or cross-guaranteeing of loans to other divisions or subsidiaries. In sum, Campeau found himself in a worse, rather than better, situation to acquire financing. Further, he had lost control of his company and couldn’t direct its destiny."