‘Prince Hal’ doesn’t give a hoot about his place in history — but he’ll undoubtedly have one

When I interviewed Hal Jackman in 2000, his Toronto office looked unchanged from the 19th century, like some kind of a museum tableau. The mahogany desk was cluttered with papers, a hulking glass-fronted cabinet occupied a wall and the spicy smell of cigars hung in the air. There was an oil portrait of George Cox, the financier who bestrode National Trust, and the desk used by tycoon George Gooderham, who held sway over Dominion of Canada General Insurance, two among the dozen companies Jackman controlled in his day. There was no modern equipment evident.
For any left-wing radicals, Prince Hal, as he has been dubbed, would be their archetypal foe because of his inherited wealth, chalk-striped blue suits and stately bearing. Even his former hobby hailed from another time. For years Jackman sought to assemble the complete line of William Britain hand-painted military miniatures. He used them with his friend Conrad Black to re-enact the battle of Austerlitz. But in the rarefied world of Henry Newton Rowell “Hal” Jackman nothing is what it seems. Such military manoeuvers as became the stuff of legend occurred only once. That mock engagement was staged to offer entertaining footage for the CBC-TV series, “The Canadian Establishment.”
But for a so-called old fogey, Jackman has shown himself to be eminently adaptable. In fact, those toy soldiers provide an instructive metaphor for his business life. Like many collectibles, much of what’s available from the military miniatures line comes relatively cheap. Uncommon commodities, however, such as the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band, fetch absurd prices. Jackman, parsimonious man that he is, balked at further expensive acquisitions, preferring to donate his 5,000-piece collection worth $350,000 to the Royal Canadian Military Institute and the Royal Ontario Museum. “When you stop buying, the attractiveness of the collection disappears,” he said. “You’ve got to keep building on it.”
A similar realization occurred when he returned to business in 1997 after serving as lieutenant-governor of Ontario for nearly six years. Commerce had changed in his absence and he knew he had to adjust. “Those are lot of good years, some people around here would say wasted years. It was hard to come back.”
Although Jackman had resigned his outside boards while lieutenant-governor, he continued to attend directors’ meetings of the companies he controlled, a participation that some found inappropriate. The Globe and Mail dogged his travels and would report his presence inside buildings where meetings of his companies were taking place. “I don’t deny going to the meetings. There’s no rule saying I can’t be an owner. I don’t think there’s a conflict at all. The only reason you shouldn’t be a director is you shouldn’t be getting paid for something when you’re being paid for something else that’s supposed to be a full-time job. But just to show an interest in your investment, I’m not going to apologize to anybody for that.”
Jackman’s views on politics were also transformed. He unsuccessfully ran for Parliament three times as a Progressive Conservative but later supported the Reform Party. “It’s got nothing to do with being more right-wing or more left-wing. I’m pro-choice, I’m for same-sex benefits. The pressure for tax cuts is not dictated by equity, it’s because the Americans are lower so we have to be lower.”
In fact, Jackman would go even further — adopt the U.S. currency and have a common immigration policy. “We have a separate system of government. I’m not sure it’s better. Being a conservative and a gradualist, I’m not advocating anything revolutionary. History does bind you together but we still have to operate in the same economic environment.
“I am proud of my Canadianism. What I don’t like about our Canadian nationalism is that it’s premised on this huge inferiority complex we have about the United States (when we say) we’re different from you. Why don’t we say we’re the same as you only better. Let’s try to be the best we can be.”
If business is about making money, politics is about making history. “Pierre Trudeau is going to be remembered. The interesting contrast is with (Prime Minister Brian) Mulroney. When he sees all this adulation for Trudeau, I know what’s going on in Brian’s mind. He sees everything that Trudeau did, every piece of legislation he introduced, has been reversed by some subsequent government. ‘Things that I was vilified for are now accepted by successors, (Mulroney says). Why do they love him and hate me?’ And of course the very fact that he’s concerned about that issue is why they don’t like him. Trudeau didn’t give a damn and that’s what made him attractive.”
As for Hal Jackman, he doesn’t give a hoot about his place in history. “The truth of the matter is that you’re not going to be remembered at all.” No matter in what century you lived and worked.