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Presents a speech by William A. Dimma, Deputy Chairman of Royal Lepage Limited. Speech that was given before the Annual Conference for the Sales Professional of Canada's Professional Sales Organization; Discussion of business as being more than a game; Economy that is in a recession; Comments on greed.

This article describes the career and personality of media tycoon Conrad Black, who was forced to resign from his position at Hollinger Inc. in the midst of a corporate scandal. After Black's career totalled last week, I looked back through the book I had written about him in 1982, when he was only 38. Rereading what I wrote two decades ago, I was particularly struck by the number and intensity of Black's quotations from his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte. That prediction came true for his own life last week as Conrad, by now Lord Black of Crossharbour, was forced to resign from his exalted perch at the summit of the Hollinger media conglomerate, after a special company committee found that US $32 million in non-compete payments were made to Black and others without proper approval or authorization. They included Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, his eminence Emmett Cardinal Carter, Chaim Herzog, a former president of Israel, James Thompson, a former governor of Illinois, Lord Carrington, the former secretary general of NATO, Richard Perle, one of the architects of George W. Bush's Iraq policy, as well as half a dozen other British lords, plus the Italian industrialist, Giovanni Agnelli. The Blacks commuted in the company's private Challenger jet among their sprawling villa in the most expensive oceanside section of Palm Beach, Fla., a luxurious Park Avenue apartment in New York, their Toronto mansion with its 18th-century cardinal's throne, and the four-storey, 11-bedroom London mansion Black purchased from the renegade Australian financier Alan Bond for $7 million.

The author reflects on poverty. He believes that it is a universal phenomenon that is a result of greed and self-indulgence of individuals and groups of people. Referring to the book "Persistent Poverty: Voices From the Margins," by Jamie Swift, Brice Balmer and Mira Dineen, he expresses disbelief that poverty can occur in a country like Canada. He calls on all people of faiths to work for the overcoming of poverty which degrades people, citing the Muslim belief to help others in need.

The article focuses on the sense of greed and entitlement attitude of the Conservative Party with regard to the proposal of Canadians Prime Minister Paul Martin to postpone the election until February 2006 in order to investigate the sponsorship scandal in Quebec. Details of the scandal is included. It calls for the administration to address the needs of Canadians instead of informing the public about controversies. There is a possibility of Martin to win the election.

The character who delivered the"greed is good" speech in the movie Wall Street can make way for a real-life champion of corporate fat cats--famed Toronto lawyer Edward Greenspan. In a keynote address to a meeting of in-house corporate counsel in Halifax, Greenspan lamented that debacles like Enron have prompted "the hysterical masses" to equate greed with crime and to vilify business leaders as "captains of corporate piggery." "The world has become a hostile place for rich CEOs," a species the public regards "with sort of a disdain and a disgust," noted Greenspan, among the bevy of lawyers retained by deposed CEO Conrad Black in his battle with Hollinger International. The problem, he argued for the defence, is not greed--it's envy. "Society resents these people, dislikes them, even hates them...society wants to punish people for their lifestyle, their opulence, company plane, their high life, their luxury, their wealth." One of the victims of what Greenspan likened to a modern-day witch hunt is Martha Stewart. As tales of corporate excess continue to unfold, Greenspan may have more opportunities to defend executives against the envious rabble. Asked to reveal his hourly fee during a case a few years back, Greenspan handled the question with his trademark smoothness. Get yourself charged with a crime, he advised the journalist, "then come and see me."

Focuses on the support of greed as motive in business by Barbara MacDougall, Minister of State for Privatization in Canada.