Twenty-five years ago, Izzy Asper bought a small TV station in North Dakota, set it up in an old Safeway store in south Winnipeg, and laboured 25 years to expand it into a national and international group of broadcast holdings. This provided such a sound financial base that his son Leonard with little more than a year at the helm was able to double the size of the company. Under Leonard's leadership, CanWest has created Canada's largest multi media company, marrying a national TV network with the country's most established print brands and one of the largest Internet distribution networks. Albertans always think big, and, not to make a pun, but you also think global. You've never thought of the oil patch as limited to one part of the province or the country.
Energy is part of a global business, and so too is the media.
But thinking global never means ignoring the local. Our goal is to provide you, right here in Calgary, in Edmonton and Lethbridge, and Red Deer, across the province and across the country, with the best news, information and entertainment available. Being big and global means having the resources to deliver on our promise. With the approval of the regulators, CanWest's combination of the Global Network and the Hollinger assets will have the critical size to deliver the most comprehensive media package available anywhere. You may be in the oil fields of Kazakhstan but you are only an Internet connection away from your local news.