Magna and Belinda and Frank
are more than Auto Parts or Seat Cushions.
They are a Global Vision of (Costly)
Entertainment for the Whole Family
(that is, if you like to start bad habits young)
+ Earlier today (see above) I posted an article and translated it from Montreal's La Presse newspaper. The news is that the politically unknown, new face in the even newer Conservative Party of Canada, Belinda Stronach, has pulled out all the stops in her bid to become party leader. The French-language printed version of the article claimed that she is cornering the PC* organizers already in place in Quebec. Her method: liberally throwing around her cash.
However they were recruited, these former *Progressive Conservative party loyalists could be key to Stronach or to whoever is ultimately chosen to take on Liberal Party candidates under Paul Martin's leadership. Let us not forget the New Democratic Party hopefuls led by Jack Layton, nor the more embedded and organized Bloc Québécois nominees under Gilles Duceppe.
The federal elections probably will occur in May. We are on a stiff learning curve here, so I have decided to cut some corners. My take on Belinda Stronach is that she is very much a businesswoman, a serious leader in the empire her father built and that as the CEO for the past few years, we should hold her to her performance in the company she headed, i.e. Magna International. But 99.9% of the electorate does not have a handle on what that company is nor what they do. And the bare numbers are not enough to get you up to speed.
Magna is huge. It is not an auto parts supplier in the same sense as a Québec local like Spectra Premium in Boucherville or a handful of others. Three-quarters of the company's business is with GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler or Volkswagen. There are plants in 20 countries that actually assemble cars, as in entire BMWs, etc. When an executive moves to a leadership position in Magna to head a division of Fiat, that's called a lateral move.
If a Magna plant in Ontario is shut down for just one hour and doesn't deliver to a Detroit partner Stateside, the nonfulfillment penalty would run to about $1,000,000 US. That's big. That's critical to the old Auto Pact, NAFTA or Canada's balance of payments (internal to or external to the multinationals).
We will have lots to say about all this later. Here I would like to add that the patriarch Frank Stronach likes horses and that he likes parimutuel betting and that he would like you and me to be in a comfortable position to sit on our couches at home and bet on his horses through his tracks and borrow money from him to do it -- all this using a couple buttons on our TV remote. (I said this was a stiff learning curve.) Better yet, clog the highways around one of his tracks in a car he helped build in one of the communities that gets a miniscule take from the millions bet on every week-end.
It is my opinion that Belinda Stronach shares the vision of her father regarding offtrack betting (OTB) and that she worked (maybe tirelessly, I don't know) to help implement this global gambling vision. It is a vision that would have Inuit trappers with satellite dishes wagering on horse races in California when they return from walking their traplines late at night. I will be posting on that vision (which I certainly do not share) in the upcoming weeks. I am not saying this because one of the other candidates has much of a counter-vision that has been properly articulated either.
Below find a brief description of a wholly-controlled subsidiary (or spinoff) of Magna International, TO WIT: Magna Entertainment and it's related embodiment M I Developments Inc. (MID). This will be LONG for a POST, so be patient. Stiff learning curve, remember? We'll get to the Canadian politicians who served to create such a behemoth later as well.
Form 10-Q for MAGNA ENTERTAINMENT CORP
See entire web page for details. Click on blue/red link above.
OVERVIEW
Magna Entertainment Corp. ("MEC", "we" or the "Company") is North America's number one owner and operator of horse racetracks and one of the world's leading suppliers, via simulcasting, of live racing content to the growing inter-track, off-track and account wagering markets. On April 16, 2003, having received all necessary regulatory approvals, MEC completed the acquisition of Flamboro Downs, a harness racetrack located in Hamilton, Ontario, 45 miles west of Toronto, Ontario. We currently operate or manage eleven thoroughbred racetracks, two standardbred racetracks, one racetrack that runs both thoroughbred and standardbred meets and one greyhound track, as well as the simulcast wagering venues at these tracks. In addition, we operate off-track betting ("OTB") facilities and a national account wagering business known as XpressBet(TM), which permits customers to place wagers by telephone and over the Internet on horse races run at up to 70 racetracks in North America. MEC also owns and operates HorseRacing TV(TM), a television network focused exclusively on horse racing that we initially launched on the Racetrack Television Network ("RTN") in 2002. HorseRacing TV(TM) is currently carried on cable systems in eight states, with over one million subscribers to date. We are in ongoing discussions with cable and satellite operators with the goal of achieving broader distribution for HorseRacing TV(TM). RTN, in which we have a one-third interest, was formed to telecast races from our racetracks and other racetracks, via private direct to home satellite, to paying subscribers. To support certain of our thoroughbred racetracks, we also own thoroughbred training centers situated near San Diego, California, in Palm Beach County, Florida and in the Baltimore, Maryland area. We have commenced development of a horse racetrack and gaming facility near Vienna, Austria.
This is the house that Frank built and that Belinda helped nurture and grow so that it could spread from sea to sea and even to Austria.
Oh, I almost forgot . . . and with a vision spread to that northern bay too, and the Gulf of Mexico and to the Beaufort Sea -- Damn, I'm thinking like an American -- of that US variety -- but then I'm not an Austrian ambassador like Frank Stronach nor an Arnold Schwarzenegger with such world vision.
