Paul Martin has a new job. Kofi Annan has enlisted Martin to co-chair a United Nations commission on international development and the private sector. With the Liberal leadership nicely tucked into his back pocket, Martin is not content to sit around until his election on November 15, and then await the departure of the incumbent, which may not be until early 2004.

The international commission is expected to issue recommendations this November. The UN wants to halve the number of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015. Paul Martin brings along an emphasis on the dynamic role of the entrepreneur in reducing poverty.

In his business operations Martin has engineered a method that warrants close attention from all potential entrepreneurs (and should interest national revenue departments, labour ministries, environmental groups, and health and safety organizations, all around the world).

Start by registering what you can offshore. That does away with excessive red tape and regulations. Think of the potential for world development if companies moved to tax havens and regulation-free sites in the Third World.

Canada Steamship Lines, Martin’s beloved CSL, has overseas citizenship for about half its fleet. The Bahamas has been a favourite flag of convenience. The flag determines whose laws prevail. By establishing offshore companies, CSL does not have to obey troublesome Canadian laws or file as many reports.When choosing where to put new companies in 1992, just before the Liberals became government, Liberia got the nod. Liberia understood how to help out by requiring little or no serious inspections of working conditions and safety, or environmental standards aboard Paul Martin’s fleet. Oh yes, it has been in the news lately for political unrest (massacres actually) attributed to the resident dictator.

Any good entrepreneur knows that if you can replace home-grown labour with Third World workers you are well on the way to making serious money. Domestic workers expect benefits, union protection, and a decent salary, enough to pay the interest on a student loan for the children or a car loan or a mortgage.

How much simpler things are when you put a Third World crew on the ship. No union, no benefits, low wages, and any complaining, just remove the dissenter and replace him with the next guy in line. Think of the potential for international economic development should the Martin labour principles be widely applied throughout the developing world.

Martin set out the basics of world history in his statement accepting the UN appointment. “The developed countries of the world are wealthy today, because they tapped the energy and the vision of their entrepreneurs — those who started with vast dreams, not great riches. If this has worked here, it will work in developing countries too.”

Worked for whom, you ask? Those who got the tax cuts in Martin’s give-away budget of 2000, the upper income earners, coupon clippers, and stock option millionaires? Or would it be those who lost out in his 1995 budget slashing: the poor, the sick, students, mothers without child care, the young, artists, athletes, scientists, and those who thought public services were part of democracy.

Quibbling aside, taking Martin’s life as an example, what are some of the main ideas to guide the entrepreneur? First, it helps to have your father be a long time cabinet minister. This will aid you in selecting the appropriate wealthy mentor who will take you into the firm (Power Corporation) and show you the ropes.

Second, make sure your mentor (Paul Desmarais) is the most important single financier in the country with links to main political parties. He should have past and future prime ministers and premiers either on staff or as close acquaintances, and if one is brought into the family by marriage, so much the better.

Third, have the mentor hand over a part of the firm (CSL) as a test to see whether you have the entrepreneurial genes. Fourth, when you have the company in hand remember the two rules of business: cut out the competition by any means possible, and resort to anything to cut costs.

As Finance Minister, Martin attacked business practices of establishing subsidiaries in tax havens. He closed the loophole that allowed Canadian companies to hide taxable income abroad. He did manage to leave Barbados open though. Then CSL left Liberia. They moved on to — guess where? That is right, Barbados, and set up eight companies there, all but one in the same lawyer’s office. When the CBC programme Disclosure found that out, Martin operatives tried to stop the show from going to air. Some 1,700 Canadian companies have made the same move. Barbados gets 2.5 per cent in tax revenue. The Canadian corporate rate is more than ten times that amount.

In Canadian business or in government the basic rule is “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” So it was interesting to note that Maurice F. Strong is an advisor to the commission. Strong is a confidant of Kofi Annan and an international advisor to the UN.

Martin and Strong go way back. Martin got his job at Power Corporation when Strong was executive vice president and then president. Strong was named deputy minister at what was to become CIDA where Paul Martin senior, as Minister of External Affairs under Lester B. Pearson, was the man Maurice Strong reported to.

So, for the more than one billion inhabitants of the earth, who make do with less than one U.S. dollar per day, the lesson is clear: have friends in high places. For the poor aspiring entrepreneur the best strategy is to network.

Now, thanks to Strong, the UN has Martin on board, so to speak, even if he is not yet well-known in the poor, under-developed areas of the world.

His fellow commissioner, Hernado De Soto, author of The Mystery of Capital believes that will soon change. The Peruvian, a latter day Karl Marx (of the right) pointed out Martin’s potential to the National Post. “He’s still not a household word abroad,” said De Soto. “But among those who know how politics works, of course, he is the man to become the star. He is Jennifer Lopez three years ago.”

Paul as J. Lo. And who does he become next?

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron

Born in Victoria B.C. in 1944, Duncan now lives in Vancouver. Following graduation from the University of Alberta he joined the Department of Finance (Ottawa) in 1966 and was financial advisor to the...