George Maclaren remembered as visionary
The Townships community and friends across Quebec and beyond are saddened to learn of the passing Aug. 30 of George Maclaren, respected lawyer, and former publisher and owner of the Sherbrooke Record. He died Thursday morning surrounded by his family at his home at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.
Maclaren had deep roots in the Townships, born in 1939 at his parents’ farm in Bondville, with his early education in Knowlton. He earned an Arts degree from Mcgill University and graduated from Université Laval with a law degree in 1964 before settling in Ogden where he was a senior partner in the lawfirm Maclaren, Hackett, Campbell, Turner, Bissonnette and Bouchard.
A longtime friend and advisor to former Quebec premier Jean Charest, Maclaren also served as Quebec’s Agent General to the United Kingdom, Scandanavia and Ireland.
Friends and colleagues are remembering him as a one-of-a kind
‘rassembleur’, a Renaissance man, visionary and a natural leader, who cared deeply about his community and the people in it. Record staffers and Townshippers knew him as the change-maker who purchased The Sherbrooke Record from Eastern Townships Publishing Company, controlled by the then neophyte newspaper trio of Peter White, David Radler and Conrad Black, who went on to build a world-wide media empire.
Maclaren’s decision to leave a successful law career to invest in a business with an uncertain future, serving a dwindling English-speaking population, was viewed as a bold step. “My involvement is an act of faith in the future of the English-speaking population both in the Townships and in Quebec,“Maclaren declared at the time, and his optimism never waned. Maclaren sold The Record to Quebecor in 1988 in a deal that saw him become publisher of Pierre Peladeau’s new English daily, Montreal Daily News.
Maclaren characterized himself as a ‘newspaper addict’, consuming news from a half dozen newspapers each day. A visionary before the dawn of the Internet, he recognized the key to longevity for newspapers would be in concentrating coverage on local news.
“One of the reasons I got involved was that I was sick of reading Winnipeg Free Press editorials in the Sherbrooke newspaper,” Maclaren is oft quoted. “As long as I am publisher, there will never be another Winnipeg Free Press editorial in the Sherbrooke Record, he pledged on the day of signing.”
Maclaren conducted the day-to-day business of running The Record from his second-floor, glassed-in office overlooking the staff below. He reveled in his daily banter with firebrand editor Charles Bury, and together they helped shape some of Canada’s top journalists.
Randy Kinnear, the newspaper’s accountant in 1988, often recalled the day Maclaren informed him he was selling the newspaper to Quebecor. According to Kinnear, Maclaren said, “do you want to be publisher, you have 15 minutes to answer.”
Retired CBC senior political analyst Bernard St. Laurent had an office at The Record when Maclaren was publisher. “George was a Renaissance man,” the veteran journalist recalled. “He was one of the most avid readers I have known. He was curious about everything and more knowledgeable about the world than most people. He appreciated life, good conversation, friendship and family. As a Townshipper, I will always be grateful for his decision to buy The Record. It gave the paper new life and a strong voice. He was one of the first people to see the need for an association of English-speaking Townshippers.”
“George was a gifted manager who led by listening-mbwa (manage by walking around),” recalled Perry Beaton who worked with Maclaren at The Record and later at the Montreal Daily News. “He cared about everything and to think he won’t be around saddens me very much.
Maclaren also recognized the crucial role newspapers would play in informing English-speaking Quebecers of the sweeping political changes that were on the horizon with the election of a Parti Quebecois government, and was instrumental in creating the Association of Quebec Regional English media (AQREM) to provide resources, training and support to smaller far-flung community newspapers.
Heather Alberti, a former publisher of the Shawville Equity and a founding member of AQREM, notes Maclaren was driven to unite rural publishers. “I remember being so inspired that there were people in the province working so hard in their communities to keep their Anglophone readers informed and acknowledge their importance in Quebec.”
AQREM founding member Ross Dickson expressed the sadness and sense of loss felt by many. “I admired his vision and enthusiasm for the role The Record would play in the Townships and in Quebec. In the late 70s and 80s when we knew each other best, when many of the newspapers serving the English-speaking citizens of Quebec were disappearing, he was a welcome voice of optimism and support. His enjoyment of the world of newspaper publishing, its challenges and successes, was a great help at a time when many of us felt isolated in our distant corners of Quebec,” Dickson said. He credits Maclaren’s early efforts to unite and support smaller newspapers with much of their current success. “Now, despite the world-wide moaning about the decline of newspapers, the QCNA (formerly AQREM) publications, seem to be thriving,” Dickson noted.
A thoughtful man of many dimensions, George Maclaren was often sought after for advice on a range of issues. When former Quebec premier Jean Charest contemplated entering politics, he turned to his longtime friend and confidante, the politically savvy Maclaren, who had his finger on the pulse of the people, for advice. Maclaren gave him the thumbs-up, a decision that earned The Record an election-night spot in Charest’s living room throughout his political life.
He is survived by his wife Anne and their two children, Roy, who spent some time working as a reporter in the Record newsroom, and Sarah, executive director of Leave Out Violence, a Nova Scotia support group for young people who have been affected by violence.
Funeral services will be announced at a later date.