If you watch TV and purchase TV Week to check the listings – and 30,000 people do – you’ve met Peter Legge or at least one of his publications. TV Week is one of 30 print and digital properties that make up Canada Wide Media, Peter’s multi-dimensional behemoth that includes BC Business, Award, Real Weddings, and BC Living, plus a slew of trade publications. Recipient of two honorary degrees, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Order of British Columbia, Peter Legge has come a long way since the company’s inception in 1976. Not bad for a guy who, as a young man, contemplated a career as a stand-up comedian.

“I think I was destined somehow to be a speaker when I came to Canada,” says the buoyant raconteur who arrived in Canada with his parents at age 12. To date, Peter has delivered over 5,000 motivational speeches to service clubs, corporations and institutions, about 100 a year when he was younger, he says. Now it’s 40 to 50. “Where that comes from and why, I don’t know, but I love it.”

Peter’s family left England in 1954 and settled in New Westminster, near Vancouver. The young Englishman entertained his schoolmates with jokes and stories and, for a short period of time, became a sports reporter at The Columbian newspaper before moving on to radio station CJOR, where he sold advertising. Sales people, he was told, made more money than reporters. The transition was a no-brainer. Peter continues the story.

“The sales manager at CJOR said I’m going to give you the Fields account and the guy you’re going to see is Joe Segal. I was 19. Better do your homework or he’ll eat you alive. So, I went down to his office on West Hastings and [Joe] said what do you have for me today? And I immediately went into the value of CJOR. He said no, not going to buy that. Come back and see me next month. So, I came back the next month and I do the same thing. No, not going to buy that. He made me do that for six months. So, at the end of the six months I said, Joe, you’ve said I’m a pretty good salesman, you’ve invited me back, but you haven’t bought a thing. Can you tell me why? Ah, he said, you haven’t once asked me what my needs are. You’ve just tried to sell me what you’ve got. You haven’t been interested in me. That changed my sales career right then and there.”

“That’s dead on,” confirms Vancouver entrepreneur Joe Segal. “He was a great salesman and I liked him.”

But first, the young salesman had to learn a lesson – and the lesson was to listen to what the client wants. Lesson learned, Peter moonlighted as a comedian on the weekends.

“I was doing a gig at the Marine Drive golf course and sitting in the audience was a P&O Steamship cruise director. He came up to me and he said have you ever done a cruise ship and I said no. Do you want to do one? I said yeah. He said, where do you want to go? I said, I don’t care. He said, okay, you’re going on the Oriana and you’re going to England.”

It was a sweetheart deal. Peter slept and dined in First Class, but he was also required to visit the tourist bar once a day to meet and greet the passengers.

“So, I sat with a group of people and there was this lady sitting across from me and I don’t know what happened, but I thought there’s something going on here. I spent the voyage getting to know her and I discovered she was engaged to a guy in London. I said to her you’re not marrying him. I said, you’re marrying me and, eight months, later Kay and I got married. It was the furthest thing from my mind. I was going to England and getting married wasn’t on my radar screen until I met her. This year, we celebrate our 50th anniversary.”

England was a homecoming of sorts. Peter hosted and co-wrote a nine-week Laugh-In-style BBC variety series called Don’t Ask Us We’re New Here. It drew nine million viewers a week and, while it was popular, it didn’t fulfill his goals.

“I thought it would be my pathway to get into the nightclubs and other things, but it didn’t happen, so I said to Kay, I think I need to go back to Canada.”

He returned to Canada and radio and, as luck would have it, a new career.

“I was working at the radio station as the general sales manager in Langley and I got fired. It’s never an exciting position to be in, so I said to myself, I need to get into something where I can’t be fired by somebody else. I need to be my own boss.”

It was the birth of Canada Wide.

“I heard about this magazine called Al Davidson’s This Week. He left the printer with a $73,000 unpaid bill. So, I went to them and I said I’ll guarantee you that $73,000 and I’ll pay you back in the next couple of years. [Al] said, what do you want? I said, I want the magazine. I didn’t have 73 cents much less 73,000 bucks, so I shined my shoes, put on a clean shirt and tie and, 43 years later, I’m still in it.”

Peter changed the format to a television listing service and re-named it TV Week. A year later, he paid off the $73,000 loan and partnered with uber-salesman Neil Soper to turn it into a perpetual money maker.

“Forty-three years later, it’s still our most profitable magazine,” he says.

In 1985, the duo expanded into specialty magazines, employing a formula that has become the Canada Wide hallmark – target a specific sector of the economy and pursue content and advertising relevant to that sector. First up, Westworld. Until then, Canada’s four western auto clubs had published their magazines separately; Peter and Neil convinced them to publish their magazines under the Westworld banner and one rate card. Next, he bought BC Business from Jimmy Pattison.

“I knew Jimmy and I said, we haven’t got the purchase price of 2.8 million dollars, but we’ll do it this way. I gave him a deposit and I negotiated an interest-free payback over two or three years. I said, this could be the worst decision in my life, Jimmy, but I absolutely guarantee I’ll pay you and he said, good enough. Sold.”

Expansion followed. Award speaks to the architecture and design community; Real Weddings deals with bridal issues; and BC Living focuses on fashion and food.

Neil Soper eventually sold his shares back to Peter and today Canada-Wide is 100 per cent family owned. Eldest daughter, Samantha, is the President, while middle daughter, Rebecca, is Vice-President of Sales. Youngest daughter, Amanda, is not affiliated with the business; she’s a school teacher. And while Peter has divested himself from daily operations, as CEO, he chairs a policy and strategy meeting once a week. Discussions continue around the dinner table when his kids come over to the family home once a month.

“Let’s say dinner’s at four. Everyone gets there at three. [Kay] will say, you guys can talk business until four or four-fifteen, then it’s done. Otherwise, we’d talk business all night.”

At 75, he’s busier than ever.

“It’s probably gotten heavier,” Peter says of his increased work load. “For my wife’s sake, I can’t spend all day at home with her. We can’t play golf every day. I do a lot of community work. I still do a lot of speaking. I do a lot of emcee work. I love visibility things that get me inside companies that a normal person could not get into.”

He likes people and enjoys sharing his knowledge. He’s written 20 books, most of them on business strategy, and he continues to ply the speaking circuit, having been inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame in both Canada and the United States. His current presentation is called Good is the Enemy of Great, a primer on attaining perfection rather than settling for mediocrity.

He’s also a generous philanthropist, raising millions for charities and the Variety Club, in particular.

“I’ve been doing the Telethon for over 40 years,” he says of his hosting duties. He also emcees for other fundraisers. “And then the Salvation Army. I do a lot for the Salvation Army.”

As for the future of Canada Wide, the company has expanded into digital – “it’s probably about 25 per cent of our business today,” says Peter – and a first for the publishing giant, using their magazine, BC Living, to sell a box of products directly to the consumer.

“Instead of subscribing to a magazine, you’re subscribing to a box and inside this box are high-quality gifts. It’s doing over a million dollars a year in its first year,” he says proudly.

As for his business philosophy, Peter takes a simple and direct approach.

“Never lie, cheat or steal, ever. And honesty. That is one of the greatest secrets of success that people seem to miss. Your word has to be your bond. Whatever you say you’re going to do, you have to do it.”

When asked if he thinks he’s out of step with the Art of the Deal and its ugly winner-take-all philosophy these days, Peter replies unapologetically, “I don’t think so, I hope not. It works for me and it works for this organization.”

It’s a position he adopted after attending an extra-curricular activity in high school.

“We were shown a film of Young Life clubs in the United States,” he says of that fateful screening in the 1950s. Young Life was an American Christian organization that was expanding into Canada and it had acquired property inside BC’s Sunshine Coast. “It seemed to us 16-year-old kids there would be lots of fun and excitement and swimming and camping and all sorts of stuff. So, that was the attraction.”

Peter attended the camp and, although he admits he drifted away from Young Life’s Christian tenets, he returned to the fold when he came back to Canada with Kay.

“I recommitted my life to Christ and got re-involved with Young Life, first on their Board and then I became a speaker at the camp.”

How important is his faith? Very.

“About 30 years ago, my wife and I went to this church in Scottsdale, Arizona,” continues Peter, “and the pastor’s opening comment changed my life. He said show me your life redeemed and we’ll never have to argue about the Redeemer. So, don’t tell me you’re a Christian, just show me. So, that’s what I try to do. If I make a commitment to you, whatever it is, I will do everything in my power to make sure that commitment is fulfilled. That’s how I live my life as best I can.”

“Some people go through life and they don’t give a damn about anybody else,” says Joe Segal. “Other people go through life and they always care about the other individual, and when you care about someone else, you care about how you treat them and how they react. Peter’s the kind of guy that wants to be loved by everyone and is loved by everyone because he is so giving. He’s an honest, sincere guy.”

Snapshot

If you were to meet your 20-year-old self, what advice would you give him?

“I probably would say get your focus off yourself. It’s not about you, it’s about others. What can you do for other people, other organizations, other charities. What can you do for them? I came to that later in life than I should have, and I realized that really is the secret to being successful. What can I do for you?”

Who or what has influenced you the most? And why?

“Next to my parents, the most influential man has been Joe Segal. The Joe Segals and the Jimmy Pattisons of this world do exactly what they say they’re going to do. You know that, and you can count on it.”

What does courage mean to you?

“It’s being willing to step out of your comfort zone and being willing to risk maybe a little more than you should. Earlier in my life, I think I took a lot of chances, but I should have taken bigger chances.”

What does success mean to you?

“I want my wife, my three grown adult kids and my seven grandkids to respect me and love me for who I am. Having people admire and respect you, that’s success. Being married to this wonderful woman, who probably should have dumped me years ago but didn’t and found something in me, that’s success.”

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