Robert is a genuine Canadian nationalist, the kind who sees the opportunities in every challenge. He has a unique perspective about being Canadian and being excellent.

In broadcasting, in movie and television production and in distribution, he’s found niches in which his visions have flourished, and his successes have fostered the successes of others. He’s helped to bring Canadian artistry to the fore, from Due South and North of 60 to Black Robe and Exotica.

Three years ago, Robert was the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association in Calgary. I was also on the program and had a chance to hear him tell his story. He had a number of memorable references in his speech but, of course, because TMN Networks is all about movies and in fact has helped finance a number of Alliance films, it was a reference to movies which was especially compelling for me.

He was speaking about Leolo, by the late Jean Claude Lauzon, and Bruce Beresford’s Black Robe, and pointing out that these were not the kind of movies Hollywood produced. Nevertheless, Leolo had landed on Time Magazine’s 10 best films of 1992, and Black Robe won the Genie for best picture amidst a flurry of international and domestic acclaim.

These movies were and are a strength for Canada. Robert said in his speech that ‘there is a market all over the world for brilliance.’ And Robert was and is very right in this simple but eloquently stated insight.

There are no limits to the emotions a good story can provoke, and no audience in the world that can resist the power of a good story. That Robert has continued to search out great Canadian storytellers, work with them, then work on creating both a theatrical market at home and abroad to put their stories on screens, puts him firmly in the front ranks of cultural leaders in this country.

Canadian film and television production has a distinctive voice that is being heard globally. It speaks from the hearts and minds of a lot of very talented people, from the writers to the actors to the crews, and it speaks to audiences in Canada and abroad.

Robert’s movies have made it to Cannes over and over again. We know that The Sweet Hereafter made it to Cannes, to the Genies, and then to the Oscars. There are many more that will follow.

Robert took Canada’s ‘challenges’ – our geographical proximity to American mass culture, our small and fragmented market – and, as he described it, used the opponent’s strength to work in favor of Canada, just as one leverages against another’s strength in judo.

When his efforts needed more heft than the domestic landscape could provide, he looked to Europe for partners and players who also needed flexibility. Such coproduction agreements gave him and Alliance the maximum control of both profitability and of artistic vision.

And Robert’s vision remains original and unique. The fact that it has been instrumental in building a highly successful Alliance makes Robert a triple-threat magnet for a lot of people in our industry. He is not afraid to combine being Canadian with being excellent.

When Robert finished his cata dinner speech three years ago (and how much change have we all witnessed in those few short years!), he ended with a couple more sentences that sum up, I believe, his vision. They serve to delineate for me the drive Robert possesses, the answer as to why he does what he does, as well as he does.

‘Creating original Canadian programming is an essential life-affirming act for us as Canadian citizens, artists and business people. It is the way we talk to each other and how we make our presence felt in the world.’

Words to grow by, indeed.

Lisa de Wilde is president of TMN Networks.