Magna founder tours George Brown campus

Frank Stronach is presented with an engraved aluminum cube Pradeep Kalsi, Professor, Centre for Construction & Engineering Technologies, at George Brown's Casa Loma campus in Toronto. (Photo: Jim Anderton/Canadian Metalworking)

TORONTO – Magna International founder, Frank Stronach visited one of the campuses of Toronto's George Brown College on Thursday, touring the college’s trade facilities.

Stronach was at the college to visit the tool and die program, speak to the students about the issues facing the manufacturing industry, and promote his recent book The Magna Man, which details his famous rags-to-riches story.

Students and faculty members were on hand to greet the former CEO of the Aurora, Ontario-based auto parts company as he was shown around.

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During the tour Stronach also took the opportunity to get his hands on one of the lathes at the school's shop.

He was also presented with an engraved aluminum cube, which was a homage to a reference in his book, where he described the challenges of having to file a perfect steel cube by hand.

“I felt a little sentimental when I saw all those machines out there. They reminded me of days close to 60 years ago, but I haven’t forgotten it,” he said.

After the tour, Stronach spoke to an assembly of students, faculty members, and media about everything from business strategy, to economic and political topics.

“With the book I try to give guidelines to young people, but at the same time remind society that we are going more and more away from the real economy… that is one of my great, great worries.”

He also waxed philosophical about the need for manufacturing and its ability to create real wealth in today’s society.

“If we can’t create wealth, there’s nothing to distribute… When you go to a department store now you see very few products which are made in America and Canada. And that should be of great concern. Because the well being of a nation can be easily determined. The country which imports more and more, and exports less and less – the economy will break down,” Stronach said

Stronach also expressed concern for the state of manufacturing and trades in Canada, and particularly how we are educating people about it.

“Between 16-18 I think we must put more emphasis (on the idea) that people could experiment with trades… I think that will make you a more complete person.”

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He also stressed that Europe was in a much better position than North America when it came to the calibre and quantity of tradespeople.

““We’ve got to put more emphasis on trades in Canada, and the United States. We are lacking in trades. There’s much greater focus on trades in Europe… We have a school, we teach toolmaking, we teach a lot of trades, but it’s not enough. It’s not a level playing field either. It’s costly. But, if we don’t, we just won’t be on the leading edge,” he said.

It was a sentiment echoed by George Brown president Anne Sado.

“I think it’s a critical issue,” she said. “I think we’ve seen so much labour market data that says what the shortage of skilled trades is going to be… we’re growing our trades specifically because industry is telling us that’s what they need,” she said.

The talk was followed by a brief press conference where Stronach discussed his political career in Europe and Magna’s recent failed bid to take over the Opel car company – something he doesn’t necessarily regret considering Europe's tumultuous auto market.

Stronach’s book, The Magna Man was published by HarperCollins, and released in December 2012.

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