<p><em>Support us at </em><a target="_blank" href="http://hatchetmedia.substack.com"><em>hatchetmedia.substack.com</em></a></p><p>In 1978, a South African accountant orchestrated one of the most audacious and ruthless hostile takeovers in the history of Canadian business.</p><p>His name was Jack Cockwell. And over the next decade, he would build a corporate empire unlike anything Canada had ever seen.</p><p>This is the third episode in our series examining the history of Brookfield. In our first two episodes, we traced the company’s lineage through Brazilian Traction, the neo-colonial monopoly that dominated South America, and through the Bronfmans, the bootlegging dynasty that supplied liquor to American gangsters during Prohibition.</p><p>But those were just the origin stories. This episode is about what happened when those two worlds collided.</p><p>Edper-Brascan controlled over 500 companies. The beer you drank, the team you watched, the mall you shopped at, the house you lived in — all of it could be traced back to this sprawling conglomerate. At its height, it was worth more than $120 billion.</p><p>All of this was Jack Cockwell’s domain. Immigrant, corporate philosopher, ruthless operator, Cockwell single-handedly imposed his will on Canada’s business establishment and dominated the 1980s like no one else.</p><p>But by the end of the decade, people on Bay Street began to whisper.</p><p>Something was rotten at the heart of Cockwell’s empire. They said that the whole thing was a mirage. A lie. A house of card waiting to fall over.</p><p>They all turned out to be right.</p><p><strong>To learn more:</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4735707W/The_brass_ring?edition=key%3A/books/OL2141701M"><em>The Brass Ring: Power, Influence and the Brascan Empire</em></a> by Patricia Best & Ann Shortell</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://brookfield.substack.com/"><em>Edper</em></a> by Keith Dalrymple</p><p>“The Edper Puzzle” by Kimberly Noble in <em>The Globe and Mail</em></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/national-post/148833016/">“The Second Coming”</a> by Rod McQueen in <em>The Financial Post</em></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.afr.com/politics/fears-for-a-leveraged-leviathan-19920529-k4wl1">“Fears for a Leveraged Leviathan”</a> by Clyde Farnsworth in <em>The New York Times</em></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/he-was-a-titan-of-bay-street-and-a-senator-but-j-trevor-eyton-died/article_95a4317c-3c6e-5b73-8ba6-3e5c6baadaa4.html">“He was a titan of Bay Street and a senator. But J. Trevor Eyton died owing millions in taxes and on the verge of bankruptcy”</a> by David Bruser & Jesse McLean in <em>The Toronto Star</em></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe</a>