Belinda Stronach’s abrupt and extremely public defection to the competition in the midst of a crisis this week offers lessons about the right and wrong ways to make a strategic career move, wrote The Globe and Mail’s Wallace Immen May 20. Experts told Immen the worst time to leave an organization is in the middle of a crucial event or project where your loss may lead to failure. As the all-important budget vote loomed, Stronach’s “timing was awful,” said Ian Roberge, a professor of public administration at York University’s Glendon College. “Especially if you have leadership ambitions, it is very important to be seen as someone who can be counted on in a crisis,” he said.
Canadians seek noisy welcome for Belarus
After facing an energetic but hostile Venezuelan crowd in its last Davis Cup tennis tie, Canada will enjoy a friendlier atmosphere at the Rexall Centre for September’s World Group qualifier against Belarus. The state-of-the art tennis facility at York University will host the best-of-five series Sept. 23-25, with the winner advancing to the top World Group for 2006, reported Canadian Press May 20 in a story picked up by major papers across the country.
The Globe and Mail said Carmel Derdaele, tournament director for the Davis Cup tie that will come to Toronto in September, is praying not for rain, but for noise. Tournament fans at the tennis centre at York University have always been quiet, restrained and polite, she said in announcing the tournament between Canada and Belarus from Sept. 23 to 25. But Davis Cup play seems to generate an entirely different animal.
News of the Davis Cup tournament at York was also broadcast on Barrie’s “VR Land News” and Global TV’s “Sportsline” May 19.