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“My father used to say, ‘There are two things they can never take away from you. They can never take away the people who love you and they can never take away what you know.’”
For someone whose sole childhood dream was to play in a rock and roll band, Allan Gregg’s career so far has been remarkably ambitious and wide-ranging. Over the past three decades he has assumed a wealth of job titles including; academic, entrepreneur, music manager, documentary producer, movie CEO, pollster, pundit, political strategist and, of course, broadcaster.
Referring to himself as “a consummate dilettante”, Gregg’s career has had its share of enviable highs and well-documented lows, about which he is philosophical.
“My interests have always been eclectic. I’ve always had passions, and I’m a person who’s been willing to chase those passions,” he says from his home in Toronto. “Perhaps I could have been more successful in life if I had tried just one thing and concentrated all my efforts on it. But I never wanted to be limited to a single career path.”
A polymath by design, Gregg has never been one to limit himself to just one passion (or, for that matter, two or three or four). At 58 years of age, he has settled into a comfortable niche as Canada’s best-known pollsters. This role is supported by his job as president of Allan Gregg Strategies, a consulting company he set up this summer following his departure from The Strategic Counsel, a highly-respected consulting firm he helped found in 1995. He also recently assumed the role of Chairman of Harris/Decima Research, which he founded nearly 30 years ago, at the beginning of his career.
This is in addition to his regular appearances on TVO (via the talk show Allan Gregg in Conversation With), CBC’s The National (as part of Thursday’s “At Issue” panel), his freelance writing (opinion pieces and book reviews for the Globe and Mail), his speaking engagements, and his ongoing involvement in The Management Trust, which oversees the music careers of The Tragically Hip, Sass Jordan, The Pursuit of Happiness and The Cliks.
“For me career success has been about wanting things and being interested in things, as much as [it’s been about] learning,” Gregg says. “I’m driven by wanting to do so much. Some of my interests have been full-fledged career moves; others have been more like hobbies.”
In addition to his many roles, Allan Gregg also regularly writes columns and articles on a wide range of issues, from the cultural to the political. In March 2007 he addressed the connection between higher education and increased productivity in a column for the Globe and Mail.
To read more about the responsibility that Gregg believes Canada’s business sector should play in this, see “Productivity isn’t just a talking point”.
To read more columns by Gregg, see his personal website.
At turns warm and funny, Gregg is not shy about trumpeting his successes and is more than willing to discuss his failures. Simply put, he is someone who has learned the hard way that life can be by turns intoxicating and humbling.
Born in Edmonton and raised in a middle-class Christian family, like many children of the 1950s Gregg’s first abiding passion was to be in a rock band. Like many teenagers at the time, he grew his hair long and joined a string of garage bands during the 1960s, only to realize that his ambition outstripped his talent.
Following a failed attempt at music promotion in which he lost $35,000 booking a band that falsely purported to be The Yardbirds, he turned his passions to academia at the University of Alberta.
At the time, he says he was completely dedicated to a life as a lecturer. “I thought molding young minds was one of the highest callings possible. If you talk to virtually any human being, they will tell you that at some point in their life, a teacher made a huge, huge difference.”
During his studies his shifting interests began to present themselves: Gregg changed majors four times, switching first from chemistry to anthropology, and finally to general arts. He eventually graduated, and entered a doctoral program in political science.
It was during his doctoral studies that Gregg learned he and his wife were expecting their first child. The family needed money. “The truth was that I was functionally destitute at the time so I had to take on more work.” He was offered a part-time job doing political research. “That’s how I got sucked into the vortex of Parliament Hill.”
Gregg spent several years in the 1970s learning the craft of polling, including a long stint in California studying with renowned Republican pollster Richard Wirthlin. He returned to Canada in the late 1970s, soon making a name for himself as national campaign secretary for the Progressive Conservatives during Joe Clark’s minority election win in 1979. Though the victory was short-lived, Gregg founded Decima Research, a highly-placed polling and public relations firm that would play a critical role in Brian Mulroney’s landslide win in the 1984 federal election.
That resolute victory firmly established Gregg as a political heavy hitter who had the benefit of having the ear of the new prime minister. This winning streak would sustain him in his new role for nearly a decade, with Gregg becoming a recognizable figure in political circles thanks to his eye-catching appearance—circa 1986, Gregg could be spotted sporting a long rat-tail haircut, gold earring, floor-length leather coats and trademark red shoes.
Eye-catching and successful, Gregg’s streak came to an end in the 1993 federal election. Sagging in the polls and with a new, untried leader at the helm, the Progressive Conservative party lost all but two of their 151 seats in Parliament—the most lopsided federal election loss in Canadian history.
As the party’s top strategist, Gregg was roundly blamed for the humiliating defeat. The Globe and Mail ran a story the day after with the headline: “He’s toast.” Throughout all of this, Gregg was also suffering a personal battle: during this period both his father and his best friend died, and his wife was diagnosed with cancer (she died in 1995).
“My father used to say: ‘There are two things they can never take away from you,” Gregg recalls. “‘They can never take away the people who love you and they can never take away what you know’.”
Fate, however, took nearly everything else.
After the 1993 election, Gregg removed himself completely from public life. He sold his shares in Decima Research, and made no television appearances, attended no business meetings and gave no speeches for seven years. In 1995, he co-founded The Strategic Counsel and quietly went about building a new career for himself.
“I completely changed my life,” he says. “I discovered during that period that my father had been right; if you rely on the people who love you and you continue to learn things, you will be okay.”
He drastically cut back on his eclecticism—focussing more strongly than ever on polling and political commentary—and adopted a more conservative style of dress. In 2000, he raised $15 million to establish The Song Corp., the largest independent music company in Canadian history—only to have the company go bankrupt in 2001. Commenting on the high-profile bankruptcy, one Canadian music executive summed the affair up as “The power of ego transcend[ing] the power of intellect.”
The turning point for Gregg came in 2000, when he called up his friend Peter Mansbridge with a proposal for a regular political spot in the then-impending federal election. The segment, “Behind the Ballot”, aired on The National every night during the election campaign. The popular spot thrust Gregg back onto common ground. He threw himself fully into the research business, taking on chairmanship of The Strategic Counsel and expanding his expertise into political commentary. He decided there was nothing shameful—or boring—about concentrating on and being good at just a few things.
“You have to work hard, first and foremost, which I’ve always done. I give about 25 speeches a year and I never, ever just throw my head back and wax oratorical about polling or politics.” Gregg says. “I always prepare. You have to put in the work. It sounds boring and drudgerous, but that’s how you succeed.”