Ginter

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and author of Canadian Business:
Issues and Stakeholders.

Ben Ginter was a British Columbia entrepreneur who built a corporate
empire and lost control of it before dying in 1982. The author, a
journalist from Prince George, B.C., knew the subject personally. The
relationship does not appear to have inspired a flattering portrayal.
Ginter was unfair to everyone—employees, unions, creditors,
competitors, politicians, the media, and members of his family.

According to Wenzel, the information used in this biography was
obtained from interviews with numerous individuals, none of whom are
listed. Materials were also obtained from several newspapers and
magazines; these are listed, but no bibliographic references are
provided.

Photographs are interspersed throughout the book’s 17 untitled
chapters. Chapter 1 briefly describes Ginter’s childhood in Manitoba;
Chapter 17, his death, at 59, in British Columbia. The 15 other chapters
cover the subject’s life in a haphazard manner, and not always in a
chronological sequence. A four-page postscript relates how Ginter tried
to exercise dominance over those around him even after death. One
wonders whether the subject’s life is worthy of a biographical record.