Jets co-owner sings praises of team’s hometown crowd

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This article was published 02/06/2015 (3750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG Jets fans associate David Thomson with a building where it’s difficult to hear yourself think, so the contrast when the team’s co-owner took the podium Monday night was stark.

The chairman of Thomson Reuters and the recipient of this year’s International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award spoke barely above a whisper, and yet none of the 950 people in attendance at the RBC Convention Centre accidentally clinked a glass or moved a muscle so they could hear every word.

Thomson leads a conglomerate that employs about 50,000 people in 140 countries, but it was his words about Winnipeg, this community and its hockey fans that positively mesmerized the audience. Wherever his extensive world travels take him, he said, the conversation always comes back to the Manitoba capital.

“It feels like home. It is home; it’s been home for a long time,” he said. “This community has an innate structure of humanity, a web of conscience like none other.”

Thomson was heartfelt in his thoughts about the Chipman family, with whom he owns the Jets, and their purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers, which was announced four years ago Sunday.

“A team coming back from the U.S, coming home, there’s nothing better. I feel uplifted,” he said.

Thomson, who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company in Winnipeg in the 1980s when his family owned the historic retailer, said the return of the Jets “ticked all the boxes.”

“It’s hard to fathom a circumstance that will unfold in my lifetime that is more just or feels better. In human terms, I’m sure you can imagine that it turns the whole journey into a personal one. It’s a reclamation of spirit and, in the end, tells us who we are,” he said.

With the Jets having played their first playoff games this spring since their relocation, Thomson hinted greater feats lie ahead.

“I believe the return of the Jets touched a chord and rightly so. But there are so many more that have yet to be touched. Perhaps we can all find ways of stretching ourselves, or taking risks, and taking those risks with people because the outcomes I bet would leave us all breathless. I’m proud, I’m very proud,” he said.

“And is there a better example of a community with the pathos, ingenuity, creativity and the will to be present and ultimately to win?”

And as much as those in attendance were there to thank Thomson, he said the feeling was more than mutual.

“You’ve changed my life and that means more than you can imagine. I look forward to the very best days that are yet to come,” he said.

The most prestigious business night of the year was a who’s who of the Winnipeg business community, including Hartley Richardson, CEO of James Richardson & Sons Limited, Lawrie Pollard from Pollard Banknote and Arni Thorsteinson from Shelter Canadian Properties.

— Geoff Kirbyson