Rogers That

Glimpsed from a distance, Toronto’s skyline provides a useful visual tableau, the background canvas for a telling portrait of a founder, his family, his firm, and their profound influence upon Canada’s technological and business landscape. Inevitably, a viewer’s gaze will be drawn toward the Rogers Centre, the iconic baseball stadium that sticks out as the most prominent physical acquisition and visible manifestation of the sprawling and ubiquitous telecom empire that Ted Rogers built over five decades as one of Canada’s most dynamic entrepreneurs and business leaders. After Ted purchased the Blue Jays in 2000 and then the SkyDome itself in 2004, the concrete building was renamed and quickly emblazoned on every side with the family firm’s corporate logo, in unavoidably gigantic, glowing red lettering.

Zooming in further, the Rogers Centre’s front plaza holds a twelve-foot-tall, 800-pound bronze statue — not of Joe Carter hitting his famous home run to win the 1993...