When he took over as chairman of the government-owned Air Canada in 1968, Yves Pratte was a highly respected lawyer in Quebec and a close friend of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Last week Pratte was a fallen man, his reputation tainted by scandal and charges of ineptitude. In a bitter letter of resignation, he left no doubt that even Trudeau wanted him to go.
Soon after Pratte became chairman, he forced out Air Canada's "Scottish Mafia"—the key executives who had developed the company's profitable foreign routes (to the U.S., West Europe, Japan and Hong Kong) and ran the line with...