"He had astonishing intuition," Neale said in an interview. "He knew consistently where to go. He was chasing things most people couldn't see."

Iain Grant, president of the Montreal-based SeaBoard Group, told Network World Canada of a meeting in 1991, when Ted Rogers entered the room.

"It was like talking to a fountain," he said. "He was full of ideas, full of enthusiasm. We went for a 20 minute meeting and came out two hours later."

Hopefully, Canada's next generation will prove Fecan wrong, and the best is still yet to come. But it's no exaggeration to say Ted Rogers will be a tough act to follow.