The Company that Broke Canada

For a brief moment, Nortel Networks was on top of the world. Let's enjoy that moment while we can. Part 1 of 2.

I'm on sites! :

People to thank:
Subtitles provided by @redslendy
Charlie Arsenault – Assistant Editor
@ThePlainBagel on Youtube for providing me with Nortel’s stock price data
@ChrisHanel on Youtube for extensive Blender Geometry Nodes assistance
@hotcyder on Youtube for the thumbnail

Additional imagery licensed from Getty.
Music from the Youtube Audio Library and Epidemic Sound.
Additional music from @REPULSIVE and @WhitebatAudio
3D boat models are Royalty free assets:

A note on interviews: I spoke to over a dozen former Nortel employees for this series and those conversations provided many insights you'll hear throughout. Because some of the interviewees still work in the industry I have kept all names anonymous. If there is a direct quote with a name attached it's because it was a quote said publicly.

Sources:
The Bubble and the Bear – How Nortel Burst the Canadian Dream by Douglas Hunter (2002)
Nortel Networks – How Innovation Created a Network Giant by Larry MacDonald (2000)
No Fear: Tales of a Change Agent or Why I couldn’t Fix Nortel Networks by Tim Dempsey (2014)
Silicon Valley North: A High Tech Cluster of Innovation and Entrepreneurship edited by Larisa V. Shavina (2004)
Knights of the New Technology by David Thomas (1983)
Adventures in Innovation: Inside the Rise and Fall of Nortel by John F. Tyson (2014)
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu (2011)
100 Days: The Rush to Judgement That Killed Nortel by James Bagnall (2013)
For $ale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada edited by Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade (2008)
The Invisible Empire: A History of the Telecommunications Industry in Canada, 1846-1956 by Jean-Guy Rens (2001)
The Avro Arrow: For the Record by Palmiro Campagna (2019)
The Deal of the Century: The Breakup of AT&T by Steve Coll (1986)
Asleep at the Switch: The Political Economy of Federal Research and Development Policy since 1960 by Bruce Smardon (2014)
Canadian Science, Technology and Innovation Policy by G. Bruce Doern, David Castle and Peter W.B. Phillips (2016)
Reconcilable Differences: A History of Canada-US Relations by Stephen Azzi (2015)
Pa Bell: The Meteoric Rise of Bell Canada Enterprises by Lawrence Surtees (1992)
Random Excess: The Wild Ride of Michael Cowpland and Corel by Ross Laver (1998)
TV Interview with John Roth on Market Watch on CNBC, October 1999
Royal Canadian Air Farce Episode from February 23rd 2001
The Rise and demise of Lucent Technologies by William Lazonick and Edward March (2010)
Brain Drain: Why do some post-secondary Graduates Choose to Work in the United States? By Brahim Bordarbat and Marie Connolly (2013)
An Overview of the Demise of Nortel Networks and Key Lessons Learned: Systemic effects in environment, resilience and black-cloud formation, University of Ottawa (2014)
Class, Nationality and the Roots of the Branch Plant Economy by Gordon Laxer (1986)
Foreign Ownership and Myths about Canadian Development by Gordon Laxer (1985)
Gale of “Creative Destruction” Engulfs Nortel by Sanjeev Kumar Sharma (2011)
Nortel Technology Lens: Analysis and Observations by Peter MacKinnon, Peter Chapman, Hussein Mouftah, University of Ottawa (2015)
Capital Gains Taxation in Canada 1972-2017: Evolution in a Federal Setting by Francois Vaillancourt and Anna Kerkhoff (2019)
The 2010 Federal Budget – A summary of the key tax measure that have a direct impact on you – RBC Wealth Management Services, March 4th, 2010
The Changing Structure of American Innovation: Some Cautionary Remarks for Economic Growth by Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon, Andrea Patacconi, and Jungkyu Suh (2019)
Do Tax Differences Cause the Brain Drain? By Don Wagner (2000)
The Branch Plant Economy by Stephen Clarkson (1972)

0:00 This is John Roth
2:04 The Elephant and the Mouse
12:47 Pa without Ma
26:27 Made in Amerada
42:15 Right Turns are Hard
57:43 Silicon Valley North
1:07:37 The Toronto Stock Explosion

[traceylb]

Nortel was an absolute dream to work for in the 90's. I worked at a production plant making circuit boards for phones and switches. Best job I ever had. And it was a culture of 'how can we help you to do this better?'

[mariethe_patate]

I was at university studying in civil engineering while Nortel fell... Half of the electric engineering department lost their internships in one day, it was a total panic - some had to finish their "intership" as janitors at the university in order to get their credits...

[invictusvis]

I feel that the captions on this are going to be massively underrated. The dial tone alone puts this above and beyond nearly everything else on the platform. Add to that the use of colours and placement on the arguments makes this an incredibly clear video.

[TamDNB]

The style of BobbyBroccoli documentaries is just perfect...the maps, the calendars, the voice-over...just amazing

[dylan]

Time to watch a documentary on a company that I've never heard of, committing a crime I've never heard of. Thanks bobby.

[mattbosley]

My mother worked for Nortel for many years in the U.S. After she retired was when the company fell apart and they tried to stiff their retirees on their medical benefits. Fortunately they got together as a group and took Nortel to court over it and managed to get a decent settlement. At least she had her retirement money in her 401k and Social Security.

[shadowsovereign]

"We make... fucking money." That is such an amazing line to end this video on. The lack of swears up until that point and not expecting it from you make it so much more impactful.

[wuebboltc]

"Canada is just a semi-autonomous 51st state."

Oh, MAN...

[briannyob]

I worked at Nortel, and I recall the email from John Roth gloating about how Cisco missed its earnings numbers. He how this wouldn't happen at Nortel as we made a much more diverse business. Two weeks later, Nortel missed its earnings numbers. Wished I'd saved the email...

[samr]

Regarding Canadian identity - as a Canadian, I always roll my eyes when people talk about how much better than the US we are. But also, if someone says we're not better than the US, my immediate reaction is "how dare you!"

I'd say regional identity can be pretty strong though, as a Maritimer

[salamander]

As a Canadian gen Z, it’s amazing that absolutely none of this made it into any social studies class even though all of this happened at the very same time as every other event in Canadian history and had such a big effect on all of it, from the time of John A. MacDonald to the last few decades

[Marihl]

5:05 let's keep it a "like" statement.

[jiasheng]

Learned of this company when a scholarship with their name on it went to me when I went to university to study engineering. Thanks, Nortel, the money went into gambling almost immediately.

[bobw]

I worked for Nortel in Ottawa for many years until the downfall caught up to me in 2003 and I lost everything. Your video brought tears to my eyes as I relived all of those events you describe, and all of the great times while there. It is still so hard to believe that such a great great company was reduced to nothing and so many people suffered because of it. Looking forward to Part 2.

[alexbrangan]

"BNR was respected, sure, but Bell Labs had six Nobel Prizes, and their latest hotshot physicist was bound to win them another."

Surely this physicist's miraculous work with organic transistors is totally above board. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

[CPpuppies]

I am in IT. In 2003 my company built a new HQ in Detroit. I was the one who benchmarked all the enterprise ethernet gear. I learned a lot about the various players but found the people working for Nortel and the tech features and management software to be clearly the best and so we went with the 8600 ethernet chassis switches. I think we ended up with 34 of them. The guys doing the phones also selected Nortel. It was great to actually have a single vendor for all of our comm gear. We came from a mixed environment. It was sad for me to see Nortel fall. RIP

[TheKitchenTechnician]

My neighbour had 5000 shares of Nortel when it was worth over $120 a share! He worked at Nortel for decades as a salesman. He stubbornly would not sell the shares even when the writing was on the wall. By the time the bottom fell out of Nortel his shares were worth 60 cents each.

[wesselord]

I don't think I've ever seen a channel so adept at combining expertly crafted visuals with top notch writing to make the viewer truly UNDERSTAND the subject matter of the story being told. Simply put, its masterful storytelling. Well done, and PLEASE continue to do what you do.

[RealMajora]

My father lost a lot of his pension when I was a kid.
It was fun watching this video and slowly piecing together that it was because of Nortel.

[LexiH]

Anyone watching this in 2025 and painfully laughed at the 51st state comment. Yeah.