Before it was taken over by Manitoba Telecom Services, MacDonald joined AT&T Canada (as Allstream was then known) in 2002, and one Canadian telecom analyst credits him with saving the company.

"When he went to Allstream, it was certainly a financial basket case and needed significant re-tooling so to speak," said Eamon Hoey, senior partner at Hoey Associates Management Consultants Inc. of Toronto. "He had, without doubt, some significant challenges when he took over the helm at Allstream. They've made significant gains in the last five to 10 years."

MacDonald, who was president and chief operating officer at Bell Canada during the late 1990s, did not comment for this article.

When MacDonald joined the firm, it was known as AT&T Canada, which had earlier been formed from a merger of: MetroNet Communications Corp., a competitive local exchange carrier; Netcom, an Internet Service provider; AT&T Canada Long Distance Co.

At the time, the company was taking on both the incumbent carriers and new competitors, including Call-Net Enterprises Inc., in providing telecommunications services, while relying on incumbent carriers to provide last mile services on a wholesale basis. Several CLECs, such as Norigen, C1 and Axxent had gone under, and Group Telecom had been forced to undertake a restructuring. Call-Net would eventually be bought by Rogers.