The controversy that follows him around is in part a by-product of his high profile in Saskatchewan. He says if he lived in Toronto, he’d be able to fade into the background a little better. He’s also often said he’d like to see a movie star move to the province to take over the spotlight. “But I’ll bet if it happened I wouldn’t be happy,” he says with a laugh. “You’ll never have somebody who is under the same intense scrutiny that I receive, which I don’t particularly mind. I’m not critical. Everything that goes on in my life is noticed,” he says.

Part of that is Merchant’s own doing. He stands out in a crowd thanks to his habit of driving Jaguars and his wide array of double-breasted suits, the only kind of suit in his closet.

“I’ve worn them for the seven or eight years when they were popular and the 20 years or so that they weren’t,” he says. “I like clothes and shoes. I have shirts made and I’m always buying ties. I still wear, from time to time, clothes I had made when I was 24. When people ask me about the way I look, I say it’s the cryogenic effect of Saskatchewan winters that makes me stay the same.”

As verbose as Merchant is, getting a fellow lawyer to discuss his impact on the legal profession proved difficult. One senior Winnipeg’s lawyer agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. He says there’s no grey area when it comes to Merchant. “Some people would view Tony Merchant as a classic public perception of a slimy, bottom-feeding lawyer, while others might see him as somebody who recognizes opportunities they don’t have the energy to pursue,” he says.

“If there’s an opportunity there, he’s the one seizing it. There are some people that will ruffle the establishment’s feathers and Merchant is the type of guy who ruffles feathers a bit. He’s a guy who thinks in a different way. There’s something to be said for that.”

Despite several attempts to leave, Merchant remains in Regina, content to be “a recognized fish in a modest pond.” He even went so far as to become a member of the State Bar of Arizona in the mid ’80s, part of his plan to move to Palm Springs, Calif. (If you become a member of a strong bar like Arizona’s, you can automatically get into California’s, he says.) Another time, he priced some property in British Columbia and yet another time he tried to buy a couple of businesses in Montreal.

“Like most people, I’ve had doubts about what I was doing from time to time. For me, practising law in the U.S. is sort of the equivalent of running off and joining the circus. What I do here is very intense. I’m working all the time, I function effectively here,” he says. To illustrate his point, Merchant tells the story of coming back from a trip and going to retrieve his car from a parkade, which had an official-looking sign that said, “Cheques not accepted.” He didn’t have any money and told the commissionaire he’d need to write a cheque. “He said, ‘If I can’t accept a cheque from Tony Merchant, I don’t know who I can take a cheque from,’ ” he says. “I smiled, thanked him, and gave him the cheque for $7. I’m assuming it cleared.

“I’m happy here. I’ve been dissatisfied lots of times with the political makeup [of the province]. I think a lot more could happen in this province. It’s a happy place to live.”

After four decades in the profession, Merchant doesn’t foresee a time when he’ll retire. “I would think I’ll keep doing this forever. My great grandfather was still practising law at 86, so maybe I could do that. I’m hard working and active,” he says.

“The lawyer’s world is a world of some interesting things. A lot of what we do is just dregerious stupidity; moving one piece of paper to the other side of the desk with a Dictaphone on it. You have to be prepared to suffer through that, and I am. I don’t mind it. Other lawyers have a high level of dissatisfaction. I’ve always thought it was a pretty good life,” he says.