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Create AccountSir Richard Ernest William Turner, KCMG, VC, DSO, businessman and soldier (b at Québec 25 July 1871; d there 19 June 1961). In 1891 he entered his family's wholesale grocery and lumber business.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on 8 March 1999. Partner content is not updated.
The big black Mercedes glides past the beds of gold- and wine-coloured chrysanthemums that spruce up Toronto's business district in early fall. Quickly and discreetly it transports Gerry Schwartz from his Onex Corp.Alphonse Desjardins, journalist, parliamentary reporter, founder of the Desjardins Group (born 5 November 1854 in Lévis, Québec; died 31 October 1920 in Lévis, Québec).
Arlene Dickinson, entrepreneur, business executive, television personality (born 8 October 1956 in Germiston, South Africa). Dickinson is best known as a star of CBC’s Dragons’ Den and as the CEO of Venture Communications Ltd., one of Canada’s largest independent marketing agencies. With a reported net worth of $80 million, Dickinson is one of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs. Her success has been recognized by several honours and awards, such as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Moses Hart, businessman, landowner (b at Trois-Rivières 26 Nov 1768; d there 15 Oct 1852), brother of Benjamin HART. An eccentric but adept businessman, Hart began his career in Sorel by running a general store and then extended into the import-export business.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on March 25, 2002. Partner content is not updated.
In the days before business plans and vision statements, Vancouver shopkeeper Hok Yat Louie wrote, in his native Chinese, a series of letters to his sons. It was 1934 and, in failing health, he'd returned for the first time in 38 years to his birthplace in south China's Pearl River Delta.IN APRIL 1962, Jacqueline Kennedy invited GALBRAITH, who was returning to Washington on official business as U.S. ambassador to India, to join the Kennedy family for a weekend at Glen Ora, the family's rented estate in the Virginia countryside.
Bonnie Brooks, CM, retailer, department store executive (born 19 May 1953 in Windsor, ON). Brooks earned her MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University and also holds two honorary doctoral degrees. She is best known for her work modernizing retail department stores, including Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford, Canada’s Holt Renfrew and Hudson’s Bay, where she was the first woman to be appointed president and CEO. Brooks was later appointed as the first woman vice-chairman of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Thomas Greenway, merchant, farmer, land speculator, politician, premier of Manitoba (b at Kilkhampton, Eng 25 Mar 1838; d at Ottawa 30 Oct 1908). Instrumental in the formation of the Liberal Party of Manitoba, Greenway was its first leader and premier of Manitoba 1888-1900.
Frederick Charles Mannix, businessman (b at Edmonton 21 Oct 1913; d at Calgary 29 July 1995). As a young man he worked in the construction camps of his father's company, Fred Mannix Co.
Rose Fortune, entrepreneur (born 1774 at Virginia; died 20 February 1864 at Nova Scotia). Rose Fortune, a Black Loyalist originally from the US, is best-known for her talent as a businesswoman at a time when neither women nor Black persons were encouraged to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities (see Black Canadians) and when the feminist movement in Canada was decades away. Born during the American Revolution to enslaved persons, Fortune emigrated to Canada at age ten. Her family settled in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, a popular destination for black Loyalists.
Sir Donald Mann, railway builder (b at Acton, Canada W 23 Mar 1853; d at Toronto 10 Nov 1934). Mann studied for the Methodist ministry but took up work in the lumber camps of Ontario and Michigan. In 1879 he was in charge of the barge that brought the first railway locomotive to Winnipeg.
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye, military officer, farmer, fur trader, explorer (born at Trois-Rivières, Quebec 17 November 1685; died at Montreal 5 December 1749). The expeditions organized by La Vérendrye and spearheaded by his sons were the first to open the country from Lake Superior to the lower Saskatchewan River and the Missouri River to the French fur trade. La Vérendrye is often portrayed as emblematic of the French-Canadianvoyageur and of French Manitoba in particular.
Sir Frederic Nicholls, capitalist, business lobbyist (b in England 23 Nov 1856; d at Battle Creek, Mich 25 Oct 1921). Nicholls played a crucial role in promoting early manufacturing in Canada. Educated as an electrical engineer in Germany, he came to Canada in 1874.
Joseph Bloor, innkeeper, brewer (also spelled Bloore; born in 1789 near Staffordshire, England; died 31 August 1862 in Toronto, ON). Bloor is the namesake of Toronto’s Bloor Street and was a prominent innkeeper and brewer in the early half of the 19th century. He was the founder of the village of Yorkville, which is now part of the city of Toronto.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on April 17, 1995. Partner content is not updated.
Former film-maker Edgar Bronfman Jr. showed last week that he still has a flair for the dramatic. Investors and analysts were kept on the edge of their seats as the 39-year-old chief executive of Seagram Co. Ltd.James MacBraire, soldier, merchant, shipowner, justice of the peace (b at Enniscorthy, Wexford, Ire 1760; d at Berwick on Tweed, Eng 24 Mar 1832). He is first recorded in Harbour Grace, Nfld, in the 1780s working as a clerk for a Bristol firm engaged in the cod fishery.
Patrick Morris, merchant, shipowner, politician and officeholder (b at Waterford, Ire 1789; d at St John's 22 Aug 1849).
Willard Garfield Weston, food merchant, manufacturer (b at Toronto 26 Jan 1893; d there 22 Oct 1978). The son of biscuit manufacturer George Weston, he developed the family business into one of the largest food conglomerates in
Jean Bessie Lumb (née Toy Jin Wong), CM, community leader, restaurateur (born 30 July 1919 in Nanaimo, BC; died 17 July 2002 in Toronto, ON). Jean Lumb was the first Chinese Canadian woman and first restaurateur inducted into the Order of Canada. She is also best known for her role in successfully lobbying the federal government to change its discriminatory immigration policies that separated Chinese families. Lumb also led the Save Chinatown Committee to prevent further demolition of Toronto’s Chinatown in the 1960s.
