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Michael John Savage, businessman, politician, mayor of Halifax, 2012 to present (born 13 May 1960 in Belfast, Northern Ireland). Savage, whose father was premier of Nova Scotia in the 1990s, served as a member of Parliament before becoming mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Brandt Louie, business tycoon, philanthropist (born 5 July 1943 in Vancouver, BC). Louie is the president of the H.Y. Louie Company, a business started by his grandfather in 1903 that now includes London Drugs Ltd. and the IGA grocery store chain. In 2017, Louie was listed as Canada’s 47th richest person in Canadian Business magazine’s annual ranking, with an estimated fortune of $2.1 billion. Louie is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal and a Member of the Order of British Columbia.

​Rana Sarkar, strategy consultant, business pundit, entrepreneur (born January 1971 in Calcutta, India). Formerly the president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council, Sarkar is currently the national director for high growth markets at KPMG Canada, and co-chairman of the advisory board and a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. In 2011, he ran an unsuccessful campaign as the Liberal candidate in the federal riding of Scarborough-Rouge River.

​Victor Li, business tycoon (born 1 August 1964 in British Hong Kong), studied at Stanford University in California earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil and structural engineering. He is the son of business tycoon Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, who has a net worth of US$31.8 billion, according to Forbes (March 2017). Li is best known in Canadian business circles as the co-chairman of Calgary-based Husky Energy, and also for his attempt to bail out Air Canada in 2004. He currently serves as the chairman of CKI, an infrastructure conglomerate with holdings in Canada, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. Li holds citizenship in both Canada and China.

Early Tuesday morning, March 14, 1972, a long-haired and bearded old man shuffled into the lobby of the Bayshore Inn. He wore an old bathrobe and sandals, and he was surrounded by burly men. “This is pretty nice,” he said. He was the billionaire Howard Hughes, and that was the start one of the oddest visits in Vancouver history.

Martin Weinberg, CSC, CFA, entrepreneur, business executive (born 1961 in Winnipeg, MB).

Elsie Marie Knott (née Taylor), Ojibwe chief, community leader, entrepreneur (born 20 September 1922 on Mud Lake Reserve [now Curve Lake First Nation], ON; died there on 3 December 1995). Knott was the first elected female First Nations chief in Canada, after a 1951 amendment to the Indian Act permitted Indigenous women to vote and participate in band governments. She was also chief of her First Nation for 14 years, from 1954 to 1962 and from 1970 to 1976. Knott was dedicated to preserving the Ojibwe language and was known for her community activism and support of education.

Saidye Rosner Bronfman, OBE, community leader, philanthropist (born 9 December 1896 in Plum Coulee, MB; died 6 July 1995 in Montreal, QC). Saidye Bronfman was a leader in the Jewish community who generously supported the arts and various charities. She received the Order of the British Empire for her work with the Red Cross during the Second World War. Saidye and her husband, Samuel Bronfman, drew from their fortune in the liquor business to create a foundation that continues to fund community groups today.

Mabel Frances Timlin, OC, FRSC, economist, professor (born 6 December 1891 in Forest Junction, Wisconsin; died 19 September 1976 in Saskatoon, SK). Timlin was an influential economist best known for her interpretation of Keynesian economics. Although she became a professor relatively late in her career, Timlin achieved a series of firsts as a Canadian woman in her field. She remained at the University of Saskatchewan throughout her career.

Jacques Parizeau, GOQ, economist, professor, senior public servant, politician and premier of Québec (born 9 August 1930 in Montréal, QC; died 1 June 2015 in Montréal, QC).

Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, aeronautics financier, community leader, social reformer and advocate for the deaf (born 25 November 1857 in Cambridge, Massachusetts; died 3 January 1923 in Chevy Chase, Maryland). Bell actively supported and contributed to the work of her husband, inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Her financial investment in his work made her the first financier of the aviation industry in North America. She was a community leader in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, where the Bell family spent their summers. She was also a social reformer and supported innovation in education.

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Joshua Mauger, colonial entrepreneur, sea captain, politician (baptized 25 April 1725 in the parish of St. John, Jersey; died 18 October 1788 at Warborne, near Lymington, England). Mauger was one of Nova Scotia’s wealthiest and most influential merchants in the 18th century. Although he only spent 11 years in the colony, he exerted significant power in its business and politics for two decades after. His complex involvement with Nova Scotia underscores the bonds of subservience and influence that hindered the colony’s early development. Mauger also enslaved Black people and built a significant portion of his business empire on the labour of enslaved people.

James McGill, fur trader, merchant, politician, philanthropist (born 6 October 1744 in Glasgow, Scotland; died 19 December 1813 in Montreal, Lower Canada). James McGill was one of Montreal’s most prominent citizens in the 18th and early 19th centuries. He grew a successful career as a fur trader into a business empire. McGill also held various positions in public office, including three terms in Lower Canada’s legislature. His will contained the endowment for McGill University. James McGill’s achievements cannot be separated from the fact that he enslaved Black and Indigenous people and profited from this practice.