It takes a considerable amount of ambition and self-confidence to publish a feature boldly declaring to identify “the 100 most important Canadians in history.”
But, with the aid of a panel of historians and other analysts, Maclean’s magazine did just that in its Canada Day issue.
For those who tend to suspect the national media of being Toronto-fixated, there are some pleasant surprises.
The category for most important “entrepreneurs” in Canadian history opens with New Brunswick industrial magnate K.C. Irving, who built an empire based on oil and timber.
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Second comes Sir William Van Horne, who built Canada’s first transcontinental railway. Then there are broadcaster Ted Rogers and snowmobile inventor Armand Bombardier.
The surprise comes in the fifth choice. Instead of the name of yet another rich and powerful businessman, the entry reads simply: “members of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.”
Two brief sentences on the next page note that farmers worked together co-operatively to form the Pool nearly 75 years ago and it remains a strong agribusiness today.
Despite the sketchiness of the note, the inclusion of Pool members in the list of historic business figures is welcome recognition of what generations of Prairie farmers have accomplished by working together.
Saskatchewan farmers – like their counterparts in Alberta and Manitoba – built an elevator network from scratch, starting off with no assets other than their pledges to support their organizations.
There have been many changes and occasional setbacks over the years, including abandonment of the private wheat pooling that gave the pools their names. And the three pools’ interests have diverged somewhat in recent years. But overall, the pools’ legacy remains one of the great success stories in Canadian business.
It’s also fitting that the credit union movement received recognition on the same list, in the form of Alphonse Desjardins, who inspired a network of Quebec credit unions.
Canada has had its share of great individual entrepreneurs, who tend to dominate the spotlight of public attention. But much of our economic development has come through teamwork, especially in rural areas.
Today, in an age of bank megamergers and giant global seed companies, it is more important than ever for farmers to support their own organizations, large and small. Together, they can remain in the ranks of those with economic influence.
