Food mogul passionate about life and family

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This article was published 21/05/2011 (5625 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Family, friends, politicians and Canadian business heavyweights remembered food mogul Wallace McCain as an entrepreneur who lived life passionately, loved his family and gave millions to help the community.

Mourners crammed a downtown Toronto church Friday to pay their respects to McCain, who died last week at 81 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The businessman, who co-founded McCain Foods and later took control of Maple Leaf Foods (TSX:MFI), was among the country’s wealthiest people.

His children, grandchildren and widow huddled together to give each other hugs and kisses before making their way inside. One of McCain’s granddaughters sobbed as she and the others accompanied his sheet-draped coffin toward an altar covered in white roses and peonies.

The high-profile mourners at the ceremony included finance minister Jim Flaherty, former prime minister Paul Martin, Bob Rae and Mike Harris, both former premiers of Ontario.

But it was former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, a longtime friend of McCain, who gave the eulogy that had the 2,500 people packed inside the standing-room-only church in both laughter and tears.

He fondly remembered McCain’s passion and love of life.

But McKenna also described McCain as steely-eyed capitalist and patriotic friend who was always good for a laugh and would swear like “a drunken sailor.”

He told one story about vacationing in Italy, where McCain went off on a jet ski and ended up too close to the home of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

“He came flying across the water with the Italian police in hot pursuit and this 79-year-old business icon was smiling from ear to ear.” But McKenna also praised McCain’s leadership as an entrepreneur, crediting McCain and his family with transforming New Brunswick by providing jobs with his humble french fry factory that grew into a multibillion-dollar empire.

“His business accomplishments alone are the stuff of legends,” McKenna said, praising McCain’s business savvy that helped him run two of Canada’s largest companies.

“A few more Wallace McCains in New Brunswick and we’d be sending (equalization) cheques back to Alberta.”

Later in his speech, McKenna noted McCain’s love for his home province and community. The funeral in Toronto was broadcast live to two churches in McCain’s hometown of Florenceville, N.B.

McCain’s four children remembered him as a fun dad who loved his wife of 56 years, always made time for dinner with his kids, loved to be called “grampy” by his grandkids and was still cracking jokes even as he crept closer to death.

— The Canadian Press