Citizens Irving: KC Irving and His Legacy

Elizabeth St. Jacques is a writer and poet living in Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario.

In 1909, Kenneth Colin Irving of New Brunswick invested $8 to buy a used
Model M Ford, and when his father ordered him to get rid of it, he sold
it for $11. He was 10 years old. That profitable experience may very
well have been the beginning of it all, for today, K.C., now in his
nineties, is Canada’s wealthiest citizen and the third-richest
nonmonarch in the world.

With this book, DeMont (the author of two financial books and formerly
a writer for The Financial Post, and now serving as a MacLean’s bureau
chief) presents a revealing portrait of K.C. Irving and his family, who
built an empire worth more than $7 billion.

While bringing to light K.C.’s insatiable appetite for wealth, power,
and control, the lengths he has taken to get what he wants, and the
brutal methods he has used to retain what he has, DeMont also shows this
man’s human, and sometimes compassionate, side. Nevertheless, the
eccentricities and dogged determination of this influential man and his
family are unmistakable. We also discover that K.C.’s obsessions have
been handed down to his three sons, who are facsimiles of their
progenitor in both appearance and drive.

Little wonder, then, that today the Irving family’s financial
tentacles are spreading into the New England states, well beyond their
established stronghold in Canada’s Maritime provinces (in particular,
New Brunswick, which is virtually controlled by the Irvings).

The author says, “The Irving family’s decisions influence the
prices that New Brunswickers pay for everything from gasoline to
groceries.” Considering that they own an oil refinery, shipyard,
service stations, confectioneries, radio and television stations, and
most everything else in the province, it’s not surprising. Nor is it
surprising that one in twelve New Brunswickers works for the Irvings.
There’s no question that they have created much employment in the
province; however, New Brunswick is still one of the poorest provinces
in the country. Meanwhile, the Irvings are becoming richer.

The tactics generally used to acquire great wealth demand foresight,
skilled planning, hard work, and a tremendous amount of push-and-shove.
DeMont discloses the schemes, manipulations, maneuvers, and strategies
involved in the games of the rich-and-powerful, who usually emerge
victorious. Some of this book reads like a mystery novel, with haunting
images.

According to statistics for early 1992, the upper 10 percent of wealthy
Canadians own 51 percent of our country’s total wealth. As revealing
as Citizens Irving is, then, it raises some important questions
concerning free enterprise and the monopolies certain families acquire
within the democratic system. Deserving of careful and deep thought.