A House Divided: The Untold Story of the McCain Family

Richard Wilbur is supervisor of the Legislative Research Service at the
New Brunswick Legislature, and the author of The Rise of French New
Brunswick.

This well-researched and highly readable study is one of the two books
to appear in the aftermath of the bitter feud between Wallace and
Harrison McCain over who should succeed them as CEO of the world
conglomerate they created. The author’s sympathies clearly lie with
Wallace, the eventual loser in this protracted family quarrel. In
essence, A House Divided is Wallace’s story.

For three decades, the brothers allowed nothing to stand in the way of
their commitment to McCain Foods. At one point, Wallace’s wife,
Margaret, was ready to divorce him. Instead, she remained in the tiny
village of Florenceville—home of the firm’s head office—to raise
their four children. Next door lived Harrison’s reclusive wife,
Billie, the daughter of a former New Brunswick premier.

Establishing and then expanding McCain Foods plants in England, Europe,
Australia, and the United States took its toll not just on family life
but on the health of the brothers, both of whom are portrayed as
hard-driving and rough-talking tycoons. All that is missing from this
thoroughly enjoyable if somewhat disturbing story is an explanation of
how this vast worldwide enterprise increased its profits during the
years 1992–95, when the two brothers were fighting it out in both the
boardroom and the courts. They obviously had some very capable and
faithful managers.