Family Ties: The Real Story of the McCain Feud

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

Michael Woloschuk has produced a thoroughly documented and balanced
account of the widely publicized corporate feud between Harrison and
Wallace McCain, two brothers who joined forces to build a global food
conglomerate and then quarreled bitterly when Wallace tried to ensure
that his son would be the next CEO. While the details of this
“dynastic battle” make for lively reading, there’s much more to
this book than a tale of feuding brothers. Family Ties is essential
reading for those who wish to understand the social dynamics of WASP New
Brunswick and how the province came to produce two world-class corporate
families, the Irvings and the McCains. As the book shows, both Harrison
and Wallace learned their basic business skills under the watchful and
generally approving eye of K.C. Irving, who regretted the departure of
the retiring, detail-minded Wallace far more than he did that of the
brash extrovert, Harrison.