A list of Canada’s richest people was released by Maclean’s in partnership with Canadian Business, and several men from BC cracked the top 20.
Cracking the top 10 at number nine, Jim Pattison is looking at a $10.05 billion fortune, which comes in part from the Pattison Group’s extensive holdings. These include Save-On-Foods and Buy-Low Foods grocery stores, car dealerships, advertising, and developments. Pattison is also the owner of several radio stations, such as 93.7 JR Country, and is a huge philanthropist and supporter of health care in BC.
According to Forbes, Pattison’s wealth in the spring was $9.3 billion.
While his name is well-known, he wasn’t the richest Vancouverite on the list. According to the report, David Cheriton is. His worth is $12.64 billion, coming in at number 6. The reason for his fortune? Cheriton invested in the then-little-known tech company Google in 1998 and has grown his net worth significantly ever since, for obvious reasons. But he doesn’t seem to have forgotten his roots.
He is a UBC alumnus who donated millions to his former university and even worked there for some time. In recent years, he has become a mentor, businessman, and investor, and that is when he’s not teaching as a professor of computer science at Stanford University. According to a Forbes article from 2012, Cheriton’s net worth more than 12 years ago was significantly less, at $1.3 billion.
Coming in at number 19, Anthony von Mandl, which Maclean’s said boasts an impressive $8.24 billion fortune. The wine entrepreneur turned businessman has been lauded as one of the leaders who put Kelowna’s wineries on the map internationally (he’s also the founder of Mission Hill) decades ago. In recent years, he’s thanked for putting the low-calorie cult classic White Claws into our hands, alongside Mike’s Hard Lemonade through his company, the Mark Anthony Group.
Notable mentions:
- Moxies and Denny’s creators, the Gaglardi family, are at 21st place.
- Dennis “Chip” Wilson is at 24th.
- West Vancouver’s Park Royal Shopping Centre owners, the Lalji Family, are at 32nd place.
- In 35th, oil and gas and mining mogul N. Murray Edwards. He is also part-owner of the Calgary Flames.
Interestingly, while we’ve stated that Changpeng Zhao was a Vancouverite in the past, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance wasn’t listed by the magazine as a Vancouver native. Perhaps because he moved to the West Coast as a teen. Either way, despite ongoing legal troubles and a recent conviction for failing to prevent money laundering, his wealth surged by $20 billion in months and is now valued at $61 billion.
No Vancouver-born women were named in the rankings. Read the full list here.