Here is our first annual edition of the Most Powerful People In Canada. The list includes regular citizens to the Prime Minister. In this year’s list, there are more female than male counterparts, according to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, women will make up the majority of the most powerful people in Canada by 2040. This is due to a number of factors, including more women being educated than men and more women entering the workforce. In fact, there are more female than male counterparts in many fields, including politics, business, and law. While there are still some areas where women are underrepresented, such as science and technology, it is clear that women are making great strides and achieving equality in many aspects of Canadian society.
Here is Canadanewsmedia list of Most Powerful People In Canada:
1. Justine Trudeau
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference to announce that the Emergencies Act is being revoked after Canadian police evicted the last of the trucks and supporters occupying the downtown core in a protest against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Patrick Doyle
Let’s be honest here, from occupying the highest elected office in the country to being a celebrity politician, Justine Trudeau is not scared of using his power. Dismiss the Prime Minister if you like, knock his brains, his choices, his often demonstrably shaky adherence to principle. But in 2020, 2021, and even 2022 the central fact of Justin Trudeau’s place in the nation’s life was that he had and used power on a scale nobody in the country could match.
2. Chrystia Freeland
Chrystia Freeland is a Canadian journalist, author and politician who has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada since November 2015. Previously, she was a journalist and political commentator and was editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Canada from 2013 to 2015. In 2014, she was nominated for the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and is the current deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Chrystia Freeland wields serious clout, in both the present and future-hypothetical tenses. Along with being deputy prime minister and finance minister—the first woman to hold that prestigious post—she is one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s closest confidants and a leading candidate to succeed him as a Liberal leader whenever the post-Trudeau era should dawn. But that sword cuts both ways: Freeland enjoys the benediction of the inner circle, but that aura could become a shadow of the boss’s missteps and curdled reputation.
–Shannon Proudfoot
3. Sherry Brydson
Sherry Brydson is the richest woman in Canada via keepswiki.com
Sherry Brydson was raised in Toronto and attended the University of Toronto where she was news editor of the campus paper, The Varsity. In 1969, she authored a series of three articles on pollution that are credited with sparking the Canadian environmental movement, according to a story in the University of Toronto Magazine in 1999. She graduated in 1970 with a degree in political science and left to pursue a career in journalism in the UK, according to the article.
She later moved to Victoria, British Columbia, and began using a closely held company she owns, Westerkirk Capital, to manage a part of her fortune held under the Woodbridge company. Among its investments: developing hotels with Marriott in Nova Scotia, making Twin Otter aircraft in Vancouver Island through her Viking Air subsidiary, and owning a series of AM and FM radio stations through Vista Radio.
Through the Irma J. Brydson foundation, she has given money to support the Toronto YWCA among other social institutions in Canada.
Sherry Brydson is one of the richest Canadians. She owns 23% of the Thomson family’s investment firm, Woodbridge. Brydson’s ventures also go beyond Woodbridge via investment firm Westerkirk Capital, which manages investments in hospitality, aviation and media like Ontario’s Moose FM radio stations. Besides these million-dollar investments, Brydson owns a few small businesses in Toronto including Thai restaurant Bangkok Garden and Elmwood Spa. Bloomberg puts Sherry Brydson’s net worth at $17.38 billion CAN ($13.8 billion US).
4. Tiff Macklem
Tiff Macklem was appointed Governor of the Bank of Canada, effective June 3, 2020, for a seven-year term. As Governor, he is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements. He is chair of the Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision, the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and co-chair of the Financial Stability Board’s Regional Consultative Group for the Americas.
Canadians’ biggest concern as 2021 wound down wasn’t the pandemic, health care or the national debt. It was the cost of living. You can blame the free-spending feds, but more responsibility lies with Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada. Since his appointment in May 2020, he’s steered the economy through a unique recession with a bond-buying spree and record-low interest rates. Spring 2022 will test Macklem’s choices: the bank’s promised rate hikes may tame inflation yet also throw a wrench into the soaring housing market.
–Michael Fraiman
5. Anita Anand
Anita Anand was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Oakville in 2019. She has previously served as Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
Born and raised in rural Nova Scotia, she moved to Ontario in 1985.
In her Oakville community, she has served on the Board of Directors of the Lighthouse Program for Grieving Children, the Oakville Hospital Foundation, and Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution Inc.
Anand has worked as a scholar, lawyer, and researcher. She has been a legal academic, including as a Professor of Law at the University of Toronto where she held the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance. She served as Associate Dean and was a member of the Governing Board of Massey College and the Director of Policy and Research at the Capital Markets Research Institute, Rotman School of Management. She has also taught law at Yale Law School, Queen’s University, and Western University.
After winning her second election in two years, Anita Anand became the first woman of colour to oversee the Canadian Armed Forces. Her first priority as federal defence minister, she says, is to ensure a cultural change in the military, so “everyone feels safe, protected and respected.” With dozens of recommendations about sexual misconduct and military justice yet to be implemented, and an alarming statistical picture emerging from the volume of class-action claims made by military members, the job’s easier said than done.
But Anand, a career academic who spent 25 years in corporate and securities law, has quickly become one of the stars of Canadian politics—despite, or perhaps because of, an aversion to showboating. Her no-nonsense approach and capable management of thorny issues has earned her regular mentions on lists of potential successors to Trudeau.
Jim Pattison oversees a sprawling group that operates 25 divisions including packaging, food and entertainment. Pattison’s first business was a GM dealership he bought in 1961. The Canadian billionaire also controls more than 40% of publicly-traded forest products company Canfor. His entertainment division includes Guinness World Records, the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! chain and Great Wolf Lodge’s Canadian franchise rights.
Jim Pattison is an investor, philanthropist and businessman. He is the head of an empire that operates in some 85 countries spanning an array of industries such as supermarkets, lumber, fisheries, disposable packaging, theme parks, auto dealers and more. He opened a Pontiac dealership in 1961; 25 years later, he was selling more cars than anyone else in Western Canada. He grew his business to include other companies such as Overwaitea Foods, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, Save-On-Foods, Guinness World Records and numerous TV and radio stations across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Forbes puts Jim Pattison’s net worth at $15.37 billion CAN ($12.2 billion US).
Rosanne Casimir has been elected as the new chief of Tk’emlups te Secwepemc. She was first elected as a councillor in 2009. Image Credit: FACEBOOK/ Rosanne J. Casimir
Rosanne Casimir elected Kukpi7/Chief for Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the 14th elected Kukpi7/Chief for Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. Kukpi7 Roseanne has lineage to the hereditary Chief Louis Clexlixqen (1852 -1915), (Chief Clexlixqen-Casimir and Elizebeth-Patrick and Lucindy-Thomas and Sadie- Kyé7e Annie and Stanley- Kí7ce Patricia and Qé7tse George).
The impassioned yet level response by Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc to unmarked residential school graves made her a leading voice on the injustice and the challenge of moving forward. She extracted an apology from the Prime Minister for hitting a Tofino, B.C., beach on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and she will be among Indigenous leaders visiting the Vatican this year. Casimir has asked Pope Francis to visit Tk’emlúps; she wouldn’t handle a slight too gently.
–Jason Markusoff
8. Sheila Watt-Cloutier
‘I am truly grateful to be recognized for such a prestigious award at a time when our common troubled atmosphere and our challenged planet is crying out for action from global leaders,’ says Sheila Watt-Cloutier. (Stephen Lowe/Right Livelihood)
Sheila Watt-Cloutier Nobel Peace Prize nominee is in the business of transforming public opinion into public policy. Experienced in working with global decision-makers for more than a decade, Watt-Cloutier offers a new model for 21st century leadership. She speaks with passion and urgency on the issues of today — the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability — not as separate concerns, but as a deeply interconnected whole. At a time when people are seeking solutions, direction, and a sense of hope, this global leader provides a big picture of where we are and where we’re headed.
Cheriton and Andreas von Bechtolsheim (also now a billionaire) each invested $100,000 in Google when it was just getting started.
The pair cofounded 3 companies: Arista Networks (IPO in 2014), Granite Systems (sold to Cisco in 1996) and Kealia (sold to Sun Microsystems in 2004).
Cheriton resigned from Arista’s board in March 2014 and has been unloading his stock; he still owns nearly 10% through a trust for his children.
Cheriton became chief data center scientist at Juniper Networks after the acquisition of his company Apstra in 2021.
10. Taylor Thomson
Taylor Thomson is the granddaughter of Roy Thomson. She owns a 14% stake in her family’s investment company, Woodbridge. Born Lynne Thomson, she later changed her name to Taylor Thomson. The young billionaire passed the bar exam and worked as a lawyer before diving into the world of acting. Taylor Thomson appears to be focusing on building her real estate portfolio with more than $ 120 million worth of real estate in California alone. Bloomberg puts her net worth at $10.78 billion CAN ($8.56 billion US).
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
