Irvingville

GORDON PITTS
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/GAM.20071227.RIRVING27/GIStory/

From Arthur's cupola-topped house - built for his late father K.C. - he might just be able to trace the curving coastline of the Bay of Fundy as it reaches toward the state of Maine, where the family owns gas stations, energy terminals and 490,000 hectares of timberland, making it the third-largest private landowner in the United States.

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What is also clear is that while Irving businesses may dominate this province and the Maritimes, they don't play a major role in any single national or international market. They cast big shadows in central Saint John but they are global pipsqueaks - in their chosen sectors, they may hold only 1- to 3-per-cent market shares, at best. They are companies with little reach, and they need to grow.

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Yet according to one person who knows the Irvings well, it is as much access to capital as towering egos that is at stake here. These businesses are capital-hungry, and they're getting in each other's way.

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Damn reporters - what do they expect when the trees aren`t worth cutting down and the gas is running out, a god-damned miracle? No - stike that. What they need is fresh blood - I wish I were still around to pick my successor, since the fair and equal thing isn`t working. But the family must stick together!

Divided we fall boys, devided we fall.

Let`s see some turnabout in 2008 - get your game together.

Keep `em focused on other problems

That`s it boys - keep `em thinking about what we can`t fix.

Shut down the Internets!

Damnit - look at what the internet can do:

Midas of the Maritimes
Time Magazine - Friday, Jan. 31, 1964


Flames curled through a straw-and-cloth effigy hanging in the main square of normally sedate Saint John, New Brunswick. Hundreds of onlookers gathered to watch the fire and to argue about the object of their anger: Kenneth Colin Irving, the richest man, the biggest landholder and the most contentious entrepreneur in Canada's Maritime Provinces.

Article Continues

I didn`t go and buy up the press so that people can remember what I`ve done!

My right to privacy!

Damned the Glove and Mail - I knew we should have bought more shares in those loudmouthed bastards. They go and blab about my Family Tree like they know me.

Nobody knows me - nobody knows my pain!

Well, except maybe Charles - he and I shared a talk or two, back in the day.

Now you know why I moved to Bermuda - it wasn't the taxes - it was all you damned fools trying to pry into my business!


Does it look like I have candy? No? Then why are you looking at my eyes?

Hell, go ahead and do your puff pieces, that's fine, even a pointing out the obvious facts can't be avoided some of the time. But for the love of gold, keep our business out of the headlines!

What are my progeny up to? I handed them every single newspaper and they can't manage to keep our weaknesses out of the news?

Good thing we don't have any competitors.

News of the day - Nov 22, 2007

Let's see what one of my papers has on board today...

Homeless people don't have homes The community's mayor has promised a 10-year tax holiday to developers building mobile-home parks in the community.

Park turned into landfill "The provincial government has temporarily closed Woolastook Family Park in Upper Kingsclear. <...> The province contends that the land and assets weren't kept in good repair, a landfill was created in the park, and issues relating to tourism standards fell short."

Mother butchers, then burns newborn baby "She said it would have triggered a psychological state known as disassociation. Pearce described that as "a disconnect between thinking, feeling and outside reality," and said it would be like watching the events on television."

There's a perfect finale to a horrible news day - nothing better than a baby killing to distract people from homelessness, park closings and dissociative media!

Blogging

Don't you love it when your debt slaves carry out your orders for free?

K.C.