TORONTO – Those bets placed on telecom and wireless by certain Canadians have paid off in spades, reports Canadian Business Magazine this month.
This year’s “Rich 100,” the magazine’s annual ranking of the wealthiest Canadians, is populated by a bumper crop of billionaires, with three of the top 10 placed there thanks to their sizable bets (and an enormous amount of work) done on telecom.
And for the first time ever, more than half of the magazine’s list is made up of people who have hit the billionaire mark: 54 of them, in fact, up from 46 in last year’s ranking.
There has also been a big change near the top of the list as for the first time since 2000, Galen Weston does not hold the number two spot. That honour now goes to Ted Rogers (CEO and founder of Rogers Communications, owner of Rogers Cable, Rogers Wireless and Rogers Media – whose holdings include Canadian Business Magazine, too), whose estimated net worth is up 67% over last year.
Also in the top 10 are Research In Motion founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, and from the media side, the Thomson Family of course, as well as Power Corp.’s Paul Desmarais – and Jim Pattison, whose multifaceted conglomerate also includes a mid-sized radio and TV broadcast operation in B.C.
Here is the magazine’s top 10
1. Thomson Family
$25.35 billion, up 4%
Location: Toronto
’06 rank: 1
2. Edward (Ted) Rogers Jr., 74
$7.6 billion, up 67%
Location: Toronto
’06 rank: 4
3. Galen Weston, 67
$7.27 billion, up 2%
Location: Toronto
’06 rank: 2
4. Paul Desmarais Sr., 80
$5.64 billion, up 28%
Location: Montreal
’06 rank: 5
5. James (J. K.), Arthur, John (Jack) Irving, 78, 76, 75
$5.3 billion, down 3%
Location: Saint John, N.B.
’06 rank: 3
6. James (Jimmy) Pattison, 79
$4.52 billion, up 4%
Location: Vancouver
’06 rank: 6
7. Jeff Skoll, 42
$4.48 billion, up 14%
Location: Palo Alto, Calif.
’06 rank: 7
8. Michael Lazaridis, 46
$4.36 billion, up 157%
Location: Waterloo, Ont.
’06 rank: 24
9. James Balsillie, 46
$4.09 billion up 153%
Location: Waterloo, Ont.
’06 rank: 25
10. Bernard (Barry) Sherman, 65
$3.61 billion, up 12%
Location: Toronto
’06 rank: 8
