Frank McKenna remembers Arthur Irving; looks to the future
By Andrew Macdonald
Maritime Business
Arthur Irving who died earlier this month at age 93, for 73 years worked and owned Irving Oil.
In a chat with former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, who was also an ambassador to Washington, D.C., I offered my condolences as he had a 35 to 40-year friendship with Irving.
“I think condolences are due to everyone in Atlantic Canada,” said McKenna. “He has been a big part of our life here in every way, across the region, whether it’s service stations in St. John’s, whether it’s a refinery in Saint John or Big Stops in Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia, he’s been a big part of our life in Atlantic Canada.”
In 1992, Arthur Irving’s father, K.C. Irving, the man who started the empire, died and the Big Stop near the Canso Causeway flew its Maple Leaf flag at half-mast.
McKenna last summer was heading to Cabot Links in Cape Breton and stopped at the Auld’s Cove Big Stop.
“The same thing you can expect, good food, lots of it, and clean washrooms, everything you associate with an Irving service station,” said McKenna.
Under Arthur Irving’s command, Irving gas stations became famous for clean washrooms.
“My wife does not have the same bladder that I have, and she knows every washroom in Atlantic Canada, and we make sure we have enough gas to get to the next Irving for a nice clean washroom. It becomes a proxy and a proxy for something that respects customers and is well-run. I think Arthur was really on to something. People by association say if they take care of their washrooms they must take care of their customers.”
McKenna recalled Irving knew a lot of his customers by name.
“We simply do not know in Atlantic Canada about the extent of those relationships. I got a little taste of it when I was (ambassador) in Washington, and I was out with the Kuwaiti ambassador, and we were chatting and I told him I was from New Brunswick and he said, “Yeah, I know Arthur Irving, he is a good friend of the emir’s.”
Irving built a global empire from Saint John, with gas stations in the U.S. Northeast, and bought an oil refinery in Ireland. The oil refinery in Saint John is Canada’s biggest refinery.
“Arthur was a true New Brunswicker, a true friend,” said Université de Moncton professor Donald Savoie, who wrote a 2020 book chronicling the history of Irving Oil.
“(Arthur’s) commitment to our region was deeply felt. He gave far more to our province than it is known. He grew Irving Oil to what it is today and he did it not from Toronto, New York, Dallas but right here in New Brunswick,” added Savoie.
“He did not feel the need to have a corporate headquarters in New York or Toronto, he just had the corporate headquarters in Saint John, N.B.,” adds McKenna. “And if there is such a word that is appropriate, he was a commoner. He felt totally at ease with his neighbourhood, his community and his region.”
Arthur Irving would ride his motorcycle to his gas stations to inspect the washrooms, and often if he was riding on a highway McKenna built as premier between 1987 and 1997, the former premier would get calls out of the blue from Irving, thanking the ex-premier for a well-built highway.
“He found it humorous that I was from Apohaqui, N.B., and you have to be a Maritimer to know what an Apohaqui is. He would call me when he was going by Apohaqui, ‘Look I just passed the sign for Apohaqui, I see the farm”. He would do that and it was always fun,” McKenna added. “But he would also call me out of the blue on the highway. He would say, ‘Mr. Premier, I just want to say thanks for the highway.’ And he would do that quite often because, of course, during my time we built four-lane highways really from Quebec to Nova Scotia, he really liked that.”
McKenna talked about Irving’s philanthropic efforts.
“He was amazing. He put a million dollars into the McKenna Centre at St. FX University, then he put millions into the Mulroney Institute (also at St. FX). Brian (Mulroney) and I did fundraising for St. Thomas and he put $2 million there. He has always been a big supporter of UNB and he was a big supporter of the Université de Moncton,” noted McKenna.
“He was a big supporter of the French and English in New Brunswick, he loved Acadians”, he said.
“Of course, we know how generous he was to Acadia, St. Mary’s and Dalhousie,” McKenna adds. “He was a tremendous supporter of institutions across the region.”
The future of Irving Oil
One of Irving’s last duties at Irving Oil was to undertake in 2023 a strategic review of the company’s future.
McKenna “hopes” the refinery will remain headquartered in Saint John.
“I know a lot of people who are around the process, on the board, or otherwise engaged in the process. They are all very cognizant of how important it is in our region. And they are committed to find results that are good for all stakeholders.
“We have to remember there are a lot of pieces to the empire, the refinery and Irish retail. Is it possible that could be hived off? There may be better homes for it as part of a multi-national complex,” he said.
“Then, retail across our region; the Irvings have had different views about whether they should own the retail (gas stations) or put it into the hands of a private operator. We have 500 to 600 gas stations down in New England and across Atlantic Canada, and the Big Stops.”
“A case could be made to having those sold separately, I do not know. I really hope the Irvings retain the refinery in Saint John, it is world-class, and Canada’s biggest refinery, Canada’s most complex refinery and Canada’s biggest exporter, and, of course, it supports thousands of jobs in Saint John,” McKenna said.
“I am crossing my fingers that the end result will be a positive one,” he added. “They have made it clear, all the people in the process, there is no guarantee just because they are having a strategic review that it will lead to a transaction of any kind.”
