Soldier. Bureaucrat. Theme park creator. Partisan. Born July 21, 1931, in Victoria; died Nov. 30, 2022, in Toronto; of Alzheimer’s; aged 91
One Sunday he came to my boarding school in Port Hope and drove me in his impossibly luxurious car to Toronto where we had roast beef lunch at the impossibly luxurious King Edward Hotel, then drove me back to tiny cloistered Port Hope.
Jim can be summed up in a single word: He was a warrior. He viewed life as a battle between those who agreed with him and those who didn’t. You knew exactly where he stood on everything, always – from the rise of left-wing values to the fall of the work ethic. Trying to change his mind was futile, of course, which is why I tended to limit our interactions to two or three times a year over lunch. We didn’t have conversations, really.
These were the two great jewels of his ambition and life. I marvel at how many competing wills he had to bend his way to get these marvelous theme parks built. I often wondered how such a man could have helped bring the lyric “Ontari-ari-ario” into the provincial psyche or build places that were so uplifting, optimistic and fun. But he did, inspiring an enduring loyalty among the hundreds of hosts at Expo 67 and Ontario Place who signed on to follow Jim.
In his family life, he was a fierce protector of his brood: his wife, Bridie , his son Allan and daughter Siobhan. When his grandkids Connor and Caelan arrived 19 and 16 years ago, his gruff exterior melted and he became a puddle, as so many grandparents do in the presence of their progeny.
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