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Peter Munk, the late founder and chairman of Toronto’s Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s biggest gold producer, was born in Hungary and evolved into a passionate Canadian patriot.
At one point during the Great Hollowing Out of Corporate Canada – in the middle part of the last decade, when Inco, Falconbridge, Dofasco, Stelco and dozens of other resources and industrial companies were picked off like candy by foreign buyers – he charged into The Globe and Mail’s offices in Toronto to tell the editorial board that the greed-driven sell-off had gone too far.
He was right. Companies that had taken decades, or even a century, to build were vanishing at alarming rates, their offices downgraded to branch-plant status or closed. After the Great Hollowing Out, Canada was left with one truly Canadian and global resources company – his very own Barrick.
Mr. Munk died in March at age 90. From the golden ore body in the heavens, he might both approve and disapprove of the company he left behind. He would certainly be happy that Barrick, after years spent in retreat, is bulking up again through its US$6-billion takeover of African miner Randgold Resources Ltd.
He might disapprove of the fate of the Toronto head office of the enlarged company. It will keep shrinking, possibly drastically, as the famously lean Randgold management team takes control and flattens the management structure.
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