Former Nova Corp. boss leaves a lasting legacy
Bob Blair, an Alberta empire builder, died April 18. He was 79
Bob Blair’s stature as a mighty industrialist was expressed in the name Iron Horse. The title was bestowed on him as an honorary chief of the Kainai Nation in southwestern Alberta.
“We were comfortable with him,” aboriginal statesman Roy Fox said after intoning farewell prayers in Blackfoot and English at Blair’s memorial service in Calgary. Blair died April 18 at age 79.
“He was one of the pioneers of having our people work in the energy sector,” said Fox. Blair had a hand in a community self-management and industrial partnership movement that propelled Fox into national prominence as president of the Indian Resource Council of Canada after he led, as a real Kainai chief, a takeover of tribal control over oil and gas resources beneath the country’s biggest native reserve.
Aboriginal communities are far from the only beneficiaries of Blair’s economic legacy. Like a prince who is powerful but kind, or a gentlemanly fighter, Blair had chivalry in the full meaning of the word, recall his family and associates. Legions owe their livelihoods to this benevolent Alberta captain of industry. Veteran colleague Robert Pierce recites an imposing roster of feats performed by Blair as the chief executive officer of a growth conglomerate from 1970 through 1991.
The empire began as a quiet provincial natural gas pipeline grid, Alberta Gas Trunk Lines Ltd. It grew into Nova Corp. with an array of branches in international pipelines, petrochemicals, oil and gas production and associated industries.
The number of employees grew from 500 to 13,000 at the empire’s height. Annual revenues multiplied 125-fold to $4 billion from $32 million. Net income surged to $424 million from $10 million. Industrial investment led by Blair added up to $11 billion, with 64 per cent of the total poured into Alberta.
“He was one of a kind,” Pierce says. Blair was an economic nationalist inspired by visions of homegrown enterprise and a conviction that was rare in his generation, which grew up in an era when about three-quarters of the Canadian West’s resource industry was foreign-owned. “It was his belief that Albertans could be world-class owners and operators,” Pierce recalls.
Blair was short, lightly built and soft-spoken. But he projected ambition. His drive and a knack for showing up wherever the action was made him a household name. Besides Iron Horse, he had nicknames in circles from the Alberta legislature press gallery to high finance, like Bushes, for his prominent eyebrows, and Bossa Nova for his corporate identity.
Economic expansion policies of former premier Peter Lougheed fueled Nova’s growth. Rivals and admirers alike called Blair the province’s industrial premier. But he was no political yes-man. He was a fiercely independent thinker who served on the board of directors of the University of Alberta’s left-leaning Parkland Institute. In national affairs, he was a stalwart Liberal. After he retired from Nova, he ran as his party’s 1993 federal election candidate for a constituency in the heart of Conservative Calgary.
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