J.P. Bickell was a dreamer. More, he was a dream-maker.
While he walked the earth, Bickell lived an extraordinarily adventurous and purposeful life. His riches were wildly beyond most people’s conception, but so was his benevolence. A man of both his time and his means, Bickell was able to operate largely outside of the spotlight’s glare. The mining magnate’s death and subsequent legacy has, despite its considerable effect on an incalculable number of lives, remained shrouded; it has largely and sadly been exiled to the fringes of obscurity.
As one of the most important industrialists in Canadian history, J.P. Bickell cut an enormous swath across a nation: kick-starting several long-standing and successful businesses and organizations; giving form and funds to some of Canada’s most famous, including Mitchell Hepburn, Roy Thomson, and Conn Smythe; transforming the city of Toronto; playing a key role in the Allied cause during the Second World War; and exemplifying the best of twentieth-century philanthropy in Canada.
