Perhaps the most important financier in Canada is Senator George A.
Cox of Toronto, who is regarded as the Dominion’s closest parallel, in
financial activity, to J. Pierpont Morgan of New York. His interests
are extensive and widely varied. He is the president of the Canadian
Life Assurance Company, president of two fire insurance companies,
president of the Central Canadian Loan and Savings Company, and is one
of the ruling spirits in the great project to build the Grand Trunk
Pacific Railway across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. He has a
very considerable amount of capital invested in the United States.
Senator Cox was born sixty-four years ago in the village of Colborne.
His father was a shoemaker in humble circumstances. The ability of
Senator Cox, as a boy, attracted the attention of a neighbor, who
educated him. When he became a young man he went to the town of
Peterboro and embarked in the photographic business. He afterwards
became an express agent, and also occupied himself with soliciting
insurance for the Canadian Life Assurance Company. He engaged in
politics, and for seven years was mayor of Peterboro. When the Midland
Railway became involved in financial difficulties, he was one of
the Canadians asked to reorganize the road. He at once became the
dominating factor in this work and in 1878 was made president of the
Midland line. The vigor and ability which he brought to his task soon
put the decrepit railway company on its feet again. It afterward
became the Midland Division of the Grand Trunk Railway. Besides his
insurance and railway affiliations Senator Cox is largely interested in
Canadian banks and lands.
Senator Cox attributes much of his success to the fact that he is a
good judge of human nature. He has long made a point of surrounding
himself with clever young men who are able to develop and zealously
put into operation the hints which he freely gives them. Senator Cox’s
personality is of a kind which inspires enthusiasm on the part of those
who are working with and for him. He is genial and never stands on
formality in his contact with the young men whom he has around him. In
this respect he more closely resembles Andrew Carnegie than any other
captain of industry. Senator Cox lives in modest style in Toronto. He
is quiet in his tastes, and greatly dislikes anything suggestive of
display or self-aggrandizement. He is a close personal friend of most
of the political leaders in the Canadian Liberal Party, and of many
of the financial powers in the United States. The Earl of Aberdeen
appointed him to the Senate of Canada in 1896. He is a prominent member
of the Methodist Church, and has long interested himself in the welfare
of Victoria University in Toronto.