Paul James Phelan, (1917 – 2 Sep 2002) was a Canadian businessman, yachtsman, and wartime

RCAF The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canad ...

Squadron Leader.

Life and career

Phelan inherited his father's Canada Railway News Co. (founded in 1883), expanded it, then renamed it Cara Operations Ltd when he took it public in 1968. The company had started as The Canada Railway News Company and initially sold tomatoes . Under Phelan, the company opened refreshment rooms at hotels and hubs along the rail line. He opened its first

Swiss Chalet Swiss Chalet is a Canadian chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Swiss Chalet has locations in most Canadian provinces, but about 80% are in Ontario and there are currently none in Quebec or British Co ...

diner in 1954. In 1977, Phelan engineered a takeover of the Swiss Chalet franchisor, Foodcorp, a $50 million business, with 97 food outlets between its Swiss Chalet and

Harvey's Harvey's is a fast food restaurant chain operating in Canada, with locations in every province except British Columbia. It serves hamburgers, poutine, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings, and other traditional Canadian cuisine, Canadian fast-food ...

brands. Cara provided food for

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

late last century. Phelan controlled through it Swiss Chalet, Harvey's,

Second Cup Second Cup is a Canadian coffeehouse chain and retailer of specialty coffee headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario. Its stores sell hot and cold beverages, pastries, snacks, pre-packaged food items, sandwiches, and drinkware, including mugs and ...

, Kelsey's Neighborhood Bar & Grill, and

Montana's Cookhouse Montana's BBQ & Bar (originally and in some cases, still branded as Montana's Cookhouse Saloon) is a Canadian restaurant chain known for smoked pork ribs, steaks, and burgers. It is headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario and is a subsidiary of Recip ...

at the time of his death. In 2010, his heirs were diluted by Fairfax Financial Holdings. Fairfax subsequently re-diluted them in 2013. In April 2015, when his heirs were forced back into the stock market, they were part-owners of a corporation that controlled 837 food outlets, and sold $1.7 billion in food. It was the third largest restaurant chain in Canada after

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, Doughnut, donuts, sandwiches, Breakfast sandwich, breakfast egg mu ...

and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

. At the time, it had 26,000 employees across Canada. In 2016, sales were over $2 billion.

Family, legacy and honours

Phelan married Helen Gardiner. Together they raised Gail, Sharon, Paul David, and Rosemary, who gave them a dozen grandchildren. His funeral services were at Holy Rosary Church in

Forest Hill, Toronto Forest Hill is a neighbourhood and former village in Midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located north of Downtown Toronto. The village was amalgamated into Toronto in 1967 and the area has retained its name as a neighbourhood. Along with other n ...

. Phelan, who sailed Dragon-class yachts, was a past Commodore of the RCYC, president of the CYA from 1961-1963 and again in 1990-91, and was presented the 1986 Sail Canada

Rolex Rolex () is a Swiss watch brand and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by German businessman Hans Wilsdorf and his eventual brother-in-law Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex ...

Sailor of the year award for his merger of two rival Canadian bids for the 26th America's Cup, when he funded a merger between them for $14 million. Phelan was a

Member of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. The B'nai Brith Foundation presented him their Award of Merit, while the

ISAF The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a multinational military mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. It was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386 according to the Bonn Agreement, which outlined t ...

gave him their Long Service Gold Medal. In 1993, he was awarded the ISAF

Beppe Croce Andrea Giuseppe "Beppe" Croce (Genoa 11 December 1914 – Portofino 16 September 1986) was a sailor and yachtsman from Genoa, Italy. Biography In 1939 Croce won the Italian University Star Class championship. He also won the 1969 5.50 class I ...

Trophy for his outstanding voluntary contribution to the sport of sailing. Through his ownership of the yacht ''Red Jacket'', he helped introduce "new sailors who might not otherwise get a chance to become involved in yacht racing" to the sport, including many women. Phelan also served on the

IYRU World Sailing is the international sports governing body for sailing; it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). History The creation of the International Yacht Racing Union ( ...

as chairman of the Youth Committee, and contributed to

World Youth Sailing Trust The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

. The P.J. Phelan Sailing Foundation continues Phelan's philanthropy to this day.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phelan, Paul James Canadian chairpersons of corporations Canadian people of World War II Members of the Order of Canada Canadian sailors 1917 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Canadian philanthropists