Insights with Don Mills and David Campbell- An Acadia Broadcasting Podcast

There is a good chance that you have not heard about Don MacDougall, but he is the person most credited by many for Toronto's Major League Baseball's franchise while he was the President of Labatt's Breweries, where he led the company from third place in market share to first place. He was also closely involved with the establishment of the Montreal Grand Prix and the Labatt Brier. He has been a s...

The Bertossi Group of restaurants is the largest privately owned group of fine dining restaurants east of Montreal. Stephanie and Maurizio Bertossi opened their first restaurant , the Perla in the 1980s.  Few who live in or have visited Halifax have not dined at one of their well-known restaurants that have been around for decades, including the Bicycle Thief, Ristorante a Mano, La Frasca and il M...

On this week’s Insights, Don and David talk with Heidi Leslie, founder & CEO of Halifax-based Crux Energy Consulting to discuss the energy sector in Atlantic Canada.  We talk about artificial intelligence and cloud computing and the demand for data centres and whether this is an opportunity for Atlantic Canada.  We discuss the Newfoundland-Quebec electricity deal and other energy generation pr...

This week Gilles Volpé, President of NB Gas with Liberty Utilities joined Don and David on the Insights podcast. Liberty Utilities is the natural gas distribution company in New Brunswick.  Gilles provides an important tutorial on the sources and uses of natural gas now and into the future.  On an energy equivalent basis, New Brunswick currently uses as much natural gas as it does electricity. Mos...

On boxing day of 2024, we share one of the most listened to podcasts of 2024.  In this episode of the Insights Podcast, we focus on Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy and the impact of that strategy on Atlantic Canada. Building ships for the navy is a complex and complicated endeavour and there is probably no other group than the Irvings that were capable of competing and winning a national b...

The tourism industry across Atlantic Canada took a significant hit during the pandemic.  On this week's Insights, Don and David check in with Joanne Bérubé-Gagné from the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick to discuss the rebound since. We cover a wide range of topics from the evolution of accommodations to 'backyard' tourism to new product development and encouraging the thousands of ne...

  Although JD Irving may not be a household name that is familiar to many, it is the largest vertically integrated conglomerate in Atlantic Canada and one of the biggest in Canada with more than 20,000 employees. It is run by brothers Jim and Robert Irving as CO-CEOs. Robert has responsibility, among others, for Midland Trucking, Midland Courier, Irving Tissue and Cavendish Farms among from his he...

Few people will be aware of Emmerson Packaging, an Amherst based manufacturing company that produces packaging for the paper goods, pet food and food markets. Nonetheless, most consumers would have their packaging in their homes with clients like McCain Foods, Cavendish and High Liner Foods, not to mention house branded products from Walmart, Costco, Sobeys and Loblaws. The company is nearly 70 ye...

Millers Expand "Parts for Trucks" Nationally     Corey and Brett Miller purchased Parts for Trucks in 2017. The company specializes in serving the heavy duty and commercial truck market.  At the time, they owned the well-known Miller Tire. Working with Seafort Capital, they did essentially a reverse takeover of Fleet Brake in 2022, a bigger, western Canadian based competitor that nearly doubled th...

Higher Liner Foods is a Nova Scotia based company that is North America's largest processor of value-added frozen seafood products under a number of brands like Fisher Boy, High Liner and Catch of the Day. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion annually and the company has 1,200 employees. Athough it is listed on the TSX, the Hennigar family owns 38% of the stock. It recently celebrating its 125th...

Atlantic Business Magazine is celebrating the 35th Anniversary of its founding by Edwina and Hubert Hutton who sold the magazine to their daughter Tonia Hutton and long-time employee and editor Dawn Chafe a few years ago. The Huttons were a dynamic force who built the Atlantic Business brand together. Edwina recently passed away and we dedicate this podcast to her memory as an outstanding business...

Today on the Insights podcast, Don and David talk with Dr. Herb Emery from the University of New Brunswick about the changes to the immigration, temporary worker and international student levels announced by the federal government.  The cuts are significant and could have a big impact on Atlantic Canada.  The conversation covers a wide range of topics, from the importance of setting a population g...

Arguably, Newfoundland and Labrador is at one of the most consequential moments in its history.  Among its challenges, the province is the oldest in the country and some of its most important industries are facing an uncertain future.  At the same time, there are multiple opportunities for growth including new oil and gas development, mining projects, the use of wind energy to power new industries...

Donald Savoie is back on the Insight's podcast talking about his new book Speaking Truth to Canadians about their Public Service.  This is a sobering reflection on the state of the federal civil service in Canada written by someone who has spent his career studying government in Canada.  The number of the federal civil servants has grown substantially in recent years while Canadians' satisfaction...

Recently, David and Don were the closing keynote speakers at ACG's Third Annual Atlantic Conference in Halifax which attracted 200 potential investors in Atlantic Canada. ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) is the largest M&A organization in North American with more than 15,000 members. Christine Pound, a senior partner with Stewart McKelvey and the Co-Chair of the Conference was the host o...

Our guest on this episode of the Insights Podcast is Nik Nanos. Nik is one of the best-known pollsters in Canada, appearing regularly on CTV and Bloomberg News to talk about his latest research about the attitudes and opinions of Canadians based on his weekly tracking polls (@ nanos.ca ). His research is also used regularly by the Globe & Mail. He has also had a long-time involvement as a volu...

On this week's Insights Podcast, we feature a wide-ranging conversation with David Hutchens, the CEO of St. John's based Fortis, a major electrical utility in North America, with holdings across Canada, in the United States and the Caribbean. Listed on both the TSX and the NYSE, Fortis is one of the region's biggest publicly listed companies with nearly $70 billion in assets. The company reported...

On this episode of the Insights Podcast, we talk with veteran political reporter Stephen Maher, who has just written a book called “The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau”. The book was well researched and provides a balanced look at Trudeau’s time as Prime Minister. It is a book that would be of interest to those who follow politics. Maher gives credit to the Trudeau Government’s for i...

On this week's Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Beena Goldenberg, CEO of the cannabis product manufacturing firm OrganiGram.  The third largest company in Canada by market share, OrganiGram has annual revenues of $160 million and a massive 550,000 square foot production facility in the Moncton Industrial Park.  To put that into perspective, OrganiGram's facilities are equivalent to the f...

In this episode of the Insights Podcast, we focus on Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy and the impact of that strategy on Atlantic Canada. Building ships for the navy is a complex and complicated endeavour and there is probably no other group than the Irvings that were capable of competing and winning a national bid to build those ships in Halifax. Irving Shipbuilding has 2,400 people workin...

This episode of the Insights Podcast features a very interesting conversation with Mike Fenton, the CEO of ACG Toronto (Association for Corporate Growth), an organization that brings deal makers together to help them achieve their business and professional goals. ACG was founded in1954 and promotes itself as the premier M&A making community with more than 100,000 members in 61 markets. Atlanti...

Our latest Insights Podcast features a conversation with Peter MacAskill, the CEO of Invest Nova Scotia. Invest Nova Scotia is the new provincial agency that emerged from the merger of Innovacorp and Nova Scotia Business Inc. Our conversation focuses on a number of Invest Nova Scotia's principal activities, including its  Start-Up Investment Fund, a venture fund with investments of $65 million to...

In Part II of our Insights Podcast with Scott McCain, the Chair of the Board of McCain Foods, we focus on his own businesses including his ownership of the Saint John Sea Dogs, a twenty-year labour of love, and his involvement in Seafort Capital as one of the founding shareholders. We also talk about his volunteer interests, including his work with the Fraser Institute as one of its Atlantic Ambas...

Our guest this week on the Insights Podcast is the affable Scott McCain, the Chair of the Board of McCain Foods, the largest potato processing company in the world. This is first part of a two-part podcast which focuses on the McCain story, how it started in rural New Brunswick and grew internationally to have 60 production facilities and have its products in 160 countries. It all started in the l...

On the Insights podcast this week, Don and David talk with Ryan Albright, Founder and CEO of the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company.  After a tragic fire in March 2024, the company is rebuilding bigger and better.  In Hartland, New Brunswick, Albright has built the largest russet potato-based chip manufacturing company in North America and is exporting product around the world.  He has dreams of b...