Memorable Manitobans: Michael Everett Joseph Phelps (1947-2019)

Lawyer, civil servant, businessman.

Born at Montreal, Quebec on 27 June 1947, son of Arthur Phelps and Hendrina Van de Roer, at the age of 13 he moved with his family to Winnipeg. He attended St. Paul’s High School then received a BA degree from the University of Winnipeg, a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Manitoba, and a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics. He worked as a Crown attorney at Winnipeg then in private practice in the firm of Christie Turner DeGraves. Moving to Ottawa, he was an advisor to the Minister of Justice and an executive assistant to the Minister of Energy. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1982 to be an advisor to the President of Westcoast Transmission, becoming President and Chief Executive Office of the renamed Westcoast Energy in 1987. He helped to engineer its acquisition by Duke Energy in 2001. He then founded and served as Chairman of the investment firm of Dornoch Capital. He was a director for several companies, including Enbridge, Marathon Oil, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Canadian Pacific Railway, Canfor, and Teine Energy. He was the Chairman of the Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital Foundation for many years, and was on the Board of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee in 2010. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Winnipeg (1992) and was inducted into the Order of Canada (2001). He died at Vancouver, British Columbia on 20 April 2019.

Sources:

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 30 April 2019.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 24 April 2021

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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