The McCain brothers fought over which nephew would run their french fry empire, and one brother was removed

Brothers Harrison and Wallace McCain founded McCain Foods in 1957^† and ran it together. In the 1990s they fought over succession: Wallace wanted his son Michael to run the company, and Harrison opposed it. The dispute went through a prolonged legal fight, and Wallace was removed from management while keeping his shares^†. Wallace and his sons Michael and Scott left McCain Foods. In 1995 Wallace and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan bought Maple Leaf Foods, where Michael became president and later chief executive. In 2002 Harrison named his nephew Allison McCain, son of their late brother Andrew, as successor. The brothers reconciled in 2004 when Wallace visited Harrison in hospital, shortly before Harrison died. McCain Foods remains privately owned by the family^†, while Michael McCain ran Maple Leaf Foods as chief executive from 1999 to 2023. The two branches of the family now run two separate food companies.