Ben was born on a trap line in a log cabin. He learnt to trap at the age of five with his grandpa, whom he lived with until he was nine years old. When his grandpa passed away, Ben’s fondest memory was going to the nearest town Barrhead, Alberta with their horse and sleigh, which was a full day.
When his grandpa passed away, Ben had no where to go. He was lucky that his sister was working as a waitress in China Town for the Yips, who agreed to help her. So from trapping to China Town.
When Ben turned 16, he lied about his age and went to work on the oil rigs. When he was 19, he got promoted to be a driller, the youngest in Canada at that time. Ben worked on oil rigs drilling until he married Vivianna Loiselle in Dawson Creek. He then changed his career to be home everyday.
Ben went to work for Loiselle Transport and worked his way up to Operations Manager for Alberta, BC and the Yukon. He changed his career again in 1971 and earned top salesman for a prominent securities and life insurance company.
Ben changed his career again: hired to manage Page & Page Log Trailers Mgt. in Prince George. After Ben took over Page & Page Mgt., he tripled the sales, as he also took over the responsibilities of marketing.
Ben and Vivanna got the news that her father had a cancer and wanted them and the boys to move back to the ranch in Dawson Creek. Ben and his two brother-in-laws (Gary & Art Loiselle) purchased it and built if from 3,200 acres to a 10,000 acre ranch running over 3,000 head of buffalo. The largest in Canada.
Gary took on the responsibility of running the ranch. Ben opened up a Real Estate Office named it in memory of his late father-in-law. Later, took on the Block Bros Franchise. Ben was top salesman in Canada in 1980-1981. Then, Block was dissolving, Ben picked up a Remax franchise which he kept until 1990.
When he and his family left Dawson Creek, Ben started buying up general insurance agencies with offices from 100 mile to Prince George to Kitmat. Ben sold his agencies to Western Financial Group in January 1, 2007 which was the largest private sale in Canada at that time.
This was all built by building a Team who participated in equity in the companies.
Today, Ben is still involved in International Real Estate which he has done since 1978, all over the world bringing buyers to British Columbia. He also raised champion horses at his equestrian facility shown above.