The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Tinkering paid off for Aucoin
C.B. electrical contractor overcame challenges
SYDNEY – After losing a leg in an automobile accident when he was 18, Vic Aucoin went on to become a successful electrical contractor, instructor and hall of fame businessman.
The New Waterford native, who died in March 2021 at 85, is being inducted into the Cape Breton Business and Philanthropy Hall of Fame.
What Aucoin started out of the basement in his family home has grown into the Aucoin Group, an electrical contracting, alarms and surveillance enterprise.
He joins veteran businessman Bruce Meloney and Stuart Macleod, a longtime Sydney insurance executive, as the hall’s 2022 inductees.
Former Cape Breton Centre MLA and former deputy premier Frank Corbett remembers Aucoin as an inspiration to many.
“It was a terrible thing to go through for an 18-yearold but he persevered,” said Corbett.
“His story tells you that people can overcome serious challenges. Vic wasn’t just good at what he did, he built a company that is truly generational. The reality is that Vic Aucoin, a guy who was in a severe car accident, a guy who had no formal training, went on to grow a multimillion-dollar business.”
NEW WATERFORD BEGINNINGS
Vic Aucoin was born in New Waterford in 1935 to Victor Sr. and Katie (Fraser) Aucoin. His father was a coal miner. As a child, he attended Mount Carmel school. At 18, he survived the accident that cost him a leg.
Following the setback, Aucoin worked briefly at the No. 12 colliery but soon after went to work at Stan Wadden’s Auto Electric, where he worked on motors.
Aucoin often cited lifelong friend and mentor Raymond (Heck) Macneil as being primarily influential in teaching him all things electrical.
The family-written obituary acknowledged the inner drive that kept him going.
“Our dad was a very ambitious man. That did not discourage him and he did not sit around feeling sorry for himself. He always tinkered with something. It started with motors and grew into his love of electricity,” read the obit.
Aucoin also spent years teaching what he knew as an electrical instructor at the College of Cape Breton. Along the way, he and his wife Mary (Macdougall) raised five children.
In 1979, Aucoin started his own business out of the basement of the family home. That was Vic Aucoin Electrical. Today, the Sydneybased Aucoin Group, located on the corner of George and Dorchester streets, is run by eldest son Paul and employs more than three dozen people. Another son, Blair, operates an electrical contracting business in Truro.
BUSINESS SUCCESS
While Aucoin’s Electrical started off small in a basement office, the company trucks are a frequent sight on Cape Breton roads.
“He had great business acumen,” said Corbett.
“We’re talking about a time when people with disabilities weren’t necessarily treated as well as they are today, and there’s a man who overcame all of those challenges. Vic rose above all of that and he was proud of what he built and grew over the years.
“He wanted to see others prosper whether it was as an employer or as a teacher. He invested in this island and that investment was returned 100-fold with the success of those people he employed and those he taught.”
While Corbett praised Aucoin for his business prowess, he also credits the electrical contractor’s first wife for getting the company off the ground.
“His late wife Mary played a pivotal role in his success. We all know that Mary ran that house,” he said.
“She was a remarkable woman, and if Vic were here today he would say the same thing.”
PERSONAL LIFE
Although the Aucoin name has been in the public for years, the man behind the business always kept a rather low profile.
That aspect was acknowledged in his obituary:
“Not a lot of people were fortunate enough to see the fun-loving, laugh from your belly, chicken wing-makin’ grandpa that he was. His passion was the water. He loved Ben Eoin, the Bras d’or Lake, his boat, and a good fiddle tune.”