When Jim Alexander first arrived in Huntsville in the spring of 1975, he wasn’t convinced he would stay.
“We first came up in the middle of April,” he recalls, with a laugh. “There was a big pile of snow in the middle of the road, and I said to my wife, ‘Oh boy, I can’t live here.’ It was a big change from Clarkson in Mississauga, where flowers bloomed that time of year.”
His wife Jane and their three children disagreed. Muskoka immediately felt like home to them. Jim soon realized he was outvoted, a decision that would shape both the Alexander family and the future of Huntsville.
More than 50 years later, it is difficult to imagine the town without Jim and Jane Alexander. Through business, philanthropy, recreation and the arts, they helped shape modern Huntsville while quietly supporting countless community projects along the way.
“It takes an army of people to make these things successful,” says Jim. “You need a vision to keep growing, and you need to treat people the way you want to be treated.”
Long before they met during frosh week at Queen’s University in Kingston 65 years ago, Jim and Jane shared similar backgrounds. Both had fathers who served as navigators during the Second World War, and both were heavily influenced by their grandparents while their mothers worked.
Jim’s maternal grandmother, who became his primary caregiver during his early years, left a lasting impression. Pulled out of school in Grade 10 to care for her siblings, her main source of literature was the Bible. One lesson in particular stayed with him for life.
“She talked about a verse from the Gospel of Luke that says, ‘To those who are given much, much is expected,’” Jim recalls. “She drilled that into her kids and me.”
His other grandmother was equally influential. A science graduate from Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland, in 1917, one of only five women in her class, she once asked her teenage grandson what qualities he wanted in a wife.
“I told her I wanted someone who took religion seriously, was smart, had blonde hair and blue eyes, and had travelled outside Canada and the USA,” says Jim, with a grin.
Jane laughs at the memory while Jim quickly adds, “She had blonde hair and blue eyes, plus is quite a bit smarter than me and spent her final year of high school in Switzerland.”
Jim studied engineering at Queen’s before working for Cominco in Trail, B.C. He quickly discovered he didn’t enjoy working for others. He returned to school, earning an MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University. This decision launched a lifelong entrepreneurial career.
The couple had paid off their mortgage on the family home in Clarkson, Ontario, while Jim worked for General Steel Wares. Jim left GSW when senior management changed. He joined a small sporting goods importing company, which was sold two years later, and Jim was fired.
What could have been a setback instead became an opportunity. Using proceeds from the sale of their Mississauga home, he purchased half of Ideal Algonquin, a small Huntsville manufacturing company with 22 employees and $2 million in sales.
After studying business strategy at McMaster University, Jim identified strengths in others that he lacked and let them use their skills.
“The key is to have a compelling vision of what you want the business to be, then attract smart people and retain them,” says Jim.
That philosophy fuelled enormous growth. Ideal Algonquin expanded into four Muskoka plants while its related companies, including Hidden Hitch and Algonquin Automotive, eventually employed more than 600 people, most based in Muskoka.
“He’s a great entrepreneur and loves to create new things,” says his eldest son, Rob. “He’s a risk-taker and an encourager. His mantra is whatever you put your mind to, you can do.”
Of all Jim’s contributions, Rob believes the Huntsville Festival of the Arts remains the most visible. Inspired after attending the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jim imagined bringing something similar to Muskoka.
In 1993, Jim and Jane co-founded the Huntsville Festival of the Arts alongside Toronto arts promoters Attila Glatz and Susan Alberghini. Early performances featured orchestral concerts at Deerhurst Resort and later on Grandview Resort’s tennis courts. Volunteers assembled and dismantled stages so people could continue playing tennis.
The Festival struggled financially in its early years. Classical music attracted loyal supporters, but not enough to sustain the annual summer event. A costly production of The Pirates of Penzance nearly ended the organization.
“We lost $50,000 in about three days,” Jim says.
Determined to save the Festival, Jim persuaded Grandview owner Bruce Evans to contribute $25,000 and personally matched the amount. Local businessman Hugh Mackenzie was recruited as Chairman, and he hired former banker Rob Saunders as General Manager. Saunders shifted programming toward more financially sustainable acts.
“Classical music was not successful, but pop music and country were very popular,” Jim recalls. “It was like Field of Dreams. If you build it, they will come. That’s what happened.”
The Festival survived, evolved, and eventually flourished at Huntsville’s Algonquin Theatre, becoming one of Muskoka’s defining cultural events.
Jim’s influence extends far beyond business and the arts. He helped lead efforts to bring a swimming pool to Huntsville after local swimmers spent years travelling to Bracebridge to train. He also supported projects including the Avery Beach trail system, Community Living Huntsville, the River Mill Park Rotary Bandshell and local shelters, often quietly and without recognition.
“Honestly, we don’t know about all the things they do,” Rob says of his parents. “A big part of my father’s companies was to support the community and show gratefulness for living in Huntsville.”
For all the businesses and projects, family remains at the centre of Jim and Jane’s story. Their three children eventually returned to Huntsville after education and careers elsewhere, and the family now includes eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“No matter what each grandkid wants to do, he’ll encourage them,” Rob says. “He loves to see people have their dreams fulfilled.”
In 2002, Jim received Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal for outstanding contributions to community and country. Still, he speaks less about awards than gratitude.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Jim says. “We would say blessed.”
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I was at Hidden Hitch for 27 years. was a great place to work..