Jim Gray did some reminiscing Monday with his old partner John Masters.
The two veterans of the natural gas industry talked about their exploration of Alberta's Deep Basin area in the early 1970s, and how they shopped their dream around to 17 companies before giant Noranda Inc. bankrolled them.
They joked about the rented yellow Pintos they drove, as they laid the foundations of Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd. as a successful Canadian-owned company.
But the conversation had the feel of a chapter coming to a close.
Mr. Gray, Canadian Hunter's chairman, spoke to Mr. Masters, now retired in Denver, of the proposed deal in which the 28-year-old company would be sold to Burlington Resources Inc. of Houston for $3.3-billion.
"There's bound to be some nostalgia but, look, he's got his life, I've got mine -- we're living for tomorrow," the 68-year-old Mr. Gray says.
Mr. Gray talks about how the all-cash deal is good for shareholders of both companies, and the culture of Calgary-based Canadian Hunter will survive in its 250 employees -- although the precise fate of those people is still to be determined.
Yet the reality is this ardent nationalist is seeing the company he helped build slip from Canadian hands. The Burlington deal is the product of the oil patch's current economics, in which U.S. suitors are paying big premiums for undervalued Canadian assets.
After watching television on the weekend, Mr. Gray says he's less emotional about Canadian Hunter's fate than he might have been. Put in the context of what's happening to many people worldwide, he realizes that these changes really aren't very substantial.
He concedes another Canadian head office is gone, but the energy industry is not run on a national scale. "I'm a very, very proud Canadian, operating within a North American and global context."
Burlington was the only candidate to undertake serious discussions with Canadian Hunter, he says. Other companies inquired, but their interest lacked passion, he adds.
The acquisition removes from the centre of action one of the stalwarts of the independent Canadian energy industry.
"It is the end of an era, which I regret," says Alfred Powis, the retired Noranda chief executive officer who guided his company's original investment in Mr. Gray's vision. "I was hoping against hope that he'd find a way to remain independent."
"There are damn few companies like that left," says Richard Haskayne, chairman of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., who is concerned about the economic effects on Canada from the erosion of head office functions in the current energy selloff.
He describes Mr. Gray as the kind of business leader who leaves an imprint on his community. "He's really a spark plug in this place."
That imprint began to form in 1973, when two corporate refugees, Ontario-born Mr. Gray and his American friend Mr. Masters, struck out on their own with the idea of uncovering the rich potential of the Deep Basin region on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. With Noranda's backing, they found a huge pool of gas.
"Canadian Hunter is one of the great Western Canadian energy stories of the past decades," says company director Peter Lougheed, for whom Mr. Gray served as a personal adviser on energy issues when Mr. Lougheed was premier of the province from 1971 to 1985.
Canadian Hunter was a subsidiary of Noranda until it being spun off as a public company in 1998.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gray gained a reputation as a vocal advocate for issues he cared about. He argues that business people have a responsibility to be involved publicly in policy issues.
He was one of the leaders of Western Canada's fight against the federal Liberal government's National Energy Program of the 1980s. In recent years, he battled government-supported gambling through the introduction of video lottery terminals in Alberta.
Mr. Masters retired from the firm nine years ago, and Mr. Gray stepped aside as CEO to become non-executive chairman in 1998, leaving day-to-day management with president Stephen Savidant.
In recent years, he has been spending 10 to 20 per cent of time on Canadian Hunter, while working with young entrepreneurs and keeping busy in the community. "I'm not going to go out and play golf," he pledges.
His future role at Canadian Hunter is still undetermined. "The social issues" have yet to be hammered out, he says, including the number of current employees to be retained.