George McCullagh was born in 1905 in Canada to a working class family. As a youth, he began delivering the daily newspaper, and he eventually sought to become a reporter, but was instead offered the job of booking subscriptions for the newspaper. Dropping out of school at 16, McCullagh was so successful at selling subscriptions that he was promoted to work at the Toronto headquarters of the newspaper, where he became assistant editor. He also specialized in mining that was taking place in Northern Ontario, which eventually led him to work at the Toronto Stock Exchange as a mining and oil specialist. There he invested wisely and built a fortune on purchasing and trading mineral rights.
In his early thirties, he returned to his first love when he purchased two Toronto newspapers, the Globe and the Mail and Empire in 1936, before merging them in a new entity called The Globe and Mail. A major donor to the Liberal Party of Ontario, McCullagh got involved in provincial and federal politics, with some expecting him to eventually become Canada's prime minister. Unfortunately, McCullagh suffered from mental illness and physical ailments, and his demons were never far behind. At age 46, following a third heart attack in a few years, McCullagh committed suicide, ending a tumultuous life.
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