Peter Brown: The Rabbit Who Tamed Howe Street and Built Canaccord Genuity

Nicknamed "The Rabbit," Peter Brown hopped from party-hard UBC dropout to one of the most influential figures on Howe Street turning a chaotic brokerage into an underwriting machine, chairing the Vancouver Stock Exchange, and ultimately building Canaccord Genuity into a Canadian capital markets institution that continues to fund the country's mining sector today.

In the colourful history of the Vancouver Stock Exchange, few figures hopped across the stage with as much charm, cunning, and eventual respectability as Peter Brown — affectionately known as “The Rabbit.” Born into a well-connected West Coast family, young Peter showed early promise… as a dedicated party animal. He famously flunked out of UBC after treating university more like a social laboratory than an academic one. Most people would have seen that as a setback. Peter saw it as market research. He spent the next few years in Montreal and Toronto quietly learning the mechanics of corporate finance, absorbing the rhythms of Bay Street like a sponge in a three-piece suit. When he returned to Vancouver in the late 1960s, he joined Hemsworth, Turton & Company — a firm that was, at the time, on life support. The market had taken a nosedive, administration was chaotic, and the future looked bleak. Most ambitious young brokers would have jumped ship. Peter saw an opportunity. With partner Ted Turton, he began the long process of turning the struggling brokerage around. He went from “wastrel to workaholic” almost overnight, putting in 13-hour days while slowly smoothing out the rougher edges of his earlier reputation. The transformation was remarkable. The man once known for backgammon marathons in the back office became one of the sharpest salesmen on Howe Street.

The Palace Coup and the Rise of Underwriting

By the mid-1970s, Peter Brown had positioned himself as a reformer. He played a key role in the second “palace coup” at the VSE, helping shift the exchange’s direction away from pure chaos toward something resembling sustainable profitability. He understood something critical that many others missed: while the trading floor generated the noise, the real money in the future would come from underwriting — getting companies listed and receiving shares at deeply discounted prices before they ever traded publicly. Brown turned Canarim Investment Corp. into an underwriting powerhouse. At its peak in the early 1980s, Canarim was responsible for nearly three-quarters of all new issues on the VSE. The model was simple but brilliantly executed: identify promising junior resource companies (mostly mining), bring them public, and participate meaningfully in their success. Many of the crucial mining financings that helped build British Columbia’s resource sector in that era flowed through Canarim’s doors. By 1987, Peter Brown had amassed a personal net worth exceeding $55 million — serious money in any decade, but especially impressive coming from a former party-hard UBC dropout. His lifestyle reflected the success: a mansion on Bowen Island, a Shaughnessy estate complete with a $200,000 Rolls Royce convertible, and, famously, a custom closet housing 70+ pairs of Gucci loafers (apparently the only shoes that accommodated his high arches).

From Canarim to Canaccord Genuity: A Lasting Legacy

Peter Brown didn’t just survive the wild days of the VSE — he helped professionalize it. His brokerage evolved, merged, and eventually became Canaccord Genuity, one of Canada’s most respected independent investment banks. In 2004, Canaccord Genuity went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, a far cry from the chaotic Howe Street days of the 1970s.Today, Canaccord Genuity continues to play a vital role in financing Canadian mining companies, from early-stage explorers to mid-tier producers. The firm’s DNA still carries traces of Peter Brown’s vision: a willingness to back promising resource stories, a focus on capital raising, and an understanding that the junior mining sector — for all its volatility — remains one of the great engines of discovery in Canada.

The Rabbit’s Enduring Influence

Peter Brown’s story is a classic Canadian mining tale: equal parts hustle, reinvention, and timing. He took a brokerage on the brink of collapse and turned it into a dominant force on the VSE. He helped drag the exchange — kicking and screaming at times — toward greater credibility. And along the way, he financed countless mining deals that brought new deposits into production and helped build real companies.Was he perfect? Of course not. The VSE in those days was a wild place, and Brown operated right in the middle of it. But he also represented the best of that era — the ability to see potential where others saw only risk, and the work ethic to turn that vision into reality.In the end, “The Rabbit” didn’t just survive Howe Street. He helped professionalize it, profited handsomely from it, and generated an institution — Canaccord Genuity — that continues to support the next generation of Canadian mining entrepreneurs. Not bad for a former backgammon-playing university dropout. The legend: Peter Brown showed that with sharp instincts, relentless drive, and just the right amount of charm, the wildest corner of Canadian finance produced something enduring.