Leo’s Livestock exchange owner dies

OTTAWA — Leo Menard started in business on a handshake with his local banker at a time when Europe began rebuilding on the embers of the Second World War. Optimism was in the air and Menard was as optimist. He started Leo’s Livestock Exchange at Greely, south of urban Ottawa, and ran it for almost 60 years. He died Jan. 24 at the age of 82.

Menard was married 63 years. His wife, Yolande, lives in Aylmer, Quebec. They have 10 grown children, 8 girls and 2 boys.

"He was tough but honest," said his son Charlie, now the only farmer in the family, operating a small farm north of Ottawa. "He lived for the sale barn."

Menard began his working life peddling cattle. He was offered an opportunity to buy an auction barn when he was only 24 and, though he had no money, he was full of hope when he got to the bank.

"The bank manager shook his hand," said Charlie. "He got great help from good people. Business was different then. Now, you have to mortgage your teeth and ears."

Menard hired an auctioneer who one day didn’t show up for work. Menard got in the box and that launched a new career. In the downturn of the 1980s he auctioned entire farms.

The first auction barn was in Leitrim and burned to the ground. Menard moved the business a short distance away to Greely. He bought his brother’s auction barn in Embrun and moved it to Greely about 25 years ago.

He moved into the lamb market 10 years ago, bringing in lambs from Alberta. Montreal and Toronto meat packers placed orders and sent buyers to the auction. "He would make money and lose money on a weekly basis but it created a new market for Ottawa," Charlie said. Now 500 to 600 lambs pass through the sale barn weekly.

Menard sold his shares of the business to the Spratt family two years ago. "Part of his life died," Charlie recalled. Charlie works part-time at the auction barn, now called Ottawa Livestock Exchange.