Canada - In terms of clear, straightforward, "this is what I get paid", the reigning champ in Canada remains Hunter Harrison, CEO of Canadian Pacific Railways, who earned $49.2 million last year, which included $1 million in salary, a $16 million pension guarantee, and "make-whole payments" of $18.6 million to compensate Harrison for tossing his restricted shares when he joined the company.
 
The remaining $13.6 million that made up his total last year, falls in the coveted "other" category, but is believed to include $10 million in options awards, $1.3 million in incentives, a housing allowance of $46,341 (for how else could he pay for accommodation?), as well as $277,000 for use of CP's jet.
 
The company prefers he uses the jet for personal reasons, according to a Bloomberg report.
 
Harrison was well ahead of first runner-up, Jim Smith, who made $18.8 million at Thomson Reuters as he readied the company for massive lay-offs.
 
That work can pay well, and indeed, Harrison's efforts in this realm have earned him praise for being worth every penny of his gargantuan compensation.
 
In November, Canadian Business magazine named him the "Top Turnaround CEO of the Year" for transformative reshaping of the least efficient North American large railway, selling off locomotives, rail cars, and promising to eliminate 4,500 jobs by 2016.
 
The cost-cutting has helped drive CP's all-important operating ratio, the percentage spent per dollar earned, from an industry high of 80 percent to below 66 percent, a record low for the railway.
 
It was the hope of those kinds of results that led top hedge fund manager Bill Ackman to lure the 69-year-old out of retirement for the job.
 
Harrison told the Globe and Mail that his initial response to Ackman was, "I don't think you can afford me", to which the billionaire financier replied, "Don't kid yourself."
 
What does a Tennessean railroad boss do with a $49.2-million?
 
In Harrison's case at least some of it goes to the ponies, more specifically, his Double H show-jumping farms in Florida and Connecticut, the latter of which spreads out over 87 acres and includes 15 paddocks and a grand prix equestrian field.

Noel Hulsman.

Editor's Note:  Article abridged.