A small city of BC is buzzing after the richest man in the world made an unexpected touchdown last weekend.
Elon Musk, the CEO of X and Tesla and a former White House advisor, landed in Bella Bella on the central coast of BC on Saturday in a small private plane before being flown by helicopter. He returned to the runway on Monday and flew.
Sean Local Carter says that the fishing community of approximately 1,500 people in the great strength of the great Bear Forestation, 470 kilometers northwest of Vancouver, is used to seeing the rich and famous, including members of the royal family, pass to take advantage of recreational opportunities in the area, but Musk is at another level.
“It is not the richest man every day,” he said. “That will be difficult to overcome.”
The richest man in the world went through Bella Bella on the central coast of BC last weekend. Sean Local Carter says that the brief visit has been the talk of the city.
Carter says that the common belief is that Musk was passing on his way to a property off the coast owned by James Murdoch, son of the magnate of the media Rupert Murdoch. The Globe and Mail reported in 2017 that the young Murdoch had bought a property for recreational use on the BC coast due to his love for the area. He is also a member of the Tesla Board, where Musk works as CEO.
CBC News has communicated with Tesla to comment.
ALMIZCLE A Canadian citizen
An online service that tracks a private jet that belongs to Musk shows that the crafts landed in Vancouver on Friday night and left Monday afternoon. Those times align with the photos provided to CBC News, which show Musk that arrives in Bella Cola on Saturday and leaves Monday.
Musk, who was born in South Africa, is a Canadian citizen through his mother, Maye Musk, who was born in Regina. When he was a teenager, he moved to Canada, where he says he lived and worked at Saskatchewan and Vancouver before studying at Queen University in Kingston, Ontario.
Earlier this year, it was the subject of a petition that asked the Canadian government to revoke their citizenship due to their role in Trump’s White House, since the president of the United States increased rhetoric on the use of a commercial war to make Canada a state.
In BC, Prime Minister David Eby excluded the Tesla products from his electric vehicle loaders program in response to US tariffs, stating: “It is only for Tesla and is due to Elon Musk.”
Multiple Canadian municipalities and government agencies have also re -evaluated their relationship with X, citing Musk’s policy. Meanwhile, many rural communities have registered to use the Musk Satellite Internet Starlink service to help provide connectivity in remote areas.
Musk has shared different points of view over Canada over the years.
In 2023, he published a photo of himself with a Canada and love shirt and later that year he published a message that said: “I am proudly medium Canadian.” But in February 2025, in response to the request to revoke his citizenship, he published “Canada is not a real country”, which he then eliminated.
Emily Lowan, who runs for the leadership of the Green Party of BC, shared photos of Musk’s arrival to Bella Bella to her social media accounts, writing: “Another reason to boost the billionaires of existence.”
In a statement to CBC News, he said that the capacity of billionaires to build private shelters in BC while using private planes that feed the climatic crisis is a “marked warning” to governments of the need for action.
Carter said there was a lot of debate about Musk over the weekend, but on one side of politics, having to go through the pass has been the “city talk” in Bella Bella.
“No matter what your opinions of the type are, it was something to follow,” he said.
And, he said, although he arrived and left in a private jet, Musk could not receive special treatment at the small city airport.
“It was quite busy, so the plane had to land on one side and the helicopter in the other, so he had to leave and walk on a long way,” he said.
“I am sure I hoped to enter and leave secret, but there are definitely no secrets here.”
