WELCOME TO GEORGE SIAMANDAS' WINNIPEG TIME MACHINE

WELCOME TO
THE WINNIPEG TIME MACHINE
This site features a collection of historical articles on Winnipeg and Manitoba History. Stories about people, places, events and institutions that have shaped Winnipeg's and Manitoba's history.

Many of these stories were presented on CBC Information Radio 1995-2000. Private individuals may use any of the written material on this site but must credit George Siamandas as the original author and source of the material. Others must obtain written permission.

Copyright Notice

Please note that all photos marked with a copyright may not be used in whole or in part without the express permission of George Siamandas.

ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL AND WINNIPEG'S OTHER OLDEST CHURCHES

ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL AND

WINNIPEG'S OTHER OLDEST CHURCHES

by George Siamandas

The 1834 cathedral replaced an earlier log church built in 1822 by John West. Construction for St. John's Cathedral started in 1833. The limestone came from Stonewall and was quarried and hauled to the site during the preceding winter, by oxen pulling sleds. Much of this hard work was done by volunteers from the native and Red River settlement. Total cost was 900 pounds and the new cathedral could hold 500 people.

The site had been selected and put aside years earlier by Lord Selkirk himself. They were proud of their new church and Thomas Simpson called it "better than 90% of the Scotch country churches." But their pride was premature. The new building deteriorated after just two years and for decades needed constant buttressing.

In 1862 it was replaced by a third church. But once again structural problems plagued the church. By the 1880s they desperately needed a new church. But it was a very long wait for the congregation. It was not until 1926 that the church was replaced by the present St. John's Cathedral on Anderson Avenue. Andersen was named in honour of Anglican Bishop Anderson who came to red River in 1849.

The first church in Red River was built in St. Boniface in 1818 on the present site of St. Boniface Cathedral. This site has seen a succession of six churches: three were demolished to make way for larger churches, while two were lost in fires. Once again it was Lord Selkirk that had granted the land on the east side of the Red for the French community.

The oldest church is St. Andrew's on the Red; it was consecrated in 1849. It is the oldest church in the west that has remained in continuous service. It has seen a major restoration of the stonework in the last few years. Its a testament to masonry techniques that old limestone buildings like St. Andrews have survived and can be restored. And all before pilings were commonly used.

One of the oldest churches is St. James Church. It's located across Polo Park on Portage Ave and it was built in 1852. The oldest downtown church is Holy Trinity church just opposite Eatons which was built in 1882. It is the oldest building surviving on Graham Avenue.

Another interesting old church is St Peter's on the east side of the Red in Selkirk. It is known as Peguis' church because Salteaux Chief Peguis and his people helped build it in 1852. Peguis worshipped at St Peter's till he died in 1864 and Peguis is buried in the church yard.

Nassau in Fort Rouge is a very ecumenical street with at least 7 churches. Starting on the north there is the Christian Science, then St. Luke's Anglican, Crescent Fort Rouge United, Trinity Baptist, Evangelical Mennonite Conference and ST Francis De Sales Catholic Church for the Deaf.

The first synagogue was Sharrey Zedek originally located at the corner of Henry and King St. Virtually the entire Jewish community turned out on a September day in 1889 to witness the laying of the corner stone. That cornerstone is now incorporated in the Wellington crescent Sharrey Zedek which was completed in 1949.

MANITOBA BANS THE BOTTLE

MANITOBA BANS THE BOTTLE

For a Short Time Only

by George Siamandas

LIQUOR IN MANITOBA
After a long campaign for temperance, Manitoba voters took a hard line against the social costs of liquor and voted to introduce prohibition 83 years ago on March 13, 1916. In the days of the Hudson Bay Co, liquor had been imported from Britain for residents of the Hudson Bay posts. The first provincial Liquor Commission was established in 1878 and it allowed one bar for every 300 people. With a population of 7,000, 23 licenses were allowed.

THE IMPACT OF PROHIBITION
In 1916 there were 196 hotels in the province, with 76 of them in Winnipeg. There were 40 liquor wholesale liquor stores and 7 breweries. Put out of work were 1,975 bartenders. Most were expected to move to wet areas in the US or in Canada. For enforcement officials the job became one of dealing with people who went underground with bootlegging. Prohibition lasted for 7 years till Manitobans had second thoughts. In 1923 by a vote of 107,609 to 67,092 Manitobans reversed themselves and decided to allow liquor sales once again. This time a provincially run corporation the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission would regulate the sale of liquor to Manitobans.

THE 1924 LIQUOR ACT
The act was fairly restrictive. The price had to be the same everywhere. Stores were located in Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage La Prairie, The Pas and Dauphin. Advertising was very closely regulated and had to be approved by the Commission. Billboard ads were banned. There were quotas on sales. One could not buy more than 24 quarts a week or 72 quarts of beer per month. Liquor had to be consumed at home only. There was to be no barter of liquor and no transportation of liquor in Manitoba. Liability for a drunken person's death was established by the act to whomever had supplied it to the individual. Ten ratepayers could stop the establishment of a licensed premise or a beer vendor. And in fact the Mennonite Bible belt was free of liquor for many years. Today Steinbach remains as dry as it ever was. People, could be banned from buying liquor on the authority of the police magistrate or two justices of the peace. They were termed interdicted persons.

RELIANCE ON LIQUOR REVENUE
As with lotteries today, the question of govt reliance on liquor sales and taxes for revenue has always been a dilemma. Government has walked the tightrope of valuing the revenue from liquor while at the same time trying to balance the social cost of drinking in society.

When the Liquor act was passed in 1924 the average Manitobans spent $20 a year on liquor. By 1930 it was $31 per year. During the depression it fell to $14 rising sharply to $62 in 1946 after the troops had returned home. In 1924 liquor revenues were $1.4 annually, declining to less than a million in 1934. But by 1947 revenues were $6 million comprising 27% of govt revenues that year.

THE BRACKEN COMMISSION
In 1954 a commission to study the Liquor Control Act was lead by ex Premier John Bracken. It conducted an exhaustive 750 page study that has the depth of social research you would expect if done today. In 1954 Manitobans had spent $43 million on liquor. At this time a good bottle of whisky cost $4-$5 and a 24 of beer were $3.27.

The research showed alcohol reduced inhibitions helped contribute to poverty and dependency. It struck a tone for scientific and objective reasons for temperance and not moralistic reasons. It surveyed liquor practises throughout the world and reported a s follows. China has a serious problem with opium. Columbia was suffering serious problems with beer made from corn. Mexico had the same problem with home brewed beer. Iceland had lived with prohibition for 40 years and seemed happy with this.

Russia was endemic with alcoholism. There was a liquor store for every 86 inhabitants: 8 times the norm. It was easier to buy liquor in Russia than to find a newspaper. Germany had once had a problem, but by this time it had gotten it under control. Holland was recognised as having the best policies for treatment of alcoholism, funded by the state but provided privately.

A new liquor act was passed in 1956, which is still in effect. It brought the consumption of liquor into the 20th century allowing a liquor vending system to be established. No liquor advertising was instituted. And it voted not to allow the sale of beer in grocery stores.

THE WINNIPEG FOUNDATION

THE WINNIPEG FOUNDATION

BUILDING THE CITY'S SOCIAL HEART

by George Siamandas

William Alloway came to Red River in 1870 at age 18. Winnipeg was not yet a city with about 12,000 people. Alloway worked his way up starting as a tobacconist, veterinarian and shipper. Within 9 years he founded Alloway and Champion which became one of the west's largest private banks. Alloway's fortunes grew with Winnipeg and he wanted to give something back. He felt he owed everything to Winnipeg and in 1921 he wrote a $100,000 cheque establishing the Winnipeg Foundation. Later, in 1930, Mrs. Elizabeth Alloway left an additional $2.5 million.

Kathleen Lightcap who was a founding member of the Junior League and a volunteer driver for the Meals on Wheels left $6.5 million in 1986-7. In the 1970s the James and Muriel Richardson Fund gave $1M and the George Hammill McKeag fund gave $1.2M. About 20 people have left more than $500,000. But much of the money is given by people from all walks of life who also want to give something back to their community. For example Joe McCann Transit Supervisor donated $200,000. Others like Janet Boucher who worked in the Holt Renfrew hat department gave $10,000.

In 1922 the first recipients were the Margaret Scott Nursing home set up by Miss Scott who was interested in providing the poor, the Knowles School for Boys, the VON, the Children's Hospital and the Children's Aid Society. They shared $6,000.

The Winnipeg Foundation helps a good idea get started and are willing to front end projects. In the Great Depression they helped out the Community Chest predecessor to the United Way. In 1935 they gave a grant to help set up the School for Social Work at the U of M. In 1953 they helped fight polio. In 1955 they helped establish the Age and Opportunity centre.

In 1958 they paid for the first computer that was installed at the Winnipeg General Hospital. In 1964 they helped Meals on Wheels and the VON's Home Help program. In 1974 as part of centennial year they gave $100,00 for the Museum's Urban Gallery. In 1976 they helped set up the Manitoba League for the With Disabilities. And in 1977 their annual grants exceeded $1,000,000.

Since then they have helped with Lion's Manor senior's housing, Fort Whyte Nature centre, and the Manitoba Childrens' Museum. In 1994 they gave the largest grant ever, $750,000 to the Health Sciences and Children's Research Centre.

It has about $92 million invested and has given $62 million to date. It gave out $4.25 Million in 1995. Last year they took in another 2.8 million in new donations. The principal is never touched.

People die leaving part or all of their estate to the Winnipeg Foundation.
Some of it is planned in advance and about half, the time people's donation to the Winnipeg Foundation is a complete surprise. At least half the donors have no families to leave their estates to.

There is no set budget and the Foundation is able to react to issues and projects as they arise: it can be health, education, and family depending on the time. At times it has been proactive inner city and arts issues. They helped create Winnipeg Harvest. They like to help with projects or capital works.

There are about 60 across Canada, 14 in Manitoba. Some are general, while others are private one donor funds. For example the Thomas Sill Foundation was established by a Winnipeg accountant who was a partner in the firm Sill Streuber Fiske, a firm which exists today. He gave the largest single donation to charity ever in Manitoba leaving $19.2 million when he died in 1986.

FLIN FLON HISTORY

FLIN FLON HISTORY

Excerpted By George Siamandas

Flin Flon is the gateway to a nature-lover's paradise. Located at the meeting point of three Canadian geological regions, the EDGE gives you access to an astounding variety of landscapes. The untouched, rock surfaces of the Canadian Shield to the north, polished smooth by the last glaciations, provide a dizzying array of lakes, swamps and muskegs. To the south, one can see the Precambrian-Paleozoic contact, an escarpment rising up to thirty metres above the southern country that boasts the even shored lakes of the Manitoba Lowlands. And, to the west, the Great Plains of Saskatchewan offer a breath-taking agrarian vastness that must experienced to be believed.

Besides taking in the beautiful sights, activities available in the include golf, swimming, fishing in both summer and winter, camping, and even scuba-diving.

The history of Flin Flon and the surrounding region is steeped in romantic adventure, as the entire area was settled by men and women in search of their fortunes in gold. In 1910, a group of prospectors found gold in quartz veins on the West Side of Amisk Lake. Members of this group were Jack and Dan Mosher, Thomas Creighton, and Leon and Isidor Dion - names that appear repeatedly in the history of the region. This deposit led to the development of the Prince Albert Mine that operated in 1937 and again from 1940 to 1942.

By 1913, people were coming from all over Canada to make their fortunes. This was the first major discovery of gold west of the Ontario border since the Klondike gold rush. More than a thousand men, and even two women, came to stake claims. The 'town', which sprang up, was called Beaver City, and consisted of a row of tents and log cabins, as well as two cookhouses capable of feeding two hundred men at a time. Commercial fishing was also started on Amisk Lake in 1913. Freight was hauled by York Boat in the summer and by sleigh in the winter.

World War 1 and a subsequent outbreak of Spanish influenza contributed to the demise of Beaver City. When war broke out in 1914, one man was left as caretaker of Beaver City. After three years of looking after a deserted town, Angus McDonald was given the town as payment. Roderick McDermott is the last known surviving resident of the Beaver City settlement. Mr. and Mrs. McDermott still reside in Denare Beach.

Gold prospecting continued through 1914 and 1915. In 1915, Creighton, the Moshers and the Dions discovered the massive Flin Flon copper-zinc orebody and prospecting shifted from gold to base metals. The complex mineralogy of the deposit inhibited its development until the Mandy Mine was established along Flin Flon Lake in 1915. Eventually, the Mandy Mine became profitable and busy enough that no one returned to the gold claims. The community of Flin Flon came into existence as Beaver City disappeared.

Fort Garry's Park-Like Wildewood Subdivision

Fort Garry's

Park-Like Wildewood Subdivision

by George Siamandas

The Fort Garry area which was incorporated as a municipality on April 16, 1912 and the Wildewood area is one of its distinctive residential areas. Fort Garry was initially part of St. Vital and was settled by Metis and Quebecois farmers. These early settlers were Metis boatmen who build their homes close to the river's edge as it was their best choice in transportation. One of the most famous landowners in the area that later became Wildewood was Ambroise Lepine. But after the Riel incident, many French people left the area and were replaced by Anglophones. Over the years it has completely lost its French origins. Only in the south end at St. Norbert will you see what the early Fort Garry was like.

COLONEL THOMPSON'S PLAN FOR WILDEWOOD

But by 1900 virtually all traces of the Metis heritage of the area was gone. One developer after another tried to develop the land starting with Colonel RM Thompson who in 1908 first introduced the name Wildewood. Thompson's plan was for a very exclusive area just like was developing then on Wellington Cres. They built roads and Col Thompson had a huge Victorian mansion built at the point of the Red River. Col Thompson went to fight in WW1 and never returned. His house was not fully completed and was not occupied for 17 years and was to be demolished in 1933 after suffering years of vandalism. Finally in 1934, it was bought by Ravenscourt School and renovated to become a boy's school. But the land continued to bounce back and forth between the City of Winnipeg and the Fort Garry municipality. At one time during the 1930s the city was contemplating making it into a park just like Assiniboine Park. But lack of money saw the city give it back to Fort Garry.

HOW WILDEWOOD PARK CAME ABOUT

Enter Hubert Bird. Bird was the owner of Bird construction. Bird had built aerodromes during WW1 and after the war he started the Bird construction company and built Union Station in Regina, and the Swifts plant in Winnipeg during the 1930s. During WW2 he built half the airfields and barracks in western Canada. During WW2 while flying over Radburn New Jersey, Bird saw an example of a new garden suburb with cul de sacs all built around a central shared park. Bird had seen his model for Wildewood and purchased the land comprising Wildewood.

WW2 had given Bird experience in mass production techniques and he had seen the potential of applying these techniques to reduce housing costs in Wildewood. It had never been done before with housing.

The returning WW2 vets needed affordable housing and Bird gave them 5 house plans to choose from. Bird hired the firm GBR (Still active and building the Jewish Community campus) to design the project. They did market research to find preferences for house features like the preferred number of bedrooms. Almost half wanted storey and a half and most wanted forced air heating. Great West Life agreed to finance the project and scale model for the area was placed at Eatons, the hub of the city at the time.

MASS PRODUCTION OF HOUSING PIONEERED IN WILDEWOOD

Then construction began using assembly line techniques after materials had been procured en masse and brought to the site. Lumber had even been salvaged from grain bins. Panel forms were used for pouring basements, and the exterior walls were prefabed. Specialty crews worked on flooring, shingling, and insulation. A US newspaper featured a bungalow and a storey and a half built in just 58 minutes. The realty firm SS Stevensen handled the sales, and it took only 2 years to sell out. Mature trees were spared preserving the area's main amenity: its heavily wooded quality. The neighbourhood had to do their own snow removal buy hiring a man and buying a horse drawn plough. Cost per resident was $.50 annually. They also bought their own mosquito fogger.

The area had one of the highest birth rates in the country and some dubbed it Childwood and Fertile Valley. Doug Henning the magician is one.

THE TALE OF THE WOLSELEY ELM

THE TALE OF THE WOLSELEY ELM

Just Elected Mayor Juba Does the Right Thing

by George Siamandas

In 1957, a giant triple-trunked elm stood in the centre of Wolseley Avenue and Greenwood St in Winnipeg. It had been planted by a woman resident a hundred years earlier, and as early as the turn of the century, it was considered a traffic hazard. The area's residents had fought many battles to preserve it even though traffic planners had long wanted to cut it down. In the summer of 1957 the traffic department decided that the Wolseley Elm finally had to go. It was a traffic hazard. The residents thought that on the contrary it was a safety feature as it required traffic to slow down to go around it.

THE BATTLE TO SAVE THE ELM

The issue immediately became contentious. The Free Press wrote in an editorial titled "Lay That Buzz Saw Down," that the "aldermen are asking for trouble, when they chop down city trees, and they invite a torrent of criticism when they eye the one that grows on Wolseley. They really should know better. They say it is a nuisance. The truth is the tree bothers some strange civic clique which abhors individuality and has a passion for unrelenting conformity." Alderman Crawford retorted "Lets grow a big fat tree right in the middle of Portage and Main." In response Wolseley residents Mrs Wolfram and Mrs McCord began a fight to save the tree.

Mayor Juba who had just been elected mayor responded to the people's wishes. On September 19, 1957 the Free Press front page headline read "Wild Women Win-Juba Breaks Law to Save Tree" At nine that morning a convoy of civic vehicles arrived to cut it down. A group of women gathered around the tree with their arms folded in defiance. They are going to have to chop us down too if they want to chop our tree said the women. As the city employee approached the tree with his buzz saw, an old grandmother with an axe shouted out "We don't think you should do this." A crowd of three hundred had gathered to support the 12 women that were now guarding the tree. Juba then emerged from the crowd and was convinced by the women to find a way out of it. On the premise of public safety, Juba put an end to that day. Mrs Borrowman kissed the mayor on the cheek and invited him to her place for tea.

The issue immediately captured national TV coverage and McLeans magazine did a big feature on the Wolseley Elm and Mayor Juba. But a few days later vandals poured gasoline on the tree and set it ablaze. Grafts were performed by a University tree expert and the tree revived the following spring. But in June 1958 three university students attacked the tree with saws and a crowbar. They were caught and fined $150 each.

Finally on Halloween October 31, 1958 the Wolseley Elm has seen its last season. At three in the morning residents awakened to two loud explosions. It was like two canon blast said a resident. The street lights were blown out and the tree had been blown up. Police suspected dynamite, but despite an enquiry, the culprits were never found. It was thought to be a KKK like warning, because two months earlier the residents had found a rooster on the tree. A psychiatrist said that people who blow up trees a are not mad at trees but at society. By June of 1960 no signs of life were evident. A kind of death certificate was issued and even Mrs Borrowman agreed that the tree should now come down. She asked for a piece of the tree so that she could have an electric lamp made.

Mayor Juba had emerged a hero in the way he had handled his first controversial issue. He had gone with his instincts. It was the first of many public victories.

TUXEDO The Suburb Beautiful

TUXEDO

The Suburb Beautiful

by George Siamandas

DEVELOPER FREDERICK WILLIAM HEUBACH

In 1905 Heubach set up the Tuxedo Park Land Co. He found a collection of Minneapolis based investors who had built great wealth in the grain industry. Over the next year the Tuxedo Park Company bought 3,000 acres from Mary and Archibald Wright and other owners for $450,000. The first home in the area an old farmhouse still stands at the south-east corner of Academy and Wellington Cresc.

On January 24 1913 the town of Tuxedo was incorporated with FW Heubach its original developer becoming its first Mayor. But his plan did not immediately succeed due to competition from the Crescentwood development which was much closer to the city. The Minneapolis investors of the Tuxedo Park Co lost their money. Heubach died before any houses were built. Tuxedo was named after the famous New York suburb called Tuxedo. It had previously been the hunting grounds of the Algonquin Indians and was called Taugh Seeder or Duck Seeder which meant "Place of the Bear."

MAYOR FINKELSTEIN

Heubach died the following year and was succeeded by FL Finkelstein as mayor. from 1911 Finkelstein with an accounting background became a partner with Heubach and Heubach's son Claude. Finkelstein would serve as mayor and would go on to run the company successfully into the 1950s. The plan for the town had been designed by the famous Frederick Law Olmstead firm, and it became the city plan in 1911. It had combined residential areas, areas of work in the south including the Canada Cement Plant.

THE FIRST HOMES

The first house was built in 1915 by Raymond Carey on the north corner of Nanton and Park. The area was connected by a mud road that became Nanton Blvd. Carey was fairly isolated and had to get the plows out before he could traverse the mud road through the as yet undeveloped aspen wooded area east of his home. Carey married Heubach's daughter Claire, Carey, a british architect, had come to Winnipeg in 1909 from Detroit and was well known for his Georgian style homes.

In 1923, Frederick Heubach's son Claude, built a home at the south corner. Designed and built buy Northwood and Carey. Later Claude Heubach moved to Hosmer to one of the first homes south of Corydon Ave. In the 1920s a series of homes sprung up along the east side of Park Boulevard facing Assiniboine Park.

Many homes were owned by grain industry businessmen. In 1925 the first house was built on Lamont. The site originally reserved for the University became Tuxedo Golf Course. The four room Tuxedo Schoolhouse was built in 1926. Many area street names have changed since the original plan. Tuxedo Blvd was originally called Van Horne.

The plan reserved a strip of land just south of the Agricultural College. It eventually became the Youth centre, commercial and public housing and military land. By 1911 the new plan for Tuxedo was complete. It was anticipated that in time the University of Manitoba would be located at Tuxedo but after 1926 when it located in Fort Garry. There are many famous builders like Frank Lount and the Sparrow Brothers that built the area's homes.

Winnipeg Planning Commission Announces New Plan for 1912

Winnipeg Planning Commission

Announces New Plan for 1912

by George Siamandas

Winnipeg's Planning Commission had big plans for Winnipeg in 1912. The report of the planning commission recommended moving city hall to Broadway and creating a Mall along Osborne St. Winnipeg was the third largest city. And its leading citizens thought it would still become the biggest in the country.

There was concern that Winnipeg grow in the proper way and provide health, convenience and beauty for its citizens. Winnipeg saw itself as one of the leading cities in North America and wanted to do the right things with its future growth. The committee had some of the city's leading citizens including distinguished architect John Atchison, the heads of civic departments representatives from the real estate industry, the builders, unions, and academics.

WINNIPEG'S PROBLEMS IN 1912

There was a lot of overcrowding. Very high cases of typhoid. Their 1912 studies showed it was twice as high in Winnipeg's poor areas. There were not enough parks. Houses were being built on 25 foot lots. And what were once nice apartments were degenerating into tenements rapidly. There was concern that congestion near Portage and Notre Dame would get worse and that the system of roads, bridges and subways had to be improved. They also saw this as the last chance to acquire some riverbank land for public drives before it was all privatized. There was also concern that the health and building inspection department could not do their jobs because they were understaffed.

THE GRAND PROPOSAL OF RELOCATING CITY HALL TO MEMORIAL BOULEVARD AND CREATING A GRAND MALL

The new Manitoba legislature was about to be started on Broadway and would form the south end of a new mall. City hall was to go near Portage Ave. And between them was to be a new mall featuring a town square providing a place for a future art gallery, public library, post office, auditorium, exposition (convention centre) and other such structures such as a new Hudson Bay store. Running through the middle would be a roadway 160 feet across becoming a new north south highway.

NEW BUILDING CODES

To overcome slums they introduced new building standards. Houses were required to have one bedroom with at least 800 cubic feet of space and a window. No more 25 foot lots. At least one room would have to be 150 sq ft. They wanted to see the establishment of a Child Welfare Bureau and education about domestic hygiene and proper child care.

The legislature was built as planned but everything else had to wait for many decades. Of course city hall was not moved or rebuilt for another fifty years. The Bay built their store in 1926. During the depression they did build the auditorium as a relief project, and in the mid 1960s they built the art gallery. By 1962 city planners felt that city hall should stay put to help prevent further deterioration in the Main St. area.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE WELL LAID PLANS?

The voters turned a funding by-law for a new city hall shortly after 1912. The economy just did not support the grand vision that the planners had at the time. World War 1, then the doldrums of the 1920s when Winnipeg's gateway role was supplanted by the new Panama Canal, then the doldrums of the 1930s and then WW2.

The problems of slums, and housing conditions and more recently of the erosion of the commercial base. But what seems to have changed dramatically is the level of optimism. In 1912 Winnipeg was coming off decades of unprecedented growth and progress. They dreamt big with full confidence their plans would be realized. Today we see continuing challenges to the future viability of downtown both in economic and social terms. The original vision of a health, convenience and beauty seems even more elusive in 1997 than it did 85 years ago.

WINNIPEG'S GARMENT INDUSTRY

WINNIPEG'S GARMENT INDUSTRY

Rag Trade Boomed Despite the Depression

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Winnipeg's garment trade was taking off in 1930 when a garment worker's strike brought production to a halt on Feb 25 1931. Winnipeg's Rag Trade boomed, while warehousing declined in Winnipeg's 1930s. Starting as small family enterprises run by Jewish tailors, by 1970 the garment trade had become Manitoba's second largest industry.

THE GARMENT WORKERS' UNIONS

In 1935 Sam Herbst succeeded in establishing smoother labour relations in the trade. For the next 25 years there would not be a single strike in the trade. Before the union, ladies could be fired for talking or for taking too long in the bathroom. Wages were poor at 18 cents per hour. One worker recalled receiving one penny for every 12 buttons she sewed to each army shirt. Some had to work 60 hours a week for part the year and were laid off for several months. Wages went up to 25 cents per hour after the WW2. Today most of it is on piecework, and the going rate is 12 cents per minute reflecting about $7 per hour.

THE GARMENT INDUSTRY ESTABLISHES IN WINNIPEG

How did Winnipeg, originally an agricultural area, grow such an industry? By 1874, a year after incorporation as a city, Winnipeg had two men's tailors and one woman's dressmaker. But during the 1880s, 20 new businesses would thrive. They made what prairie people needed, by hand, in small operations. In 1899, Moses Haid, established the first mass production apparel manufacturer "Winnipeg Shirt and Overall Company." By 1906, 19 firms had been founded by families like Berkowitz, Crowley, Freed, Kennedy, Jacob, Neiman, Nitikman, Shore, Stall, Steinberg, and Waldman.

In the early 20^th century, Jewish people fleeing European persecution began to arrive in Winnipeg. The tailoring skills that had been passed down from generation to generation were activated in the cheap warehouse space sitting vacant in Winnipeg's warehouse district. The building of the Panama Canal in 1914 sharply cut into Winnipeg's growth. Now it became cheaper to ship goods west by the canal instead of through Winnipeg, leaving many warehouses empty and abandoned in the 1920s. For the needle trade this setback for Winnipeg marked its opportunity. Apparel manufacturers now had prime space available at bargain prices. And grow they did.

In 1918 Benjamin Jacob and John Crowley were the first to move away from work clothes to producing ladies clothing. And to promote their rapid success, Winnipeg garment manufacturers got together in 1925 to put on Manitoba's first fashion show. By the 1930s 3,000 people had work in trade. Between 1941 and 1951 the industry grew 213%. In the peak year 1946, 14 new firms were established.

INTERNATIONAL BRANDS

Today the rag trade employs 8,000 people in over 115 factories. And it supplies many famous brands. Names like Calvin Klein jeans, Gap, Northern Reflections, OshKosh B'Gosh, Eddie Bauer outerwear, London Fog, are all manufactured in Winnipeg's garment industry, and help it gross $700 million in annual sales. Uniforms for everyone in the Canadian Armed forces, specialised sportswear for curling, warm durable outerwear tested in Canada's north or "Tundra" sweaters for Ronald Reagan. All made in Winnipeg.

THE WADDEL FOUNTAIN

THE WADDEL FOUNTAIN

By George Siamandas

You will find the Waddell Fountain in the north east corner of Central Park. It is a Gothic style fountain that has drawn Winnipeg visitors for 82 hot Winnipeg summers.

Murray Peterson's book on Winnipeg Landmarks describes it as an example of "high Victorian architecture" .... a "collection of flying buttresses and pinnacles" with water flowing out of lion's heads. It's based on a design of a monument to Sir Walter Scott located in Edinburgh.

The Waddells had come to Winnipeg in the 1880s. Mr. Waddell was a local leader of the Temperance movement. The Waddells were married for 25 years but had no children. They lived around the corner from Central Park at 457 Sargent and would go for frequent walks into the new Central Park. It was a very fashionable neighbourhood then. The Park was ringed with fine homes, and it had tennis courts and a bandstand as well as winding paths and gardens. Mrs. Waddell's gift would complete the park which had once been undesirable low lying land that had required thousands of truckloads of fill.

MRS WADDELL'S DEATH RESULTS IN THIS FOUNTAIN

Eighty-eight years ago on January 23, 1908, Mrs. Emily Margaret Waddell passed away. Her will contained an unusual provision. Should her husband remarry, $10,000 from her $56,000 estate was to be used to build a public fountain in Central Park. The will was dated 1904. It is not even clear Thomas knew of the provision.

It does not look like Mr WAddell complied right away. Maybe he was just a procrastinator. Her will did not come to light till 1911. The will compelled the city to follow up on the provision of a fountain. By this time husband Thomas Waddell was engaged to be married. He just could not perform. He claimed he was desperately in debt due to some real estate investments that went belly up.

It took two years for Waddell to find the money, and finally the Parks Board approved a design by Winnipeg architect John Manuel. It was completed in 1914 and cost $9,722. Ten thousand dollars was a huge amount of money then. It would have built one of the finest houses in Crescentwood. A reporter is noted to have said "A truly remarkable fountain could be erected for this sum." In fact the Conservatory at Assiniboine Park was built around the same time for $15,000.

A WIFE'S REVENGE OR A TRIBUTE TO THEIR LOVE

Mrs Waddell loved the park. But building the fountain was required only if her husband remarried. Assuming she suspected her "beloved husband" would remarry as most husbands did, it suggests a wish to see a monument to their life together in the place she seemed to love. I guess it depends on how you see human nature. It might be interesting to invite your listeners to answer the question. I wonder if any of your listeners know more.

Parks seem to hold appeal for gifts even today. For example Leo Mol donated 200 sculptures in 1991 for the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. (June 1991) The other major gift is probably Kathleen Richardson's donation of the old Richardson property which is now passive park along Wellington crescent. (Jan 19th 1977)

THE SALVATION ARMY'S WORK IN WINNIPEG

THE SALVATION ARMY'S

WORK IN WINNIPEG

By George Siamandas

The Salvation Army was started in London England in 1865 by William Booth who wanted to do something to improve the lives of poor people. "General" Booth as he is described in the literature literally created an army to attack poverty and to bring religion to the needy. The Salvation Army still remains very much a religious organization.

They first came to Winnipeg in early 1883. The Frank Vinall family came from Brighton England. They had already been active in a Salvation Army corps in Sussex. The Vinalls were able to persuade Canadian Salvation Army headquarters to establish an office in Winnipeg. And the first Winnipeg corps comprising a 3 man, 3 woman unit arrived in Winnipeg on December 10, 1886 and began to work from a building on Princess Ave.

There was a lot of work to be done in Winnipeg. Red River seemed ripe for salvation and was described by some as a very wicked place. Winnipeg was still a pioneer community. There had been the economic collapse in 1883 after the 1881-1882 land boom. Winnipeg was still very much a place of tents. There were many bush workers, railway men and other tramps as they were called then.

The Vinall's initial efforts of songs and prayer in front of the post office were not well received. The May 1883 paper noted that "if the morals of the community need correction it will have to be done through some other means." But the public soon came to appreciate what the Salvation Army did for man's daily needs. And by 1888, the Salvation Army was also set up in Brandon, Neepawa, Morden, Minnedossa, and Carberry.

The Salvation Army along with other private groups and churches seemed to be working well ahead of government by innovating most social services.
They pioneered outreach work visiting people in their own homes.

In 1890 they founded the Children's Shelter on Ross Avenue to house destitute mothers and homeless children. In 1906 they established Grace Hospital which became their first incorporated hospital in Canada. It was the idea of Evangeline Booth the founder Booth's daughter. In 1906 they started the first used clothing depot at Logan and King St.

The SA led the way with by helping house hundreds of returning soldiers from WW1 in two hotels they bought for the purpose. And later during the depression, in a 3 month period in 1931, they gave out 18,000 parcels of clothing, 8,500 meals, and beds to thousands of needy migrant men.

In 1918 Grace hospital's finances became very strained. Grace refused no one and ran into serious debt. To deal with the financial shortfall they made their first Red Shield Appeal. It raised $60,000 that spring of which $25,000 helped save the hospital.

As well as their good works, the SA has also left us some architecture like the Citadel located at 221 Rupert Ave. This three story brick structure was built in 1900 by J. Wilson Gray who also designed the much more ornate Confederation Life Building.

This building is still standing a block north of city hall in the middle of Winnipeg's Chinatown, and badly in need of renewal. It once contained a 1200 seat hall and became focus of their spiritual and administrative work in Winnipeg.

1919 Winnipeg Police Strike

The tale of two Winnipeg Police Chiefs

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

It has only happened once in Winnipeg's history, a Police Strike, and when it happened 81 years ago June 9, during the six week 1919 general strike, it resulted in the firing of all but 23 members of the police and major changes in the careers of two police chiefs. Despite warnings by the Police Commission in 1917, Winnipeg policemen had formed their own union in July 1918. At a meeting of the trades and labour Council the newly formed union voted in support of the general Strike. Yet they stayed on the job at the request of the strike committee. In effect it replaced the city as their control.

It is thought the policemen having just returned from WW1, where they fought side by side with workers were sympathetic to the aims of the workers. On May 19 Mayor Charles Gray, asked the policemen to sign an agreement not to participate in a sympathy strike. Two hundred and twenty-eight refused and on June 9 all but the 23 who signed loyalty oaths were dismissed from the force. To keep order, a special police force was set up under Major Lyall with members of the Army and the North West Mounted Police. Three thousand "specials' were hired.

FIRING OF CHIEF MACPHERSON

On June 11, Chief McPherson took the fall for the policemen's actions and was dismissed. McPherson had been chief from 1911 and a cop since 1903. McPherson had a good record and had been prominent in the successful firebug investigations of 1913. Deputy Chief Chris Newton who had been one of the 23 to sign the loyalty oath replaced the disgraced Chief MacPherson who was never given a satisfactory answer for his dismissal.

Hugh John Macdonald a member of the Police Commission fought against MacPherson's dismissal. A year later MacPherson was still fighting for compensation and finally received $5,000, a year's salary and a letter of recommendation. On June 21 the strike got ugly as two strikers were killed by Mounted Specials. By June 26 the strike was over and on June 27 the original policemen began to return to their jobs. Newton noted that 39 men several of whom had been active in the union should not be allowed to return to the force. Those that had stayed on during the strike received bonuses.

CHIEF NEWTON

Chief Newton helped build morale within the dept. He helped organize the Winnipeg City Police Athletic Assoc and later the Police Pipe Band. Twenty five years later, at age 63 after a distinguished 33 year career, Newton would face his own crisis of confidence.

It started with a fight after a traffic incident at the corner of Broadway and Balmoral St.

In June 27 1934 300 pound Winnipeg Police Chief Christopher H Neuton was charged with beating up 145 pound Joe Erlicky closing his eyes shut. The Free Press showed the diminutive Erlicky with his eye closed shut. Neuton had the class to resign. After a circus of a trial Neuton was found guilty of common assault and had to pay a $20 fine.

WINNIPEG'S FIRST POLICE CHIEF

WINNIPEG'S FIRST POLICE CHIEF

The Canadian West's Itinerant Chief of Police

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

JC INGRAM

Winnipeg's first chief of police JC Ingram was hired onFebruary 19, 1874. Ingram had come to Manitoba before 1870 and had worked for the provincial police. He was well known as the man that had arrested Ambroise Lepine (Riel's adjutant general) after the Riel Rebellion. Ingram was 23 years old and was known to be "a good man with his fists."

He had been one of four applicants. Perhaps the most deciding factor was that Ingram was a good friend of Mayor Francis Cornish. On Feb 24, 1874 a fourth by-law of the city established the Winnipeg Police Dept. Ingram would receive a salary of $750 per year, and a staff of two constables earning $500 per year. By summer the police force had shirts, whistles, batons, and police badges. But curiously, their engraver got the badge insignia all wrong. Instead of a beaver he had drawn a gopher. (For go for people)

But it soon became apparent that moral was not good. Ingram did not get along with his men. In particular they did not like his habit of associating with the ladies of the night. Despite this and conflicts with several aldermen, with Cornish's support he kept his job. Ingram's association with prostitutes continued as Winnipeg's stock of saloons, hotels and red light districts grew. Winnipeg and Barrie Ontario were known as the two wickedest places in Canada.

On June 7, Ingram's constables conducted a raid on a Sherbrook St brothel. They were barred entry to a second floor room. When they pushed past and gained entry, they found an unclothed Chief Ingram in the company of harlot Ella Lewis. Cornish had lost the 1875 mayoralty and in his place now was William Kennedy. The next day Ingram appeared before Mayor and Magistrate William Kennedy and was fined $8 and suspended. On the 14^th Ingram tendered his resignation.

WHAT HAPPENED TO INGRAM

Ingram travelled the west and eventually moved to Calgary where he opened up a hotel and bar. When Calgary set up a police Force in 1885, Ingram became Calgary's first Chief of Police. But he continued to battle with local authorities and in 1888, left for Rossland BC where once again, he became their first chief of police. After a short stint there, he left to work in a mine were he was blown up in a dynamite explosion in 1905.

2^ND CHIEF DAVID MURRAY

On July 1, 1875, David Murray became Winnipeg's next chief. Murray was a schoolteacher from Nova Scotia. He was a popular handsome man, known for his fine singing voice, which was in high demand at local concerts. Murray now had 5 constables. They worked 11-hour shifts 7 days a week. By November Murray had purchased the famous buffalo coats for $17 a piece, and more equipment including four "wrist snappers," 3 pistols as well as uniforms for the men.

CRIME REVIEW 1880

Murray would report 749 cases in 1880: 303 were for drunk and disorderly conduct, 212 were for inhabiting, frequenting, or maintaining a house of ill fame, 13 were charged with theft, 14 with assault, and 1 for gambling. In the 212 cases, 177 women listed their occupation as prostitute. While Murray was not accused of associating with prostitutes, future police chief McRae would face the same difficulties as Ingram. Vice was a problem and in 1910 Ingram faced a Royal Commission investigating police toleration of prostitution.

WINNIPEG'S FIRST FIRE DEPT

WINNIPEG'S FIRST FIRE DEPT

The trials and tribulations of the fire dept

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Winnipeg dedicated its first fire hall Feb 7, 1875. But for the next 7 years till a permanent professional fire dept was organised, volunteers did the job. There was a time when the new city of Winnipeg had no fire protection. When fire broke out, a chemical pumper would be borrowed from the Hudson Bay Co. In 1875, a by-law establishing a fire dept was passed, with a volunteer brigade providing the labour. Prominent early citizens became members of the volunteer dept: James Ashdown, Thomas Ryan, Stewart Mulvey and Daniel McMillan.

Six fire tanks were built and sunk into the ground along Main St. Water came from an artesian well at the corner of Logan and Main. Labour for digging the trenches was supplied involuntarily by drunks reporting to magistrate's court. Alderman Archibald Wright telegraphed an order to Silsby Manufacturing Co for Winnipeg's first Steam Pumper. He was quoted 6 months delivery. But the next day Silsby offered a much better model for another $500 with delivery within 10 days. The engine arrived promptly by the Steamer Dakota but federal customs charges and doubled shipping costs saw the engine under wraps till the extra costs were resolved. The pool of 40 volunteer firemen received $1 per fire and 50 cents for false alarms. If they failed to report at the call of the Grace St Church bell they were each fined $1.

THE FIRST FIRE

The new pumper's first job was to fill the tanks with water. By early Dec 1874 the brigade was spoiling for its first challenge. It came a month later on Jan 11 1875: fire broke out in the McDermot Block. It was -31 F as the Grace Church bells called the volunteers from their beds. Within 12 minutes water was flowing and within 21 minutes of the alarm the fire was all under control. Surrounding buildings were saved, but the McDermot Block housing the St James Restaurant formerly Red River Hall burned to the ground.

The firemen had to pull the pumper by hand, as horses were not available nearby. Council soon remedied this by having horses stabled nearby. Lombard Ave was the site for the first fire station that stored the steam pumper, 2,000 feet of hose and four hand hose reels. On Christmas Day 1875, the fire hall burned to the ground destroying all the new equipment the dept had proudly assembled over its first year. By February, a new fire engine had been delivered. Local insurers had agreed not to cancel policies. In 1878 a new fire hall opened. At a cost of $7,000 this one was built to be fireproof.

A PROFESSIONAL FIRE DEPT

In 1882 the volunteers decided to disband and to form a full time fire dept. Winnipeg was booming with hundreds of new buildings. And the population was now 30,000. The newly created jobs were highly coveted. One hundred and fifty people applied to be firemen. The first chief was WO McRobbie who served from 1882 to 1889. McRobbie with 25 years experience in the Montreal fire brigade agreed to be chief for $1,800 per year. On start-up the dept hired 36 full time men and bought 17 horses. The force would spend $150,000 over the next 20 years. But it was not until Winnipeg built the high-pressure station on James Ave in 1907 that fire insurance rates dropped.

THE BUREAU OF CHILD HEALTH

THE BUREAU OF CHILD HEALTH

Early Efforts to Help Winnipeg Children

By George Siamandas

On Mar 1, 1916, the City of Winnipeg established the Bureau of Child Health. It marked a big step forward. For years councillors and the general public had avoided grappling with the reality of Winnipeg's alarmingly high child mortality rates. In the early 1900s it was typhoid that ran rampant revealing Winnipeg as the sickest city in North America or Europe: 23 deaths per thousand in 1904, 138 deaths in 1905. An investigation revealed most deaths in the areas without sewers: the north end around the CPR tracks. Winnipeg medical health Officer Dr Douglas likened conditions in Winnipeg's north end to those of a medieval European city. He noted the squalor in the north end was beyond the powers of description. Also in 1904, untreated water had been pulled into the water supply system to fight a rash of fires.

WHAT MADE PEOPLE SICK?

A combination of ignorance and poverty was making people and especially children sick leading to the highest mortality rates in North America and Europe. Far too many people were living in slum housing conditions. Parents were ignorant of hygienic practices. Children were malnourished. The water was neither safe nor abundant. The 1912-year saw infant death rates soar again: 126 per thousand in 1912 and 199 per thousand in 1914. Clearly it was time for action.

DR AJ DOUGLAS

Leading the effort was Dr AJ Douglas, Chief Medical Officer from 1900 to 1940. Douglas would face numerous epidemics including typhus, smallpox and influenza. Winnipeg was lucky to have an advocate at the job. Year after year his reports to council recommended action to hire more inspectors, ensure all houses were connected to sewers, and to reduce overcrowding. Douglas was particularly forceful in 1914 recommending that if necessary the city should get into the housing business. He urged that the city do more about the health of less fortunate Winnipeggers and in particular to put a special focus on child health. He got results. In 1913 working out of a house at 31 Martha St, Health Officer Tustin began to report on Child Hygiene.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Three years later the new Bureau of Child Health began to operate from a modern building at the corner of Main and Aberdeen. Nurses provided infant examinations and two doctors were available mornings 6 days a week. Volunteering their time to help the sick were Drs RF Rorke and E Richardson.

One major service was the dispensing of baby's milk feedings. Over 350,000 bottles were delivered in 1916. The bulk of it given free. That year Douglas requested an automobile to help deliver the milk before it spoiled on hot days. They made 119,730 nurse visits in 1916. Each nurse cared for over 400 infants. They encountered many young unwed mothers who knew nothing about childcare. Child health improved as more and more information was dispensed. The health dept issued Monthly bulletins: simple things about hygiene, yet things mothers did not know.

Working with other agencies like the Margaret Scott Nursing Mission and the All People's Mission, help arrived for Winnipeg's immigrant poor. Finally a tradition for social justice was emerging in Winnipeg's early days.

Margaret Laurence

Margaret Laurence

Drawing From a Dreadful Childhood in Neepawa

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Jean Margaret Laurence, Manitoba's distinguished author of "The Stone Angel" and "The Diviners," was born Jean Margaret Weymiss, on July 18, 1926. Her mother was Verna Simpson, 6^th daughter of John Simpson. Margaret's father was Bob Weymiss, a lawyer who had really wanted to become a carpenter. Her dreadful early life in Neepawa became the source of her writings.

DEATH WAS HER EARLY COMPANION

Death was Margaret's companion in childhood. Margaret lost her mother Verna at age four. Her aunt Margaret returned from Calgary to help care for young Margaret and slept in a back room. After a year of town gossip, her aunt became her next mother. From then on she would call her new mother mum. At age 9 Margaret lost her father. As a little girl she was made to go see her parents' graves, surrounded by peonies. From then on she hated that flower.

GRANDFATHER SIMPSON

The other major figure in Laurence's life was her maternal grandfather John Simpson, a successful businessman in Neepawa. He had come from Milton Ontario as a pioneer and had literally walked the 50 miles to Portage La prairie where he got his start. Simpson was a mean, avaricious man who was respected but hated by nearly everyone. He refused to let his wife go shopping with any money, and he later regretted sending Margaret's mother to Agricultural College as he did not like the idea of paying tuition for her to "learn how to cook."

After her father died the family had to sell their house and move in with Grandfather Simpson. Margaret later remarked how the house felt like a cage and her grandfather was a tyrant. She was encouraged in everything she did. She felt different from the other children, an outsider. She became an observer of the lives of others. The war took away every boy in her class by grade 12. As a result, all of Margaret's memories were of Neepawa as a place of death.

ESCAPE TO WINNIPEG

At age 17 she won a scholarship to United College and found an opportunity to meet other budding writers. At age 18 she bought a Remington typewriter for $14 and remarked that her typing course taken at age 14 was the best thing she ever did. She stayed at Sparling Hall and ate at a Salisbury House as well as Tony's. She had coined the name Minewaka in a short story competition run by the Winnipeg Free, Press.

MARRIED LIFE

She married Laurence in 1962 at age 21 and they lived for a while at 515 William above Anne and Bill Ross. For a while Margaret worked at a communist newspaper without knowing it and later for the Winnipeg Citizen. Her husband and the Rosses did not get along as he disapproved of their causes. Her husband was interested in 3^rd world development work and after a short stint in England he found work on improving the water supply in Somalia. She wrote first about Africa but later after returning to England in 1962, after her divorce. She had two children.

There she began to write about Manawaka (Neepawa). The Stone Angel came out in 1964. In 1974 she returned to Canada living in Lakefield Ontario. She became a heavy smoker and an alcoholic. In later life she did not enjoy the idea of returning to Neepawa even for short trips. On her rare visits, she refused to walk by the old brick house.

This secretive woman who had decided long earlier that "a life without hope is not worth living," planned the details of her own funeral, including the timing of her death in Jan 5, 1987, during a battle with cancer.

HONEST JOHN BRACKEN The Man Who Didn't Want to Be Premier

HONEST JOHN BRACKEN

The Man Who Didn't Want to Be Premier

By George Siamandas

Honest John Bracken, the man who did not want to be Premier, ran the province for 22 difficult years between 1922 and 1944. Bracken was born the son of a dairy farmer June 22, 1883 in Leeds Ont. He loved sports especially football and hockey. He was one who kept his feelings to himself. He went away to high school but failed his final exams returning home defeated. He took on the management of his father's dairy farm and made into a success. Up at 4:30 in the morning and in bed by 9, Bracken tended the farm 7 days a week. Like farmers everywhere, Bracken had been raised on values of hard work, and self-reliance.

Later he applied to the Ontario Agricultural College where he became one of 300 students. There he applied himself and did well. He would later find a clerical error had occurred. He had in fact passed. He graduated with top marks and took on his first job. He went west in 1905 to head up the Manitoba a section of the Federal Seed Bureau providing better seeds to western farmers. He was then wooed further west to work in Saskatoon by WR Motherwell. He became a specialist in dryland farming writing several seminal texts. In 1920 he returned to head up Manitoba's Agricultural College. He loved farmers and talking about farming. And he loved to work, taking time out only for his beloved curling.

MANITOBA'S PREMIER 1922-1942

After winning the 1922 election the United Farmers of Manitoba found themselves without a platform and without a leader. After approaching several agricultural leaders they decided on Bracken. Bracken who had no interest in politics and who felt as head of the Ag College he already had the best job in Manitoba, turned them down flat. He gave such a stirring speech why he wasn't the man that the United Farmers of Manitoba realized they wanted this co-operative non-partisan even more.

The next day they presented him a petition asking him once again to become leader. And once again he refused. On the third try they made sure that they saw him at home with his wife present. Once again he said no. But then Mrs Bracken said: "John you should help these men out." He agreed.

But first, Bracken who had never voted in his life before had to win a seat. He decided to run in The Pas. Bracken won his seat and won elections for 22 years including some with acclamation. Forty years later, Bracken would tell a reporter a familiar story. After the election, the part aboriginal mayor of The Pas had told Bracken that he had been offered $10,000 by the Conservatives to run against Bracken but the mayor decided not to run.

Bracken was at the helm for the most difficult times Manitoba faced. He introduced income tax and raised the gas tax. He reduced govt spending, fired civil servants, and cut back mother's allowances. Within three years he was running a surplus. He was seen as arrogant, unable to forget his schoolmaster background and treated MLA's as schoolboys.

FEDERAL POLITICS

After his long service in provincial politics, in 1942 Bracken was once again persuaded to serve another group's needs, this time as the leader of the federal Conservative Party. He convinced them to add the name progressive, but he was disappointed in the partisan bickering and his performance was judged lacklustre. He lasted two years. Some saw him once again, as the wrong man in the wrong party.

HIS LEGACY

Bracken gave Manitoba 22 years of unselfish govt. His influence lasted as Brackenism would become the philosophy of the Garson and Campbell govt that would follow for another 15 years. In 1954, Bracken the teetotaller headed a Royal Commission on Liquor. His report recommended the liberalisation of drinking laws. Years later he regretted the increasing rates of alcoholism. He retired to Manotick Ontario to breed horses and died Mar 16, 1969.

HENRY MALANIK The Last Man to Be Hung In Manitoba

HENRY MALANIK

The Last Man to Be Hung In Manitoba

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

During a crime of passion Henry Malanak killed a policeman and had to pay the ultimate price. Today we tell the story of Henry Malanik, the last man to be hung in Manitoba 48 years ago this week June 17, 1952. It was 1950 and the City of Winnipeg Police Department would lose another officer in the line of duty. Detective Sergeant Edwin "Ted" SIMS was shot to death at the scene of a domestic dispute at 19 Argyle Street. The murderer, Henry MALANIK, was convicted and was the last man executed in Manitoba.

Malanik had come to Canada as a child in 1912. He had a grade 4 education. He had been convicted of several break and enters at age 17 but had no further troubles with the law till 1950. Malanik began an affair with Olga the wife of Adolph Kafka his childhood friend and best man. It was a fight over Olga's affections that resulted in a gun battle at their house in Point Douglas. Malanik and Kafka were each fined $50. Tragically, several months later their guns were returned to them.

KILLING OF POLICEMAN TED SIMMS

In July 15, 1950 Malanik was thrown out of a wedding reception for being drunk and disorderly. He went to the Argyle St house to see Olga where he and Adolph got into a knife fight sending Adolph to hospital. The police were called and Detective Sargent Ted Simms along with Det Jack Peachell and Det William Anderson attended the house. Malanik had fled but returned with a double-barrelled shotgun. In a gun fight Malanik killed Simms with a shotgun blast to the abdomen. Detective Peachell emptied his gun discharging 5 shots at Malanik. Three found their target. As the gunfire continued another rookie policemen shot Detective Andersen in the neck by mistake. He would later be fired from the force.

THE TRIAL

In Oct 1950 Malanik went on trial, his lawyer pleading for a manslaughter charge. After 40 min the jury returned a guilty plea, and Malanik was sentenced to hanging. Judge Kelly had reservations believing Malanik may have been too drunk to form an intent to kill. This was enough for an appeal. Malanik was retried in May 1951 and once again found guilty. This time judge Williams had no doubt of Malanik's guilt. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court where it was denied.

THE LAST HANGING

At 2:00 am June 17, 1952, as 40 witnesses watched, Henry Malanik was led into the execution chamber. Executioner "Camille" wearing a black beret and a Hawaiian shirt pulled the lever. As Malanik hung from the rope, blood began to spurt. His jugular had been severed. Two minutes later he was pronounced dead. It was the last time a man was hung in Canada's most humane and modern prison, Manitoba's Headingley Jail. Hangings continued at other provinces till 1962.

From time to time the issue comes up. The Reform Party supports capital punishment, as do approximately 69% of Canadians. In the US capital punishment is available in 38 states, where homicide is ten time more prevalent than in England.

JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON

JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON

Manitoba's Controversial 3rd Lieut Gov

by George Siamandas

Cauchon became the third Lieut Gov of Manitoba in 1877. He was born Dec 31, 1816 at Quebec City. Cauchon is descended from on of the oldest families in Quebec City; they originated in Normandy and are thought to have arrived in 1636. He received a classical education and then studied law. Cauchon launched the Quebec Journal in 1842. He would own it for 20 years and edit it for 33 years. He was also a member of the Quebec legislative Assembly.

A MAN OF QUEBEC

Cauchon invested in railways and real estate and in 1866 was elected mayor of Quebec city. After confederation he was named a senator and was appointed its speaker. A Liberal supporter at heart, he resigned and was found having profited as an owner of a lunatic asylum. He joined Alexander MacKenzie's govt but was soon "put to pasture" replacing Alexander Morris as Lieut Gov of Manitoba.

Cauchon arrived in Manitoba in early December 1877. Red River was still just emerging from the fur trade and Cauchon grumbled about his exile to Manitoba. The Toronto Globe offered its condolences to the people of Manitoba.

In Manitoba there were a lot of hard feelings. The English who had swelled Manitoba s population were not happy with the idea of a french Speaking Lieut Gov at a time the office still had some power. Surprise at his appointment was shared by all. Even in St Boniface Tache observed that the appointment of a French Canadian is as extraordinary as the arrival of the railway.

Cauchon promised that he is "not a representative of a faith or a nationality, and to bestow no special favour on no citizen but to render justice to all." His only transgression was in 1878 when he withheld assent of the act to abolish the official publication of documents in French. Cauchon left the job in 1882. English speaking Manitobans saw him as doing nothing, while his colleague Dubuc thought he had been excellent. For a province establishing responsible govt it was not a bad thing.

FIRST OF ALL A BUSINESSMAN

While he may not have found Manitoba politics interesting, business was another matter. Cauchon became very involved in business which apparently shocked people of the day. In Winnipeg, he took full advantage of the Winnipeg land boom as he had done in Quebec City.

The Free Press estimated he had made over a million dollars by 1882. He sold 120 lots in Point Douglas having held them only three evenings making a profit of $15,243. He speculated on land where the railway would go through at the Louise Bridge on the St Boniface side. The City of Winnipeg sued him but lost and had to pay a bundle for the land needed to woo the CPR through Winnipeg.

In December 1882 he purchased for $60,000 the land on the east side of Main ST at York Ave, south of what later became the CN station. He built Winnipeg's finest Block at the time the Cauchon Block for another $100,000. It had a Greek facade of four stories. Actually a brick building with a pressed metal facade it was as elegant a structure as one could find for the stores and offices it provided. But the land boom faltered and Cauchon gave up the block by 1884. It became the Empire Hotel.

WHAT HAPPENED TO CAUCHON

By now Cauchon was penniless. He and his son took up a homestead called Westwood in the Q'Appelle Valley, where he died in Feb 23 1885 at age 68. He lies buried at St Boniface cemetery after a state funeral. Cauchon had been married three times. Cauchon St a short street in in Ft Rouge also bears his name. Interestingly, Manitoba would not have another French speaking Lieut Gov for another 100 years till Bud Jobin was appointed in 1976.

EDITH ROGERS Manitoba's First Female MLA

EDITH ROGERS

Manitoba's First Female MLA

By George Siamandas

On June 29, 1920 Manitobans elected their first woman member of the Legislative assembly. Edith Rogers had been active in soldier's relief programs, and was seen as woman capable of bringing women's issues before the Legislature. She is described as having been a true daughter of the north country in that both her mother and father had strong connections with the Hudson Bay Co. Her paternal grandmother had been the illegitimate daughter of Sir George Simpson.

She was born Edith MacTavish in 1876. growing up at Norway House. She was educated in Montreal. In 1897 she met Arthur Rogers who was a wholesale dealer in fruits and provisions, while on a duck hunting expedition with her uncle. Arthur Rogers began a new dairy business in 1905 called crescent creamery with the active involvement of Edith. The dairy was a success because they paid close attention to hygienic conditions during a time when typhoid fever was rampant.

HOW DID SHE BECOME A PROMINENT WINNIPEGGER?

Edith raised four children and led an active life as part of the social elite. Participating in many luncheons, teas, bridge parties and dinners, Edith Rogers took a special interest in the General Hospital and the Convalescent Home. After WW2 she was very involved in veterans associations helping returning soldiers adjust to civilian life. In 1920 the Liberal party asked her to run as a candidate. Manitoba was the first province to give women the vote that year and it was the first opportunity women had had to vote or to run for office. Three other women ran for office that year.

WHAT ISSUES DID EDITH ROGERS PRESS IN THE LEGISLATURE?

She was very interested in social welfare and pressed for the adoption of the child welfare bill. She also introduced a bill for censorship of motion pictures and a bill giving widows increased power over their husband's estates. She also represented the government on the Social Welfare Council of Winnipeg. She also introduced a bill to incorporate the Winnipeg Foundation. She was also credited by city of Winnipeg officials for always being willing to secure legislation that solved civic problems.

She continued to serve in the legislature till 1932, after which due to declining health retired in her daughter's home in Toronto. She came back at the outbreak of WW@ to become chairman of the War Council of the Red Cross. In 1942 she decided to retire to her childhood home in Colbourne Ontario. On the eve of her departure for more than an hour and a half a steady procession of people came to pay their respects at the grand staircase of the legislature. She died in 1947.

BALDUR STEFANSSON THE FATHER OF CANOLA

BALDUR STEFANSSON

THE FATHER OF CANOLA

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Baldur Stefansson is one of Manitoba's most distinguished plant scientists and the father of the new breed of canola which he derived from selections of rapeseed. Stefansson's father had come from Iceland in 1910 and settled in Vestfold in the Interlake between Lundar and Inwood. He was a cattle farmer. Baldur was born in April 26, 1917. The area was not very prosperous. The area's soil lacks phosphates, as he would later discover. It was so bad the cows would chew the 2x4 lumber.

Baldur went to WW2 and when he returned decided against becoming a farmer. Why? Because he saw it as being too competitive. Every one of your neighbours is a competitor he maintains. And to get into farming takes a large investment. In the final analysis, the profit margin is very low. Instead, like many returning soldiers, he went to university, studied agriculture and settled on plant science. He earned an MA and a PhD.

PLANT SCIENCE INSTEAD OF FARMING

He became interested in finding new sources of edible oil. While hemp was an attractive possibility, Stefansson and his colleagues knew that the govt would not permit research with this plant. Instead they concentrated on rapeseed. He wanted to develop an edible oilseed for large-scale production on the Canadian prairie.

WHAT IS CANOLA?

Canola is the bright yellow crop, growing across the prairies. It is an oil seed. It came from selection of rapeseed, which is part of the mustard family. Rapeseed originated 2,000 years ago in India and was introduced to Asia during the time of Christ. It arrived in Europe in the 13th century. It became popular on the prairie because of its ability to grow in cooler climates. Grown for the oil contained in the seed, it was a particularly favoured lubricant because it could stick to metals in the presence of water. In 1936, a Saskatchewan farmer imported some rapeseed from Poland and began to grow it in Canada. It seemed to do well.

OVERCOMING PROBLEMS OF RAPESEED

Rapeseed had two difficulties in being utilised as edible oil. If it was to be for human consumption the amount of erucic acid had to be substantially reduced. And the by product of crushing which is used for livestock feed, had to be made more palatable by reducing anti-nutritive glucosinolates. Stefansson was able to do both. In 1974 he succeeded with the double low "Tower" variety of canola. And to differentiate it from rapeseed the new name canola was coined from "Canadian Oil." The other choice was CanAbra, but the name was appropriated by a member of the committee who started an Alberta company with it.

WORK FOR CHEMICAL COMPANIES

After developing the in the double low "Tower" variety, Stefansson then began work for Calgene a corporate plant breeder that developed the round-up resistant variety of canola. Calgene was later bought out by the giant in plant varieties: Monsanto. Stefansson has no regrets about the work and how its value had remained with the companies. He was well paid as were literally hundreds of scientists and support staff for years while the company took the risk. He is happy his canola has allowed some farmers to be a little more productive and to be able to make a slightly better living.

AWARD WINNER

He has won many awards over the years and a room in his modest house in Fort Garry now houses the collection. The Wolf prize from Israel, Order of the Buffalo Hunt, the Royal Bank etc. About two dozen in all. He is glad not to doing his plant breeding work in the corporate "dog eat farmer" environment of today.

The 1946 Portage Women's Jail Riot

The 1946 Portage Women's Jail Riot

Unhappy to Have a Woman Warden

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

On April 15, 1946 a riot broke out at the Portage La Prairie Jail for Women. Newspapers reported a combination of bad food, overcrowding, and poor medical care as the cause of the riot. It was a Monday and 15 women refused to go to work. Tear gas was used to bring the women under control but they began to throw furniture around and barricaded themselves. The women demanded to see the Attorney General J.O. McLenaghen while singing "don't fence me in."

Attorney General J.O. McLenaghen met with them and heard complaints against female Warden MC Mountain. One inmate said of trying to communicate grievances to Miss Mountain, "you might as well be talking to a little dog." McLenaghen promised to look into their complaints, ordered they be taken off their bread and water rations and left to a chorus of "he's a jolly good fellow."

A DAMNING REPORT ON THE WOMEN'S PRISON

Head of jails in Manitoba Royal Burritt conducted an investigation into the state of jails in Manitoba and found the womens' complaints had merit. The management consisting of Ed Calder and Maud Mountain was judged as incompetent. Staff was only at half the level required. Maud Mountain was a lousy administrator and showed no initiative. Ed Calder the past warden at the jail had been accused of hitting numerous women with his clenched fist. He ran the place like an autocrat. Burritt suggested that Calder be fired. Yet at the top of the womens' demands was their wish to see the return of their male warden Sheriff Ed Calder.

Set up in 1931 and made women's only in 1935, the facility was badly in need of repairs. The colours were depressing, and described by Burritt a "bilious blue" and "dirty yellow." The windows had been painted over a "hideous green" preventing light from coming into the cells. The food consisted of cold meats and potatoes. The fridge barely worked and the range needed replacement. It would have failed any restaurant health codes in effect at the time. The women were not given toothbrushes even though the cost was only 10 cents. There were no written rules of behaviour. Calder made the rules up as he went. Complainant Edna Burch said Calder beat her for a small infraction of the rules and put her on bread and water for 5 days.

There was no vocational training available, nor any recreational facilities. The library contained nothing up to date. It had a few rotting foul smelling old books. Burritt concluded that there was nothing wrong with the food. "Nothing could start trouble sooner than to provide poor food and we know that well enough" said Burritt. Two years later Burritt seemed to have forgotten the importance of a decent meal.

1948 MEN'S PRISON COMPLAINTS

In 1948 unrest broke out at Headingley Jail. Men complained of not enough variety in meals. Not enough sugar available. No bedtime snacks. An investigation proved the men's concerns. Meals consisted of a lot of beef stew and steamed or mashed potatoes. On alternate days sliced balogna. Sugar rations were tripled. It was deemed too impractical however to give prisoners bedtime snacks in their cells.

SIR JAMES AIKINS

SIR JAMES AIKINS

Manitoba's Two Term Lieut Gov

by George Siamandas

Sir James Aikins who was appointed Manitoba's 9th Lieut Gov on August 3, 1916, and was the founder of Winnipeg's oldest law firm Aikins MaCaulay Thorvaldson founded in 1879. Aikins was the son of Sir James Cox Aikins who served in Sir John A Mcdonald's cabinet and who himself was Lieut gov of Manitoba during 1882-1888. The younger James was born in Peele County Ontario in 1851 and was educated in upper Canada College becoming a lawyer like his father in 1878.

Aikins was drawn to the promise of the west and came to Manitoba in 1879 for just a look and returned only to pack and move to Manitoba's new west. He took an office in Winnipeg over Richardson's store and worked on a kitchen table from the corner of Main St and Rupert Ave. Aikins became involved in the temperance movement and was a popular speaker. When he arrived in 1879 there were 17 lawyers in Winnipeg. The great land boom of 1881 swelled the city's population of lawyers such that in one day in June 1882 79 new lawyers were called to the bar. By the end of 1882 Winnipeg had 213 lawyers.

MOVING UP IN LEGAL CIRCLES

Aikins rose fast in Manitoba legal circles. He was appointed counsel for the CPR expansion in the west. By 1884 he was made a QC. Aikins was considered a gifted speaker and an expert constitutional lawyer. His firm was now known as Aikins Culver and Hamilton and it was handling 1/3 of the city's legal cases. In the early 1890s as the city was in recession and the city tried to begin taxing the CPR railway from school taxes, Aikins took Winnipeg to the supreme court and won the CPR's continued exemption from municipal taxation. In 1914 he received a knighthood and he became the first President of the Canadian Bar Assoc and was a noted speaker at many of its sessions. The Canadian Bar seemed his greatest joy and he was considered a master orator. His friends referred to him as J. A. M.

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

With his many years of participation in the Temperance movement, Aikins was chosen to draft the 1900 Manitoba Liquor Control Act. A staunch Conservative he represented Brandon. Aikins headed the Conservative party in Manitoba after 1915 and they supported women's suffrage and prohibition. They were snubbed at the polls as the country and Manitoba went Liberal.

BUSINESS

Aikins worked on behalf of major companies such as great West Life for which he served as solicitor for 37 years. He was a director of many other firms including the Imperial Bank. Aikins left his name to the legal firm Aikins MaCaulay & Thorvaldson and Aikins St in the North end. Aikins built the Sommerset Block in 1900 just east of Eatons at Donald and Portage named after his older brother. It was the first concrete building to be built in Winnipeg. He helped get eh Royal Alex and the Main St CPR subway. JAM had been a lavish entertainer at Govt house.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Aikins was active in numerous community organizations including serving as one of the founders of the Winnipeg YMCA, chair of Wesley College, Boy Scouts.

THE SPORTSMAN

He was an ardent golfer and was considered one of Manitoba 's most skilled marksmen. His first marriage went sour as work preoccupied his time.

AN IRONIC END

Aikins career was to be celebrated in a special reception. In the large program for this special event one hundred and nineteen letters had been written congratulating Aikins for 50 years as a lawyer. They came from the prime Minister McKenzie King, from the Us Supreme court and from every important lawyer in the world. Ironically the day before the celebration was to be held to commemorate his 50 years on the Manitoba Bar James Aikins took ill and died two days later. He left one son and two daughters. He died in February 1929. He left a $6 M estate. His home Riverbend became Balmoral Hall school for girls.

HAROLD AIKINS

His son Harold trained in law and fought in WW1 losing a leg. He became a member of the firm but unlike his dad, he was a most sour personality.

Manitoba's 1950 Flood Relief Fund

Manitoba's 1950 Flood Relief Fund

by George Siamandas

As the 1950 flood's impact was felt Manitobans quickly created a relief agency. Manitoba and the world pitched in to help with the creation of the Manitoba Flood Relief Fund.

IMPACT OF THE 1950 FLOOD

$50M damages

Black friday May 5; final crest was May 13

Flood lasted 51 days

40,000 evacuated from southern Manitoba

80,000-100,000 from Winnipeg of a population of 300,000

Some dikes were 18 feet high and 60 feet at the base.

There was a run on linseed which was used to plug the sewers.

2,000 homes were damaged above the first floor (Second floor)

Morris had the worst damage largely because of the poor construction of its buildings. Analysis overall showed that poorly constructed homes faced the worst damage. Those with concrete foundations did the best.

There was a secret plan called Operation Black Boy which would have called a total evacuation of Winnipeg with preparations for mode of transport and everything. Another foot of water higher and the power would have been out. The goods in Winnipeg great warehouses would have been destroyed. As it was the river put most of Lombard Ave under water and there were sandbags at Portage and Main.

Instead of going ahead with Operation Black Boy the red Cross went ahead with Operation Rainbow. This was the Red Cross relief effort which helped people adjust.

SETTING UP THE MFRF

The committee first met on May 12, a week after the flood first hit on Black Friday. The idea came from Mayor Garnet Coulter who was at a mayor's conference in new Orleans. Within 2 weeks the agency had $400,000. The guy in charge was HW Manning, vice president of Great West Life.

WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM

It came from everywhere in the world. A lot from Manitobans themselves.

On May 14 every radio station in Canada carried a 20 minute new report on the flood and an appeal for donations. The following Sunday May 16 Bob Hope asked for donations to the flood at the close of his show.

Eatons across the country matched its employees donations dollar for dollar giving $307,034. The agency sold a picture book of the flood for $1 called "THE RIVER RAMPANT" Kids shined shoes for 15 cents, Movie Theatres across the country took collections. In Winnipeg people were urged to donate a day's wages.

In Toronto they held red River relief Rally at maple Leaf gardens. The entertainment which included Giselle McKenzie was broadcast on 800 radio stations throughout North America. The fund insisted on money because it was such a hassle to obtain and move goods around. The British Parliament gave 300,000 pounds. The British were noted for being unwilling to give cash.

It did a great job raising money: $8,897,618 by November. It was a generous group in distributing even though I saw an appeal by residents of the Glenwood area. By the end it had trouble giving all the money away. It was left with $2,000,000 which went to start up the Canadian Disaster Relief Fund. Administration costs were only 2%. They even helped small businesses many whom were farmers to buy new stock.

IMPACT ON MANITOBA

It cost the Manitoba government $42M. That was the equivalent of the entire year's provincial budget at the time. And how much did the insurance companies pay in the 1950 flood? Almost nothing!

HISTORY OF STEINBACH

HISTORY OF STEINBACH

"The Automobile City"

by George Siamandas

The village of Steibach was founded in 1874 by 18 Mennonites families that set up a traditional Mennonite village along a creek. The founders' names included Wiebe, Penner, Reimer, Towes, Friesen, Plett and they are the stock of many Mennonites in Manitoba today. It is an unlikely location as it was away from Winnipeg and on the south eastern edge of the old Mennonites villages. But its success was due to ambitious hard working people. But initially, business was frowned on as an activity.

EXCOMMUNICATING THE FIRST CAR OWNER

JR Friesen brought a 1911 Model N the forerunner of the Model T to Steinbach. He was promptly excommunicated by the church but Friesen was so excited about the possibilities of the car that he did not take the excommunication too seriously. In fact he had the last laugh when several years later the same ministers that had thrown him out came to buy cars themselves. On June 6 1914 he became the first Ford car dealer in western Canada. The cars were brought by rail knocked down in boxes, assembled and delivered on sleighs to their owners. In 1928 and 1929 they were selling 70 cars per year at about $650 each.

To sell cars in the 1930s they offered your money back in three days if not satisfied. They also held Canada's earliest car auction selling 48 at the Penner dealership which was western Canada's most modern in the early 1950s. John D Penner in 1950 was the first to take out full page ads in the Winnipeg papers to promote cars.

They tried every inducement including inviting customers and their families over for dinner. One time Mr Penner visited a family on their farm, and while he showed the husband and wife the car, Mrs Penner milked all the cows. The wife was so moved she agreed to the sale on the spot. Mr Penner said he had not yet milked a cow himself but he had done just about everything else in order to sell a car.

SALES LEADERS

Steinbach's car salesmen were the top of the country in the 1950s selling more than 250 cars annually. In 1960 they held a special promotion where anyone who came to Steinbach to buy a car had his hotel restaurant or other transportation paid for him. People came not only from Manitoba but also from Saskatchewan and Alberta.

LOCAL INVENTION & INGENUITY

Many businesses depended on a local invention. Inventors helped make their work easier, whether grain feeders for threshing machines, bee keepers equipment, bakery ovens and dough making machines, or mechanized dredges used to build drainage ditches.

Abraham S Friesen who was the first village mayor, first postmaster and a mechanical pioneer introduced mechanization to agriculture. He built the first windmill in 1877 and the first sawmill in 1876. It was his sons that later started the first Ford dealership in western Canada. Others like Peter K Barkman set up the first steam powered mill flour mill in 1880.

BUSINESS PROMOTION WAS SEEN AS A PRIORITY

To encourage industry they introduced a ten year tax holiday and so Barkman's Flour Mill was constructed in 1922. Through the 1950s and 1960s Steinbach had the highest growth rate of all Manitoba communities.

DOING THINGS FOR THEMSELVES

Not happy with the condition of roads in the 1930s, the local transportation committee took matters into their own hands developing and upgrading first the road to Giroux where the nearest railway was located and then east to the Morden Sprague highway. They filled in swamps with corduroy getting help from adjoining farmers. Soon the predecessor to No 12 was formed. They also formed pure bred swine and poultry clubs a legacy for egg and pork production that is making this rural area the fastest growing producer in Manitoba. All the work was don in the depths of the depression with barely any governmental money. They held courses on everything under the sun: bee keeping, hog raising etc.

THE MOST GIVING CENSUS TRACT IN CANADA

According to Statistics Canada, Steinbach and the area around it is known to be the most giving census tract in all of Canada for charitable donations.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN MANITOBA

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE

JEWISH COMMUNITY IN MANITOBA

by George Siamandas

On June 10 1882 70 Jewish families arrived in Winnipeg. They were Russian Jews that were being massacred throughout south western Russia because it was thought they had something to do with Czar Alexander's death in 1881. Years of oppression caused a mass exodus lasting from 1882 to 1914.

Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt Canada's high commissioner to Great britain became involved in a relief committee called the Mansion House committee whose role was to raise funds and assist emigration from Russia. Galt proposed that they come to Manitoba. By spring of 1882 his proposal was accepted and 400 Jewish refugees left the Austrian Galician city of Borody bound for Winnipeg. Most were small traders and mechanics of various trades. They were expected to become farmers.

About 30 Jews had lived in Winnipeg as early as 1877. Most were of british or german origin and they were of the reform branch which was fairly well assimilated into the larger society. The existing community arranged for use of the immigration sheds and provided food and interpreters. They raised 1,200 in just a few months. The spirit of humanitarianism was strong in Winnipeg and Bishop Machray and Mayor Alexander Logan helped in increasing the donations. The papers were also supportive and helped create a very sympathetic climate.

About 150 became involved in the construction of the CPR laying track as far west as Moose Jaw. Their families lived with them and their observance of high holidays was tolerated. But by fall they fell into great difficulties as a recession fell over Winnipeg. Jobs were impossible to find after the collapse of the real estate boom and there were no places to live.

As winter was approaching efforts were made to move the families east but it did not come about. There were delays in giving them land to farm either in Manitoba or in the Q'Appelle valley. The authorities were just not ready for them and how to plan for them as they had done with the Mennonites and the Icelanders. Temperatures plummeted to

-50, they almost starved because they would not eat food they were offered. By the late 1880s the Jews had already established a multi cultural society. Despite their differences they all share a religion, a history as a people apart and Yiddish.

The newcomers were quite different. Different even than their English and German counterparts. They spoke a different language, ate different food, and kept solely to themselves. They were not interested in farming and had no money to become involved in any new activities. They faced a fair amount of racism and were excluded from elite clubs. Over time the children of the labourers, pedlars and store owners became doctors, lawyers and scientists.

By 1931 there were 20,000 people identifying themselves as Jews in Manitoba. Today the Jewish community numbers about 15,000 to 16,000 almost all urban but as their children seek better opportunities elsewhere numbers are dwindling.

HECLA ISLAND

HECLA ISLAND

How an Icelandic Fishing Village Became a Ghost Town Gateway to a White Elephant Luxury Resort

by George Siamandas

MR. PORTAGE AND MAIN, HENRY MCKENNY HELPS ESTABLISH HECLA ISLAND

The first group of Icelandic settlers came in 1876. But they had not been the first. The man that first brought attention to this island north of Gimli was Henry McKenny.

Henry McKenny the man responsible for establishing Portage and Main, is also one of the first to create economic activity at Hecla Island. It was his idea to cut lumber on well forested Hecla Island and ship it to Selkirk for processing on his schooner the Jessie McKenny in 1868. The same year a saw mill and a general store established at Hecla.

MAGNUS HALLGRIMSON

The first Icelander to establish a homestead was Magnus Hallgrimson. He first worked on McKenny's saw mill and also became the island's first postmaster from his home. He called his home Hecla and it caught on as the name used by outsiders. The Icelanders actually called the island Mikley or big island. Until a cause way was built as part of the park development, Hecla was isolated during parts of the year. Hecla which is about 18 miles long and 6 miles wide eventually had 500 people. And almost all the residents had something to do with fishing, timber or livestock farming.

THE GOVERNMENT DRIVE THEM OUT

It was in 1970 and 1971. Sixty families had to move out. The land became Hecla provincial Park and the destination resort was named Gull Harbour. The philosophy was that the natural beauty of Hecla would be best be enjoyed without the clutter of people. And parks are easier to run without residents. But the resort failed to realize success and has in fact been a money loser. The lack of people are obvious to a visitor and one just does not feel the pulse of real life there now. People tell stories of visiting Hecla before the park and how take the ferry there before it became a park. It was not fancy, but you got to see a real fishing village.

PLANNING GONE AMUCK

It seems to have started as project to give the Hecla residents economic opportunities. Government studies showed farming was not worthwhile, the fishery had closed and so had the island's high school. Hecla Islanders initially developed the plan. People would have new jobs. But the plan envisioned the residents staying. They liked it there. Residents say that they would not have lived anywhere else, and that the isolation encouraged a very independent style of living. At the time, government was looking to provide additional recreational opportunities. And to provide a destination for the Lord Selkirk. But as the planning process continued there was a major change. The plan got bigger. Residents found out that they would all have to go.

PRICES THE HECLA RESIDENTS GOT

Some found alterative accommodation, but others feel they go next to nothing. Replacement properties were running three times what they got. Since the early 1980s some of the original residents have been actively lobbying to get the land back.

HOW DID SUCH A MISGUIDED PROJECT EVER HAPPEN?

I spoke to many people, three at length. Two were intimately associated with Hecla Park, while a third was closely involved in related projects. All three, concerned about their jobs and reputations, demanded anonymity. One knew all the details but he could not explain how the plan had changed so radically or why.

Another had an admittedly cynical explanation. He thought Hecla may have happened in a time (early 1970s) when a group of master-planning oriented technocrats thought they knew best what should be done. And apparently in those the heady Schreyer years they pretty well could push things through and get their projects done.

A third said he would come looking for me if his name was used. But he kept talking about it. He left government before it was fully completed. He feels that most of the criticism is ill informed. Yet he doubts it would be built that way or at all today.

MANITOBA'S FIRST LEGISLATURE

MANITOBA'S FIRST LEGISLATURE

A government of peace and reconciliation

by George Siamandas

On March 15, 1871 the first session of the Manitoba legislature met to consider the business of the new province of Manitoba. Adams Archibald the benevolent despot that ran the show had been born in Truro Nova Scotia in 1814. He became a lawyer and politician in Nova Scotia were he served as Attorney general. He strongly favoured the union of British North America and was involved in the drafting of the terms of confederation. In 1870 he became the Lieut Gov of Manitoba. Archibald was the right man at the right time. He had sufficient knowledge of the running of government, had good legal training for the passage of basic laws, was a strong believer in confederation, and he had a genuine stance of conciliation towards those involved in the rebellion. As soon as he got to Red River in Sept 2 1870 Archibald met with local leaders and avoided extreme individuals like Schultz and Riel and his top men. Two weeks later on September 20 1870, he appointed an Executive Council comprising Alfred Boyd and Marc Girard both of whom were relative newcomers.

THE FIRST PREMIER

Boyd is listed as being Manitoba's first premier and appears as such in the Canadian Parliamentary Guide. But according to Bruce Donaldson the Province's head of History, Archibald really functioned as Manitoba's first premier. It was Lieut Gov Adams Archibald who really wielded power and was in effect the premier. Till the first legislature opened on March 15 1871 Archibald and his executive council ruled by proclamation. They arranged for a census set up electoral boundaries and planned the first election for December 30, 1870. While essentially operating as an autocrat, Archibald often consulted with people like Tache and James McKay in order to be made aware of local feelings and personalities.

They met for six weeks and they passed a lot of bills. For the first session Archibald had planned a set of 32 bills in order to keep the new legislators "busy and (to) fend off abstractions". In short order they set up a court system, a school act, a law society, electoral boundaries and regulations, and laws on deeds, wills and estates. The system of public schools was like in Quebec, while the system of justice and courts was modeled after the one in Ontario.

The election was held Dec 30 1870. The census for Manitoba was interesting. It showed 558 Indians, 5,757 metis, 4,083 half English half-breeds, 747 white natives of red River, 294 canadians and 525 Britishers and Americans. There were 24 constituencies following the old parish boundaries: 12 French and 12 English. During the election Archibald did his best to ensure that moderate candidates made themselves available for election. There were no formal political parties yet.

Some of the same men that had been part of Red River society helped form the first government; men like AGB Bannatyne, John Norquay, and John Sutherland.

The Canadian Party comprised Britishers like Alfred Boyd, and Henry J Clarke. The French community was represented by Canadians like Joseph Royal, Marc Girard, and Joseph Dubuc all lawyers who helped draft Manitoba 's constitution after that of Quebec. Of the 24 elected to Manitoba 's first legislature, James A Jackson writes that 17 of them were sympathetic to the provisional government and its leader.

When you compare today it seems the first legislature was meeting right after a coup d'etat. It seems to have been a cordial affair considering the seriousness of the issues of the day. Archibald was a pragmatic fellow. And his actions suggest the freedom a person can exercise who is seeking solutions. There were issues of the Riel rebellion that somehow had to be both forgotten, yet addressed. Joseph Royal was elected first speaker. Manitoba was in transition from a fur trading are to an emerging gateway of agricultural commerce. Awaiting was the complex job of setting up a civil service. There was no treasury or a means of raising taxes. There were no roads or other signs of infrastructure.

Archibald got into trouble with the English press for being too cosy to Riel. The amnesty that had been promised by Ottawa was not forthcoming. But Archibald refused to take any action against Riel or any of the other "criminals". It made for bad press in Ontario but went over well in Red River.

There was no legislature. That was not built until 1884, so they met at one of the members homes; the home of Andrew Bannatyne. They chose not to use the Council chamber of Fort Garry perhaps because of its associations with Riel and the provisional govt. But they carved a mace from a portion of Fort Garry's flagstaff and from the hub of a red river cart.

In the fall of 1872 Archibald was replaced by Alexander Morris. He had tired of the heavy pace of the two years at Red River. He became Lieut Gov in Nova Scotia and later won a seat in Parliament. He died in 1892.

JEAN-BAPTISTE LAGIMODIERE

JEAN-BAPTISTE LAGIMODIERE

The Man Who Walked 1,800 Miles

By George Siamandas

You have heard of the road named Lagimodiere but did you know that the man after whom it was named literally walked 1,800 miles or 3,000 km to deliver a message to Lord Selkirk? Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere, Manitoba's most famous traveller completed his trip to Montreal 184 years ago on Mar 10, 1816.

The son of a farmer, Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere, AKA Lagimoniere and Lavimodiere, was born On Christmas Day 1778 in St Antoine sur Richilieu, Quebec. In 1800 JB went west, joined the fur trade and found work in the grand Portage area of Minnesota. He married an Indian woman and they had three daughters. In 1805 he returned home and married Marie Anne Gaboury. They returned to work in the north-west travelling around what would become Alberta and Saskatchewan.

In 1811 he set out for the Forks because he had heard that settlers would be coming to the area and he offered his services to the HBC. He was hired by the HBC on a one-year contract paying £30. JB was a great hunter who could keep their hunting parties supplied with food. Lagimodiere was independent minded and didn't automatically side with the Metis on political issues which explains his work with the HBC.

SETTLED AT RED RIVER

In 1812, Lagimodiere settled in what is now St James where for the next three years Marie Anne would have no neighbour. While they enjoyed peace in St James, 6 miles east in Fort Douglas, what is now Point Douglas, there were a series of violent clashes between the HBC and the NWC. During these difficult times Lagimodiere helped supply the settlers with food. But the Selkirk settlers were evicted from Red River.

HBC agent Colin Robertson asked Lagimodiere to take letters to Lord Selkirk in Montreal, telling of their plight and requesting aid. He set out October 17, 1815 travelling part of the way on horse. A man named Benoni Mairier and an Indian guide initially accompanied him. But later on he was entirely on his own. He carried no food and had to find everything he ate on the way.

The return was even more difficult. Lagimodiere carried back Selkirk's reply to the settlement. The NWC was determined not to let him through. Amongst his various tribulations including delays, he was robbed at Duluth by Indians and a Negro called Bonga. The rivalry between the HBC and the NWC was at a peak and Lagimodiere feared for Marie Anne's life. He would return to find the family safely sheltered by an Indian family.

Lagimodiere would continue to serve as a guide and courier. He received a land grant north of Seine along the east side of the Red River. Here he brought up his family of four boys and four girls. Lagimodiere was the first to permanently settle in the northwest. His wife Marie Anne Gaboury would be the first white woman to permanently settle in the west.

GRANDFATHER OF RIEL

In 1844 daughter Julie would marry neighbour Louis Riel Sr. and give birth to the Louis Riel that would make Manitoba history.

MARIE ANNE GABOURY The First White Woman in Red River

MARIE ANNE GABOURY

The First White Woman in Red River

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

It was 1806 when the first white woman is thought to have come to Red River. Her name was Marie Anne Lagimodiere and she came as the bride of Jean Baptist Lagimodiere. She would be further distinguished in the years to come by being the grandmother of Louis Riel.

Marie-Anne Gaboury was born on Aug 2, 1780 in Maskinonge near Three Rivers. On April 29 1806, she married Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere who had returned to his hometown after 5 years in the Northwest. After a few months they returned to Red River. It took to months to complete the 2000 mile trip from Montreal to Pembina; much of it by canoe.

MEETING LAGIMODIERE'S EX

Upon arrival at Pembina, Lagimodiere's previous Indian wife was very distressed to see Lagimodiere with a new wife. She immediately made plans to eliminate her rival. She prepared a poison and approached Marie Anne disguising her feelings of jealousy and betrayal. Another Indian woman told her white husband who revealed the evil plan. Lagimodiere took notice and moved Marie Anne 25 miles north along the Red. By January 6 she gave birth to first daughter Reine.

COUNTRY WIVES

The idea of taking an Indian girl as a wife had become customary in the new land. Five thousand men had done so by 1777. With no priests, the marriages were informal yet long lasting. The relationships seemed to benefit everyone by forming valuable alliances. But, in 1806 Marie Anne upset the order of things. Gaboury descendants say that due to his wide ranging trips, Lagimodiere had several Indian wives. Other white women like Mrs George Simpson would face the same problem 24 years later. When George Simpson Gov of the HBC at the time cast off his Indian wife, it made everyone else feel discredited and they ostracised him. They stayed only 3 more years.

WELL RECEIVED

Lagimodiere was a hunter and his work would keep them travelling on the plains, wherever the buffalo roamed. Marie-Anne's white complexion and blonde hair were a marvel to the Indians who called her the white goddess. They travelled to Fort Edmonton where Marie learned to prepare pemmican. Their life was constantly full of danger and excitement.

During a buffalo hunt on the prairies she gave birth to her second child a son she called La Prairie. In the Cypress Hill she had a third child she named Cypress. Marie Anne was left alone for a full year while husband Lagimodiere delivered letters from the settlement to Lord Selkirk in Montreal.

THE FIRST WHITE WOMAN

There is considerable debate as to whether Marie Anne Gaboury was the first woman in the west. She is the first to permanently settle in the west. But it appears a few months before Marie Anne's arrival another woman disguised as a man had stowed aboard a ship. After giving birth she was discovered and sent back to England.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MARIE-ANNE?

She lived to be 95 (died Dec 7, 1875 in St Boniface) and barely had a sick day. She had 3 sons and 3 daughters. For decades, because she was the only baptised woman, she became godmother to much of the St Boniface population. Her grandson was Louis Riel but her descendants included several other distinguished Canadians.

FATHER GEORGES ANTOINE BELCOURT

FATHER GEORGES ANTOINE BELCOURT

"The Man the Indians Called the Great Spirit"

by George Siamandas

April 4, 1803 marked the birth of Father Belcourt, one of the most popular Roman Catholic missionaries who pioneered work amongst the native people. This outstanding man was called the Great Spirit by the native people of the west. Belcourt was the eldest of eleven children born to Antoine Belecour and Josephte Lemire who were farmers in Yamaska County Lower Canada. He was ordained by Bishop Panet in 1827. Belcourt took the trouble to learn English. Learning he would be coming to the west he spent two months at Oka to learn Algonquin, a language similar to the Cree and Saulteaux languages of western tribes. Together with Bishop Provencher, Belcourt came out to Red River in the spring of 1831. A fastidious writer, Belcourt kept graphic descriptions of his travels from day one in his daily journal.

BELCOURT THE CARPENTER

Father Belcourt was an able carpenter that assisted in the building of Provencher's new St Boniface Cathedral. He also built furnishings for Provencher's home and helped establish a workshop that produced prefabricated door frames at St Francis Xavier. Belcourt did this in part because he needed extra money and worked as a tradesman making door frames and cart wheels.

BAIE ST PAUL

Near what is now St. Eustache, Belcourt established a mission and worked to turn the Indians into Christians. But Provencher was always disappointed with Belcourt's productivity at attracting converts. Belcourt retained the respect of the Indians like no other white man. His facility and interest in learning Indian languages was a big help. He also helped develop native language that helped express Christian concepts and ideas. Indians travelled from as far as the west coast to meet the man they called the "Great Spirit." Belcourt wrote textbooks and worked to develop a Saulteaux English dictionary.

OTHER NORTHERN MISSIONS

Belcourt made extensive visits to the interlake trying to establish literally a dozen new missions. He was not always welcome by the Indian bands. He also went to Rainy Lake, White Dog, Duck Bay, Swan River, Fort Francis, He travelled by water using a birch bark canoe he built himself.

INDUSTRIAL ARTS

Belcourt had a variety of garden seeds sent out and he tried to establish farms. Belcourt had frequent disagreements with Provencher. It is thought he tried to do too much, too soon, and Provencher felt his work was too costly. His mission was not considered productive enough. Belcourt was considered a wishful thinker. But he was a great persuader. And he received separate funding from Quebec for his missions over Provencher's disapprovals. Amongst other things Belcourt wanted to start an industrial school.

Belcourt became independent and disagreed with Provencher and his HBC sympathies. Provencher feared Belcourt had gone native. Belcourt started "going to the prairies" or out on the buffalo hunts. He documented the hunt in great detail: how it was organized, their route, and the hunting methods.

POLITICS

He fought to maintain access for the buffalo hunters into the northern US after 1845 when the US became concerned with border crossers. Belcourt also helped the Metis in their trading grievances with the HBC at a time when the HBC was suppressing free trading. Neither the HBC or Bishop Provencher agreed with this action and they had Belcourt recalled to Quebec.

Annoyed by this interference, Belcourt went south of the border and spent 11 years near Pembina North Dakota at St Josephe. In 1859 he left the west and relocated to Rustico, Prince Edward Island where he helped establish the Farmer's Bank of Rustico forerunner to a Credit Union. He died peacefully on May 31, 1874.

WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS MANITOBA MISSIONS?

His missions did not survive. It is said that several hundred natives left Manitoba to follow him to Pembina. His works suggest that he may have been an early pioneer of the social gospel. Today Belcourt, North Dakota, just south of the International Peace Gardens, stands as the only reminder of this distinguished man who got along better with his parishioners than he did with the church and political hierarchy.

THE ANSON NORTHUP'S MAIDEN VOYAGE TO FORT GARRY

THE ANSON NORTHUP'S

MAIDEN VOYAGE TO FORT GARRY

by George Siamandas

On May 19, 1859 the Anson Northup became the first steamboat to successfully launch on the Red River reaching Fort Garry on June 10. It arose out of a sense of opportunity that St Paul Minnesota businessmen saw in the Red River district and the Canadian North West. They were encouraged by the Hudson Bay company's interest in pursuing this American route over their traditional Hudson Bay route. In January 1859 the St Paul Chamber of Commerce offered $1,000 to whoever could put the first riverboat on the Red and get it to Fort Garry. When the prize was raised to $2,000 Captain Anson Northup took on the challenge.

RIVER TRANSPORTATION ON THE RED

For centuries the aboriginals had used the rivers for transportation and so did the fur traders. Prior to this north south route most traffic had been through Hudson Bay. But by the 1840s well developed cart trails were active between red River and St Paul. By 1856 half the goods reaching Red River came through St Paul. Brigades of Red River carts were bringing up machinery for a textile mill and agricultural equipment like reapers and mowers. The emerging system of the railroad, the steamship and then the red river cart proved more efficient than the HBC's Hudson Bay route. Even the HBC saw these benefits and began to be supportive of this north south route. The challenge was out to replace the red river cart with steamboats on the Red as they had been active on the Mississippi since the 1820s.

WHERE DID THE ANSON NORTHUP COME FROM?

It was actually comprised of parts of an earlier boat called the North Star that had been dismantled the previous winter at Crow Wing on the Mississippi. Thirty men worked with 13 yokes of oxen and 17 teams of horses to drag the machinery and fresh lumber the 150 mile distance over the winter's snows. It was reassembled at LaFayette on the mouth the Sheyene River on the Red and renamed the Anson Northup and launched on May 19, 1859 just as the flood waters were receding. It was 90 feet long and had a beam of 20 feet. It was powered by a one hundred horsepower engine. It was modest example of a riverboat looking much like a house boat with a smoke stack and the paddle wheel on the stern. Only on the second level was there room for a deck. The entire first deck went for the storage of wood, much of which was cut as the boat travelled north along the river.

WHAT WAS THAT TRIP LIKE?

It was truly a voyage of enterprise, and the ship was not lacking in enterprising individuals who wanted to get in on the ground floor of what would later become a boom town. Among the group of first arrivals was the man noted for having begun the corner of Portage and Main and that was Henry McKenny. McKenny went on to introduce lumbering in the 1870s.

HOW SIGNIFICANT WAS THE RIVER TRAVEL THAT BEGAN ON THE RED?

It had its ups and owns. The Red is a shallow river with many bends. The 1860s the first decade of operation were noted as very low river levels making it a challenge to make it to Fort Garry. Along with problems with the Indians in 1861 and 1862 this early venture had its growing pains. Through the 1870s steamships proliferated. Many immigrants came to Winnipeg in that decade. But the competition and coming of the railroad meant the end of these ships. By the end of the 1870s a period of less than 20 years, the steamboat era on the Red was over. Ironically a steamship brought the first locomotive to St Boniface in 1878.

After refurbishment in Nettley Creek the ship was sold to Burbanks and then to Hudson Bay Co in 1861. Unfortunately it sank that year at Cooks Creek just as winter was coming on. Parts were salvaged and its engine is thought to have gone on to power a flour mill at St Francois Xavier.

ADAM THOM

ADAM THOM

PEDANTIC FRANCOPHOBE OR ABLE JURIST

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Pedantic Francophobe or able first jurist? Adam Thom was the man who was named the first recorder or judge of Rupertsland, on Jan 1838. Thom was born in Scotland in 1802. He studied at King's College where he received his MA in 1824 and later his LLD in 1840. In 1832 Thom came to Montreal and articled to a law firm. He had strong anti French views, which he expressed as a journalist while working for the Montreal Herald. The next year he was teaching classics, math and science at the Montreal Academic Institute. Thom worked with Lord Durham on the issues prior to the 1837 rebellion and helped write the famous Durham report.

In January 5 1838, Thom was appointed to the newly created judicial post of recorder of Rupertsland on the invitation of HBC Gov Simpson who was in London at the time. The pay was good for the time, &500 salary and another &200 living expenses. In 1839 he came to Red River to start his new career. As recorder, Thom's job was to be a legal organizer, adviser, and magistrate. He was to formalize and organize the judicial system for the HBC's Rupertsland district. By July 1839, Thom had set up a new system. And by 1841, he prepared a code of laws that would last for decades.

Thom proved to be poorly regarded by many of Red River's citizens. They knew of his anti-French feelings and were worried about his ability to be impartial given that he was an HBC employee. And even though the post required it, Thom refused to speak French.

Thom tried to uphold the HBC monopoly over trade as early as 1842. He sought to suppress the illicit fur trade by restrictive measures. It all culminated in the May 17 1849 trial of Pierre Guilaume Sayer. Thom found Sayer guilty, but a large crowd of Metis led by Louis Riel Sr. made sure the verdict was not carried out. The Metis presented a petition of grievances against Thom to Gov Simpson and asking for Thom's dismissal. A compromise was reached and Thom agreed to speak French. Thom was very long-winded and very legalistic in rendering his judgements. Finally in 1850 after repeated opposition to Thom, Simpson revoked his appointment as recorder. Simpson wrote of Thom's "unfortunate temper and over bearing manner."

Thom had also exceeded his authority in sentencing a Saulteax Indian to death when it was a case that should have been tried in Upper Canada. He also gave prejudiced evidence in a case and foolishly insulted highly regarded locals such as Cuthbert Grant.

In 1854 Thom left Red River and returned to Edinburgh. He wrote an account of Simpson's trip around the world. He died in London in 1890 at age 88, leaving an estate of &5,310 to his only surviving son Adam. Early history accounts paint Thom an able pioneering jurist. More recent writings see him as a pedantic long-winded dishonest man, out to be an advocate of the HBC, and a hater of the French. There seems to be enough evidence for both views.

AMBROISE LEPINE

AMBROISE LEPINE

Was he a man propelled by mission, or loyalty?

by George Siamandas

On March 5 1870, Thomas Scott was executed to death for opposing the Riel provisional government. Presiding over that trial was Riel's right hand man, Ambroise Lépine. Lépine was Riel's military commander during the provisional government and directed the tribunal that sentenced Thomas Scott to death.

Ambroise Lépine was born at St. Boniface on May 18, 1840. His mother was a Saskatchewan Metis and his father was Quebec-born Jean Baptiste Lépine, who owned a big river lot in the Fort Rouge area. (Near the King george Hospital). The Lépines were part of the French-speaking elite at Red River. Young Ambroise was educated at St Boniface College and at age 19 married Cecille Marion. They took up agriculture on a farm in the south end of Winnipeg near near Louis Riel. But like a true Metis, Lépine also hunted and trapped with Metis friends and had a reputation as a keen marksman.

By force of physical presence Lépine was destined for leadership and looked it standing six foot three. He is described as having a "magnificent physique with hair of raven blackness, a large aquiline nose and eyes of piercing brilliance."

HOW HE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE RESISTANCE

Ambroise and his wife were neighbours of Louis Riel. When the initial conflict began, Lépine was challenged by Riel: Was he for or against the Metis? Lépine did not have strong political views of his own. Was it a sense of community loyalty? Almost an impulsiveness that got him involved? He is said to have been a man of action and not a man of ideas. Lépine got into the thick of it by first barring William McDougal's entry into Manitoba and then by helping Riel and O'Donohue raise the Fleur de Lis banner when they seized Fort Garry on Dec 7, 1869. Scott was tried and executed outside the walls of Fort Garry. The Canadian government later took back the Fort causing Lépine and Riel to flee in August 1870.

WHAT HAPPENED TO LEPINE AFTER THE RESISTANCE?

His brother Baptiste Lépine was murdered in anti Riel attacks. Ironically. Baptiste had been a member of Scott's tribunal and had argued against executing him. Riel and Lépine hid in the Manitoba countryside and helped quell the Fenian raid. Riel's good relationship with Lieut Gov Adams Archibald caused Archibald a lot of embarrassment.

Tache gave them $1,600 each to go off to the USA. As a further incentive, a $5,000 bounty had been put on their heads. For the next three years Riel and Lépine were lost in the USA. Apparently Lépine became lonely and returned to Manitoba with his amnesty question unresolved. In the fall of 1874 he was arrested at his farm.

LEPINE FOUND GUILTY AND SENTENCED TO DEATH

On October 10, 1874 Lépine was found guilty of aiding in the murder of Scott and was sentenced to be hung on January 29, 1875. His sentence was commuted to two years in prison by Lord Dufferin Canada's Governor General. In 1875 Lépine and Riel's amnesty was approved. But it meant banishment. Lépine had grown weary of politics. He chose to serve out his sentence and avoid banishment.

It is not clear what he thought of the whole business. Lépine withdrew from public life. He had already paid dearly for his political involvement. Lépine had a sense that St. Boniface did not back him up. And apparently on the streets of Winnipeg people would not let him forget the past. Louis Riel believed that Lépine thought him to be mad. Lépine chose not to become involved in the 1884-1885 rebellion. Lépine returned to farming but suffered several misfortunes in several places in Manitoba. In 1907, Lépine left Manitoba and moved to Saskatchewan.

Lepine came home in old age. Lépine returned to St. Boniface in 1923 where he died on June 8. This man who chose to make love instead of war had fathered 14 children. He lived twice as long as Riel, and lies buried next to Louis at St. Boniface Cemetery.

PRITCHARD AVE PUBLIC BATHS

PRITCHARD AVE PUBLIC BATHS

Children Never Swim on Sunday

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

THE GRAND OPENING

Fifteen hundred people attended the opening ceremonies May 6, 1912,opened by Mayor RD Waugh. Waugh a big recreation advocate in Winnipeg had been trying to get the Pritchard Pool built for years. Finally in 1909 ratepayers approved the $50,000 budget. Located at the corner of Charles St and Pritchard Ave, and costing $50,000, the Pritchard Baths tank measured 79 by 68 feet and was 2.5 to 7 feet deep. It had 38 dressing rooms, 72 lockers and 17 individual shower stalls plus 31 children's showers.

Everyone had to shower going in. A sterilizing machine guaranteed healthy supplies of bathing suits and towels which rented for a nominal 10 cents. Civic planners wanted a modest charge so that the pool would not be seen as a charity. While an orchestra played, a swimming show was given by Mrs Harrison and R Ernest Collins, a man with only one leg. Percy Cox officiated at the first water polo game ever held in Winnipeg. And the Manitoba Swim Club demonstrated scientific swimming. Staff had been hired to teach swimming. Mr J Harris would be teaching swimming to men, while Mrs Harris a bronze medal winner from the Royal Life Saving Society would instruct women.

EARLY SWIMMING SPOTS

There were only two places to swim in Winnipeg at the turn of the century. The only indoor pool was at the YMCA. The city operated an outdoor area with poolhouse along the Red River 200 yards east of the Louise Bridge. Elm Park a peninsula surrounded by the Red was another popular spot. The first indoor pool was the Cornish Baths built in 1909, followed by the Pritchard Baths in 1912. The plan was to set up pools in every district.

PUBLIC HOURS

The sexes were not allowed to swim together. Men had the pool on Mondays. Thursdays were women only days. Strangely children were not permitted to use the pool on Sunday. During the rest of the week men had the pool from 10-12 while women had it from 1-10pm.

INDOOR POOLS WERE NOT AN EARLY SUCESS

Indoor pools proved to be a shallow success. Expensive to operate, they received less use than expected. The Cornish Baths lasted 20 years and were closed in 1930. The Sherbrook Pool was built to take over this function in 1931. In the same year an outdoor pool opened at Sargent Park: the biggest in western Canada.

The Pritchard baths closed down in 1948 and were replaced by an outdoor pool. Never a success the outdoor pool was closed down and the new Kildonan Park pool opened in 1966 as a replacement for the Pritchard Pool. In 1970 a new indoor pool was built on the Old Exhibition grounds as a centennial project. Finally the north end had an indoor pool again.

MAYOR R. D. WAUGH The Mayor That Introduced Playgrounds to Winnipeg

MAYOR R. D. WAUGH

The Mayor That Introduced

Playgrounds to Winnipeg

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Mayor Richard Dean Waugh noted for introducing playgrounds to Winnipeg. Waugh's efforts resulted in a mass public meeting on May 28, 1908, which led to the opening of Winnipeg's first playground. Waugh was born in 1868 in Melrose Scotland. He came to Winnipeg in 1883 with his parents after living in Kincardine Ont. for a few years. In Ontario he got an early start working as a purser on steamboat lines.

In 1905 Waugh became a member of the city's parks Board and its chair in 1907. He worked on a committee that developed cycle paths. Waugh would be a sportsman his entire life and was interested in improving the city's amenities. He was for good roads and for city beautification. He wanted Winnipeg to become one of the beauty spots of Canada. He was active in curling and head of the Real Estate Exchange.

PLAYGROUNDS

In 1907 as chair of the Parks Board, Waugh tried to convince council to begin to develop playgrounds as existed in the United States. "Small areas of land fitted with amusement paraphernalia. Skilled instructors with the highest moral training." City Council refused. In May 1908 a meeting of playground enthusiasts met with Mayor James Ashdown. With Ashdown as the group's chairman he reviewed how best to reach their goal. Ashdown discouraged them from asking the city once again and instead suggested a voluntary association. During the summer of 1908 a model playground was set up at Central School funded by an $800 grant from the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Council of women. It proved a big success. Seven playgrounds were set up in Winnipeg's north end in 1909 and by 1920, 20 playgrounds were operating. And for winter play, by 1912, skating rinks were being set up.

MAYOR RD WAUGH

Waugh had served several terms on the Board of Control and in 1912 was elected mayor. These were Winnipeg's glory days with civic growth and prosperity at an unparalleled rate. Waugh proved a popular mayor, but Waugh found that his stint as mayor became an intolerable burden on his private business life. His partner Thompson Beattie who had run the business had perished on the Titanic and now Waugh had to return to private life to rescue his real estate and law business.

Waugh recommended several civic reforms upon leaving. He had seen how being mayor was a full time job. He recommended a 2-year term for mayor and the abolition of a property qualification for those seeking public office. Waugh went to England to help negotiate a loan for Winnipeg, which he discovered, had the best financial reputation of any Canadian City. He also visited his hometown Melrose where he found the towns depleted of young people who had emigrated to Canada. In 1915 Waugh became mayor once again and served till 1916. He left to become head of the new Water District Board. By now Winnipeg's glory days were nearing an end.

Winnipeg's Carnegie Libraries

Winnipeg's Carnegie Libraries

By George Siamandas

WINNIPEG'S FIRST LIBRARY

Selkirk Settlers and Hudson Bay men like Peter Fiddler were the first contributors to Winnipeg's libraries. Fidler donated 500 books upon his death in 1822. The Manitoba Scientific and Historical Society was the founder of what later became the Winnipeg Public Library. In 1881 2,500 books were borrowed in Winnipeg. In 1905 the Carnegie Library was built at 380 William Ave at a cost of $100,000. It was opened by Earl Grey on Oct 11, 1905. Built of native Manitoba limestone, the William Ave library was designed by Samuel Hooper. The man that made this and two other branches possible was Andrew Carnegie, the noted philanthropist who donated $75,000 towards construction of the William Library. Carnegie helped with another $39,00 for an addition, and in 1915 paid the total cost of the Cornish and St. John's Libraries. The new libraries were the result of the initiative of provincial Librarian J. P. Robertson who wrote to Carnegie pleading for the same kind of assistance that had made the Ottawa library possible.

ANDREW CARNEGIE

Carnegie was Scottish born and lived between 1835 and 1919. In a classic rags to riches story, he made his fortune in railroads and oil and steel enterprises. His philosophy was that the best kind of assistance one could offer was to help people help themselves. Of the $330 million that Carnegie donated, more than $56 million went to the establishment of 2,507 libraries around the world. One hundred and Twenty-five were built in Canada at a cost of $2,556,660. He also helped colleges, and supported cultural and research grants. His designs were different from the private libraries in that they were open and accessible. The William Street Library proclaims above its doorway "Free to All." In Carnegie's libraries, children were encouraged to attend and you could look through the shelves and find your own books.

STAGNANT DECADES

There was a boom in demand in the 1920s and branch stations were being set up in grocery stores, drug stores and fire halls. Bookmobiles were started in 1953. But in the late fifties money by-laws for the establishment of branch libraries were defeated one after the other. The city instead decided to create four modest branches in the 1960s which cost under $75,000 each: the River Heights, Downtown, McPhillips and the West End. In 1972 the City built the new Central Library on Graham Ave at a cost of $10 million.

IMPORTANTANCE OF LIBRARIES

For both rich or poor, libraries have always played an important community building role in Winnipeg. Libraries have served as neighbourhood information centres. They help create an atmosphere for learning. They are places children can explore their interests, study and be exposed to a wealth of information. As a teenager I can remember many a winter day studying at the William Street Library while the steam heat radiators hissed and popped in the background.

TODAY'S LIBRARY

Today there are 21 branches which last year circulated 5.6 million materials from a collection of 1.6 million items. Three hundred thousand people hold library cards. And last year they answered 413,000 information questions. But their role is changing rapidly with technology. Now the building is not important, nor is going to the building itself necessary. And the book of the future will become a CD Rom, a database or a computer network. TheWinnipeg Library will soon open with major enhancements and renovations.

Building Winnipeg's New City Hall

Building Winnipeg's New City Hall

Ending 60 Years of Bickering

By George Siamandas

THE 60 YEAR DEBATE TO BUILD A NEW CITY HALL

Winnipeg had been slow to renew its ageing gingerbread city hall. As early as 1910 city fathers had planned to replace it but the First World War postponed it. After WW2 there were plans to replace it once again, but it would take another 16 years of studies and planning before they would actually build it. For decades Winnipeg had envied Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver, cities that had finer civic buildings. By the time Juba was elected he was a big proponent of building a new one. And to dramatise the bad condition the old one was in, he took out an insurance policy on himself should the old city hall collapse on him while he was on the job.

But deciding to build it wasn't easy. Civic voters had twice turned down money by-laws refusing to pay for building another pet project: the Disraeli freeway. A writer in 1957 chided councillors that there was enough paper from research and studies to build the first floor and that they should just get on with building a new one. Finally in 1957 the city was successful in having taxpayers agree to spend $6m on a new city hall. Voters had opted by 79% for a site across from the legislature at the corner of Broadway and Memorial Blvd. A Canada-wide design competition was held in 1958 and 91 proposals were received, some them quite futuristic. Up to date even for the year 2000.

The winning proposal was more conventional and came from Winnipeg's Green Blankstein and Russell. The plan to build it on Broadway was abandoned, as Premier Roblin persuaded the city to reconsider the location and put it back in the heart of the warehouse district. As a tool of urban renewal, and together with the plans for a new Concert Hall it was seen as a necessary rejuvenating influence for the area.

DEMOLISHING OLD CITY HALL

By now the old 1886 Gingerbread city hall had few supporters. While some called for it to be saved and used as a civic museum, these thoughts were termed the thoughts of "dreamers and idealists." Alex Clifton-Taylor an architectural critic from England called it "unbelievably ugly" in a Sept 15, 1956 article, and much too small for a city of Winnipeg's size. Clifton-Taylor observed that the old city hall had been built in the Victorian period, a time in which "artistic taste was low." And that a "newly rich class (of Winnipeggers) with lots of money and no taste" had built it. Just to check on his credentials, though the Free Press reporter took him to see the legislature, which he liked.

THE NEW CITY HALL

In approving the new city hall, thrifty Winnipeggers had provided for no frills. This was still a prairie town that counted its $6M public dollars carefully. GBR was challenged to create a contemporary Tyndall limestone building over a steel facade with its interior finished in black Quebec granite. And to provide a high level of interior design within.

But clearly there had been no money to pursue the cautionary note at the bottom of the city's report recommending the GBR design. It had urged that people want "the buildings that represent their social and civic life not to be just functionally fulfilling, they want their aspirations for monumentality, joy, pride and excitement to be fulfilled as well."

But costs gradually mounted adding another $3M to the cost. To bury this overrun they renamed it from City Hall to the Civic Centre to express the larger project that had been evolving as parkade was added. Alderman Crawford who was in charge of the project proclaimed the new city hall was so well built with 900 tons of steel, that its life expectancy was 200 years. Winnipeg's new city hall opened Monday Oct 5 1964.

REACTION TO THE NEW CITY HALL

Upon completion it was named the ugliest building in Canada, "a prison, a shoe box, Lenin's tomb." And immediately as the 600 workers took their places the staff complained about overcrowding and being "packed to the gills." It was already too small.

TRANSCONA Winnipeg's Railway Town

TRANSCONA

Winnipeg's Railway Town

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Transcaona was built because of the railway shops. And on April 6, 1912 Transcona received its charter. It had been a heady period for businessmen that had enjoyed visions of a second Chicago. Transcona is named for the Transcontinental Railway (TRANS) and (CONA) for Lord Strathcona. It was one of the few places in Manitoba that does not owe its origins to agriculture but to the railway. In 1907 800 acres were acquired for the railway shops. It was soon discovered to be a swamp, part of a natural watercourse running from the Tache municipality to the Red River. As the shops were being built, 4 feet of fill were used to elevate the entire facility. The original town located south of the shops was largely abandoned and a new town was built north for the shops.

MAJOR RAIL CENTRE

There was a wish to create a second national railway at a time when small railways were seeing very difficult days. When the amalgamation finally took place, 3 private, 4 govt and 149 other railways came together to form the Canadian National Railway, complete by 1923. At one time 2,000 found jobs there and the facility was planned to employ 5,000. There was work for trainmen, machinists, blacksmiths, boilermakers, electricians, pipe fitters and upholsterers. Over the years Transcona has had its ups and downs reflecting levels of employment at the shops. Now it employs only 700. It has the second largest Ukrainian community in Winnipeg after the north end. The shop also built locomotives, and No 2747, was the first. Taken out of service in 1960 it has been preserved in a park. Over the years, 37 locomotives were built at the Transcona Shops

BANKRUPTCY

The boom was on. Land that had been selling for 100 per lot was now selling for $100 per front foot. The boom did not last. But hard time in the when rail business was low due to the end of the immigration of settlers to the west and low grain prices. In 1920 Transcona had to face hard facts. Dreams of their future had been unrealistic. When it came time for city council to pay for services it found it had $285,00 in expenditures but only $4,485 in revenues. The town's affairs were taken over by the province till 1927 when it began to run its own affairs. Till Regent Ave was paved in July 1931, under a depression works program, most Transcona residents would go to the city, Winnipeg, by train.

DUGALD TRAIN WRECK

On Sept 1, 1947, the country's worst train wreck happened as a train of vacationers returned form Minaki ran into a transcontinental train at the Dugald station a few minutes east of Transcona. It killed 35.

THE INCORPORATION OF ST BONIFACE

THE INCORPORATION OF ST BONIFACE

Its Struggle to Remain Distinct

By George Siamandas

ORIGINS OF ST BONIFACE

St Boniface incorporated as a city on Feb 25, 1908, and has struggled to remain distinct. Fifty years before Manitoba was even a province, there was a thriving community in St Boniface. In 1734 La Verendrye had reached the Forks and built Fort Rouge. In 1818 Lord Selkirk asked Bishop Plessis of Quebec to send missionaries to care for the emerging Metis population. Upon arrival in 1818, Father Provencher named the mission St Boniface. There were already more than 200 people living at the Forks.

ST BONIFACE: A CITY OF FIRSTS

The first white woman in the west was Marie Anne Gaboury. Her great-great granddaughter, Diane Landry would be Miss Canada in 1967. The west's first French Radio station CKSB went on the air May 27, 1946. St Boniface was also first to have a railway connection. Since 1844, the Grey Nuns have taken care of educational and health needs, In 1870 they gave 3,000 smallpox vaccinations, and in 1871 the Grey Nuns built the first hospital with 4 beds. Winnipeg had been incorporated in 1873. In 1876 St Boniface considered incorporation as a city but rejected the idea. In 1880 it was incorporated as a municipality as required by a new provincial law. In 1908 with a population of 5,930 it finally became a city.

SERVICES & PUBLIC WORKS

By 1883 St Boniface had a police and fire dept. But financial difficulties in the 1890s saw them cut fire protection services. The first hydro poles were put up in 1890 by the Northwest Power Company. First electrical service went to the Archbishop's palace and the St Boniface College. Water had initially come from the Red River, but in 1884 they put in artesian wells. In 1905, a water works plant and reservoir were built. Till the first bridge, all crossings were by a ferry near where the Norwood Bridge stands today. And where the ferry operated, so sprang up the first industries.

AVOIDING ANNEXATION

At the turn of the century English people began to move into Norwood and the issue of annexation came up. In a struggle to remain French and distinct, St Boniface chose to incorporate instead. Norwood grew with its own services. Houses replaced a golf course and marshland including several small lakes. Norwood's first minister, JS Woodsworth, preached from a tent at Marion and Kenny.

COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

Some early industries included a soap factory in 1876, a brick plant in 1879, a wool factory, brewery, and a sawmill. After a major industrial development strategy in 1909, industry boomed in St Boniface. The St Boniface Archdiocese Corp began to sell off their lands for development. First with the railway and with abundant electrical power, St Boniface offered grants for industries to locate there. Tanneries, stockyards, meat packers and flourmills poured in.

The stockyards and meat packing plants began to be built in 1913 on 20 acres of land. The Shell refinery was built in 1920. A dye works, grain companies, a roofing manufacturer, and a steel plant followed.

Today, more than 190 years after its founding, St Boniface remains the bastion of French Canadian culture in western Canada. In so many ways, the new Metis nation and the people of St Boniface, had more to do with the creation of Manitoba than did the English-speaking people of Winnipeg.

THEATRES IN WINNIPEG

THEATRES IN WINNIPEG

By George Siamandas

At one time Winnipeg had as many as 130 theatres.

Portage Ave:

Capitol 295 Portage and 313 Donald

Furby Theatre 599 Portage

Gaiety Theatre 459 Portage

Lyceum 292 Portage

Metropolitan 283 Donald

Odeon Smith

Orphium Theatre 283 Fort

Osborne 108 Osborne

Palace 501 Selkirk

Rialto

Main St

Bijou 498 Main St

College Theatre 1296 Main

Colonial 634 Main

Columbia 604 Main

Epic/Regent 644 Main St

Garrick Theatre 30 Garry

Strand 559 Main

Starland 630 Main

Neighbourhoods

Acadia 572 Selkirk

Arcadia gardens 307 Portage Ave

Arlington Theatre 863 Portage Ave

Baddow 323 Tache

Classic 18837 Portage

Corrona 1433 Logan

Mac's Theatre 585 Ellice

Park 698 Osborne

Plaza 105 Marion St

Province 205 Notre dame

Queens 239 Selkirk

Rose 801 Sargent

Tivoli 115 Maryland

Uptown Theatre

Wonderland 595 Sergent

Drive Inns

Airliner

Pembina drive Inn

VOTING IN WINNIPEG CIVIC ELECTIONS

VOTING IN WINNIPEG CIVIC ELECTIONS

By George Siamandas

ONE MAN ONE VOTE?

In the first civic election Mayor Francis Evans Cornish won 383 votes compared to 179 for his opponent William Luxton. But there were only 384 registered voters. Some people like Mayor Joseph Andrews (mayor 1898-1899) got to vote 66 times. How did it happen? At the time property owners were allowed to vote more than once in each ward in which they held property. Many property owners were listed ten fifteen, twenty, thirty times and some like Joseph Andrews mayor during 1898-1899 was registered to vote in 66 locations. Plural voting was not abolished in Winnipeg till 1965.

The aim of qualifying to vote was to represent property not people. In 1914 there was a request by business people and city council supported by Mayor Thomas Russ Deacon, that the companies like his own, Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works should have a vote on money by-laws and should be able to instruct the manager how to vote. Labour opposed this vehemently and it was never passed by the Manitoba Legislature.

Sanford Evans was mayor from 1909 to 1911. A journalist by background he had come from Ontario. Evans was aided in his campaign by his ownership of the Winnipeg Telegram which denounced his political opponent with editorials charging him as a liar. The big election issue that year was whether prostitution should continue to be tolerated in a segregated district. Evans won on a platform of wanting to make Winnipeg a clean city.

After 1890 one was allowed to vote in every ward in which they owned property. In 1910 it was estimated that Winnipeg had 6,000 repeat voters. Beginning with incorporation both voters and candidates had to own some property. In 1906 with a population of 100,000 there were only 7,784 registered electors. In 1895 women were given the right to vote if they had property. Women were not allowed to hold office till 1916. The first to hold office was Jessie Kirk elected in 1921 and it was not until 1933 that the second Margaret McWilliams was elected. Winnipeg has had forty-nine different mayors. All had Anglo Saxon names for the first 83 years. In 1957 Steve Juba became the first (and only) non Anglo Saxon mayor after 46 straight Anglo-Saxons.

Six months residency in Winnipeg or have purchased property in the City of Winnipeg, be a Canadian citizen, and be 18.

The Day They Closed Portage and Main

The Day They Closed Portage and Main

by George Siamandas

On February 24, 1979 the Underground Concourse at Portage and Main was officially opened to the public by Mayor Robert Steen. From that day on pedestrians have been barred from crossing at the famous corner of Portage and Main.

The concourse had been envisioned at the time of the building of the Richardson Building in 1964, and its concourse level was built in the early 1970s with a knock out panel for a future connection. Metro Winnipeg planners of the day felt that the increasing numbers of pedestrians and cars would interfere with one another more and more as the corners were developed. It was also the intention to realize that long standing Winnipeg dream of a weather protected downtown pedestrian walkway. Bernie Wolfe who was a Metro politician attributes the credit for the concourse to Earl Levin who used to be Metro's Chief Planner in the 1960s.

It was quite an engineering feat in that thirty manholes and 120 pipes, tunnels and tubes had to be relocated. All the underground work was done without interfering with traffic above. And it could only have been built after the Floodway was completed, otherwise it would have been prone to flooding.

At the time it was being planned there was small debate and virtually no opposition. Opinion studies done by Streets and Traffic dept the week after it was opened showed high public support for the project at about 80%. But soon it was discovered that it was not accessible by the handicapped and public demands were made to add elevators. To dramatize the issue, Councillor Joe Juken marched illegally over the barriers in 1979. Others like Nick Ternette have also walked across illegally in 1986 and 1995.

There is a lot of consensus that Portaeg and Main should be opened. Most of the general public would like to see it opened during the summer months. After all it is a national landmark. Mayor Susan Thompson has made a commitment that by Jan 1, 1998 she will have the intersection open well in advance for tourists coming to the 1999 Pan Am Games. Tourists who come to Winnipeg who had an image of the famous corner cannot believe that they cannot cross at the street.

Three of the four property owners at the corner have no objections, and the Downtown Biz and the Exchange Biz are for opening it. CentrePlan also has proposals to reopen Portage and Main.

Only one property owner, Trizec, is against it. Bernie Wolfe also remains an adamant opponent of reopening along with the City's Streets and Traffic Department. A 1991 study showed accidents are down 50% with twice the traffic. Also a wind study conducted at the corner in the late 1980s suggests that on windy days, it may be "too dangerous" for pedestrians, now that there are three office towers there.

A compromise would recognize the need to keep traffic moving at peak times and the intersection might only need to be open part of the time. People that have looked at the issue believe that you could open up the crossing between the Richardson Building and the Bank of Montreal with minimal upset to the traffic.

The Richardson corner has the best potential to become a wonderful plaza. The Richardsons could get the ball rolling by considering a major upgrading of their plaza to create a vibrant public space.

The key would be to have some activity, entertainment, an outdoor cafe, a place where the public could sit and watch people and traffic. And to do it with some shelter from the wind and with good outdoor design like lighting and benches.

Trizec and its merchants would also have to be persuaded that they will not lose customers. Attracting more people downtown might even improve their business.

Winnipeggers Lost on the Titanic

Winnipeggers Lost on the Titanic

by George Siamandas

Six Winnipeggers were lost including realtor Mark Fortune and son Charles Fortune, Thompson Beattie, Hugo Ross, JJ Borebank, and George Graham. The most tragic loss was that of Mark Fortune and his son Charles.

Mark Fortune became a wealthy real estate man who had come to Winnipeg in 1874 at age 27. He made his "fortune" in early Winnipeg real estate by promoting what was then just a muddy trail: Portage Ave. Increasingly a man contributing to the growth of Winnipeg, Fortune served as an alderman in 1880. Later in 1903 he was a founding member of the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange and served as its president in 1906. Fortune was known for his honesty and moral standards and for his love of his family. Just months prior to their big trip they had just built a beautiful family home at 393 Wellington Cresc.

The family had spent 1911-1912 in Egypt and Europe and were planning to come back on another ship at the end of April. But Fortune was home-sick and was anxious to return to their elegant new home in which they had only lived a few months before their European trip. They had to be persuaded to return early and he did so by booking first class passage on the Titanic. On the trip were 6 members of the family. Mark and Charles waited on the deck as the life boats filled with women and children. Fortune's 3 daughters and Mrs Fortune are reported to have watched the great ship go down from lifeboat no 10. 705 people survived. Mary, Ethel, Alice and Mabel made it safely to New York. Their mansion at 393 Wellington Cresc is still standing today and was converted into several luxury condominiums by Kathleen Richardson about ten years ago.

Five of the six men lost were active in Winnipeg's real estate industry. Hugo Ross after whom a Fort Rouge street is named was in the real estate business. He lived in the Roslyn Apts. Thompson Beattie was also a real estate man who had come to Winnipeg in 1910 and went into business with Winnipeg mayor RD Waugh. JJ Borebank was another real estate man that became successful developing land in River Heights. George Graham was an Eatons manager who was returning from a buying tour in England.

There are as many stories of Winnipeggers who also sailed on the Titanic but failed to do so. For example Mrs Suckling had pleaded with her husband to sail with their friends the Fortunes but John Suckling favoured the slower ships. Similarly Grain Exchange member Alexander Hargraft and his wife were going to sail with Hugo Ross. But Hargraft's wife became ill so they had left England on an earlier ship.

Apparently Harold Cottam, the wireless operator on the Carpathia moved to Winnipeg to live with his uncle on Toronto St. And Carpathia St. in River Heights was named after the rescue ship in 1913. After the loss of these Winnipeggers (five of whom were in real estate), the Winnipeg Real Estate Exchange furnished a 16 bed ward at the Children's hospital in memory of their members Ross, Beattie and Fortune.

THE GREAT TIME BUILDING FIRE

THE GREAT TIME BUILDING FIRE

"The big fire that threatened Eatons"

By George Siamandas

On June 8, 1954, a major fire broke out on Portage Ave. causing agreat holocaust on Portage Ave. that destroyed the old Time Building, and almost spread to Eatons. The fire broke out just past midnight on Tuesday June 8. It had been a very windy night with the wind blowing over 80km. The alarm came in at 1:18 am and when the fire crew got there, they discovered a fire in the neon sign above a clothing store at the Time Building. But it was stubborn and quickly burned its way up between the floors of this 7 storey building.

The Time Building located was on the north-west corner of Portage Ave. and Hargrave St. diagonally opposite Eatons. It housed a maze of offices and had the well-known J. J. H. McLean piano store on the first floor.

The wind continued to fan the flames and by dawn every available fire-fighter and crew had been called to the scene as the fire had now jumped east across Hargrave and began to destroy other buildings. The firemen created a vertical wall of water along Portage Ave. to protect the buildings on the north side. At one point flames were leaping north across Portage Ave. Eaton's own 50 man fire crew had been playing a curtain of water over the front but this did not prevent the fire reaching the big store. Every window facing Portage Ave. broke and a small fire started on the 6th floor. The store's 4,500 employees were sent home as they arrived for work.

Apparently, Portage Ave. looked like it had been hit by an air raid. It was the city's biggest fire. A neighbouring building, the Dismorr Block, lost two floors. Over 100 businesses were destroyed. It caused $3 million in damages. Yet no one was injured. The fire was blamed on the wind. Six days after the fire, firemen were still on the scene dampening smouldering debris. It cost the city $25,000 to clean up and another $9,000 for damaged equipment.

The Time building was replaced by the Bank of Commerce complete with its sign of the times: Winnipeg's first drive through bank. It still looks like quite a modern building fifty years later.

THOMAS RYAN The Shoe King of Winnipeg

THOMAS RYAN

The Shoe King of Winnipeg

by George Siamandas

Thomas Ryan was famous as Winnipeg's Shoe King, and as mayor of Winnipeg in 1889 introduced strict Sunday closing by-laws. Thomas Ryan was born in 1849 at Perth Ontario. In 1866 at age 17, he fought against the Fenians. He arrived in Winnipeg in 1874 at age 25 during the beginning of Winnipeg's boom. Winnipeg was still the frontier town with horses and ox carts traversing the mud trails and the life of booze, bars pool-rooms and brothels sprawled around his 492 Main St. store.

Ryan had already apprenticed in the boot and shoe trade and with $70 of stock he brought with him to Winnipeg, entered the shoe manufacturing business. He went into partnership with a man called McFarlane whom he bought out two years later for $450. He was an immediate success and became known throughout the west as "The Shoe King" and by 1884 was doing the best trade in the entire country.

Ryan was a religious man who spent his time and money to help establish a community. Ryan had nine children. He became active in the newly organized YMCA and served as president 1883-1885 and he was also an early supporter of Grace Methodist Church.

Thomas Ryan was active in community life serving as an alderman between 1884 and 1888 and became mayor of Winnipeg starting in 1888. Ryan is credited with introducing the Ryan Sunday by-laws limiting Sunday shopping. The topic was frequently debated in Winnipeg churches and the Lord's Day Alliance was a local group in favour of controlling Sunday trade. Officially called the Lord's Day Act it tried to discourage Sunday shopping. Yet in many areas of life it was all but impossible to have people taking Sundays off. Newspaper delivery people, bakers, grocers, railway workers were all needed to do what they do seven days a week.

Over the years the laws waxed and waned on what could be open on Sundays and who could work. Human nature has always preferred the convenience of Sunday shopping. In a major clamp-down that occurred in 1908 the police recorded over 300 infractions.

THE RYAN BUILDING

Ryan's original building on Main St just south of the old city hall was a landmark but was demolished in the 1930s. It was the first stone building in Winnipeg and had the first electric passenger elevator installed a decade later. His second building located at 104 King St. was built in 1895. This four storey building is fashioned in the Richardsonian Romanesque style and was designed by architect H. S. Griffith.

While Griffith designed dozens of Winnipeg buildings this is the only one remaining in Winnipeg. And it is one of the few buildings remaining in Winnipeg associated with a previous mayor. It suffered a fire in the late 1980s and is now boarded up with the owner prevented from demolishing it because of its Grade 2 historic listing.

Ryan was one of those that believed in the future of Winnipeg and did more than his share as a pioneering businessman, civic administrator and devout churchman. His contributions were both commercial and spiritual. Thomas Ryan died in Winnipeg on Nov 24 1937.

Winnipeg's Metropolitan and Capitol Theatres

Winnipeg's

Metropolitan and Capitol Theatres

By George Siamandas

THE MET

The Met originally called the Allen, was built in the 1919 wave of movie palaces by the Allen family, and was completed in 1920. Both theatres were built in what was considered the golden years of the silver screen. They became known as picture palaces where the theatre itself was as splendid as the entertainment to be offered. In the 1920s theatres became larger, luxurious and relatively fire-proof as compared to the older vaudeville houses like the Walker and the Pantages.

The Allens which had originated in the US, owned 45 theatres then. The architect was Howard Crane from Detroit a noted theatres architect. The Met has an opulent lobby, the auditorium seats 2,500, and the ceiling has lovely plaster ceiling and massive chandelier. Of the two theatres the Met is the most intact.

The new theatres like the Allen, which became the Metropolitan in 1923, and the Capitol incorporated lavish details like elaborate plaster decoration using classical details, mirrors and crystal ornamentation.

The second floor promenade of the Met had overstuffed chesterfields and chairs, in gold white, old rose and french grey. It was a place where people came early and stayed late. Silent films and some vaudeville continued till the talkies arrived in the 1928. There was a house orchestra and a grand Wurlitzer organ.

The Allen (Met) had special indirect lighting that was controlled to give magical effects as the lights dimmed before the show. For opening day on Jan 2 1920 the usherettes were dressed in crisp black and white uniforms and Union Jacks were draped over the capacity balcony which seated 1000. The Allen played four shows a day.

THE CAPITOL

The Capitol opened in 1921 and was designed by New York architect Thomas Lamb. Lamb did all of Famous Players Theatres. He also designed Madison Square Gardens and many of Toronto's Theatres. It was unique in that it was a two part structure. It had its entry and marquee on Portage Ave where Le Chateau is today. But because land was too expensive to put the theatre on Portage, it was built on Donald with a connecting tunnel on the second level over the back lane. It had an extravagant entry with a marble staircase. In 1979 the Capitol was remodelled and became two theatres by being cut into two at the balcony level. The Met closed in 1987, the Capitol in 1990.

An American-based conglomerate, Famous Players took away the Allen's distribution deal for Paramount pictures signing an 18 year deal. Understandably, the Allens got into financial trouble, and in 1922 and were bought out by competitor Famous Players in 1923 for a tiny fraction of what their theatres were worth. By 1930, Famous Players controlled 207 of Canada's 229 chain theatres.

The Capitol was the Allen's main competitor. It had 2,200 seats and a similar arrangement with balcony and elaborate plaster detailing. One entered from Portage Avenue up until 1963 or 1964. After purchasing tickets one would walk up a flight of marble stairs and marble finished walls. There were silk tapestries, mirrors and heavy brass railings to guide the theatre goer up and over that tunnel to the theatre itself. Children remember seeing Pollyanna at the Capitol just before its Portage Avenue entrance was abandoned and remember the experience of that grand entry which seemed so rich and opulent like the interiors in movie itself.

Sunday Streetcars

Sunday Streetcars

Observance of the Sabbath Vs Leisure

By George Siamandas

Winnipeg streetcars were finally permitted to run on Sundays for the first time on July 8, 1906. Until then everyone walked or used a bicycle to get around on Sunday. Across Canada, excepting Quebec, there were few things one could do on Sundays. Churches that wanted to keep the Sabbath had always opposed Sunday operation of streetcars. They wanted to give the street railwaymen time to worship. After all they were already working 10 hours a day, six days a week.

THE FIRST SUNDAY OPERATION

The first Sunday operation had been a one-time-only special occasion. It was the funeral of carman Patrick Mullan held on March 13, 1904. The cortege required 10 streetcars and thousands attended the passing of the cars through the downtown.

HOW SUNDAY OPERATION CAME INTO BEING

There had been several proposals to City Council and the legislature to permit Sunday operation of streetcars since the turn of the century. The issue was debated in letters to the editor of the Free Press. Some argued that with places to go that there would fewer drunks. Others argued that where this had been introduced, such as in Toronto, church attendance went up 20%. Sabbatarians argued that those cities that had done this were rapidly on their way to degeneration and ruin. It was put to the public a number of times. In Dec 2, 1902 Sunday operation was narrowly defeated 2,370 to 2,166 in a civic vote.

SUNDAY OPERATION APPROVED

Finally on June 28, 1906 it was put to another public vote. The Free Press was a staunch advocate and said that Sunday operation was a "humanitarian necessity in this city of magnificent distances." And that "people interested in vice do not need to go into the country to gratify their inclination towards wickedness." The results were 2,890 for and 1,647 against Sunday operation. Winnipeggers were jubilant and took their first chance to head to the parks, completely jamming the cars assigned to that first day.

The cars operated from 7:00am to midnight and the fare was 8 tickets for 25 cents. Out of respect for Sunday the speed would be held to 6 miles an hour near churches and the gong would only be sounded in emergencies. Streetcars rolled down a double track running down the middle of Broadway Avenue with its young elm saplings lining the edges of the wide centre Boulevard. Those that did not go to the parks delighted in joy riding around for hours, enjoying tours of the city.

WHERE DID PEOPLE GO ON SUNDAY?

It was just in time for newly opened Assiniboine Park. People enjoyed taking the open streetcars to other parks like River Park, and Elm Park. They also went to Happyland Park, which opened in spring 1906. Happyland was located on the south side of Portage Ave between Sherburn and Garfield. It lasted 14 years and then became Dominion and Aubrey streets. The old bus turn around remains on Aubrey St. In 1907, a special line ran into St Charles Golf Club. For many years the streetcar was the only way of getting there and to all the golf courses. And right into the 1940s, people would carry their clubs with them onto the streetcars.

STREETLIGHTS COME TO WINNIPEG

STREETLIGHTS COME TO WINNIPEG

By George Siamandas

THE FIRST STREETLIGHT IN WINNIPEG

The first street light was set up by Mr. Robert A. Davis outside his hotel Davis House (just north of where the TD Bank now stands) on March 12, 1873. The light was probably made by E L Bentley a neighbouring tinsmith who offered others for sale for $10. But it is unlikely it was an electric lamp as there was still no source of electricity.

Davis had come to the village of Winnipeg in 1870. In 1874 he was elected to the Manitoba Legislature and later became premier of Manitoba. He was credited with getting a good financial deal for Manitoba in setting up the province. But in 1876 he moved to Chicago were he became a wealthy businessman.

In June 1882 Mr. P.V. Carroll came from New York and arranged a demonstration of four electric lights. He hooked up a dynamo he had brought with him, to the drive belt of the steam engine that ran a wood-milling operation at Main and Higgins. By October there were four lights set up along Main St.; on Broadway, Portage and Main, City Hall, and at the CPR Station at Higgins. Carroll later became manager of the first power company named the Manitoba Electric Light and Power Company. An old Grist Mill located near the Forks, was used in the evening to supply the electricity.

During the next three months of the winter 1882, the public was captivated by reports on the electric streetlights. For those that did not see them for themselves, the lights were described as casting a "brilliant light compared to the gloomy feeble rays of the gasoline lamps."

In May 1889 the Manitoba Electric Company offered lighting to the general public. There were several companies and each had its own set of poles. There was also telephone and telegraph. The city was becoming a real mess. And there were concerns that they were using bare wires which at the time carried 1,000 volts.

By this time Edison's patent on the incandescent light had started to dominate and Edison's was the system the City of Winnipeg used for its streetlights. The local company using Edison's System was called the North West Electric Company. Besides being a brilliant inventor, Edison was also a shrewd business man and developed the whole system of generation, distribution and delivery. Best of all, like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Edison was charging yearly royalties on his system.

The first hydro-electric generating plant was built in 1900 on the Minnedosa River (now the Little Saskatchewan River) and it served Brandon till 1924.

In 1906 Pinawa became the first year round hydro electric power station. It was a challenge to build in an area with no roads or railway. Some thought it was overbuilt but within ten years of its completion, Winnipeg's population quadrupled. Located on the Winnipeg River, it had been built by the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company that also operated the streetcars. But home electricity was very expensive. You paid $2 for each lamp which you owned, then it cost about 16 cents per kilowatt hour. And power stayed very expensive.

THE ORIGINS OF A CITY POWER UTILITY

Some civic politicians were concerned about the private monopoly over power. It was costing 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Cheap hydro was needed if the city were to grow. Alderman Cockburn for whom the Fort Rouge Street is named, began to lobby council for the development of a city owned utility at Point Du Bois. Cockburn claimed that he could bring down the cost from 20 per KWH to a third of that. The private companies then halved their rates and Cockburn said that he could still do it for a third of that.

The proposal to build the city's Point Du Bois plant went to the tax payers who eventually agreed to support the proposal. And Cockburn was partially right because the city set up the first publicly owned power station and was forced to charge 3 cents per hour (Even though the true cost was 7.5 cents). Cockburn who had operated a grocery store on Selkirk Avenue became the City's controller in 1909.

This rate lasted for 70 years until 1973 when Unicity and Manitoba Hydro forced up all the rates. Winnipeg Hydro remained a profitable utility for the City till it was purchased by Manitoba Hydro.

NAMING WINNIPEG'S STREETS

NAMING WINNIPEG'S STREETS

Winnipeg Used History Instead of Numbers

by George Siamandas

On March 6, 1873, the first street sign was erected in Winnipeg. Winnipeg is noted for naming streets after historical figures unlike other cities like Edmonton that have developed a numbering system. But there were a couple of years in the early 1890s when Winnipeg renamed all of its streets with numbers. Broadway was named in 1881 but in 1891 it was renamed 9th Avenue South. They went back to Broadway in 1893.

Streets were named after important people: early settlers like Alexander Ross. Or Andrew McDermot, or AGB Bannatyne. Some of the oldest names are in the Hudson Bay reserve Winnipeg: the downtown central business district south of Portage. Fort St is named after Fort Garry. Garry St is named after Nicholas Garry. Donald and Smith are named after Donald Smith of the Hudson Bay Co. Hargrave was an old HBC man who lived where Eatons is built today. Edmonton and Carlton were named for the trails that went out west. Vaughan is named after Winnipeg's first surveyor. York is for the "York" Hudson Bay Warehouse. St Mary's is for a Catholic boys school.

Main St started as a north-south trail and eventually became a street in 1874.

Downtown Winnipeg streets north of Notre Dame include almost two dozen women's names: Dagmar, Ellen, Francis Gertie, Laura Owena, Olivia Pearl etc. And starting at Princess and going east they are alphabetical. Arthur etc.

Portage Ave was named in 1880 and at the turn of the century and before named highways, the Portage Trail was considered the world's longest street at 800 miles to Edmonton.

Corydon was named in 1882 for Corydon Partlow Brown an MLA in 1874 and appropriately Minister of Public Works. But previously it was known as Jackson St.

Winnipeg added a lot of new areas and streets in its growth oriented 1970s, but there is little documentation from the 1970s as to what the names mean. It is thought that developers named streets after their kids' names and wives' names.

In the Maples a lot of names start with Ma's. Madrigal, Malcana etc

Garden city likes to name streets after flowers and plants.

Naming is important marketing theme for developers today. The street names in White Ridge came from an English map.

Waverly Heights likes lake names and Island Lakes also has names that have to do with water.

In Westwood there is a section of streets named after English Poets like Longfellow Shelley etc.

There is a section of north Fort Garry where the streets are named after planets like Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Neptune.

WHO NAMES STREETS TODAY?

It is done by the community committees. There are recommended lists of names. Historical family names for example are on reserve lists. In Charleswood new names are recommended by the Charleswood Historical Society.

The city allows 20 characters max in a name. A fellow called Chris Thorpe at the City of Winnipeg is responsible for the process of naming streets today.

MAYOR STEVE JUBA

MAYOR STEVE JUBA

"That barefoot boy

from the wrong side of the tracks"

by: George Siamandas

Steve Juba, became Winnipeg's first and only non-Anglo Saxon mayor in 1956. He defeated George Sharpe by 2,000 votes and began a colourful era in civic politics. Juba ran Winnipeg for 21 years and never saw any opponents come even close to taking his job away. He withdrew his name from nomination in 1978 consciously ending his own career.

Juba was of Ukrainian descent. He had dreamt of becoming a lawyer but the depression forced him drop out if school. He was a scrounger and business man starting from nothing and finally becoming a millionaire with 2,200 branches of his business, Keystone Supply. He was fiercely independent and operated like a lone wolf. But most of all he was just like the little guy. He continued to live on William Ave even after becoming mayor. And he loved Cadillacs owning 25 of them.

Juba was returned in every election with landslide majorities. The general public seemed to love him, as did the media. But some saw him as a foreigner. One of his opponents was Gloria Queen Hushes who ran against him in 1966. She called him "the barefoot boy from the wrong side of the tracks." Others like Alderman Crawford offered to raise $100,000 for "the right man" to run against him. He got into public fights with Cabinet Minister Russ Doern making national headlines when he delivered an outhouse to the front of the legislature with a sign describing it as the fitting office of Russ Doern.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WINNIPEG

Juba led a campaign to reform liquor laws making Winnipeg a modern city. He brought the Pan Am Games in 1967 and ensured it did not cost Winnipeg a single cent by getting the Federal government and the province to pay the costs including the overrun. He was credited with raising substantial funds from the province for city projects like the Disraeli Bridge. He put Winnipeg on the map. He was a big promoter of the city frequently making news across the country. He believed in the potential of tourism and developed the idea of twin cities as a way of encouraging tourism.

JUBA THE POLITICIAN

Juba was a personality type uncommon in politics. A true individual, he believed that the only way to be truly independent is to not to be beholding to anyone. So he had to become financially independent before he could be politically independent. Juba had a giant ego well suited to the demands on a mayor to create a sense of dynamism and be the showman and entertainer. He truly embodied the general population. He sided with the women who worked to save the Wolseley Elm.

He convinced everyone of the need to rebuild the old city hall by showing people how structurally unsound it was. He took newspaper writers into one of the domes in the old Victorian City Hall and he would make the dome shake by pulling on its flagpole.

So who does an independent politician consult for advice? Juba was known to have had a circle of five people in all walks of life whose advice he sought. One of these is thought to have been Peter Warren. Juba was a true visionary seeing ahead and urging things like casinos, liquor reform, and mass transit options like a monorail. Juba and his wife Elva had no children. His great passion was birds and he spent half of his annual salary of $24,000 buying feed for his special friends.

THE 1918 INFLUENZA OUTBREAK

THE 1918 INFLUENZA OUTBREAK

The Spanish Flu Panics Canada

By George Siamandas

Is today's flu an echo of the savage Spanish flu that struck the world in 1918? That fall, as our troops returned from WW1, they brought home a silent killer that would afflict one in six Canadians, killing 30,000-50,000 during the winter of 1918. Such pandemics had visited before. In 1889-90 flu affected 40% of the globe.

The Spanish flu hit Canada Sept 9, killing 9 American soldiers in Quebec City. On the same day 400 students in a Quebec College fell ill. By Oct 9, Brantford Ontario reported 2,500,cases. The flu then raged across the prairies. As the troop trains headed west, during that dreadful October, soldiers brought home the disease to their towns, villages and farms. Tens of thousands fell ill. By early October as the death toll mounted communities started to ban public gatherings. Schools, colleges, and universities closed. Across the country most church bells did not ring on Sundays. But Father Trasiuk of Hamilton's Stanislaus Church, had defied the ban, and was fined $25.

Hudson Bay stores remained open but for the protection of customers, staff wore masks. So did employees of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and telephone workers. In more than 100 prairie towns, passengers were not allowed to de-train unless they promised to stay put for the duration of the epidemic. Some towns like Lethbridge and Drumheller threw up a total quarantine.

HARDEST HIT

The most vulnerable were healthy 20-30 year olds, the dangerous age according to the Regina Leader. Their symptoms? A cold that turned into flu. Temperatures of 105. Dreadful aches. And then pneumonia where victims suffocated in their own secretions. Some, bleeding from the nose. At the greatest risk were pregnant women who miscarried and almost always died.

ABORIGINALS PERISHED IN HIGH NUMBERS

The flu scorched its way through northern communities devastating aboriginal populations. Amongst aboriginals living in tepees and log cabins in the Peace River district, 85% died.

Some became desperate for medical attention. An aboriginal woman whose husband had died, paddled 33 miles down the Kapuskasing River, with a 6 mile portage to find a doctor for her two children. At the Indian Village of Sand Point, near Lake Nipigon, 58 out of 70 were sick. Luckily, only five died. But according to the custom of the day, Indian caskets were painted black, while white victims had their caskets covered in white cloth.

In Calgary they ran out of coffins. And in many rural areas, with no time to bury the dead, corpses were placed on the roofs of their owners' log cabins, out of reach of animals till spring.

EVEN THE HEROES

After years at the front, returning soldiers could not embrace their loved ones. Anxious wives would meet husbands at the station unable to touch them, or even get near. One, who did, died, shortly after their reunion. Another case poignantly brought home the flu's cruel irony. Airman Alan McLeod of Stonewall, Manitoba became at 18, Canada's youngest Victoria Cross winner. Days after returning to his home town, this young hero, who had shot down three enemy planes and survived a burning plane crash, did not survive the silent killer.

MEDICINE IS POWERLESS

At the peak of the epidemic some doctors saw 80 patients a day and one averaged 58 house calls daily. Few charged for their services. Dr James Colliers practising in Vernon River PEI would take his daughters with him on housecalls so they could do the sweeping or wash dishes. Meanwhile scientists looked desperately for a cure. Winnipeggers Major Dr FT Cadham of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, and Doctor Gordon Bell, frantically worked for a vaccine, and found some success. Dr Cadham reported to a national medical conference in 1918 that of their test sample of 528 soldiers admitted to a Winnipeg hospital, no soldier who had taken two doses of the vaccine died. When word got out, Dr Cadham needed a police escort, so desperate were citizens to get the vaccine.

COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS

In 1918 almost everyone was nursed at home. People helped their neighbours in whatever way they could. Women volunteered as nurses. Service club members cooked meals in church kitchens and boy scouts delivered the meals. In Ontario the thousands of women volunteers became known as the Sisters of Service. Throughout the country Christmas dinner celebrations were held to thank the volunteers. But there was a sour side too. In Calgary some women posed as private nurses charging as much as $25 per day, while real nurses worked two shifts for only $2. Meanwhile, druggists in Vancouver boosted the price of camphor used as a disinfectant from 60 cents pound to $6.50. Masks sold for a nickel. Preventive measures included bags of camphor, or garlic. At Toronto's Union Station, tin drinking cups were replaced by disposable paper ones. Cinnamon, tobacco, alcohol and goose grease and turpentine mixtures were touted as cures.

THE AFTERMATH

Scarcely a family escaped being touched by the flu. Almost everyone lost a mother, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, or a dad. Thousands were left orphans. Others survived to suffer a lifetime of heart and respiratory problems. In 1918, with no national preparedness in place, all the effort had been at the grass roots level. In 1919 the federal govt finally established a health dept. Hospitals were built. Public health improved.

FLU'S ORIGIN

And where did it start? I remains unclear. The Spanish flu is thought to have originated in burning pile of manure at Fort Riley Kansas in March 1918. American troops got sick, subsequently taking it to Europe. It got tagged the Spanish flu because Spain was first to get hit hard and without censorship, the first country to admit it had an epidemic. By the time it was over, influenza had killed 20-30M worldwide. But its cause remained a mystery. In 1933 a British doctor successfully isolated the disease to an airborne virus. Later it was identified as the A type strain. Today the story of the world's greatest killer is all but forgotten. There is little mention in history books. It's as if it never happened. But could it happen again? And if it does, are we ready for it? Do we really have an effective vaccine today? And can we develop it quickly enough when needed?

THE UNION BANK (ROYAL TOWER)

THE UNION BANK (ROYAL TOWER)

"The story of Winnipeg's first skyscraper"

By George Siamandas

The Royal Tower was built in 1903 for the Union Bank of Canada. And it was constructed on what was once a prime site at the corner of William and Main St. just south of the old gingerbread city hall. The Union Bank helped open up the west by providing loans to prairie homesteaders starting with its first Winnipeg office in 1882. In 1912 Winnipeg became the Union Bank's head office and it operated as a truly western bank. It had 67 branches in Manitoba. But in 1925 the Union Bank was absorbed by the Royal Bank.

It was taken back by the city from Winnipeg from Toronto developer Victor Biase because he had not paid his taxes. The city is now considering its options with various alternative redevelopment schemes. Last fall they looked at the decorative terra cotta that adorns the exterior of the building, and made sure that there were not pieces that were about to fall down on pedestrians.

It's a landmark. It forms the backdrop of so many images of Main St. It became Winnipeg's first real skyscraper at 156 feet and ten storeys. It was also the first steel frame office tower in the city and fireproof to the standards of the day. Architects Darling and Pearson were selected to do this important building. As Canada's top architects, Darling and Pearson went on to do other important banks like the Bank of Commerce at 389 Main, the Bank of Nova Scotia on Portage Ave. and the Winnipeg Grain Exchange Building at 167 Lombard Ave.

It has had poor tenancies for thirty years. There are structural problems with the centre section having sunk. Despite it sitting on 21 concrete caissons, in 1917 the bank had to redo some of the footings and caissons. It is built over what was once Brown's Creek. The centre of the building continued to sink and in 1943 more foundation repairs were made. It is still sunk today. Then there is the problem of each floor being too small for today's needs, hence the need for an addition and the need to acquire the Leland. The city showed foresight in buying it.

A plan for its rehabilitation has been under consideration for years.

WINNIPEG'S SHOAL LAKE AQUEDUCT

WINNIPEG'S SHOAL LAKE AQUEDUCT

"How they found the vision to spend the big bucks during a time

civic politicians preferred to keep studying the problem of water"

By George Siamandas

On April 5, 1919, Winnipeggers turned on their taps and began to enjoy the first fresh water flowing from the Shoal Lake Aqueduct. Getting clean, safe and abundant drinking water was a problem at the turn of the century. Private operators like the Winnipeg Water Works Company supplied water drawn right out of the Assiniboine River taken from the current site of the Cornish Library. But the water from the Assiniboine got worse and worse showing high faecal bacteria counts even then. The result was relatively high death rates from Red River fever in 1904, when Winnipeg set a world record of 19.4 deaths per 1000.

Starting in 1906, water was pumped from a system of artesian wells. But the water was very hard and not abundant enough. The search was on for a better supply. But through the 1900s, Winnipeg politicians avoided coming to terms with the water issue. The City's engineering advisers in 1907, had recommended the far cheaper Winnipeg River scheme. These were tough years for Winnipeg tax payers. They were just in the midst of building the Point Du Bois Power Plant. The city treasury was strapped.

DECIDING ON SHOAL LAKE

In studies done in 1912, US consultant Charles Slichter identified Shoal Lake as having a perfect water supply worth all costs of developing a totally new water system; a substantial $13.5 million! Charles Slichter was a PhD, a professor from Madison, Wisconsin, and an international authority on water who had already advised Brooklyn NY, Los Angeles, St Louis, El Paso and Holland, on their water supplies. Slichter's argument was based on the city's rapid growth and on the future importance of Winnipeg. "Winnipeg has entered into a class of world cities. It cannot afford to be committed to a temporary solution and it should not postpone the inevitable."

HOW THEY DECIDED TO SPEND THE BIG BUCKS

There was a lot of debate. First Mayor Waugh was for it but then he had a lot of questions. Councillors were falling over one another finding fault with Slichter's report.

Alderman Crowe warned water costs would go up five times, and wanted to keep studying the issue. Councillor Douglas also feared for the costs. Meanwhile, City Engineer Ruttan remained a strong advocate of the alternate scheme of getting water from wells north of the city.

Only one man showed vision and was able to see through this political fog of uncertainty. It was Councillor Thomas Russ Deacon who argued strongly in favour of Shoal Lake. Despite the cost! Deacon, an engineer, was the President of Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works. He had lived near Shoal Lake for ten years and was aware of its high quality and abundance. He felt it was Winnipeg's destiny to become a great city and the matter of high initial cost would be taken care of by future growth.

It was a year of recession and city budgets were strained. But Winnipeggers were convinced of the need to do the right thing. In October of 1913 they voted in favour of the Shoal Lake Aqueduct expenditure of $13.5 million. Deacon's leadership was well received, and at the same fall vote, Thomas Russ Deacon was elected mayor of Winnipeg.

Work on the Shoal Lake aqueduct began right away. It took five and a half years and ate up all of the $13.5 million, but on March 29, 1919, the work was completed. The newly introduced water was allowed to settle for five days in the reservoir so that citizens could have an appealing clear water on the official inaugural day of April 5. Deacon's contribution was recognized by naming the first major water reservoir after him.

AND JUST HOW GOOD WAS THE QUALITY OF WINNIPEG'S WATER?

People loved it. Winnipeg's water was considered the best in the country, and Winnipeg became the "Official Water Supplier" for the 1937 Royal Tour of Canada. It came out at the top of 100 waters in Canada. Today the water is considered to be of high quality. Treatment is anticipated in the near future, particularly as the public's expectations increase.

OTHER SHOAL LAKE TID-BITS

The aqueduct was a significant engineering feat and was called the "Rome of the West." A railway was built to provide access along the route which lacks a road. The aqueduct is simply a concrete tube 156 km long. Since the source at Shoal Lake is 294 feet higher than Winnipeg, gravity brings water to the edges of the city where it feeds four water reservoirs. The main reservoir is named the Deacon after the mayor.

The best part of it is that this 76 year old system still works. We have gone from a population of 200,000 when it was built to a city four times the size and with modern appetites. It still delivers 80 million gallons per day as originally designed. Today the average person uses 480 litres per day or 106 gallons.

Deciding to spend the $13 million it took in 1913 has given us a legacy, and an asset, not the debts and indecision we leave today for future generations. The Shoal Lake Aqueduct's equivalent value today is about $270 million. No treatment is done excepting fluoridation (started in Dec 28 1956), and chlorine which is added to keeps bugs down.

And while expansion is anticipated during the next decade, water conservation can postpone needed upgrading by 1 year for every percentage reduction in usage. If this is not enough, engineering studies have considered alternative sources like Lake Natalie, ground water from Sandilands and even the Assiniboine. But Shoal Lake is likely to remain the future source.

Conservation coupled with prudent maintenance of the system seems the most cost effective choice of all. And differential water rates should be considered to encourage conservation and to fund future capacity. Perhaps the people who water their lawns regularly, even on rainy days, should be paying at a much higher "future rate" of what it would cost to expand the capacity.

How Winnipeg Dealt with Prostitution in the 1900s

How Winnipeg Dealt with Prostitution in the 1900s

By George Siamandas

PROSTITUTION BECOMES ESTABLISHED IN WINNIPEG

On the developing prairie, which had 200,000 more men than women, prostitution was an early fact of life. Especially so in Winnipeg, the gateway city. At the CPR Station, "harvesters specials" would pour out men in the hundreds, into the 60 hotels 21 poolrooms, 16 theatres, and 50 disorderly houses around Winnipeg's Main Street. Young single men, looking for entertainment, escape, and sex.

James Gray writes that newsboys working near the station made more money selling condoms, than they did papers. Social reformer, J.S. Woodsworth's book "My Neighbour" drew a map showing exactly where men found their fun: in the 50 whore houses on Annabella and McFarlane Streets.

Winnipeg's first brothels were set up north of Colony and Portage. But when Manitoba College was built (now the National Research Council site) the houses were driven away.

In the late 1880s, the brothels moved to Thomas St., a mile away from the nearest house, and operated till the early 1900s without interference from authorities.

But once growth had caught up, complaints forced police to act. In a midnight raid in January 1904, police arrested 86 women, driving the Thomas Street houses out of business. Later in October, to help clear the shame, city fathers renamed Thomas St, as Minto St, after visiting dignitary, Lord Minto. But almost immediately the enforcement seemed to backfire. Closing the houses had turned the women into streetwalkers. And their new walk was Portage and Main.

ESTABLISHING A RED LIGHT DISTRICT

It was time to fix things. The Police Commission gave Police Chief JC McRae power to handle the matter discretely, with his own best judgement. McRae decided he would re-establish the red light district.

He chose Annabella Street in Point Douglas, a secluded location. Out of sight, out of mind. And it would be easier to control. The Chief told the news to Minnie Woods who would reign as Winnipeg's "queen of the brothels" for the next 30 years. She spread it to the sisterhood.

John Beaman, a real estate agent was recruited to help the madams find houses. Minnie bought the biggest house in the area with seven rooms at 157 Annabella, and paid only $2,000. Madam Lila Anderson last in, paid $12,000 in a booming market. By July of 1909 Annabella St was all brothels. Complete with the brightest porch lights in Winnipeg and house numbers more than a foot high.

THE SYSTEM WORKED

The morality squad inspected the houses regularly and the women were required to have a medical examination and certificate every two weeks. But within the year there was a public outcry. Winnipeg's short experiment controlling prostitution had worked too well. The moralists were in an uproar and accused the City police with corruption. Some remembered how Winnipeg's last police chief, had himself been caught in a "disorderly house" raid decades earlier.

REPORT ON THE TRADE

A Royal Commission led by T A Robson took testimony in 1910. Moral reformers hired a private detective to provide their facts to the commission. Their detective estimated that on an average night, the red light district processed 292 customers in 2 1/2 hours.

A Manitoba telephone employee testified that Madam Amy Norris' pay phone had 800 calls per months estimated to be calls for cabs for departing clients. Four hundred and ninety people were estimated to be engaged in prostitution in 1910.

Madam Lila Anderson told of coming to Winnipeg with her sister, from Ohio. They employed four other girls and guessed her patronage at 10-15 customers per night. The Commission found no evidence of police corruption. But it concluded that a policy of police toleration had resulted in the disturbance of the peace and good order.

Police reluctantly acted. Once again, the brothels were dispersed. But the legend of Annabella endured. And so did madams like Gertie Curney, who continued to offer Winnipeg's carriage trade a classic Parisian Bordello complete with tapestries, a French cook, and a Chinese houseboy. Till 1929. After that, "amateurs" sprang up during depression, and put even Gertie out of business.

EARLY HISTORY OF PORTAGE AND MAINw

EARLY HISTORY OF PORTAGE AND MAIN

by: George Siamandas

Portage Avenue is the best known street in Winnipeg. While it had existed for decades, Portage Ave. had remained a very wide trail for ox carts until the later part of the 19th century.

Henry McKenny who came up in 1859 on the Anson Northup, the first steamboat to reach the Red River Colony from Georgetown Minnessota, is credited with establishing the first business at Portage and Main. Eric Wells writes that after surveying sites in the settlement, McKenny ignored the Forks area, and like a commercial trail-blazer that he was, decided on a location that would one day become the new commercial centre of the city. Portage was surveyed in 1863 and set at 130 feet like Main. By 1869 there were 33 buildings clustered around the corner of Portage and Main.

The development of Portage Ave however, did not come into its own until the first decade of the 1900s. The announcement in 1904 that a new Post Office would be built on Portage and Eaton's new store in 1905 got the ball rolling west. By this time the south-west corner of Portage and Main had already seen the building of the four storey Canada Life Block and at Lombard and Main were a series of early banks.

By 1910 the McArthur Block at 207-221 brought new elegance to the north-west corner. At 12 storeys and clad in elegant terra cotta used in the finest buildings in London and New York, the McArthur reasserted Winnipeg's status a major city with a new skyscraper. This building was best known as the Child's after the famous restaurant.

In 1911 the Bank of Montreal constructed its monumental banking hall at the south-east corner replacing the earlier Canada Permanent Building. New York architects McKim Mead and White who also designed Grand Central Station and Winnipeg's own Union Station, designed the Bank of Montreal.

Photos from the turn of the century frequently show large crowds gathered at P&M. P&M was the city's heart and the place to celebrate and hold parades. Very few changes occurred at P&M and Winnipeg did not re-emerge from its great growth spurt of 1881-1916, until the early 1960s.

In the last 25 years Portage and Main has become the location of our most important office buildings and the most prestigious business address in Winnipeg. But along the way the intersection itself has lost its celebratory role and has become an exclusive traffic corner.

Will the historical photos showing throngs of people remain only a memory, or is there a new evolved role for the most famous intersection in the country?

The future of Portage and Main must be to permit the return of the pedestrian while not significantly impeding the needs of traffic. Our challenge is to facilitate a new Portage and Main that builds on its historical roots and marks this intersection as more than a traffic crossroads.

As late as 1967 the city of Winnipeg had not seen new construction at his site since the building of the Bank of Montreal just prior to WW1.

Richardson Building North East Corner

As the first corner of the three corners of Portage and Main to see redevelopment in the last twenty-five years, the Richardson Building was built as part of Lombard Place in the late 1970s. Their project had been on hold since the 1930s. It symbolized the Richardson family's prominence in Winnipeg and gave us our first real modern skyscraper at 33 storeys.

Trizec: South West Corner

In the late 1970s the South-west corner saw a major demolition of the Canada Life building on Main as well as the demolition of at least six other structures. The underground concourse had forecasted and made mandatory a move of pedestrian traffic below grade, not only to ease vehicular traffic congestion, but also to provide a market for the shops of Winnipeg Square.

Built as a 34 storey office structure along with an underground retail component and attached to the Underground Concourse under the four corners of Portage and Main, the Trizec building was the mid seventies response to the need for development.

Bank of Montreal South East Corner

The Bank of Montreal at the southeast corner has taken a more gentle approach. When it needed space in 1982 it achieved it with the construction of a tower south of its monumental 1911 Banking Hall.

TD Centre North West Corner

That the north west corner of Portage and Main would be demolished was a foregone conclusion. Plans for the demolition of buildings at the north-west corner in the 1970s were not realized initially but in the late 1980s the TD Centre replaced the Childs, Nanton and Toronto Dominion Bank.

Constructed in 1987, our most recent period of downtown development, the TD Centre is notable for replacing the much loved Child's Building originally known as the McArthur Office Block and famous restaurant of the same name.

THE PAVILION AT ASSINIBOINE PARK

THE PAVILION

AT ASSINIBOINE PARK

By George Siamandas

NOT THE FIRST PAVILION

The current pavilion is the second Pavilion. The first pavilion was built in 1908 at a cost of $19,000 and was designed by one of Winnipeg's most important architects, John Atchison. Atchison is responsible for many of the Exchange District's finest buildings.

The proportions of the building were a little flatter and boxier than the current one but it also had a tall water tower that served as a landmark for the park. The first pavilion was very well used and became the centre of activity at Assiniboine Park. It included a banquet and dance hall. When people came to Assiniboine Park they stayed the whole day and the pavilion was an important part of their experience. Unfortunately it was neither well built nor was it well maintained. The first pavilion burned down on May 27, 1929. All that remained were the pergolas and fish pond to the north complete with the goldfish still unscathed. The fire insurance paid $13,00.

THE SECOND PAVILION

The Winnipeg Parks Board held an emergency meeting the next day and committed to rebuild the Pavilion the same day. A year later, and at a cost of $96,000, the new Pavilion opened on the same fateful Victoria Day, May 25, 1930. Designed by architects Northwood and Chivers, it was fashioned in a kind of Tudor style with half timbering and a prominent tower with a roof-line reminiscent of English thatched cottages. The original pergola and lily pond were incorporated into the new design.

Northwood and Chivers had also designed the Canadian Wheat Board Building (now with new skin), the Winnipeg Auditorium now the Provincial Archives and the Federal Building. The new Pavilion expressed Winnipeg's optimism and was built to last, with piles driven to bedrock. Its frame was planned to be fire-proof and is of combined steel and wood construction. The Board genuinely expected it to last a century.

Once a grand place for dinner and dances for 500, the Pavilion became under-utilized. The city never had enough money to do the things that were needed at the Pavilion but it did spend money in the mid sixties on the Zoo and the Conservatory. It was a symbol of the Parks department appearing as an icon of Winnipeg's parks system. Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1959 saw 15,000 people drawn to an event in which the Pavilion served primarily as a backdrop.

In the 1960's after some refurbishment had been made to the pavilion for the Pan Am Games, architect Cyril Chivers lamented that it was never properly rehabilitated and it lacked the vitality of year round use. It was no longer the social centre it had once been.

After 68 years it is now realizing its potential with a $5M rehabilitation. What made it possible is the private interest in seeing that things get done. It now houses a year round a 150 seat restaurant and art gallery. The gallery features the work of Walter J. Phillips, Ivan Eyre, and Clarence Tillenius.

HOW WINNIPEG WON THE 1967 PAN AM GAMES

HOW WINNIPEG WON

THE 1967 PAN AM GAMES

by George Siamandas

In the winter of 1958, Mayor Steve Juba made his surprise bid to host the 1967 Pan Am Games. It was shortly after Steve Juba had been elected mayor. Juba tells the story of being in Chicago in February of 1958, and dropping in to see his old friend Mayor Richard Daley while passing through town. Daley, holding the Pan Am flag, told Juba that he was in trouble because Cincinnati had defaulted on holding the Pan Am Games and the responsibility had fallen to Chicago. The press were waiting outside for Daley to make his announcement. What should he do?

Juba told Daley to go out there and unfurl the flag and Juba would hold one end while Daley would hold the other end. "And we'll tell them I'm bidding on them the next time around." Juba confessed he didn't know the Pan Am Games from Pan Am Airlines. He thought this would be a local announcement and that he would not really need to act on it. But the next day the whole country knew and Juba was being congratulated for his efforts. Jim Daly the man who would become executive director was the first to call to congratulate Juba.

Juba had no money to work with. He got the Royal Bank to put up a $10,000 deposit and made it clear to them that there was no guarantee they would get it back. Juba found his council impossible to work with and none of the other municipalities wanted to help either. Winnipeg council was the last to agree to the Games. He went to see premier Duff Roblin who told him to come back and see him only after Ottawa had shown its support. So Juba went to see Prime Minister John Diefenbaker for a letter of support.

Juba tells the story that Dief was dozing, and when he woke up he had to rush into the House, and asked Juba to go see the minister for the required letter. Juba went to see the minister who said that Dief had asked him to write a letter and he would have it by 5:00pm. Juba said his plane was leaving at 5:00 and he needed it right away. So the federal minister signed a bank letter and Juba dictated to the staff that the letter would offer federal financial support.

A COMMITTEE OF MILLIONAIRES

It was a small financial commitment but Juba could now go see Roblin who fell into place. Juba then set up a committee headed by a couple of Winnipeg millionaires: John Sifton and Culver Riley to do local fundraising. The committee would soon have 25 members. The federal government then changed to the Pearson Liberals and Juba found he could manoeuvre them into increasing levels of support by threatening to abandon the games and let Ottawa take them over.

Minister Judy La Marsh called his bluff one day and forced him to sign a contract on the Games to the effect that any overruns would have to be shared by the province and the city of Winnipeg council. The feds would give up to $1.5 including any possible deficit.

But Juba continued to face a lot of local opposition to the Pan Am Games. It was not till 1963 that the Games were granted to Winnipeg and Juba had spent 6 years largely on his own to get them. Gloria Queen Hughes, his opponent in the 1966 election called the Games "a bunch of nonsense." Juba won with 45,000 votes to her 5,000. Together with the 67 Games' other pillar of strength, Jim Daly, Juba spent years tirelessly promoting the games especially throughout rural Manitoba.

The 1967 Pan Am Games were a great success. It was a time of great pride and euphoria. Half a million people visited Winnipeg. Nine thousand people worked as volunteers. Almost all the work was done by volunteers. Audiences surpassed all previous audiences. More people watched one tennis game than had watched an entire week of Davis Cup action. The baseball games alone attracted 98,000 people.

There was an overrun of $589,517 and Juba planned to get the federal government to pay it off. The Liberals refused and Juba went to Ottawa to hear it straight from the Prime Minister who was by then Pierre Trudeau. Juba describes going to see Trudeau at Sussex Drive during winter time. He did not expect to stay long so he did not take his coat off.

Trudeau asked him to advance his arguments why the Federal govt should pay off the deficit. Juba admitted that there were not any. Trudeau then asked what all the fuss is about, we have a contract. Then on his own, Trudeau said he would pay half the deficit. Juba thought he could get more. He changed the subject and left it in abeyance. Eventually the feds paid off the entire deficit. Juba only had to hint to Montreal and its Expo 67 overruns. In 1970 Winnipeg federal minister James Richardson brought the cheque to Winnipeg.

In the final analysis the Games had cost Winnipeg nothing. Winnipeg got all the residuals in the form of the stadium at the University, Winnipeg stadium, the $2,000,000 Pan Am Pool and the Velodrome. Between July 23 and August 7, the US won 204 medals, Canada 77, Mexico 35, Cuba 34, Argentina 23 and Brazil 22. Winnipeg developed a reputation as a major sports city. And it is thought this helped in getting the Jets hockey team.

Mayor Ralph Webb Winnipeg's First Urban Mayor

Mayor Ralph Webb

Winnipeg's First Urban Mayor

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

INTRODUCTION

One of Winnipeg's most successful mayors proved to be even more colourful than Steve Juba. His name was Ralph Web and he ran Winnipeg during the 1920s and 1930s. A "live wire" compared to all the grey businessmen mayors Winnipeg had till then. One year in Winnipeg and Ralph Webb is a last minute nominee to run for Mayor against an Independent labour party candidate.

RALPH WEBB

Webb was born at sea on a trip between England and India in 1886. He knew no home and worked a sailing ship, on a railroad survey gang and ran a lumber company before moving onto a career in hotel management the manager of Montreal's Windsor Hotel. Webb came to Winnipeg in to rescue the failing Marlborough Hotel in and soon found himself a candidate for the mayoralty.

OUTSPOKEN PERSONALITY

Web was a man of strong and outspoken opinions. His comments provoked bitter reaction from his enemies usually from the side of labour and astounded his friends.

LOST A LEG

Webb joined the Canadian Army in 1914 and lost a leg at Oppy Wood. To almost everyone it was a badge of bravery. You could always hear him coming. A city solicitor of his day remarked that every step in his artificial leg earned him a vote.

LIQUOR REFORM

So did his support of liquor reform, which was a long time coming. He recognized that it would be a big tourism asset to Winnipeg and asked the police to go easy on liquor issues. He himself was a tee totaler.

One of his earliest acts was to put up an electric sign on old old city hall saying Welcome to Winnipeg. Webb was known in the US as well as Winnipeg. He served eight one-year terms: 1925-1927 and 1930-1934. In between he served as an MLA for Assiniboia.

FIGHTING THE SOCIALISTS

With his outspoken style Webb attracted the ire of his labour opponents, who refereed to him as Peg Leg Webb. In the 1928 Streetcar strike Webb maintained that it was caused by troublemakers that should be thrown in the Red River. Webb was taken to court and accused of

BOOSTER

Webb proud to be a booster and was described as the best adman Winnipeg ever had. He resigned in 1927 to take the new job running the Tourism Bureau. He pioneered the Pines to palm car run on Jan 1926. Designed to create promote Winnipeg and make connections with Americans all along the way to New Orleans. Webb was also a big supporter of improving Highway 75.

He wanted industries to come to Winnipeg and had seen. There was not enough business development as Winnipeg lost in a sea of pessimism when he arrived. It was just after WW1, the completion of the Panama Canal and after the divisive strike.

Thomas Mayne Daly

Thomas Mayne Daly

Brandon's First Mayor

by George Siamandas

Thomas Mayne Daly, Brandon's first mayor and Canada's first juvenile court judge. Daly was born on Aug 16 1852. He was born in Stratford August 16 1852 to Thomas Mayne Daly Sr who was Stratford's mayor and federal MP for Perth. One of two sons, Daly was educated in Toronto becoming a lawyer in 1876. Daly moved to Brandon in 1881 at a time it was a pioneering community of 100. He became Brandon's first lawyer later becoming a realtor, notary public and commissioner.

The first passenger train arrived in Brandon on Oct 11, 1881, and the city was incorporated May 30, 1882. Initially Brandon promoted itself as the Pearl of the Prairies, but subsequently became better known as the Wheat City. By 1882 the railway transformed Brandon, swelling the population to 3,000 people. Daly who had previous municipal experience in Stratford became mayor in 1882. Daly introduced a $150,000 borrowing bylaw that enabled Brandon to carry out a major public works including sidewalks, fire hall police station, a stream powered fire engine, a cemetery and aid to Brandon Hospital. He became a QC in 1890.

Daly entered federal politics in 1887 winning the Selkirk riding serving for the next 10 years. A strong supporter of western settlement, he established an experimental farm, several public buildings including the Brandon Post Office, and increased support to the immigration dept. In 1892 he became Canada's first Minister for the interior, Immigration and Indian Affairs and thus the first Manitoba MP to sit on the federal cabinet. Daly was a strong advocate of immigration and trade and in 1893 initiated the North West Immigration Act. Daly moved to BC for a few years but returned to Manitoba in 1902 to reside in Winnipeg and practise law.

WINNIPEG'S COMPASSIONATE POLICE MAGISTRATE

In 1904 he became police magistrate. And by 1911 he wrote the standard text "Canadian Criminal Behaviour." Daly helped develop new attitudes towards young offenders, were young people received special treatment. He worked with various youth welfare organizations including Children's Aid Society, Winnipeg General Hospital, the YMCA, the Salvation Army and local educational organizations.

In 1908 the federal govt passed the Juvenile Delinquents Act which had force till the 1984 Young Offenders Act. The 1908 act said no juvenile could be found guilty of a crime. Youth was "only a misdirected and misguided child needing encouragement, help and assistance." In 1909 Daly became Canada's first juvenile court judge. On the bench, he set an example of fairness and compassion. But his career was cut short.

Daly died suddenly of a kidney haemorrhage in 1911 at age 59. He received a civic funeral. Flags flew at half mast in Winnipeg and Brandon.

Leland Hotel

Leland Hotel

By George Siamandas

The Leland Hotel was built in 1883 and was once the city's most prestigious hotel. It is one of Barber and Barber's last remaining buildings in Winnipeg. It was built by Scottish businessman Archibald Wright for commercial travellers in Winnipeg to do business. It fronted what was Old City Hall and the Old Market Building. It was so successful that four storeys were added in 1892. But in 1913 a fire gutted the top three floors.

Archibal Wright who built the Leland was born in Glascow in 1852 and came to Winnipeg in 1869 and later set up the Winnipeg Saddlery Co. In the days of early Winnipeg He served as alderman and was also a member of the first board of Winnipeg school trustees. Wright also sold the city the land for Assiniboine Park in 1912.

The Leland is an old building dating to the Victorian era and it has some remaining architecture in some stone details. All the alterations since the 1950s have removed most its original architecture. But for the last 25 or more years, the Leland has become run down and a real problem in the Exchange District.

The blight the hotel has caused to the city hall area and how ending the hotel's sleazy effects is necessary in the future of the restoration of the Royal Tower.

The Leland had discouraged redevelopment and has sat as a kind of boil on the behind of the Royal Tower for decades. The city took the Royal Tower back from a Toronto investor called Victor Biase last year. Biase had been unable to redevelop it. The city took the Leland for unpaid property taxes and it burned in the late 1990s.

THE LAST RUN OF STREETCARS IN WINNIPEG

THE LAST RUN OF STREETCARS IN WINNIPEG

by George Siamandas

The day of Winnipeg's love affair with streetcars came to an end on Monday Sept 19, 1955, the last day streetcars operated in Winnipeg. The last car, car no 374 which had ben decorated with tearful eyes, began its last trip east along Portage Ave from Polo Park to its final stop at Portage and Main. It was piloted by Mrs Francis Daly one of three women still working on streetcars. The streets were jammed by spectators. Mayor Sharpe and 82 year old Transit Commission Chairman W H Carter lifted a section of the rail, forever severing a link to the past.

The man who introduced streetcars to Winnipeg was Albert Austin. Austin had come to Winnipeg in 1880 at age 23 from Toronto. He wanted to give citizens paved streets and sidewalks and an inexpensive way of getting around town. It was a struggle for Austin who initially could not get the city to let him do it until he got some local prominent citizens involved in his streetcar company. On October 20 1882 was able to initiate a local streetcar service.

For the first ten years streetcars which could carry up to 24 people were horse drawn. In winter, because the rails would freeze, they replaced the metal wheels with sleighs. In 1888 Austin travelled to Virginia to see the operation of an electric system. Electric was of course the buzz word. By September of 1892 streetcars had been electrified. But after feuding with city council Austin lost his exclusive franchise and saw competition from other streetcar operators. By 1894 all the horse drawn cars were gone. And Albert Austin sold out his business and instead concentrated on developing Elm Park.

In the early 1900s streetcars helped open up the city. In 1901 they carried 3.5 million passengers in a city of 52,443 people. Fares were 5 cents and the cars would run through all but the worst blizzards of 1902 and 1904. In 1905 they ran as far west as Headingley. And in 1906 they also began to operate on Sundays. And by the same year all new streetcars were being built right here in Winnipeg. By 1925 there were 340 cars in the fleet and they carried 60 million riders annually.

During the depression years and later World War 2, the cars and tracks had not been adequately maintained and the fleet was in bad shape. Little by little they added trolley buses in the 1930s and 1940s. All across North America communities were switching to diesel buses. So it was that the first major policy decisions that new Transit Commission made in 1953 was to purchase new diesel buses and to discontinue the streetcar system. September 19, 1955 was the last day they would run in Winnipeg.

JAMES ASHDOWN: Winnipeg's Merchant Prince

JAMES ASHDOWN

Winnipeg's Merchant Prince

by George Siamandas

Hardware merchant. Mayor of Winnipeg. Philanthropist. James Ashdown remains one of Winnipeg's most distinguished citizens. Ashdown was born in London England in 1844 and came to Canada as a young boy of eight. His family settled in Weston Ontario and he later apprenticed at Hespeller, Ontario in the trade of tin smithing. For a while he lived in Kansas but came to Winnipeg in 1868. He spent 44 or 69 days (depending on the source) in a 12x16 foot jail with 21 other men during the Riel rebellion because he had served as one of Schultz's citizen guards. Ashdown had described Louis Riel as a "strutting peacock who fancies himself a little Napoleon."

Ashdown made his fortunes starting with Moser's Hardware a little shop he had purchased for $1,000 in 1869. He renamed it the Winnipeg Tin Shop. It was located at the corner of Bannatyne and Main St. Ashdown's hardware business would continue to function from the same location for the next 100 years. By 1881 Ashdown was doing business in Emerson and Portage La Prairie and was worth $150,000. He expanded to Calgary in 1889. His buildings and businesses grew and grew with the Ashdown warehouse located east of Main St. seeing four additions in 12 years. Ashdown Hardware served the entire west both wholesale and retail complete with a catalogue division.

In a novel 1900 publicity stunt, Ashdown sent a train of 40 freight cars across every town and village in the Canadian prairies selling straight to the public from the box cars. By 1910 he had become one of Winnipeg's famous nineteen millionaires. His first house located in Point Douglas was the toast of the town in 1878. His famous house had an indoor bathroom, a furnace and one of the first two phones in Winnipeg. And when industry intruded Ashdown built a new palatial home on Wellington Crescent. Now the Shriners' Temple.

A CIVIC BOOSTER & MAYOR OF WINNIPEG 1907-1908

In 1874 Ashdown was chair of the citizen's committee that fought for the incorporation of Winnipeg. He also helped organize the Board of Trade, and served as President in 1887. Ashdown invested in many civic minded projects including the street railway system that was being developed by Albert Austin. Ashdown served as mayor in 1907-1908. He was elected in 1907 and won by acclamation in 1908. Ashdown was a practical businessman. He was always careful not to saddle the city with burdens it might not be able to support. He journeyed to England to negotiate good borrowing rates for the city during a difficult time. As mayor, Ashdown was behind many forward looking ventures such as the establishment of evening education classes for adults and compulsory school education.

Ashdown was a director of the Bank of Montreal, Northern Crown Bank, Northern Trust, Canadian Fire Insurance, Great West Life, the City Hospitals Board, the YMCA, Children's Aid Society, and even the Winnipeg Water District during the time of the aqueduct. A Liberal and a Methodist, Ashdown was also a founder of Wesley College. In his 36 year long association with Wesley College he served as its head for 16 years and he gifted Wesley his favourite institution over $100,000.

JH was one of those that recognized the importance of volunteer community associations as a way of providing needed improvements. Ashdown was always concerned with fiscal matters did not want to rely on the government of the day to meet all civic and community needs. Ashdown was one of those men that was building a future for himself and for his family in Winnipeg. What was good for Ashdown was also good for the city. His personal ambitions and successes fuelled the city's growth. Ashdown was the "Richardson" of his day. When he died in 1924 he had left $380,000 of his $1.7 million estate to charity. Some included the Winnipeg General Hospital, the Children's Aid Society, the Salvation Army, the Winnipeg Boys Club and the Winnipeg Free Kindergarten.

Premier Walter Weir

Premier Walter Weir

A Modest Short-Lived Premier

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

Walter weir was born in High Bluff Manitoba Jan 7 1929. He was schooled there and in Portage La Prairie. At age 24 he purchased a funeral business in Minnedosa. He had met wife "Tommy" a nurse from Saskatchewan, on a wiener roast blind date. They had four children. Weir became involved in the life of the community and served on the town council, the Hospital Board and the local Kinsmen Club.

POLITICS

In 1959 Weir became the local MLA in Duff Roblin's Progressive Conservative govt. At age 32, in 1961 he became the youngest ever cabinet minister. Now responsible for Highways and helped connect many rural communities to hard paved roads.

As Roblin retired, Weir contested the Progressive Conservative leadership against Sterling Lyon, held Nov 25 1967, and won. Two days later Weir became Manitoba's 15^th premier.

WEIR THE MAN

Weir loved people was known for his warm friendly personality. Even his political opponents liked him. He never sought the limelight. He was a man of integrity. Weir had built trust with many of the province's municipalities. Weir was a fiscal conservative who wanted to control govt spending and to hold down taxes. Weir would serve for only 27 months.

In 1969 New Democrats under Ed Schreyer won the first socialist victory in Manitoba. Neither a sore loser nor a hateful person, Weir served as opposition leader for a year and then left Manitoba for Missisuaga where he ran a national funeral firm. Some said that this man who had won four elections, lacked the toughness required to be premier or opposition leader.

MANITOBA PROPERTY ASSESSMENT REVIEW COMMITTEE

In 1979 Weir was asked to chair a review of the way property is assessed and taxed in Manitoba. It work would be one of his most significant achievements. Weir's committee addressed the problem head on. It proved to be a revolutionary report in that it recommended that assessments be much more closely related to actual property values and not the archaic convoluted method that used outdated values. For a decade the City of Winnipeg ignored the recommendations and had to be literally dragged into this more modern and equitable system. The recommendations also wreaked havoc with farmers whose buildings had been hither-to underpaying taxes. There was a move to demolish any old building for fear of having it taxed.

EARLY DEATH

One evening while Walter Weir was helping his wife Tommy with preserves in the kitchen, he suffered a heart attack and died on the way to hospital. Walter Weir died on April 17, 1985. He was only 56. A life cut short just as Weir was making an increasingly valuable contribution to Manitoba life.

THOMAS CRERAR

THOMAS CRERAR

Western Canada's Farmer Political Philosopher & Practitioner

by George Siamandas

A strong promoter of farmer's rights, Thomas Crerar, the prairie apostle of cooperation dominated the early grain trade. Crerar was born June 17, 1876 near Molesworth Ontario. Of Scottish immigrants, his dad Wiliiam relocated to the Silver Creek municipality 360 km north west of Winnipeg. Thomas Crerar attended school only till age 12 because he was needed on the farm to replace the hired hand his dad could no longer afford to pay because of a crop failure. It was not until age 18 that Crerar was able to return to school at Portage La Prairie. Thomas Crerar became a teacher although what he had always wanted to become was a doctor.

Crerar became active in establishing a farmer-owned elevator company so that the farmers could enjoy lower rates and to force a more competitive attitude by the big grain companies. Crerar rose fast in the grain industry. First as manager of the farmer owned elevator and then as President of the Grain Growers Company which ran from 1907 till 1929. It became UGG in 1917.

CRERAR'S POLITICAL LIFE

Because the grain industry was taken over by the government during WW1 Crerar went into Sir Robert Borden's Union Government as a representative of grain growers. In 1945 he went into the Senate and began to warn of the growing power of the state: growing public debt, bureaucratic power, and the growing culture of dependence. He felt one could not surrender one's independence for security because both would be jeopardized in the long run.

CRERAR THE PHILOSOPHER POLITICIAN

A classic liberal, Crerar believed in self reliance. He believed in a unrestricted competitive market in free trade, financial thrift, a minimum of government, and a maximum of freedom for the individual citizen. He was against the eastern trade policies that resulted in prices twice as high for farm machinery than farmers would pay if they bought from the US. He established the western Progressive party after WW1 and waged years of western agitation against eastern colonial policies. Crerar stayed on till 1919 when he moved on to federal politics.

PUBLICATIONS: THE GRAIN GROWERS'S GUIDE

Crerar also saw the value of communication with the western farmer, and established the Grain Growers Guide a farm journal. The Grain Growers Guide became a strong advocate for farmer's interests and of the need for farmers to take political action. It was clear to farmers that the political and economic system allowed the exploitation of western Canada by eastern businessmen with political clout. The farmers wanted to see a restoration of the 1897 crow's nest pass tariff reduction and to reduce some tariffs.

POST WW2

Crerar became disgusted with the prospects of social legislation after ww2 being planned by McKenzie King's people. Crerar who believed in individualism and free enterprise felt that growing statism would be ruinous. He resigned from the government in 1945. He spent the last 20 years of his public life in the Senate.

CRERAR'S LEGACY

TA played a prominent role in the agrarian and political life of Canada. He felt that people coming freely together in cooperative action could look after themselves much better than any government could. He held cabinet positions in both liberal and conservative governments and was the leader of a the only third party, the progressives, that swept the west. He transformed the Grain Growers Company into the UGG. After 22 years with the company Crerar had taken it to a $15m industry which owned 440 country elevators.

Thomas Crerar died in Victoria on April 11, 1975. at the age of 98. He had survived all his contemporaries: both friends and foes.

Premier Stuart Garson

Premier Stuart Garson

Don't Look to Govt for Free Services

By George Siamandas

© George Siamandas

STUART GARSON

Stuart Garson was born Dec 1, 1898 in St Catherine's Ontario. Son of William Garson an Ontario MLA. The Garsons moved to Manitoba where his father began a limestone quarry, hence the name Garson. The senior Garson was also responsible for the establishment of the city hydro utility, and served as controller for the city of Winnipeg.

In 1916 contractor AG Snyder wrote Arthur Meighen a letter recommending 18 year old Stuart Garson for a job. Snyder noted that he thought Garson "to be healthy both physically and morally. But sad to say in politics he is a Grit partly by force of heredity and from reading the Manitoba Free Press" too much. Young Garson studied law and in 1919 was called to the bar and practise law at Ashern and Ericksdale.

POLITICS

Stuart Garson began his political career in 1926 becoming the MLA for Fairford. He would serve till 1948. It was not clear what party Garson represented but he became Premier John Bracken most trusted and helpful minister. In 1936 he became Manitoba's treasurer. Garson grew up with the pressure of debt and made reducing it a major priority. In 1942 he succeeded Bracken as Manitoba's premier. Garson contributed to new financial relationships between the provinces and Ottawa recognizing the provinces' increased roles.

FEDERAL POLITICS

In 1948 Garson resigned as Manitoba's premier and entered Louis St Laurent's govt becoming minister of Justice and Attorney General. He represented the federal Marquette constituency till 1957 when he resigned returning to his law practise till retiring in 1965. In 1971 he received the Order of Canada along with Gordie Howe and Chief Dan George.

NO FREE SERVICES

In the 1940s Garson chided the CCF for recommending a lot of social programs but not knowing where they would get the money for them. There is no such thing as a free service. As the govt had to pay for services and the only way to get the money is by reaching into the taxpayers' pocket. Garson liked the idea of keeping enterprises private so they could be taxed. He observed that in a democracy, it is easier to tax the profits made by others than for the govt to make the profits itself. He noted that every commercial enterprise the province had tried had been a failure. And had cost the taxpayers over $12M. He tried to keep Manitoba taxes competitive with other Prairie Provinces.

He preached diversification in agriculture and for rural electrification, which was started in the late 1940s. He proudly noted in 1940 that his careful govt through skimping and saving, " which the CCF held in contempt", had saved $2.25M. Garson urged voters: If you believe in a free society, you can't look to the govt for maintenance, direction, support, and initiative. Stuart Garson died 23 years ago on May 5, 1977.

THE CLOSURE OF THE WINNIPEG TRIBUNE

THE CLOSURE OF THE WINNIPEG TRIBUNE

The End of Winnipeg's other Newspaper

By George Siamandas

FOUNDING THE TRIBUNE

It was founded in 1890 by L.R. Richardson and D.L. McIntyre who scraped together $7000 to take over the press and premises of the old Winnipeg Sun. The Free Press had just bought the Winnipeg Sun. Its first issue of 2,500 papers came out on Jan 28 1890.

It took guts to start such a venture. By 1889 no fewer than 30 papers had started up and failed. Struggling under the restraints of outdated equipment and no telegraph service, the new paper managed to survive. Spurred by Winnipeg's growing population and an economic boom the Winnipeg Tribune became a viable alternative to the rival Winnipeg Free Press.

While primarily regarded as an independent liberal paper covering local events and personalities, the Tribune also reported on national and international news. It became known for its crusades on various issues such as poor roads and lanes as in its spring 1893 campaign. Publisher RL Richardson was also a politician who was elected to Parliament three times. He remained independent and once offered a reward to anyone who could demonstrate the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative.

In 1912 feeling the economic boom of the city, Richardson decided to create a new building fitting of the Tribune and constructed an elegant terra cotta faced office at Smith and Graham. In 1920 Richardson sold out to Southam and he died in 1921. In those days good people had a job for life. Editor John Moncrief who started in 1890 would keep his job till 1937. He died in 1939. In 1965 the Tribune celebrated its 75 anniversary by printing that April 6, 1965 issue in exactly the same format, typestyle and layout as its original 1890 issue.

COPORATE DOWNSIZING

But on Aug 27 1980, out of the blue and without any warning, 375 people were out of work. Gene Telpner joked that he had just gotten new drapes and furniture. Val Werier who was with the Trib for 35 years said it was a shocking moment. But people in the pressroom knew something was coming because management had stopped the presses that morning, something they did rarely, and only for major events. What killed the Tribune? Corporate downsizing killed the Tribune in which the Thompsons, the owners of the Winnipeg Free Press, agreed with Southam, the owners of the Tribune, that they would each close down a paper in Winnipeg and Ottawa. It is hard to know why that wasn't considered collusion.

NOTED FOR LOCAL NEWS

When the paper closed, Winnipeg lost many of its favourite columnists: well-known writers like gossip and entertainment columnist Gene Telpner. There was also "Uncle" Vince Leah, who for 45 years wrote Winnipeg nostalgia and famous stories like the Time Building fire of 1954. Another favourite was Lillian Gibbons who wrote about local history, and wrote a column called, "Stories Houses Tell. Others who moved on included sports writers like Jack Matheson and Vic Grant. Jim Shilliday later worked for the Real Estate news. Another was Val Werier whose human-interest features soon found a spot at the Free Press.

WHAT WAS LOST?

We lost that intense competition between two equal players fighting to get the story. And much of the Tribune staff scattered across Canada. Just as the Tribune had risen in place of the Winnipeg Sun 90 years earlier, some out of work Tribune employees started a new paper and called it the Winnipeg Sun.

HOME

Le Metis Manitoba's First French Newspaper

Le Metis

Manitoba's First French Newspaper

by George Siamandas

Saturday May 27, 1871 marked the first edition of St Boniface's first newspaper called Le Metis. It gave a voice to St. Boniface viewpoints on the issues of the day. And as with all newspapers it was the result of one man's vision for the community of St. Boniface. Joseph Royal, a lawyer who had come from Quebec at Ritchot's urgence

was the man responsible for the publication of Le Metis. Another great man at the right time for Manitoba when he arrived in August 1870. Royal entered politics immediately and was part of Manitoba's first legislature.

Le Metis became the instrument through which Royal could educate the French community about the news and issues of the day. It became the vehicle a community and political leader like Royal needed to get his message out and build a new community. Royal had created several literary publications before. Some avant guard and others like "Le Nouveau-Monde" established in 1867. Royal was as interested in journalism as he was in law and politics. Royal was an ardent defender of French language rights and committed to the principle of Canadian cultural duality. Especially those of the 10,000 people of mixed blood. Royal was described as a great story teller with a penchant for sarcasm and humour. Le Metis served as a forum of debate about the Riel question and the amnesty issue and Metis land rights.

NEWSPAPER OFFICES RANSACKED DURING 1872 ELECTION

Other English newspapers like the Liberal and the Free Press disagreed strongly with Le Metis. The feelings in this fledgling community could run very high. During the September 18, 1872 federal election, the offices of Le Metis which were not in ST Boniface but at the McDermot Block were ransacked and the presses were destroyed causing $8,000 in damages. It took 10 weeks to get back into production. The attack was attributed to Orangemen. But it seemed the paper was always on the move. In its ten years of life it had seven locations and three different owners.

TYPICAL ISSUES

It had lots of federal and provincial government notices on land and other legal matters. It was their financial support that made its publication possible till about 1879 when such support was discontinued. There were reports on what was going on in France and in Quebec. An 1874 issue reported flooding in France and subsequent issues listed the generous contributions from leading Winnipeg and St Boniface citizens to relief efforts. Le Metis also talked of the importance of education and Royal became the first superintendent of the Catholic School system.

Le Metis ceased publication Sept 29, 1881 replaced by a new paper called Le Manitoba. Its founder, Joseph Royal, went on to edit several Montreal newspapers after his political career had ended after 18 years in Manitoba.

GREAT WEST LIFE

GREAT WEST LIFE

"Winnipeg's Insurance Company"

by George Siamandas

JH BROCK

Great West Life founder JH Brock, who dreamed the impossible dream of a Winnipeg-based insurance company. Jeffrey Hall Brock was a local insurance agent who promoted the idea of a Winnipeg based insurance company. His thought was that a local company would be more sensitive to the needs of westerners.

Hall was born in Guelph Ontario in 1850, the youngest of 11 children. He had worked in business in Ontario and New York and moved to Winnipeg in 1879, going into a partnership with Captain GF Carruthers who was active in insurance and finance. Brock was a great promoter of Winnipeg and a very astute businessman. He had come to Winnipeg to stay and to build a future.

He survived the 1883 real estate bust and the lean 1880s that followed seeing the effects of eastern policies on the west. High insurance rates and the difficulty of obtaining financing were growing problems in Winnipeg. Brock recognized the importance of having the accumulated capital from insurance premiums, stay here to develop the west, rather than going to foreign or eastern companies as was typical.

RAMPANT FOREIGN OWNERSHIP

GWL was founded in 1891 at which time half the $8.4 M premium money left the country. And of the 40 insurance companies in Canada, only 9 were Canadian, and none were based on the west. A strong insurance company in Winnipeg would tend to prime the financial pump.

HOW DID BROCK'S VENTURE GO?

Great West Life was incorporated August 28, 1891, and it had leading citizens like James Ashdown on its board. Brock's goal was to take in $1,000,000 in premium money in the first year. Brock had been told that his dream of a Winnipeg-based insurance company would not fly, that he was dreaming the impossible dream.

"An absolute impossibility" other insurance men had said. But Brock was able to report at their first annual meeting that they had indeed sold $2.7 Million. GWL went all across Canada in 1896 and in 1906 it opened its first office in the US in Fargo North Dakota. By 1907 it was the top company in Canada and it had 100 employees in Winnipeg and 600 agents across the country.

The effort to create local institutions tended to stabilize Winnipeg's status as an emerging commercial centre. Banks and other local financial companies flourished during Winnipeg's fabulous decade between 1906 and 1916.

At first agents were cautioned to sell only to people of good character and in 1894 they refused a policy to man that had deserted his wife and family. GWL recognized the opportunity of selling to women by 1898 and by 1913 had established a department for womens' sales. By 1920 a Mrs I A Jones of Toronto had become a top seller.

Agents worked an average of 13-14 hours a day and till the 1930s, most of their sales were in rural areas. One agent reported seeing 72 people in one strenuous week and selling 29 policies. Agent FC Kerr of North Battleford started to use a snowmobile in 1927 because he did not want to lose winter business. Another agent was Claude Dunfee who in the early 1920s had his car converted into an office. He would park in a prominent location on the town's Main street and sell policies right from the car.

GWL's first death claim was in 1893, from a bicycle accident. The policy paid out $1,000 which saved the policyholder from destitution. In the Titanic disaster GWL paid out to two policy holders of the 1,100 that were lost.

THE GREAT WEST LIFE BUILDING

It was now time to build a suitable office building expressing the Great West Life's prominence and this was realized in the outstanding Great West Life building on Lombard Avenue built in 1911 and designed by John Atchison. GWL went on to build two other major buildings to accommodate its staff. Each was reflective of architectural styles of the time, but neither of its newer buildings come close to the elegance and grace of its Lombard Ave location.

THE YELLOWHEAD TRAIL

THE YELLOWHEAD TRAIL

The Canadian West's Most Famous Historic Trail

by George Siamandas

TheYellowhead trail is a route of provincial roads that follows some of the original trails that were employed first in the fur trade and later as the buffalo hunt extended west as far as Edmonton. The forerunner to the Yellowhead was the old Northwest trail. It once stretched from Winnipeg to Edmonton a distance of 3,000 km. Today it is an alternative route west to No 1 Highway west for those that want to take a little more time and go through more scenic areas.

The Yellowhead branches off No 1 just west of Portage La prairie even though the government is promoting Winnipeg and the Forks as its start. From there you take highway No 16 to Neepawa and then west through rolling plains and the woodlands south of Riding Mountain provincial Park. From there it continues through Minnedosa, and Russell and then into Saskatchewan through the Yorkton and Saskatoon. It goes through Edmonton and then through the Rockies to Price Rupert BC.

The route had many names depending on where you were headed to. It was the Portage trail if you were headed towards Portage, the Carlton trail if you were near Riding Mountain, the Old Saskatchewan trail in what became Saskatchewan, the Edmonton trail and the Hudson Bay Trail.

The name Yellowhead came from an Iroquois Metis guide named Pierre Bostonais who worked for the Hudson Bay Company. The French voyageurs called him tete jeune which translated into yellow head because of his blonde streaked hair. Bostonais came west from Quebec to work for one of the fur trade companies at about 1800. He is first mentioned as "yellow head" in the Hudson Bay Company's 1819 records as working in the area of the Rocky Mountains. In 1827 Tete Jaune, his brother and their children and their wives were killed by the Beaver Indians on the BC side of the Rockies.

The first major recorded use of the trail was about 1840 with that year's great buffalo hunt when more than 1,200 Red River Carts took the trail west. Later the trail became a highway for settlers moving to the south-west plains. And for more than 50 years, before No 1 it was the road west.

The Yellowhead Highway Association is billing it as one of the world's great drives. In Manitoba it skirts just south of Riding Mountain Park providing scenery much more interesting than No 1. They say that because it is at lower altitudes that there is less snow on it, and it is less prone to weather closures.

At Portage La Prairie you can visit Fort La Reine Museum, one of La Verendrye's forts. Next stop is Neepawa and the Beautiful Plains Museum. Neepawa was named Manitoba's most beautiful town in 1995. Then there is Minnedosa, a great spot for waterfowl. Finally before leaving Manitoba you can visit Russel once a hub of the railways and home of Asessipi Park.

IMMIGRATION BACKGROUND TO WINNIPEG

IMMIGRATION BACKGROUND TO WINNIPEG

by George Siamandas

Winnipeg's great growth was due to periods of rapid immigration. While the first phase of immigrants during 1880s and 1900 came from Ontario and Great Britain, the next phase during 1900 an and 1920s came from Northern Europe. Winnipeg's population swelled from 42,000 in 1901 to 150,000 in 1913.

Between 1901 and 1911 the foreign borne population of Winnipeg by 60,000. And in the same period another 500,000 are thought to have come through Winnipeg on their way to settle the new west.

Point Douglas is the oldest commercial and residential area and saw development in the 1870s. The upper crust located south first south of Portage Ave and later south of the Assiniboine River in Crescentwood and Fort Rouge. And then it began to move west as well. The north end became home to the Northern European immigrants who came by droves. The CPR station brought people to Higgins Ave. then to the Immigration Sheds and finally to homes in the North End. The North End became the working man's home. Home of the Jewish, German, and Slavs of the period.

St. Boniface had been a municipality in the 1880s. The first suburb was St. James in 1901 made possible by the popularity of bicycles and the extension of the street car service west. St. Vital followed with incorporation in 1903. Transcona in 1912. Winnipeg went from an area of 3.1 square miles in 1874 to 23.6 square miles in 1913.

The North end had few services like access to fresh water even after the new aqueduct had been built. As a result, in 1911, the north end population had twice the infant mortality rate of west Winnipeg.

ECONOMIC GROWTH
Population growth also reflected itself in economic expansion. More buildings were built ($65 million)in the six years between 190? and 1912 than in the next 25 between 1914 and 1940 ($58 million).

POPULATION GROWTH IN WINNIPEG

YEAR	POPULATION	INCREASE	%
1871	214
1881	7,985	7,771.00	97.32
1891	25,639	17,654.00	68.86
1901	42,340	16,701.00	39.44
1911	136,035	93,695.00	68.88
1916	163,000	26,965.00	16.54
1921	179,087	16,087.00	8.98
1926	191,998	12,911.00	6.72
1931	218,785	26,787.00	12.24

FRANCIS CORNISH

FRANCIS CORNISH

WINNIPEG'S FIRST MAYOR IN 1874

By George Siamandas

WINNIPEG OF THE 1870s
This was at the time that the Red River settlement called Fort Garry, was changing from a fur trade centre run by the Hudson Bay Co, to an agricultural and commercial centre that wanted to run its own civic affairs. Transportation was still by river up from the US. No railway yet was connecting to eastern Canada. Private traders like AG Bannatyne in Point Douglas started to compete with the Hudson Bay Co. In 1870 the population was 100, a year later 215, and by 1874 3,700. It was a place clearly poised for growth. The traders wanted to have their own government and petitioned for incorporation. It took years to become a city, and the Hudson Bay Co was suspected of having delayed provincial approval till late 1873.

WINNIPEG'S FIRST ELECTION
The first civic election was held on January 5, 1874. The two contestants were Frances Cornish and William Luxton. Cornish was a lawyer who had come to Winnipeg in 1872 at age 41. Luxton was 28, and the editor of the Manitoba Free Press, but he had also been Winnipeg's first public school teacher. When they counted the ballots they realized they had a problem. Cornish had gathered 383 of a possible 388 registered voters. Meanwhile Luxton had 179. At the time, one had to own property to vote, and some property owners had voted several times. A recount upheld Cornish as the winner but his reputation had been tarnished. Cornish served only one year.

The first meeting of city hall was held on January 19, at noon 1874 at a new building at the south west corner of Portage and Main where the 33 storey Toronto Dominion Bank now stands. Eight councillors from four wards were also elected and the new council immediately established committees for Finance, Property Assessment, and fire and police. They adopted Parliamentary procedures and the system of three readings for the passing of by-laws. The by-laws ran 40 pages. The same system continues today.

THE CITY BUSINESS IN THOSE FIRST FEW YEARS
Major civic expenditures by that council included $8,246 on wooden sidewalks, $3,204 on roads, and $321 on bridges. And when the taxes were collected it was immediately apparent why the Hudson Bay Co had opposed incorporation. They paid most of the taxes. And liquor taxes paid the rest. In the following year, 1875, the city obtained taxpayer approval for $250,000 in spending for sewers, fire equipment, water works, civic buildings and streets. And on a political level, council helped ensure that the coming CPR Railway went through Winnipeg, and not Selkirk as had been earlier planned. Becoming the gateway to the west, the Chicago of the north, was the vision of those that ran Winnipeg in the early years.

THE FORKS

THE FORKS

RED RIVER'S PERENNIAL MEETING PLACE

By George Siamandas

In most inhabited places in the world were two rivers meet, settlements will eventually develop. So it was in Winnipeg at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine River, where natives are known to have used the area for at least 6,000 years.

It has been a meeting place, a fishing camp and a fur trade centre. Archaeologists have found campfires dated 4,000 BC. Here the aboriginals fished and hunted, preserved large quantities of fish for winter, harvested plants, and berries and traded with people from other regions.

When white man arrived in the 1730s, they found Assiniboine, Cree and Salteaux camped at the Forks. The famous explorer, La Verendrye arrived at the Forks in 1737. His main interest, and that of Europeans for the next 150 years would be the fur trade. Two fur trading companies, the Hudson Bay Co and the North West Co., competed for decades until 1821 when they finally joined forces.

Fort Gibraltar was built in 1811 by the North West Co. just north of where the B&B building is now. This became an important provisioning location supplying pemmican. In 1812 the Hudson Bay Co. built Fort Douglas two and a half kilometres north at Point Douglas. Fort Gibraltar was burned in 1816 in the battle between the North West Co and Selkirk's settlers and was rebuilt in 1817 west of the original location. Part of the Gate still stands behind the Manitoba Club. By 1821 the two companies merged and the Fort was renamed Fort Garry in 1821. The 1826 flood damaged Fort Garry and the Lower Fort near Selkirk became a more favoured location.

The Forks became an important port for the steamboat traffic in the 1870s and 1880s. The federal authorities built immigration sheds in 1872 in preparation of the immigrants that were expected to arrive on the prairies. In 1874 and 1875 hundreds of Mennonites came through the Forks on their way to settle in southern Manitoba.

SHANTY TOWN
In the 1880s a shanty town and red light district sprang up at the north west corner of the junction. It was called the flats and housed the city's recently immigrated destitute population: Jews, English, Scottish, Irish, Italian and Icelandics. Their tents and shanties were washed away in the 1882 flood but were rebuilt in 1883-4. By this time natives were gone. The French community developed across the Red in what became St. Boniface.

THE RAILWAY TAKES OVER THE SITE
Once the decision was made in 1879 to put the CPR railway through Winnipeg instead of Selkirk, the site's future was determined. Winnipeg would soon become the prairie metropolis. Major railways lines were put through in 1886 and by 1901, a major terminus for rail existed at the Forks. The CN Station was built in the early 1900s, and by the first world war, access to the land was cut off and prime land literally disappeared from view and from public use.

In the 1960s there was talk of rediscovering this land and it took another 20 years before the removal of the rail operations and the new Forks project could go ahead. In part the initiative for redeveloping the Forks came from a new Conservative government and local minister Jake Epp, wanting to do something different in downtown development in Winnipeg when they inherited the Winnipeg Core Area Initiative in the mid to late 1980s.

Winnipeg Hosts Canada's First Housing and Town Planning Conference

Winnipeg Hosts Canada's First
Housing and Town Planning Conference

by George Siamandas

Concern about cities and slums and of high child poverty levels were the main topics of a housing and town planning conference held in Winnipeg. But the day was July 15, 1912, and Winnipeg was hosting the first conference on Canadian Housing and Town Planning.

THE TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THAT 1912 CONFERENCE
It was a showcase for all the thinking about the "city beautiful" and what each city was doing to solve its problems. Mayor Richard Deans Waugh mayor in 1912 opened the conference and welcomed delegates to Winnipeg. The conference was well attended with delegates from US , Britain Australia. The Chicago exhibit cost $90,000 and was put forward by Harvard University. Other prominent exhibitors included Minneapolis, New York, Kansas, New Orleans, Tampa, Harrisburg and Louisburg. There were examples of French Garden suburbs, English Model towns of which one was called Port Sunlight. And rehab work in Liverpool.

CONCERN ABOUT SLUM PREVENTION & OVERCROWDING
The big topic on day 2 was how to prevent slums. The pattern was known by all the delegates. Older buildings handed down to each succeeding immigrant group to the city. The poorer the tenant the greater the problem and the more rapid the deterioration.
There was a major concern with overcrowding and unsanitary conditions causing ill health amongst the poor whose children were dying at twice the rate of better districts. Even the famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead produced a paper for this conference on slum prevention. It is surprising how similar the debate is to today.

MASTER PLANNING
The idea of planning things right from the beginning was discussed. That residential, industrial and recreational districts should be planned from the outset. That there be model housing types and neighbourhoods. That cities abandon the rectangular alignment of streets and try to create radial streets radiating out from important public buildings. Another interesting idea was that three be islands in the middle of wide streets for the benefit of pedestrians. Winnipeg was congratulated for the width of its streets, Portage and Main in particular. The vision of the day was to turn empty lots into green spaces: from eye sores to parks.

WHAT IT MEANT FOR WINNIPEG
Winnipeg's political leaders had kept pace with the thinking of the conference. Winnipeg already had its own planning commission in place and had developed a plan addressing many of the city problems at the time. That planning commission reported to council shortly after the 1912 conference. In more than 90 years little has changed. The problems of slums, and even then the lack of river crossings in Winnipeg. The poor housing conditions and overcrowding. The big plans for Winnipeg in 1912. The report of the planning commission. Moving city hall to Broadway and creating a Mall along Osborne St. Winnipeg was the third largest city. And its leading citizens thought it would still become the biggest in the country.

WINNIPEG'S FIRST CARS

WINNIPEG'S FIRST CARS

by George Siamandas

1996 was the 100th anniversary of the mass production of the automobile. In Winnipeg the first individual to own a car was Prof J. Kenrick in 1899. He and a group of fellow enthusiasts would go out on runs to far away places like Silver Heights. His car was a three wheeler called a velocipede at the time. In 1904 at Kenrick's Assiniboine Ave home the Winnipeg Automobile Club was born.

Steam cars did not prove to be popular. It simply took too long to fire it up to get going. As long as an hour if things went well. Electric cars were also used for a time but the same problems that hold them back now: short range and the need to charge them up stalled their initial popularity with the rich and women who appreciated the quietness. It was the gasoline powered cars that ended up ruling the day.

A shop on Marion Street assembled cars built with parts from a Sidney New York company called the Hatfield. It was a 4 cylinder car called the Winnipeg. Their slogan was "as good as the wheat" and its radiator was custom built in Winnipeg to be frost proof and it had a distinctive radiator emblem of a sheaf of wheat tied with the word Winnipeg. Only one was built in the early 1920s. Prior to WW2 many cars saw some level of assembly in Winnipeg and at the Fletcher Building which is now home of the Dept of Education, the Ford Motor Co assembled cars during the 1930s.

THE OLDEST CAR DEALERSHIP IN WINNIPEG
The oldest building to be associated with the car business is Maw's Garage built by Thomas Maw in 1906. Maw's Garage could hold 145 cars indoors. This building now forms the west part of the Old Spaghetti Factory. The longest running dealership still on its original site was the old Carter Motors now Murray Chev Olds at the corner of Maryland and Portage. It had been there for 60 years but is now demolished.

Fort Street used to have a large cluster of automobile oriented businesses. There was Dominion Motors, Inman Motors etc. and more than a dozen accessory and parts stores which have been demolished or become bars. Even Eatons sold cars in the early part of the century. The Motor League was an outgrowth of this early car club and they joined forces in 1922. In the 1930s their clubhouse headquarters was at Lower Fort Garry.

ACE EMMETT
Ace as he was called is the most distinguished individual in Manitoba motor history. An active member of the car club, Ace offered many ideas for improvement of motorists conditions at the time including the idea of numbers for highways including the Trans Canada Highway No 1. Emmett became the first manager of the Manitoba Motor League in 1922. Emmett and his friends marked roads as volunteers and organized the Good Roads Association. Arthur Coates Emmett was born in England in 1872 and began his love affair with the automobile as a flag boy going ahead of his master's car to warn of its coming which was a requirement in England till 1896.

Ace came to Brandon in 1902 and moved to Winnipeg in 1904 to work at the first automobile garage at the corner of Ellice and Hargrave. He was one of the first 50 men to own a car in Winnipeg. He wrote regular columns on motoring in the free Press. As early as 1913 he began to publish road maps. In 1912 he succeeded in having the Roblin government develop a provincial roads program and the expenditure of 200,00 to aid municipalities in improving their roads.

THE FIGHT TO SAVE WINNIPEG'S BANKERS ROW

THE FIGHT TO SAVE WINNIPEG'S BANKERS ROW

THE BANK OF COMMERCE TRIES TO DEMOLISH BANKER'S ROW

by George Siamandas

On November 8 1979 Winnipeg heritage enthusiasts marched on city hall to protest the proposed demolition of the Bank of Commerce and the Bank of Hamilton the two pillars of Banker's Row. The two banks were the nucleus of Main St's Banker's Row. The Bank of Commerce that had been their owner and had occupied the space had moved into the Richardson building. It no longer needed them and wanted to demolish them. This was in the period of time when Winnipeg city planners had been formulating a strategy to preserve and find new used to Winnipeg's Historic District, now called the Exchange District. New by-laws providing for the city's authority to put buildings on a preservation list and to designate significant ones historic had just been passed.

The Bank of Commerce had been empty 10 years and the Bank of Hamilton 1 year and a half. It saw no value in the buildings but had seen how the Richardson building had improved values at Portage & Main. It wanted to see them gone and requested a demolition permit from the City to clear away the Bank of Hamilton at 395 Main and the adjoining Bank of Commerce at 383 Main. Their lawyer a William Grimble argued that were a financial burden and were difficult to lease out to other users. It would be the first test of the bylaw the and for this first test the heritage community got organized.

The ring-leader was a mild mannered high school Social Studies teacher and former President of the Manitoba Historical Society and later Heritage Winnipeg, called David McDowell. McDowell is one of these volunteers that gently but firmly drives community causes and in this case the heritage community. He was there at an important time when a message needed to be sent. It was a debate between hard economics and the public interest. In a year long campaign, he helped make the case that the Banks owed more to Winnipeg than an empty lot. The heritage advocates got some help from a different breed of city planner than you will find today.

At that time there were two activist city planners working for the city: Chuck Brook and Steve Barber. They believed their job was not just to react to things but to serve as advocates of the by-laws and to work with businessmen, property owners and the community to help bring plans about. These two planners actually helped plan and execute the campaign.

The 1979 Council unanimously voted to list these buildings historic. It was kind of curious to read the names of people who are now not normally thought of as being strong heritage advocates leading the councillors. James Ernst moved the motion to protect them. Mike O'Shaughnessy said "the Bank had made enough unearned income to maintain them for hundreds of years." Al Golden at the time a businessman and investor said he had tried to look at the buildings but the bank had said they were not available. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet had also been refused a lease on the building.

John Bertrand writing in the Tribune the next day wrote about how "victory kisses and unrestrained cheers echoed through city hall." McDowell said a precedent had been set. Over the last 20 years, the city has gone on to designate another 180 or so historical buildings.

FATHER NOEL JOSEPH RITCHOT

FATHER NOEL JOSEPH RITCHOT

St Norbert's Man for all Seasons & Riel's Right Hand Man

by George Siamandas

FATHER RITCHOT
Ritchot the parish priest for St Norbert and a Metis leader who arrived at St. Boniface on June 7 1862. Born in 1825 in Quebec and the son of a farmer, Ritchot was initially reluctant to come to Red River because he could speak only French. Other priests had seen being placed in St Boniface as a kind of demotion. Ritchot arrived just in time as the previous priest perished within days of his arrival. A large man with a full beard, Ritchot was considered one of the strongest men in Red River.

ST NORBERT BEFORE RITCHOT ARRIVED
The 1860s were tough years for Ritchot's parishioners. Most were nomads following the buffalo and they were simply not interested in becoming farmers. With floods, grasshopper plagues, poor harvests the farming option was not encouraging during the decline of the buffalo hunt during the 1860s. There was serious poverty amongst the Metis during the 1860s and Ritchot was front and centre in mounting a relief effort.

The 1860s were also seeing the development of the west for settlement and the worry about Metis land rights as survey parties pushed west and as speculators started to move in the late 1860s. This led to the Red River Rebellion in which Ritchot was an active part. And after the rebellion had been quelled Ritchot became the lead negotiator on behalf of Riel's cause.

RIEL'S CHIEF NEGOTIATOR
He was one of three delegates dispatched to try to find a solution to the Riel business. He and Black were imprisoned for two weeks in Ottawa. He held out for recognition as an official delegate of the new government and actually got a hearing with the prime minister McDonald on April 26 1870. He fought hard for Metis land rights as part of Manitoba's entry into confederation. In effect he was Riel's negotiator in Ottawa. For example he battled the prime minister for land rights obtaining 1.4 million acres after being offered 200,000. His negotiations resulted in the postage stamp province of Manitoba, so called because it was very small of what it is today. He also won French language rights as part of the Manitoba Bill.

HOW DID HE DIFFER FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY?
Ritchot believed in immersing himself in people's daily lives and needs; political things. Hence his intimate involvement in the uprising. After 1870 the French population of St Norbert declined sharply from about 1,211 in the 1870 census to 446 original settlers in 1881. Half the population moved away. Ritchot spent his time buying land and trying to find new settlers for replacements. In time he became a major land owner in St Norbert with about 50 properties. Ritchot became a kind of community foundation or community banker. Over time he became a wealthy property owner leaving an estate of $50,000 upon his death in 1905. By WW1 the value of his holdings increased 10 times, and his money was used to develop many community institutions in St Norbert such as a church, an orphanage, the Trappiste monastery. Ritchot lies buried in St Norbert the only place he worked. The St Norbert parish ran to the US border when it was established in 1857. Ritchot helped populate many of the communities south along the Red River such as St Agathe.