One City

In 1922, 3000 unemployed men took up residence in a camp in the exhibition buildings at Hastings Park. A year later, a second grain elevator was started in the harbour and westbound grain rates were cut by 10%. Burrard Drydock was under construction.

Grain shipments were growing and by 1924, there were 53 million bushels sent to the port - a major backlog of the port business. Vancouver lawyer, MLA and special counsel for the province, G.G. McGeer, argued ferociously at various conferences and hearings for an adjustment of freight rates. He had been doing so since 1916 and earned himself a considerable reputation as a fiery and persistent advocate.

When Louis D. Taylor took over as mayor at the beginning of 1925, the population of the city proper had grown to 126,000. The property assessments were $211 million. Point Grey and South Vancouver each claimed between 25,000 and 30,000 residents. The city's budget was over $4.8 million.

The civic cash relief dole had been eliminated and unemployment was a mere 1800. The first Second Narrows Bridge was near completion. West Vancouver had a road as far west as Whytecliff.

Taylor was again elected in 1926 and he carried with him an alderman who was to become famous as a CCF stalwart, Angus McInnis. Taylor was re-elected for the first two-term sitting for mayors and aldermen - 1927-28.

Taylor's previous two terms had seen Vancouver's prosperity continuing. South Vancouver was recovering financially, the Second Narrows Bridge opened and North Vancouver started the Grouse Mountain Highway and Chalet. (This enterprise later changed to private hands.)

Grain shipments increased 50 percent, for the first time Vancouver had a million tourists in a single year and the city also had 50 miles of ornamental street lighting. However, Taylor's greatest achievement in that time was the passage of the amalgamation vote, which unite Point Grey, South Vancouver and Vancouver into one city.

Thanks to the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Woodpecker Election

Former Vancouver Mayor, L.D. Taylor, was a man with a puckish sense of humour and he loved creating legends. About himself.

One time, he "kidnapped" ex-President "Teddy" Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt. It wasn't a kidnapping the way you may think though.

The Roosevelts were visiting Vancouver and the Board of Trade decided to omit the mayor from the official reception at the CPR station. Well Taylor wasn't having any of that.

He boarded the train at the Heatley Avenue station and introduced himself to the ex-President. He then ushered them off the train, condescendingly introducing them to a few board members before escorting the couple to a borrowed limousine for a drive around Stanley Park.

In the election of 1923, Taylor lost to Tisdall and that was due to a sudden and complete power failure in the East End. The street cars were immobilized during the late afternoon. The residents of the East End were primarily workingmen who made up the bulk of Taylor's support. They couldn't get to the polls and vote before the polls closed.

The next day, B.C. Electric - who were responsible for the street cars - produced a dead woodpecker. According to them, the woodpecker had penetrated the internal workings of a transformer and paralysed the power system.  So Taylor lost the "woodpecker election". However, he did gain yet another legend.

In 1928, L.D. was struck on the head by an air plane propeller at the inauguration of B.C. Airways passenger services. He had a long convalescence after which Taylor dramatically presided over council meetings in a wheelchair. He was still partially paralysed.

A year after this incident, the 72-year-old narrowly escaped drowning while on a five-week canoe trip north of Prince George.

In 1931, after attending the opening of Sea Island airport Louis D. Taylor contracted a lingering illness, which brought him to the verge of death.

Thanks to Alan Morley and his book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill 

The Vancouver Voyager is BAAACK!!!

Hello everyone. The Vancouver Voyager has returned! When I left off back in February, I was telling you about the period of time between World War I and World War II - the 1920s. I had just finished relating facts about newspapers. Today, I am going to look at some of the people responsible for our civic leadership.

From 1918 to 1921, Vancouver's mayor was a railroad and real estate promoter and speculator, R.H. "Harry" Gale. Harry was fast talking, colourful and popular but he wasn't capable of dealing with the problems during this transitional period after the war.

Gale was replaced in for 1922 and 1923 by Charles E. Tisdall. Tisdall improved the efficiency of the office and maintained a sound, conservative financial position. 

The next mayor, W.R. Owen had an uneventful term in 1924.

That brings us to Louis D. Taylor. Taylor was a dominating figure in local politics, serving as mayor from 1925 to 1935.  L.D. was fortunate because when he took over, a great boom that was to last until the end of 1929 was in full swing and many of the financial problems his predecessors faced had solved themselves. The city was in need of this perennial optimist though.

Taylor had been mayor when the city was booming in 1909 and 1910 then again in 1915. He began his civic career as a licence commissioner in 1902 though was voted out of office in 1903. He was never an alderman - tried but wasn't elected. He had run unsuccessfully for mayor five times in addition to the three times he won. (That's persistence!)

Organized labour liked Taylor. His policies were liberal and progressive and he favoured organized labour.

Louis D. Taylor was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He came to Vancouver in 1894 and, at the end of 1924, he was 67 years old. He was a pleasant, gentle man who preferred to gain through negotiation instead of open conflict. However, he had a vast knowledge of the city and its people and there were many sources of "pressure" available to him that he didn't hesitate to use to get his way.

This earned him a reputation for deep and sometimes unscrupulous intrigue that sometimes worked to his disadvantage when his enemies charged him with dishonesty. But when he was in his final, poverty stricken, years, his foes - even the most determined ones - acquitted him of profiting personally from his eleven years as chief magistrate of the city.

Taylor was connected with the pioneer Vancouver, back before he even got here. His second wife was Mrs. Alice Berry, the widow of pioneer teamster and a hero of the Great Fire, Harry Berry. Alice was also the daughter of Jonathan Miller, an early pioneer.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

Wednesday, I will tell you about a few of the legends surrounding our colourful mayor, L. D. Taylor. Until then, I hope you find the beauty around you.