Who Named Vancouver?

The Canadian Pacific Railway made the arrangements necessary to get the land for the new terminus - in Granville - and the agreement included provisions for an immediate survey. Van Horne of the CPR sent L.A. Hamilton who, in 1885, laid out downtown Vancouver on the approximate lines it is today. Van Horne's final instructions to Hamilton contain some interesting words.

"Hamilton," the surveyor reports him as saying, "this eventually is destined to be a great city in Canada. We must see that it has a name that will designate its place on the  map of Canada.

"Vancouver it shall be, if I have the ultimate decision."

This is intriguing to me because there is also the story of Van Horne being taken in a rowboat out around what is now Stanley Park. Trying to show the CPR president that Coal Harbour and Granville was where the terminus should be. The rowboat operator - I can't remember who it is - and Van Horne discussed names and came up with Vancouver. I wonder if that happened before this.

It is possible the decision was Van Horne's since his wish would have carried great weight. However, it is also probable the name had been under general consideration for some time previously. As early as August 1884, it had been used in a Portland, Oregon, newspaper for the western terminus of the CPR.

Whatever the name, the railway's plans for the port pushed ahead.

By this time, it was public knowledge that the CPR was negotiating for a right-of-way to Granville but the public's reaction was interesting.

Investors and speculators, such as J.W. Horne of Brandon, who had "looked in" at Granville in 1883 and again in 1884 and a Victoria businessman, Frederick Buscombe, decided "it was too early yet" to invest in the Granville area. They put off their plans for a year or two.

A. W. Ross, M.P for Lisgar, Manitoba,was hard hit financially in Winnipeg and came west to see if he could retrieve his fortunes in Port Moody. When he got here though, he changed his mind. He invested all he had and borrowed all he could to purchase Granville lots in 1884. Perhaps his former connections with the CPR syndicate had something to do with his decisions.

This was a perfect time for Port Moody speculators - both local and from Victoria - to hedge, but they refused to do so. I guess they lost out.

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

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Playing Politics

By 1872, Sanford Fleming - engineer who mapped a lot of the CPR routes - had settled on the Yellowhead Pass approach  for the railway. However, he later abandoned that plan and chose the Fraser route. Why will probably never be known. Fleming's personal memoirs don't shed light on the issue and the official CPR statements were designed to conceal, rather than enlighten. So many  factors come into play. Tremendous political pressure, extreme public agitation and complex and difficult economic considerations may have played a part in the railway sometimes announcing a firm decision. CPR, however, was not averse to prolonging the suspense and concealing its decisions when it could profit from the public uncertainty. As we will see in the case of the railway coming to Vancouver.

All the 70s, controversy raged. During the inquiry into the Pacific Scandal of 1873, Moberly  came close to accusing Fleming of attempted murder during a public testimony. According to Moberly, Fleming had abandoned him and his men for the winter in the Yellowhead pass without adequate supplies.

 By 1874, it was obvious to everyone that they must deal with the possibility of choice of the Fraser route but the Victorians didn't consider the likelihood of a mainland terminal to be a serious threat. In December of 1877, Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie officially announced the adoption of the Fraser route. The  matter was once again up in the air though when the conservatives came to power in Ottawa in the summer of 1878. Later that year, Sir John A. Macdonald confirmed his predecessor's choice.

So now the route is planned but where is the terminus going to be? Macdonald had pledged in 1873 it would be in Esquimalt. James D. Edgar, negotiating on behalf of Mackenzie in 1874, made even more definite promises. He pledged aid to the construction of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway as the CPR's westernmost section. Some Island politicians feared he might be double-crossing them for Mackenzie talked in terms of a transcontinental wagon road and telegraph line instead of a railway.

Premier George A. Walkem broke off the talks with Edgar. Mackenzie's Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway bill, which was passed by the Commons in 1875, specifically stated the E. and N. as not to be considered an integral part of the CPR. The bill was rejected in the Senate.

In 1876, Lord Dufferin, the governor-general, visited BC and attempted to smooth things over. He denounced both Macdonald's and Edgar's pledges as "flagrant bribery". Before the election of 1878, Mackenzie rescinded an order-in-council naming Esquimalt as the terminus.

All hope wasn't lost for Victorians though. The election that  year changed everything. Macdonald suffered a personal defeat in Kingston and Victoria seized on the opportunity. He was offered a seat in Victoria and elected. He restored Esquimalt as the terminus. Construction on the B.C. section of the railway began at Yale on May 14, 1880.

However, it was not to last. In 1881, Colonial Secretary Lord Kimberely decided Vancouver Island was only entitled to a light-gauge line and things got even more darker for Victorians in 1882 when the CPR refused to take any responsibility for the E. and N.

The Beaven government of BC cut Victoria's throat by rescinding the Island railway grants to the Federal Government and turning the E. and N. over to Robert Dunsmuir to complete. Macdonald saw this as reliving both the CPR and the Dominion of Canada from any responsibility in the matter. 

Dunsmuir's acceptance of the E. and N. offer and substantial federal compensation for Vancouver did not become official until 1884, the events of 1882 assured that Burrard Inlet would be the western terminus of the CPR.

  

But Gastown was not excited and I will tell you why on Monday.

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

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Our Dangerous Streets

The "100 Deathless Days" of 1939 may have been a failure but that didn't stop Vancouver from trying again. In 1955, it was for "80 Deathless Days" in response to the "80 Dark Days of Danger". (This refers to the dangers caused by shorter winter days)

In this campaign, the old people got the blame. After all, they were out at night, in the dark, wearing drab coloured clothing, which made it difficult for motorists to see them.


If the city’s seniors refused to remain in the safety of their homes, the Sun suggested they should at least ask themselves “Is this journey necessary?” before venturing out onto the dark, treacherous streets.

The "80 Deathless Days" campaign was also a failure. In 1960, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun reported Trail, BC hadn't had a single traffic fatality in five years but Vancouver had only managed 54 consecutive days death free in the same time period.

What made the streets of Vancouver so dangerous? After the 1939 campaign, the head of the Traffic Safety Council said the problem was with the pedestrians. Motorists were perfectly cooperative during the campaign, but as for pedestrians, he said, “there was no evidence of any co-operation whatsoever.”

Perhaps it was the way the campaign was presented to the public. The Sun used "traffic morality", a "moral panic" formula. This was the traditional way Vancouverites were motivated to do things as with the campaigns to crack down on drugs.

Victoria, on the other hand, took a different approach. They were demonstrating a "traffic conscience" with a more ambitious campaign of "Accident Free Weeks".  While Vancouver was “half-heartedly pretending not to KILL people,” wrote the Sun, “Victoria is determined not to HURT people.”

These campaigns weren't unique to Vancouver. Providence, Rhode Island had a similar problem and they virtually eliminated traffic deaths by lowering the speed limit to 25 miles an hour. Looking back, these campaigns seem to signify when larger amounts of traffic deaths are accepted as the cost of this mode of transportation.

Car manufacturers have made their vehicles safer for both pedestrian and driver. Unfortunately, advancements like more powerful engines being operated by inexperienced drivers or drivers (and pedestrians) distracted by cell phones and such have increased the hazards of the road.

This information is from the Past Tense Vancouver website.

I hope you find the beauty around you.