See Bowser's Pandora

This is William John Bowser, B.C's 17th premier. This photo is from the City of Vancouver Archives.

Built in 1901, this house is at 1834 Pandora Street.

Today I am going to tell you about B.C.'s 17th premier, William John Bowser. Bowser was born on December 3, 1867 in Rexton, New Brunswick. The son of William Bowser and Margaret Gordon Bowser, young William was educated at Mount Allison University as well as Dalhousie University. In 1891, he moved to Vancouver and began to practice law.

 Also on Pandora Street, this building at 1879 came into existence in 1901.

After Bowser came west, he joined the Conservative party and in 1903, was elected as an MLA. From 1907 to 1915, Bowser served as Attorney-General in the cabinet of Sir Richard McBride.

When McBride resigned in 1915, Bowser took control of the provincial government.

Bowser took office at a rough time for the Conservative Party. The party itself was deeply divided and unpopular and changing leaders didn't help. There were accusations of corruption and machine politics. As well, the Conservatives weren't addressing concerns such as women's suffrage and prohibition - in Wednesday's entry I remarked how that is said to have been one of the reasons that McBride stepped down. 

This is another set of buildings built in 1901 on Pandora Street.

On November 23, 1916, William John Bowser was defeated by Liberal leader, Harlan Carey Brewster. Browser continued as leader of the opposition until he lost his seat in the 1924 election.

In 1933, William John Bowser was back and leading a group of Non-Partisan Group of candidates. Unfortunately, he died during the campaign.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information on Bowser. It was difficult to find anything on him.

I want to thank bob_2006 at flickr.com for the information on the buildings.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, William John Bowser, history, MLA, Conservatives Liberal, suffrage, Non-Partisan,prohibition,

How to Start a University

This photo of B.C.'s 16th premier was taken from the Canadian Encyclopedia website. That is also where I am getting the information for today's entry.

This photo I got from Wikipedia.

Our sixteenth premier was a man named Richard McBride. McBride was born on December 15, 1870 in New Westminster. Educated in New Westminster and at Dalhousie University, McBride was first elected MLA in 1898.

Richard McBride was a personable individual and he briefly served in the cabinet of James Dunsmuir. After the government of E.G. Prior resigned, McBride helped to form the first B.C. administration based on party lines on June 1, 1903. In fact, McBride is considered by some to be the founding father of the provincial Conservative party.

In the first election held with actual political parties, McBride and the conservatives won by a narrow margin of two seats!

One of McBride's first duties as Premier was to restore financial stability to the province. He did this by cutting expenditures and raising taxes. In order to secure socialist support, McBride's government made many minor reforms, especially to labour laws.

By 1909, the economy was booming and McBride and his government were able to plan for a provincial university and promised continued prosperity through such means as the construction of railways. In the 1909 and 1912 elections, McBride's Conservatives just about eliminated the opposition.

McBride was also popular due to his constant agitation for better terms from the federal government. In 1908 and 1911, he campaigned for the federal Conservative Party and helped them take power. 

McBride was an imperialist and a friend of Winston Churchill's. He enthusiastically supported the idea of Canada contributing to the Imperial Navy. So much so that on the first day of the First World War, B.C. purchased and took possession of two submarines in order to defend our shores from the threat of a German attack. There was a problem with that. Provinces are not constitutionally allowed to maintain militaries so the subs were quickly transferred to the federal government.

However, nothing lasts forever. By 1914, McBride and his cabinet were losing popularity. The economy was depressed and B.C. was in danger of having to meet heavy railway debts. McBride also wasn't paying attention to popular reform movements such as Women's Suffrage and Prohibition. On December 15, 1915 - his forty fifth birthday - Richard McBride resigned as premier.

McBride became the province's representative in London. He hoped to get treatment for Bright's disease, which he suffered from. Unfortunately, the kidney disease took his life on August 6, 1917.

But that premier left us the University of British Columbia - or UBC as it is more commonly known - and that fine school opened its doors in 1915. I go out to UBC once a year to the MS Clinic. It is like a little city out there and it is easy to get lost. I go from the bus stop to the hospital and back again. I don't wander much!

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Richard McBride, history, UBC, Conservatives Bright's Disease, London, submarine,federal,

Siege at the Carnegie

I snagged this photo from an entry on the SFU (Simon Fraser University) site. It was taken in 1902.

At the corner of Main and Hastings stands a fine old building known as Carnegie Centre. In 1901, the City of Vancouver approached American industrial magnate, Andrew Carnegie, for a grant to build a library. Carnegie agreed to put up $50,000 on the condition that the city supply the land and pay $5,000 a year in upkeep. The City of Vancouver agreed, choosing a plot of land that was beside City Hall at the time, and the Carnegie Library opened in 1903. 

In 1905, the Vancouver Museum occupied the top floor. In 1929, the library expanded into the now vacant city hall next door. (The City Hall building had been in that spot since 1889. In 1929, City Hall moved to the Holden Building on Hastings Street.)

I like this stylized image of the centre and City Hall. The building that once housed city hall is no longer there.

This is a photo of the city hall in the forefront and Carnegie Library in the back. It is from the Vancouver Public Library collection and Philip Timms took it in 1904.

In 1935, on May 28 to be exact, 250 young men stormed the Carnegie Library and politely asked the staff to leave. They then took residence on the third floor, waving and yelling to supporters on the ground. 

These young men were from the relief camps that were set up around the country in an effort by Prime Minister R. W. Bennett to do something to help the unemployed in the thirties. Single, unemployed young men would be shipped off to these camps set up in the middle of nowhere to do such things as digging ditches. Then the ditches would be filled back in and redug. 

I have to admit though that it wasn't that big of a siege. It lasted about eight hours and ended when the city promised a bit of cash for every man and promised not to press charges.

Another photo by Philip Timms. This one was taken in 1910.

T

This is a 1920 photo of the interior of Carnegie Library. It was taken by Leonard Frank.

A group of men reading papers in the Carnegie Library. It was taken in 1937.

A 1932 photo by Philip Timms that shows the foyer and circulation desk.

The takeover of the Carnegie Library may not have been that drastic but it is said to have led to the 'On To Ottawa' trek. In this protest, hundreds of strikers boarded railway freight cars headed for Ottawa. The men wanted to force the government to shut down the relief camps. However, the men with a mission were stopped by the RCMP in Regina.

Their message did reach the prime minister in Ottawa and the camps were shut down by the newly elected Liberal government later that year.

The library moved in the fifties and the Carnegie fell into a state of disrepair. But in the late seventies, early eighties, this sandstone building was rehabilitated by the city and has since become a meeting place for the disadvantaged people in the area.

Philip Timms took this photo of the spiral staircase in 1932. I have been in the Carnegie Centre and this staircase is still impressive. In fact, there is a scene in Missing Flowers where I describe the staircase and Carnegie Centre.

Another 1932 photo by Philip Timms. This shot shows the stained glass windows on one of the landings.

There are many people living on welfare and complaining that they don't have enough money to survive. I walk through this area and I see the people smoking cigarettes, smoking pot and some are drunk. They have money for that but not for the important things in life.

These people demonstrate outside of expensive restaurants in the area, protesting the gentrification of the area. They forget that it is businesses such as this and the patrons who supply the money to pay for the welfare and the social housing and the rehab clinics etc. I see that these poverty stricken people can still afford their vices and I think of when people who were poor in this country were really poor. I do have a few photos from 1935-1939 that illustrate my point.

These people didn't have welfare to fall back on. They had to make do with what they could. Kind of makes claims of poverty because a person can't afford all the television channels or a new car or a new cell phone seem really foolish, doesn't it?

Thanks to The Tyee for the information on the siege at Carnegie Public Library and to HistoricPlaces.ca for information on the history of the Carnegie Centre. And, of course, thanks to the Vancouver Public library for some of the photos shown here. The 1935 to 1939 photos are compliments of a friend of my mother's.

Happy Labour Day and I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Carnegie, history, relief camp, Missing Flowers city hall, Main, Hastings,Ottawa,