Prohibition Comes to B.C.!

During the general election campaign of the summer of 1916, Harlan Brewster did little to change his platform or his attacks on the provincial government. The people were tired of the Conservatives and, in a dramatic reversal, the Liberals 50 percent of the popular vote, winning 36 out of 45 seats. While waiting for the results of the soldiers' votes and the resignation of Premier Bowser, Brewster was busy. He consulted federal civil service commissioner, Adam Shortt, concerning the creation of a provincial commission; Brewster had an accounting firm review provincial finances; warned the public about reduced spending and increased taxes and even invited women to help purify political life.

When Harlan Carey Brewster became premier on November 23, he saw himself as the managing director of government and shunned departmental detail. He had a strong cabinet. In fact, three of those members - John Oliver, John Duncan MacLean, Thomas Dufferin Pattulo - went on to become premiers themselves. Brewster did make a bad choice though when he chose Malcolm Archibald Macdonald as attorney-general. Macdonald had been accused of taking funds from the Canadian Northern Railway during the February by-election. Macdonald denied the charge but resigned to help Brewster avoid any further embarrassment. Unfortunately, since it was a Liberal backbencher who had raised the accusation, the Vancouver Liberal Association remained fractured.

On February 12, 1907, finance minister Ralph Smith died and Premier Brewster took over his portfolio. He got right to work to balance the budget by cutting departmental allocations, raising existing taxes and implementing new taxes. Of course, the taxpayers complained but the press commended the businesslike plan of obtaining revenue from raising taxes not getting loans and putting the province in more debt.

Brewster was also true to his word and started fulfilling promised made while he was in the opposition. He passed legislation to promote agriculture and to tax speculators in the timberland. Brewster also created a department of labour to improve conditions between capital and labour and to improve conditions for workers. The Premier also sought to make administration more economical with such plans as replacing the auditor general with a controller general. (I have no idea on how that would work; I am relating the information from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography website.)

Once legislature enfranchised women on April 5, 1917, Brewster brought in the Equal Guardianship of Infants Act and named a few women to government posts. One of those women was Helen Emma Gregory MacGill who I wrote on in a previous entry. Due to an investigation into irregularities in the soldiers' vote, action on prohibition was delayed. But a special legislative session was held in August and a prohibition law was passed. It was repealed in 1921.

Somewhere around 80 bills were brought in by the fall and some of them were hastily drafted and debated. However, Brewster's government honoured many of the promises made in the throne speech. (The throne speech signifies the start of a new legislative session and outlines what the government plans to accomplish during that time.) Unfortunately, there were still a lot of problems.

Dissent in the caucus and cabinet took focus off what needed to be done; there were election scandals and continuing investigations into the previous government's dealings with the Pacific Great Eastern. The railway remained in poor condition even though Brewster was enthused over a northern extension.

Nothing had been done to develop the mining industry in the province. Patronage still reigned even though legislation had been passed regarding civil service. And the list goes on. It is no wonder that the public was unhappy. And they showed it in the polls. In four by-elections during January of 1918, the Liberals could only claim one victory.
A partial one at that. (The widow of Ralph Smith - Mary Ellen Smith - ran in a Vancouver riding as an Independent with Liberal endorsement.)

Monday, I will finish telling you about Harlan Carey Brewster. I hope you join me then.

Have a great weekend and I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Harlan Carey Brewster, history, MLA, Conservatives Liberal, suffrage, Helen MacGill,Ralph Smith,

From the Cannery to the Legislature

A photo of B.C.'s 18th Premier, Harlan Carey Brewster. I found this on Wikipedia and they got it from the B.C. archives.

On November 10, 1870, in Harvey, Albert County, N.B., Gilbert Brewster and Amelia Wells Brewster had a son they named Harlan Carey.

Harlan first learned the 'sailor's craft' in his father's shipyard. He went on to work as a printer's apprentice with the Harvey Weekly Observer in the 1880s. He also spent three years working at the Boston Herald. Unfortunately, eye trouble forced Brewster out of the printing business and he moved to Victoria, B.C.

In 1899, Brewster was purser on a coastal steamer. Later he managed Thomas Earle's trading posts and even, for a short time, a Skeena River salmon cannery. He moved to Clayoquot on Meares Island and became postmaster and keeper of the general store, which belonged to the Clayoquot Fishing and Trading Company Limited. In 1902, he joined with others to organize Clayoquot Sound Canning Company Limited. Brewster became the manager and part owner.

Harlan Brewster was well known and well respected on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In February 1907, he was elected as MLA for Alberni (Liberal) and in 1909 was the only "straight Liberal" to return. (I am going to assume by 'straight Liberal' they are referring to his politics.) While he was a new MLA, Brewster focused on constituency concerns but as "leader of the Liberal party of one" , he was active in most legislative debates. 

In March of 1912, Brewster was unanimously selected as Liberal party president and leader.  However, in the general election a few weeks later, Richard McBride's Conservative party overwhelmed the Liberals, including Brewster. A year later though a Liberal convention confirmed his leadership and Harlan Brewster went to the people of the province. In his tours, Brewster attacked the Conservatives' administration and called for reforms such as the nationalization of the railways, encouraged agriculture, promised a halt to Japanese immigration, an end to the squandering of provincial resources and a land policy that favoured settlers rather than speculators.

A by-election, caused by McBride's resignation,  was held on March 4, 1916 and Brewster campaigned successfully. He promised more reforms. He had his ear to what the people wanted like improved worker's compensation and labour laws, women's suffrage, and direct legislation. Brewster also promised to abandon machine politics and civil service patronage.

In the assembly, Brewster was on fire. He attacked the Conservatives for such things as unauthorized payments to the contractors of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway and for keeping the legislature in session after its term had expired. He did embarrass himself though. He sought a judicial inquiry into the legality of acts passed after March 14, 1916. He cast doubt on the legality of a legislature that he continued to sit in and on the validity of laws, which as it later turned out, he would have to administer. Oh well, we all make mistakes. Perhaps his zeal to prove the competition wrong just got the best of him.

Thanks goes to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography website for the information on Harlan Carey Brewster.

There are over 500 entries on this blog now and it would take you a long time to go back over all of them. However, if you go to my website and join my mailing list, you can get a free eBook with a few of my favorite entries. As well, you will be kept in the loop of what I am doing! So hop on over and sign up, it is free.

 I hope you find the beauty around you.

These next four photos were sent to me by my mother. Enjoy.

Ever wondered what the Wright Brother's Glider in flight looked like? Now you know! This was taken in 1911.

Picture taken in 1927

Survivors of the Titanic on their way to the rescue ship, the Carpathia in 1912.

A horse team on the Overland Trail. 

Karen Magill, Harlan Carey Brewster, history, MLA, Conservatives Liberal, suffrage, Titanic,Wright Brothers,

What is a Hemphill?

2739 Cambridge Street in Vancouver is known as the Hemphill House. Built in 1911 by Oliver Hemphill - one of the Hemphill brothers. The Hemphill brothers are responsible for many homes built in this city in the early decades of the 1900s. This house makes its first appearance in the city directories in 1912 but was listed as vacant.

The first owner of this house was an American born engineer by the name of Charles E. Pierce and his Quebec born wife, Amelie. This home remained in the Pierce family until 1977.

This is 2736 Cambridge. Robert Edgar Hemphill built this one as well as 2728 in 1911. I found another listing that states this home dates back to 1906 so I am not sure which one is right.

That is a problem with history. So much of it gets mixed up and related wrong. It is the same with family history - different family members have different stories about the past. 

Thomas Hemphill is listed as the builder of 2735 Cambridge. Perhaps they should have named the street Hemphill!

This is 2239 E. 7th. This Edwardian Classical style building is more common in the Mount Pleasant area. These are tall, formal houses with bell-cast hipped roofs, off-centre half porches and horizontal soffits with scroll-sawn brackets. The house next door has a dormer in its roof and this one probably did at one time as well.

Most of the lots on the north-east side of this street were owned by George C. Ossinger.

I want to thank Bob_2006 at flickr.com for the information on the Hemphill homes. The Grandview Heritage Group supplied the information on the home on E 7th. 

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Thomas Hemphill, history, Oliver Hemphill, Roger Hemphill Cambridge, Vancouver, George C. Ossinger,Edwardian Classical,