Vancouver Voyager: One City

Friday, May 27, 2016

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.