Rafe Remembers

Yes, Vangcouver has a “g” in it and it’s Kitsil"eye"no and Capil"eye"no. That’s one way you tell the natives. The other is by the eternally smug look they have—especially when the newcomer is from Toronto and says “sawassen” as if that’s how you pronounced the name of the ferry terminal.

My early memories are somewhat jumbled. I remember Mayor Telford in an open car near Stanley Park on King George V’s Silver Jubilee throwing toffee suckers out for the kids. It was then that I first thought politics must be fun.

And I remember Gerry McGeer our Gerry. He was more famous than Mackenzie King who I thought must be King of Canada with the name reversed in the style of Quebeckers. Gerry McGeer was the only true mayor Vancouver ever had, with the possible exception of Tom “Terrific” Campbell, because he made people know about Vancouver. I remember when, after an absence of several years, McGeer ran for mayor again after the war. His slogan, and only campaign promise, was “Gerry’s Back.” He won in a huge landslide.

And there was Teddy Lyons, the conductor on the open-air streetcar that took tourists around the city. He was every kid’s hero. He nearly got me away from politics to streetcar conducting but then B.C. Electric got rid of those wonderful streetcars for those damn buses.

I remember when the King and Queen came somehow my cousin Hugh and I got a hold of some medals to wear. God knows where because the last war a Mair fought in was in New Zealand in the 1880s. But the Royal couple went by so fast that I don’t think the King even saw me and my medals.

Then came the war. One Sunday morning the newsboys came down the street shouting “Extra, Extra! War Declared. Read all about it!” This led to many hardships. I had to weed our “Victory Garden” ensuring a lifelong dislike of horticulture. We collected silver paper from cigarette boxes Export were best because they had cards with navy ships on them. Liquor was rationed- my Dad had 8 teetotalers’ ration cards, War was rough.

Politics meant “Green” which always bothered me because blue was my favorite color. Then my Dad told me it was Howard Green, the perpetual MP from Point Grey. And there was Ian Mackenzie MP, later senator, who was always mocked so brilliantly in the Stearman Hardware ads in the Province classified section, which many read before the main sections.

I remember well the drinking clubs which were the only watering holes before cocktail bars were permitted by W.A.C. Bennett (who himself was a “dry,” which didn’t prevent him from helping Cap Capozzi form Calona wines). As the great wit Barry Mather said, “the Pacific Athletic Club is no more noted for athletes than the Arctic Club is for Eskimos.”

Politicians came and went. Tom Campbell wanted to jail hippies under the War Measures act. W.A.C. was elected on the promise not to nationalize the B.C. Electric then promptly did just that. The first Vancouver boy to become premier, Dave Barrett, came and went quickly it just seemed such a long time. And I moved to Kamloops, finally got into politics, first as an alderperson then as MLA and cabinet minister, then returned to my roots to talk to the people I love. Vangcouverites.

There was no place like it when I grew up here there’s no place like it now.