The History of Metropolitan Vancouver

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You'll note that this year includes events listed under “Also in . . .“ These are events for which we don't have a specific date. If YOU know the
specific date of an event shown there, please notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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January 11 The books damaged in the burst water pipe incident in the main library in 1988—at least, those that were able to saved to be freeze-dried and restored—were back on the shelves.

January Phased construction of a $250 million, 17-storey, 90-metres-high acute care tower (known as the Laurel Pavilion) began on the Vancouver General Hospital site. The building, 60 per cent of its costs borne by the provincial government and 40 per cent by the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District, would be built in stages with each stage being financed separately. Its outer shell, visible to the public but not in use for much of that time, was a source of confusion to many observers who were unaware of the phasing schedule. Phasing was decided in hopes of reducing costs. The building would allow the hospital to consolidate its operations in eight buildings rather than 17. This was projected to produce a $10 million annual saving. A number of older structures were to be torn down.

March 23 Ranjit Mattu, star athlete and coach, died in Malibu, California, aged 72. He was born July 17, 1916 in Jullunder, Punjab, India. He came to Vancouver in 1924, later graduated with a BA from UBC as a star athlete in rugby and football. Mattu was called the “Gretsky of his time.”

He coached Canadian high school football and later junior football to 1949. His team, The Vancouver Blue Bombers, were the Dominion Champions of 1947, the first such championship won by Vancouver. He joined his father's firm, Best Fuels, later established various business interests including Ocean City Sawmills (renamed Hem-fir Lumber) on Mitchell Island. A community leader, Mattu was Indian Prime Minister Pandit Nehru's organizer and host when Nehru visited B.C. in 1949.

April 3 Edward Gilbert Nahanee, longshoreman and Native Brotherhood of B.C. organizer, died in North Vancouver, six days before his 92nd birthday. “He was born,” writes Constance Brissenden, “April 9, 1897 in North Vancouver. His heritage was Kanaka (Hawaiian aboriginal) and Squamish native. His grandfather, Joe Nahano (died c. 1874, Burrard Inlet), came to Oregon from Hawaii in 1842 to work for the Hudson's Bay Co., eventually migrating to B.C. where he married Mary Seeamia of the Squamish nation. His father, longshoreman William Nahanee, Sr. (b. March 19, 1873 at Kanaka Ranch at the foot of today's Denman St. near the Bayshore Inn; d. Dec. 10, 1946, North Vancouver), also married a Squamish wife, Cecilia. Ed, famed as a pitcher for the North Shore Indians baseball team, worked on the docks from age 14. He was active in the longshoreman's union after the First World War until violent clashes with RCMP and company police in 1923 broke the union. From 1946 he served as business agent for the Native Brotherhood of B.C. He was awarded the Canada Confederation Medal in 1967 for his work with native people. Edward’s brother, William Nahanee, Jr. (born July 26, 1903 in Moodyville; died March 19, 1987, North Vancouver) was the first employee of the Squamish Indian Band and active in the Totem Athletic Club. There are currently more than 600 descendants of Joe and Mary Nahano.”

April 21 The Order of British Columbia was established by statute to recognize persons who have served with the greatest distinction and excelled in any field of endeavor benefiting the people of the Province or elsewhere. It’s awarded annually. “The Order represents the highest form of recognition the Province can extend to its citizens.” The web site lists everyone who has won recognition since the program began.

April 23 Richmond resident Sherry Sakamoto was among the celebrants at the ceremony at which the name Pacific Spirit Park was given to the 763 hectares (1,885 acres) of University Endowment Lands set aside as a park. (The provincial government had transferred title to the land from the UEL to the Greater Vancouver Regional District in December 1988.) Sherry had won the province-wide competition to name the park, the largest urban park in the world. She explained that the name “was inspired by the First Nations belief in the Great Creator and their connection to Mother Earth . . . It is the gateway to the Pacific and a spiritual ground to becoming one with nature.”

“I sat down at my kitchen table, closed my eyes and meditated for five minutes. Two names came to mind and I quickly scribbled them down. I popped the entry into an envelope and placed it on the floor in the hallway. That evening I told my husband, Terry, that I had entered the contest and that I wasn’t going to tell anyone the names I had submitted.

“On Friday, April 14th, we arrived home late to a phone message asking me to call a woman neither one of us knew. I called early Monday and the woman identified herself as Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s assistant and instructed me to hold the line. A few moments later, a voice identified himself and excitedly chirped, ‘Well, you did it!’ I stood there, my mind blank and nervously thinking. ‘What did I do?’ This is the premier of the province talking to me! In the back of my mind, I’m thinking of all the times I had bad-mouthed his government and perhaps this was why they had tracked me down! It finally dawned on me that he was referring to the Name the Park Contest and he continued to tell me that every one of the judges loved the name and it had won over 3,200 other entries.”

Sherry won a Helijet ride over the park and North Shore mountains, brunch at the University Golf Club, attended a reception to meet Premier Vander Zalm and his wife Lillian . . . and had one of the park’s trails named for her. (It runs along the south side of West 16th Avenue.)

There was one tense moment. “As we neared the staging area, we were met by members of the First Nations Musqueam band. They were there to protest the government and bring attention to their issue of land claims. I felt nervous at their presence but didn’t think they were there to protest against me. All contest entries were to be accompanied with a reason as to how one came up with their park name suggestion and mine was, ‘It was the gateway to the Pacific and a spiritual ground to becoming one with nature.’

“It was the First Nations and their connection to the Earth that had inspired my entry. So I figured in a worse case scenario, if all hell broke loose with this protest, I could wave my hands and say, ‘I’m on your side!’”

Today, Sherry and her husband Terry Martyniuk live in Richmond with their three sons and have a video production company named—what else?—Pacific Spirit Productions.

The park she named has 34 multiple-use trails that traverse coniferous and deciduous forests, ancient bogland, ravines and the Point Grey foreshore. Leisurely walking trails through this second-growth forest are shared by strollers, cyclists, dogs and horses.

April 24 It was announced that Patricia Neary, a former soloist of the New York City Ballet, would be the new artistic director of Ballet British Columbia, the appointment to be effective July 1. She succeeded New Westminster-born Reid Anderson, who moved to Toronto to take over the National Ballet of Canada. Ms. Neary’s reign would be brief: Barry Ingham took over in 1990.

May 5 Simon Fraser University opened a downtown Vancouver campus in the historic Spencer building on West Hastings Street, now known as the Harbour Centre Campus. From their web site comes this: “Creation of the downtown campus was a 10-year project. The university had pioneered university mid-career professional education in Vancouver in the early 1980s with the launch of a store-front centre. It was rapidly outgrown and larger premises were leased. Dr. Warren Gill, SFU’s vice-president, university relations and an urban geographer who has played a key role in the development of SFU’s downtown presence says ‘It was clear there was need for a downtown university centre, but Simon Fraser knew it had to establish the facility through private sector support.’ This was achieved and the re-built and revitalized 1927 Spencer building officially opened as SFU’s Vancouver campus on May 5, 1989.

This unique campus was originally financed through private sector funding and designed to meet another major challenge: mid-career education in the emerging global, knowledge-based economy. Within its first five years of operation the busy “intellectual heart of the city” would be serving more than 50,000 people annually, taking advantage of new opportunities in life-long learning.

May 6 Science World opened for good in the former Expo Preview Centre. In the summer of 1988 it had opened with a four-month “shakedown” preview with a show called Dinosaurs! Then it closed for refurbishing, and would now be open permanently. Among its attractions: the largest OMNIMAX® screen in the world. Today Science World—known since July 2005 as Science World at TELUS World of Science—is one of BC's most popular educational family attractions with attendance of more than half a million visitors every year, including 60,000 children on school field trips. And see the 1982 chronology.

Also May 6 Dave Barr celebrated the saving from demolition of the old University Golf Club clubhouse, which became Golf House, a museum. The Golf House Society says it “now houses the most extensive and interesting collection of golf memorabilia in Canada . . . we are constantly on the lookout for antique items and if you have anything relating to golf, which you think may be collectable, let us know. Items such as clubs, golf balls, bags, books, china, films, prints trophies etc. may be just what the society is looking for . . .”

May 16 Bob Smith, jazz columnist and broadcaster, died in Vancouver, aged 69. Robert Norman Smith was born January 15, 1920 in Winnipeg. He heard his first jazz recording at 13, a clarinet piece from a Noel Coward play on a CKMO program, British Empire program. He attended King Edward HS. He joined the RCAF, later served with US forces in the South Pacific. For more than 30 years from Saturday, February 1, 1947, he was host of Vancouver's longest-running jazz radio show Hot Air. From 1954 he was a hi-fi columnist, then from 1962 a jazz columnist for The Vancouver Sun. From 1971 to 1979, Smith was host of the Vancouver edition of CBC Radio’s That Midnight Jazz. “He was an encyclopedia of jazz, jazz musicians and records.”

May 25 Richmond's Bridgepoint Harbour Market opened. Today, it's the site of one of the lower mainland's most successful gaming houses, the River Rock Casino.

May 28 The handsome old Georgia Medical-Dental building, which went up on the northwest corner of Georgia and Hornby Streets in 1929, was demolished by a controlled explosion (viewed by a huge throng in the surrounding streets), following an intense but unsuccessful public campaign to save it. See 1929 for more detail.

Old-timers joke that the three nurses carved into the outer corners of the building were the Rrhea Sisters: Dia, Gono and Pyo.

May Designated Schedule A Heritage structures were the Bloomfield house at 2532 Columbia, built in 1900, and the house at 1642 Stephens, built in 1911.

Spring The 1989 inductees into the Vancouver Board of Trade Hall of Fame (awarded to companies or organizations active in the city for 100 years) were: BC Hydro, Salvation Army, the Vancouver Port Corporation and the law firm Russell & DuMoulin.

June 3 Garry Point Park in Steveston opened. The park, at the southwest corner of Richmond, is a popular spot for strolling, watching ships go by, kite flying and more.

June 7 The Vancouver Canucks made a sixth-round pick—called “possibly the best sixth round pick in NHL history”—a young Russian player (born in Moscow March 31, 1971) named Pavel Bure. There was a bit of a dust-up at the beginning because of a rule that in order to be eligible for the draft a Russian player needed 11 games at the elite level. The statistics seemed to show Bure had only played 10. The Canucks scouts disagreed and an investigation by the NHL proved they were right. Bure would play his first NHL game November 5, 1991 against the Winnipeg Jets. We’ll tell you more about that when we get that year up!

On November 1, 2005 Bure would announce his retirement from professional hockey because of complications with an injured knee, an injury sustained in 2003 while he was with the New York Rangers.

Bure trivia: he was named after his great-grandfather, watchmaker to Czar Alexander III. From 1815 to 1917, the family made precious watches for the czars. The dynasty's founder, Swiss watchmaker Eduard Bure, is said to have been the first to attach a tiny strap to a watch so that it could be worn on the wrist. That’s a disputed claim, of course. Patek Philippe is also credited, so is Cartier. So is . . . etc., etc.

July 10 Greenpeace’s new Rainbow Warrior ship was launched at Hamburg, Germany. Its predecessor, the original Rainbow Warrior, had been bombed and sunk in the harbor at Auckland, New Zealand by French agents in 1985. Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira was killed. After 2 years of international arbitration, a panel of three arbitrators awarded a damage claim settlement in favor of Greenpeace, and the French government was ordered to pay them $8.159 million (US). Greenpeace decided on a burial at sea as an honorable end for the ship. On December 12, 1987 the retrieved Rainbow Warrior was sunk a final time in the deep waters of the Pacific at Matauri Bay in New Zealand, with a full Maori ceremony.

July 19 Major leaguer Sammy Sosa of the Chicago White Sox, who had started the season at a red hot pace, went into a colossal slump. With his average hovering at the “Mendoza line” (.200), Sosa was sent down to Triple-A Vancouver today. He wasn’t here long. He would be recalled Aug. 27 (after playing 13 games) and finish the season with a .203 average, 10 homers and 33 RBI—along with 98 strikeouts in 116 games. Then things started picking up.

August 22 J.V. Clyne, forest industry executive and judge, died in Vancouver, aged 87. John Valentine Clyne was born in Vancouver February 14, 1902. Wrote Constance Brissenden in The Greater Vancouver Book: “J.V. Clyne worked summers as a cowboy, sawmill laborer, deckhand and placer gold miner. After graduation from UBC in 1923, he studied marine law at the London School of Economics. He was called to the B.C. bar January 8, 1927, appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court in 1950. In 1957, Clyne was named a director of MacMillan Bloedel, later became chairman and CEO until his retirement in 1973. He was a member of the UBC senate from 1951 to 1960, later chancellor. He played a leading role in three Royal commissions and in the creation of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies. Knighted (Order of St. John, 1959); named a Companion of the Order of Canada (1972). He established the J.V. Clyne Lecture Program.”

August 28 Delta council vetoed an application by Tsawwassen Developments Ltd. to establish a big housing development along the shores of Boundary Bay. The proposal—hotly opposed by many residents—had been debated at a 25-session public hearing that lasted from May 1 to July 17, the longest public hearing in Canadian history. More than 400 speakers were heard and 3,700 written submissions received. The battle divided the community, pitting newcomers against oldtimers.

August Designated a Schedule A Heritage Structure was the house at 3846 West 10th Avenue, built 1936-37.

Summer The B.C. Summer Games were held in Surrey, with 4,000 athletes from all over the province.

September 7 A Russian drug gang was rounded up in Vancouver on charges of conspiring to sell cocaine. More than 25 pounds of coke valued at $9 million was seized along with machine guns and luxury cars.

September 21 Premier Bill Vander Zalm vowed to step up the attack on the illicit drug trade. He told more than 1,400 B.C. mayors and aldermen (attending the annual meeting of the Union of B.C. Municipalities) that he was setting up and chairing a cabinet committee on drug abuse. “It’s our intention,” Vander Zalm said, “to develop a drug-attack program that will be the envy of Canada.” Wonder how that worked out?

October 17 A major earthquake struck central California. More than 60 people were killed, and damage was estimated at almost $3 billion in San Francisco alone. The local result: a lot of engineering work began to upgrade local bridges and dams against seismic hazards.

October 29 An era in Vancouver entertainment ended with the death—the day before his 90th birthday—of Ivan Ackery, who had been manager of the Orpheum Theatre from 1935 to 1969. He was born Ivor Frederick Wilson Ackery in Bristol, England on October 30, 1899. In later years he’d change the Ivor to Ivan because that’s what everybody in Vancouver called him, anyway.

He moved to Vancouver in 1914. As manager of the Orpheum Theatre from 1935 to 1969, he was known as Mr. Orpheum, Atomic Ack and Little Orpheum Ackery. Promotional stunts earned him two Motion Picture Quigley Awards, the theatre promoters' equivalent of an Oscar. To plug one of his under-performing movies he once paraded a cow down Granville with a sign: “There's a great show at the Orpheum and that's no bull.” The lane behind the Orpheum is called Ackery Alley.

We’ll soon be putting up on this site a thorough history of the Orpheum Theatre, written in 2002 to mark the 75th anniversary of the theatre’s 1927 opening. Ivan Ackery was a major element in that beautiful theatre’s career, and is a big part of its story. Here’s an excerpt:

During the Great Depression, with competition from radio adding to its grief, the movie industry had to redouble its efforts to fill its huge theatres. The Orpheum, like many theatres in North America, was kept open by cutting staff, reducing ticket prices and bringing in double features. Then in 1935 the theatre got a new manager who gave it new life.

Movie theatre managers in the 1930s were more than just administrators. They frequently chose the films they would show, they were expected to promote them—and, boy, did Ackery promote them—and they devised special attractions to make their theatres stand out and bring customers in. Ackery was so good at all of this, and he was good for so long (35 years), that it’s fair to say he is the single most influential person in the Orpheum’s history.

From the very beginning Ackery was totally committed to whatever he was doing. In 1927, the year the Orpheum opened, 28-year-old Ivan happened to be manager at a rival theatre, the Victoria on Victoria Drive near East 43rd. “And I remember going down Granville Street that year, and I thumbed my nose at the Orpheum. Oh, I was so jealous.”

He actually did that. He actually put his right thumb up against his nose and wiggled his fingers at this upstart picture palace. About eight years later they put him in charge of running the place, the biggest movie theatre in Canada at the time, and he would do such a great job that he would stay there for the next 35 years.

There’s lots more to Ivan’s story, and we’ll bring it to you soon. Read his autobiography, Fifty Years on Theatre Row.

October 30 Agnes Watts, Telethon angel, died in Vancouver, aged about 90. She was born in 1899 in Bunzlau, Germany (today it’s Boleslawiec, Poland.) “At 19,” writes Constance Brissenden, “she came to Victoria to work as a nanny. She married a logger, and moved to Powell River; later divorced. She moved to Vancouver and married Isaac Watts in 1944. He died in 1952. She was the first female employee at Scott Paper's New Westminster mill, “rolling toilet paper” for 22 years. Noted for frugality, she became a millionaire from stocks and real estate investments such as West End rooming houses. She was a patron of the Variety Club of B.C., and donated more than $500,000 to children's projects. She received the Variety Club Humanitarian Award personally from Prince Philip in London in 1987. ‘Children were her great love.’”

October The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club bought its second full-service marina at Garden Bay in Pender Harbour.

November 10 A brief announcement at 9 a.m. informed its listeners that radio CKO-FM 96.1 and the national news network of which it was a part was signing off forever because of financial losses. See more here.

November 21 Frank Baker, restaurateur, died in Vancouver, aged 67. Frank Madill Baker was born June 24, 1922 in Vancouver. He opened Baker's Catering (at 25th and Kingsway) and Spring Gardens (at 41st and Boulevard) in 1946. With partner Frank Bernard, he opened two restaurants in the Georgian Towers and bought Park Royal Hotel. After the partnership ended, he opened the 1,200-seat The Attic in West Vancouver. Guests were entertained by Lance Harrison and His Dixieland Band. A showman, Frank played the trumpet (learned at the Four Square Gospel Church) and always wore a trademark white suit. Outside The Attic, he showcased the Aston Martin driven in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. He was briefly a Vancouver alderman.

December 6 A gunman shouting that he hated “feminists” roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and shot 14 women, engineering students, to death. The Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment all across Canada in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women. In 1997 a monument to the murdered women would be unveiled in Vancouver's Thornton Park, at Main Street and Terminal Avenue. We'll have more on the monument in the 1997 chronology.

December 25 Sometimes events that happen a long way away have an influence here. In a way, that makes them “local” history. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed today. The Romanian community in the Vancouver area was small before Ceaus,escu’s overthrow, but by 1997 there would be anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people of Romanian origin living in the Lower Mainland. There’s an interesting Wikipedia article on the revolution here.

Christopher Erienbeck, B.C.'s three-millionth citizen, was born at Burnaby Hospital.

The Provincial Emergency Program Academy was established within the Justice Institute. What do they do? To quote their website “The Provincial Emergency Program (PEP), funds the PEP Academy at the Justice Institute of B.C. to develop, deliver and evaluate emergency management training for emergency responders. The various one and two day courses support communities to develop, deliver, and evaluate their own emergency exercise programs, plan for evacuations, prepare for activating an emergency operations centre and understand the roles and responsibilities of various government and non-government agencies.”

One of the more interesting segments of the PEP site is the “Incidents” file. It’s a weekly report, and has stuff like this: “Members responded to search for a missing 6-year-old female who walked away from her residence in Armstrong. She was located in good condition in a nearby field, petting a horse.” And this: “Members responded to rescue an injured snowmobiler in the Grizzly area of Gorman Mountain. The injured snowmobiler was removed from the area and taken to hospital.” Go the site cited above and click on “Incidents”.

In The Greater Vancouver Book David Spaner told of a visit to Vancouver this year by boxer Mike Tyson, 23. Tyson’s estranged wife Robin Givens, 25 (they had divorced on February 14), was shooting a TV movie called The Penthouse. “When he arrived at her lodgings, the Hotel Vancouver,” Spaner writes, “Tyson was greeted by newspaper and television cameras. He grabbed a camera from a Vancouver Sun photographer and threw it against the wall, then lunged at a BCTV camera, ripping away its viewfinder and smashing it to the floor. Tyson tried to grab the television camera, but the cameraman escaped through a revolving door.”

The Vancouver Food Bank had started in 1982 as a temporary facility for needy people. By 1989 there were six depots distributing to 15,000 people every month.

The Langley District Help Network began to operate the Langley Food Bank, helping hundreds every week with their food needs. The Help Network also operated a furniture bank, a laundromat, and a free store.

Actress Florence Paterson and her husband John moved to Vancouver this year to be near family. She was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1927, performed in amateur theatre, became a professional performer at age 44. Her last Vancouver role would be in Mother Miracle (Arts Club, 1994). She later received the Arts Council Life Achievement Award. She died in 1995.

Munich-born (May 11, 1908) Erwin Swangard, 81, journalist, soccer promoter and longtime PNE president (1977 to 1989), became a member of the Order of Canada.

Karen Wilson succeeded George Laverock as producer of the CBC Radio Orchestra, which had become the most recorded orchestra in Canada. Concertmaster was Marc Destrube, who divided his professional career between Vancouver and Europe.

The Vancouver Board of Trade became a member (by invitation) of the prestigious World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of economic world leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

A time capsule was placed in the Steveston Community Centre to give citizens of 2039 a window on the community of 1989.

A large stained glass window was installed in the Marine Building. The $25,000 window—designed by Joel Berman—was installed as part of renovations for the 60th anniversary of this building. There was a change in the building’s lobby floor, too. There had been a renewed interest in ancient mythology in the late 1920s, when the Marine Building was going up, and architect George Nairne picked up on that: the 12 signs of the zodiac were worked into the floor. The original floor was made of corkoid, or “battleship linoleum,” manufactured in Scotland by a firm that specialized in producing similar floors for luxury ocean liners. This year that original flooring was removed and replicated in marble.

Indoor Fountain, designed by Toronto architect Eb Zeidler, was installed at Pacific Centre. “The fourth wall of the shopping centre couldn't be stores,” Zeidler said, “because of a building next door, so we chose the waterfall as an 'event'” His inspiration was the Villa d'Este, an Italian Renaissance villa just outside Rome dating from 1550, “the first water park, and the most wonderful water event ever made.”

Granite Assemblage, , a fountain, a piece of environmental art and a play structure was designed by Don Vaughan in 1988, as part of the revitalization of Ambleside Village. Located at the waterfront at 14th Street in West Vancouver, and activated this year, the work was Vaughan's graduation project at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Influenced by Carl Andre and fascinated by the ruins at Olympus, Greece, the artist—in his own words—“used 53 granite blocks to connect the plaza to the intertidal riprap shore edge, stepping out of the riprap through the stylized tidal pools and out onto the plaza where they rest as polished granite cubes.”

In 1949 the Matsumoto family purchased a small shipyard on Dollarton Highway in North Vancouver, building fishboats and fire-fighting boats for Mexico. They sold the company this year to Pacific Western Shipbuilders.

The Museum of Anthropology on the UBC campus, attracting some 170,000 visitors a year at the time, was awarded by the Canadian Tourism Commission the title “Tourist Attraction of the Year—Canada” in recognition of “its exceptional popularity with local and international audiences.”

Gertrude Lawson died. It’s in her handsome stone-fronted home at 680 17th Street that the West Vancouver Museum and Archives has made its home since 1994. The museum’s website includes this: “Gertrude Lawson designed and built her home in 1939, reminiscent of Scottish castles seen on a journey overseas. The building is unusual for the Pacific Coast and features a stone sheath exterior wall built of granite blocks and river boulders—former ballast from sailing ships that plied the early Vancouver port, and Capilano river rocks. Ms. Lawson was a teacher and artist who planned her home as a place where other artist and educator friends could gather and live. She was the daughter of pioneer entrepreneurs John and Christina Lawson, and is very fondly remembered in the community.”

B.C. Hydro launched its highly-successful Power Smart conservation program. In five years Power Smart and the associated Resource Smart program (which enhanced existing production facilities) would save enough electricity to supply 233,200 homes.

Langley and Maple Ridge became members of the GVRD, the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

A 4,500-house development on the Westwood Plateau began, pushing Coquitlam's population to just under 100,000.

Rita Johnston, the MLA for Surrey-Newton, and Premier Bill Vander Zalm made a pledge this year that the SkyTrain would be extended to Surrey—a move that heralded, they say, the municipality's arrival as the Greater Vancouver Regional District's second city centre. Surrey's population is expected to eclipse that of Vancouver as it moves toward becoming the urban giant of the South Fraser area.

The Château Whistler Resort, operated by Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts (although built with offshore money), continued the tradition—introduced by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s with the Banff Springs Hotel—of building château-style resort hotels in scenic locations. “It revives,” wrote architectural historian Harold Kalman, “all the features of the earlier Canadian castles: steep roofs with dormer windows, picturesque massing, and memorable service.” Credit Musson Cattell Mackey, Downs/Archambault, and Stockwell Architecture & Planning.

The second section of Highway 91, the east-west connector across Lulu Island, was built. The first section—from Delta to East Richmond—was built in 1986.

Molson’s merged with Carling-O’Keefe, making it the largest brewing company in the country, zooming past Labatt’s. CBC-TV did a report on the merger and you can see it here. The new company closed seven of its combined 16 breweries.

The Soviet Union (remember them?) showed its planes for the first time at the Abbotsford Air Show. Wrote the Province’s Don Hunter: “They showed off their sleek MiG 29s, an IL-76, and the enormous AN-225, the world's biggest aircraft. Canadian Armed Forces Major Bob Wade became the first western pilot to fly the MiG 29. The Soviets attracted so much interest that 60,000 would-be spectators were turned away.”

The number of passengers arriving and departing at Vancouver International Airport reached 9,143,850 this year. In 1988 it had been 8,840,130 and in 1990 it would be 9,544,300.

The Vancouver Canucks took the Calgary Flames to the seventh game of the first playoff round in NHL action before losing on a disputed overtime goal by Joel Otto (assisted by Jim Peplinski) that sent the Flames on to their first ever Stanley Cup. Canucks fans believed Otto had kicked the puck in. That it still rankled long after would be shown in Calgary in February 2002 when then Canucks GM Brian Burke spotted Otto and Peplinski. “That puck was kicked in!” Burke yelled, and the room exploded in laughter. It had happened 13 years earlier.

In professional soccer the incredible 46-game winning streak (37-0-9) by the 86ers that had started June 8, 1988 finally ended with a loss in Edmonton. Head coach Bob Lenarduzzi had an all-star line-up that included captain John Catliff, Domenic Mobilio, Dale Mitchell, Carl Valentine and Steve MacDonald. The streak finally ended with a loss in Edmonton, but the 86ers finished the regular season with 18 wins, 6 ties and only 2 losses. Vancouver stormed into the playoffs, winning the Western Division Championship. In the title game at Swangard Stadium before a record crowd of almost 8,000 fans, the 86ers won the league championship with a 3-2 victory over the Hamilton Steelers.

The University of B.C. soccer Thunderbirds began a terrific stretch of victories in Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championships. They will win again in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994.

Dragon boat races in False Creek began. Today it's a three-day event called the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival.

The Whalley All Stars competed in the final baseball game of the Senior Little League World Series. They lost to the defending champions from Taiwan.

J.P. McConnell joined the sports team at Radio CKNW. Dr. Art Hister started there, too, with a regular medical commentary.

Phase III of the Acadia Family Housing project, designed by architects Waisman Dewar Grout, opened at a cost of $7 million. This completed the plan for student housing of 1982, and eliminated a vast number of World War II army huts.

The Acadia Community Centre opened at UBC. This is also known as the Common Block or Acadia/Fairview Common Block. It’s a focal point for students living in the Acadia Park area of the UBC campus. The facility includes meeting space and activity rooms. The exterior appearance is similar to the nearby housing. The complex is managed by Student Housing and Conferences.

The Child Care Services buildings went up at UBC. Larry McFarland Architects Ltd. created these five single-storey facilities, which replaced many army huts.

UBC’s Gas Gun Facility, a nondescript single-storey building closed to the public, is a research facility run by the Department of Physics. “They investigate new materials here through the use of an explosive device.” The choice of site, and the design of the building, reflect safety concerns. Today? Gone.

The Electronic Monitoring Services officially came on-line in Vancouver and Surrey, developed from pilot projects started in 1987. Prison inmates wear a field monitoring transmitter banded to their ankles for the duration of their sentence. Monitoring signals are broadcast to a field monitoring device attached to the inmate's residential phone line. The signals are sent to the monitoring centre to confirm the inmate is properly located according to the terms of the sentencing arrangement. Felons are referred to the EMS program through three processes: court referrals, classification/re-classification at another institution and sometimes in probation cases.

The John Howard Society has this comment: “To participate in the BC program, an offender must pose only a minimum risk, be non-violent and have four months or less remaining in his sentence. If these criteria are met, the offender is released on a temporary absence and allowed to return to his home while under the supervision of corrections workers. In a 1999 study [it was] found that 89 per cent of participants in the B. C. program completed the program successfully. The authors note that this can be explained by the low risk level posed by the participants (approximately 80 per cent of the offenders had a non-violent crime listed as their most serious offence) and by the short duration of participation in the program (an average of 37.3 days). The recidivism rate one year after completion was 30.4 per cent.”

The landfills at Langley Township and at Maple Ridge closed this year: all full. (Langley’s was closed in 1976, Coquitlam’s in 1983, North Vancouver’s and Richmond’s in 1986.)

The Cache Creek landfill opened. It’s a 48-hectare site next to the Trans Canada Highway in an industrial area south of the village of Cache Creek, northwest of Kamloops. It was the first landfill in Western Canada to be fully designed and operated as an environmentally secure, state-of-the-art landfill facility. Waste from the Lower Mainland is screened—recyclables such as cardboard and ferrous metals are recycled, while hazardous or problem wastes are removed. About 16 per cent of the Lower Mainland’s solid waste is taken there. There’s an interesting description of the operation here.

The landfill was developed by the village and Wastech Services Ltd. for the GVRD and local residents. It’s projected to close in 2007, next year, with a replacement landfill proposed for a portion of the Ashcroft Ranch, nearby to the southwest.

The federal fisheries department, in cooperation with the Musqueam band and Vancouver park board, began to stock Tin Can Creek (or Musqueam Creek) with chum salmon fingerlings raised by children in their classrooms. The creek rises in Pacific Spirit Regional Park and enters the Fraser River from Musqueam reserve land. It needs constant protection against urban abuse such as effluent from storm drains.

The old Lafarge gravel pit in Coquitlam opened as a recreation complex, the 100-acre Town Centre Park.

A library addition by architect Howard Yano was made to the 1927 Vancouver School of Theology.

The lofty Rogers Cantel Tower (designed by Aitken Wreglesworth Architects) opened at 4710 Kingsway. Its 28 storeys top out at 90.0 metres.

Kwantlen College received approval to build a new $37 million Richmond campus on the four-hectare site of the former Lansdowne race track at the corner of Garden City and Lansdowne Roads. Construction will begin March, 1991, and the campus will officially open in August of 1992.

Emily Carr College began offering bachelor's degrees in fine arts and design through the British Columbia Open University.

John Napier Burnett died, aged 89. Born in Fraserburgh, Scotland, he moved to Vancouver in 1911. He was president of the UBC Alumni Assn. from 1934 to 1936. Burnett served as a lieutenant-colonel in World War II. He was described as an outstanding teacher, administrator and inspector of schools in the interior. He was named District Superintendent for the Richmond school district in 1955, and J.N. Burnett Junior Secondary school in Richmond is named for him.

“The Beast” was installed near the Maple Ridge Municipal Hall. In an article in The Greater Vancouver Book on unusual clocks in the area, Faith Bloomfield wrote about this unique example. On the hour, the Beast reared up, its front legs fluttering, its tail beating the air. Created by Don Brayford at no cost to the municipality, the Beast took several years to build. There was a legend behind its creation—something to do with man ruining the environment—which you can check out here. The materials used to create this clock (the horse brought the total height to 34 feet, rising to 40 feet when it was activated) are recycled parts, metals and bevelled gears from an out-of-service municipal secondary sewage treatment plant and used farm and mill machinery. A Commodore computer was linked to 54 hydraulic valves in the horse's belly to give the Beast its motion. Westminster chimes rang out from a household clock, amplified to two speakers from within the statue. The District covered the costs of running the beast and Brayford took care of maintaining the computer, the hydraulics and motor.

In 1987 Harvey Southam and Ron Stern had introduced V, a glossy, sophisticated city magazine distributed through the Vancouver Sun. Alas, it couldn't compete with the better-established Vancouver Magazine and died, the same year it was named Western Magazine of the Year.

Adbusters Quarterly Published by the Adbusters Media Foundation with a mission: to raise consumer alarms about the advertising industry. For environmental, anti-commercial and media literacy groups, advertising executives and academics. Today? Well, their website says: “Adbusters is a not-for-profit, reader-supported, 120,000-circulation magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces. Our work has been embraced by organizations like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, has been featured in hundreds of alternative and mainstream newspapers, magazines, and television and radio shows around the world.”

British Columbia Film News A monthly with news of film making in the province.

Vancouver-born (February 12, 1949) Peter Ladner went into partnership with George Mleczko, publisher of the magazine Equity, which had just died, and started a weekly publication called Business in Vancouver. It was lively and informative and took off. Today, it’s published every Tuesday and claims a readership of more than 62,000.

Canadian Environmental Protection Published nine times a year by Baum Publications Ltd.

College Institute Educators' Association: Profile A quarterly published by the College Institute Educators' Association. “Offers analysis and information on policy, labor relations and professional issues affecting community college and institute educators and the higher education system in general.”

Eclectic Muse Published three times a year, featuring poems, especially from women poets.

Journal of Human Justice A semi-annual publication from the Human Justice Collective at the Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology, UBC. “Offers a forum for progressive analyses of economic, gender, legal and political relations as they pertain to studies of social justice in Canadian society and abroad.”

Peninsula Prime A monthly publication from Peace Arch Publications Ltd. in White Rock.

Women's Chronicle Published six times a year by the West Coast Women's Chronicle Inc.

The book Living Stones: A Centennial History of Christ Church Cathedral 1889-1989 by Neal Adams was published by the cathedral. One of the aspects of the Christ Church’s history unfamiliar to most of us: in the early years they were sued for arrears by the CPR, which owned the property they were on! It got nasty, as Adams’ book makes clear. And, ironically, one of the key figures in the church’s early history was a senior CPR official. “Henry John Cambie, a native of Tipperary, was perhaps the man most instrumental in the founding of Christ Church—and indeed in choosing Vancouver as the railway’s Pacific terminus. Educated in England, he had come as a youth to Canada, and learned the surveyor’s trade. He had been charged with the task of finding the best route for the transcontinental railway. As chief of survey in BC, Cambie had fought within the CPR for the Fraser Canyon route to Burrard Inlet . . . [Cambie] was now the chief engineer of the CPR’s Pacific Division.” It’s an interesting book, and throws light on a little-reported aspect of the city’s early history. The text can be read here.

Echoes across the inlet by Dawn Sparks and Martha Border, edited by Damian Inwood, was a history of the Deep Cove area of North Vancouver. The book was published by the Deep Cove and Area Heritage Association.

Richmond, child of the Fraser, 1979-1989 by Leslie J. Ross, published by the Friends of the Richmond Archives. This was described as a supplement to the 1979 book—which has the same title, minus the dates.

The refiners: a century of BC Sugar by John Schreiner, a solid and readable history of the British Columbia Sugar Refining Company by a longtime journalist. The story of how the company founder, Benjamin Tingley Rogers, came up here from the States in 1889, aged 24, and got the city fathers to give him virtually everything he asked for is one of Vancouver’s great tales. Rogers’ company, still around, and now called Rogers Sugar , was the first major industry in the city not connected to forestry or fishing.

Runaway: diary of a street kid by Evelyn Lau. This made a sensation when it first appeared, the story of the early street life of this Canadian writer and poet, 18 at the time of publication. Three years earlier she had run away from home, “a social outcast in school,” says the literary website Northwest Passages , “and a suppressed, unloved daughter at home. She took up the life of a drug abuser and prostitute in Vancouver—living mostly at social institutions and chronicling in a diary her psychologically battered life and her struggle as an emerging writer.” Her later work has achieved critical acclaim. A made-for-TV movie (The Diary of Evelyn Lau) appeared in 1993, starring Sandra Oh, then 22.

The Vancouver Club first century, 1889-1989, by Reginald Roy, published by the Vancouver Club. The early years of this exclusive club, once men only, were sometimes rocky. Roy tells of a time when their cutlery and other tableware was seized by one of their creditors, a restaurateur, who then used it—complete with the club’s symbol—in his own establishment.

The book Discord: The Story of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra by John Becker appeared. It was a critical study of the history and modern problems of the VSO. The book chronicled the soul-searching, dissension, acrimony and public begging that accompanied the financial troubles of Canada's sixth largest cultural institution in 1988 and 1989. The foreword is by Max Wyman.

In The Greater Vancouver Book (1997), Michael Scott wrote: “Reading histories of the VSO such as John Becker's 1989 Discord, or Dale McIntosh's History of Music in British Columbia: 1850 to 1950, it becomes clear that the Furies that have beset the orchestra have remained constant over the decades. Money problems, quarrelsome boards, controversial conductors and a tough-minded musicians' union have plagued the VSO in one combination or another right from the beginning. In 1938 Mary Rogers wondered why only 100 people in a city of 250,000 contributed to the VSO's coffers. Were she still alive today, she might well ask a similar question.”

Crofton House School, the first ninety years, 1898-1988 by Elizabeth Bell-Irving (O’Kiely), published by Crofton House. The author’s daughter, her mother and the author herself all attended the school. A Royal BC Museum notation on the title reads: “The book is based on memories of staff and students, the school publication, The Croftonian (dating from 1913), and school archival material. The impact on the school of the Edwardian era, wars and the Depression and the upheaval of youth in the ’60s are included to show how the school survived economic and social trends. School traditions, studies, sports, songs, prayers and even favourite foods and pets are all included with remembrances of the headmistresses, teachers and school staff.”

The book Fantasyland: Inside the Reign of Bill Vander Zalm appeared. It was co-written by Keith Baldrey, a Vancouver Sun political reporter based in Victoria, and The Sun's former Victoria bureau chief Gary Mason.

There was a new place to put all these books in 1989: a new branch of the Vancouver Public Library opened at Hastings and Nanaimo.

The Vancouver Little Theatre Association—formed in 1921—switched its focus from producing plays to managing its venue at Heritage Hall at Main and East 15th (and changed its name to the Vancouver Little Theatre Alliance). It ended operations in 2001.

Yuk Yuks funnyman-in-chief Mark Breslin had always wanted a Vancouver venue for his Toronto based comedy chain and opened a club on Davie Street in 1988 but wasn't amused by the location. He took over the old Expo real estate in 1989. Today Yuk Yuks is at 1010 Burrard Street in the Century Plaza Hotel.

North Shore Studios was built in North Vancouver City by Hollywood writer/producer Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files was one of his creations). It contained seven sound stages, production offices, on-site shooting facades and technical production services. The studio was later the home to the TV series The X-Files, The Commish and 21 Jump Street and the feature movies Little Women and Intersection.

Movie reviewer and historian Michael Walsh had these comments on some 1989 flicks:

Beyond The Stars (director David Saperstein) A young space scientist (Christian Slater) makes some shocking discoveries about the Apollo 11 moon mission and his personal idol, a retired astronaut (Martin Sheen).

Cousins (director Joel Schumacher) In a domestic comedy that makes Vancouver look like a lover's paradise, in-laws (Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini) keep romance within the family by pretending to cheat on their unfaithful spouses.

Immediate Family (director Jonathan Kaplan) Maternity and married love are examined in this drama about an infertile Seattle couple (James Woods, Glenn Close) who agree to care for an unwed, pregnant teen (Mary Stuart Masterson) in exchange for her baby.

The Fly II (director Chris Walas) The monstrous mutations continue on a huge Bridge Studios laboratory set as profit-driven scientists experiment upon the original Fly's son (Eric Stoltz).

Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (director Rob Hedden) The hockey-masked slasher adds 19 notches to his machete, dispatching victims on locations that include a SkyTrain dressed to look like the New York subway.

American Boyfriends (director Sandy Wilson) At 17, Sandy (Margaret Langrick) is an SFU freshman who cuts classes to attend her cousin's wedding in Oregon. This was a sequel to the 1985 hit My American Cousin, also starring Margaret Langrick.

Look Who's Talking (director Amy Heckerling) Downtown doubles for Manhattan in this courtship comedy cutely narrated by the infant son of a single mom (Kirstie Alley).

Kingsgate (director Jack Darcus) A selection of tragicomic relationships are on view when a university professor (Duncan Fraser) and his young lover (Elizabeth Dancoes) visit her feuding parents (Christopher Plummer, Roberta Maxwell).

The Experts (director Dave Thomas) Something of a cinematic Chinese puzzle, SCTV veteran Thomas's feature is set in a Soviet-built replica of an American town where a pair of New York hipsters (John Travolta, Arye Gross) are duped into teaching the KGB all about U.S. pop culture.

Who's Harry Crumb? (director Paul Flaherty) Hired to find a kidnapped California heiress, an inept, disguise-happy private eye (John Candy) bumbles about in a Vancouver disguised as Los Angeles.

Return Engagement (director Tung Joe Cheung) In this Chinese-language thriller, a family man (Alan Tang) is framed by mobsters, serves a prison term, and then seeks revenge on the hired killers who murdered his wife and daughter.

We're No Angels (director Neil Jordan) An entire 1930s town was built near Stave Lake Falls for this comic adventure of escaped convicts (Robert De Niro, Sean Penn) masquerading as itinerant priests.

Quarantine (director Charles Wilkinson) A young rebel (Beatrice Boepple) recruits a research scientist (Garwin Sanford) to fight the government's ruthless use of a health crisis to enslave its people.

Empire Of Ash III (directors Michael Mazo, Lloyd Simandl) Filmed as a sequel to Empire of Ash II—there was no I—in the Abbotsford area, the battle continues as Danielle (Melanie Kigour) deals with a fanatic warlord bent on ruling what's left of the world.

The Classical Joint, Vancouver's oldest jazz club, closed. It had started at 231 Carrall Street in Gastown in 1970 with the arrival of Swiss-born Andreas Nothiger, who ran it for 18 years.

EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music), a company formed in 1982, had begun—in dance reviewer Max Wyman’s phrase—to “splinter.” By 1989, he wrote, “EDAM was directed by contact improviser Peter Bingham. Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget broke away to create Kokoro Dance, using raw, emotional movement that blends Western styles with elements of Japanese butoh techniques. Another EDAM co-founder who since 1989 has had her own company is Jennifer Mascall, a radical explorer of less predictable modern dance. EDAM original Lola MacLaughlin set up a company the same year as a showcase for her own thoughtful, witty movement meditations.” To see what EDAM is up to these days, go here.

1989 BMW M3
[Photo: www.windycitybmw.com]

Chronology Continued

1989