Good news, my fellow British Columbians!
With the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in full swing right through BC Day and beyond (last call: Sunday, Aug. 11), we can really cheer on those 45 Olympian athletes from our fair province on the holiday set aside to celebrate all things British Columbia. (That includes 21 athletes from Metro Vancouver and 11 from Vancouver Island, including Tofino native Sanoa Demple-Olin, in surfing, of course. Sorry, no one from the Sea to Sky this year.)
So happy BC Day, friends and neighbours! Let’s raise our glasses Aug. 5 to its 50th anniversary.
For a holiday that seems like it’s been around forever, it’s pretty surprising it was only 50 short years ago under the government of then-premier Dave Barrett and his NDP team that BC Day was created via provincial legislation. Slated for the first Monday of August, it made for a much-loved summer long weekend we couldn’t imagine being without.
Besides creating a welcome new holiday, the Barrett era was amazing for many more initiatives that went way beyond the usual box of provincial politics—and I mean “provincial” in every sense of the word.
It was even more amazing because that NDP government only held power for 39 months. Like you don’t need a long time, just a good time, to get things done.
And it was all led by this unique East Van character from a working-class background who’d once tarred roads for the City of Vancouver. Dave Barrett was also an expert on Second World War battles, happy enough to be remembered as the guy who saved Cypress Bowl from logging, and so ingrained in federal and provincial politics that he lectured about them at Harvard and McGill. He also was awarded the Order of Canada and, on a more Whistler-ish note, trained by Jesuits, just like local legend Paul Burrows.
People have said those dynamic changes happened mainly because the NDP knew they wouldn’t be re-elected. Who knows the reasoning behind closed doors, but before they were swept out of power in 1975, their accomplishments included so much we British Columbians take for granted today that these are just some of the highlights: A provincial ambulance and air ambulance service; B.C.’s first ministry of housing and first environmental and land-use secretariat; neighbourhood pubs—yes!; mandatory kindergarten; Pharmacare for seniors; French immersion in schools; Robson Square; the SeaBus between North Van and downtown Vancouver; initiatives for First Nations; a provincial Status of Women office; and the most extensive human rights code in Canada.
As well, it was the attorney general of the day, Alex MacDonald, who proposed a civic holiday on the first Monday of August to celebrate the unique culture and achievements of British Columbia. The date also nicely commemorates the declaration of the Crown Colony of British Columbia by ye olde parliament in Westminster on Aug. 2, 1858—also, ironically, a Monday.
Plus in 1974, B.C. was one of the few provinces that didn’t have a civic holiday in August, so BC Day was meant to correct that. Right on! (as we ’70s hipsters used to say).
But there’s one initiative from that dynamic time I figure all of us British Columbians should be particularly grateful for—our treasured Agricultural Land Reserve. Developers have complained about it over time, but the ALR protected 4.6 million hectares of precious farmland across the province primarily for the production of food. (It, along with other initiatives, is pretty much laid at the feet of Bob Williams, another NDP giant of the time, who had a hot/cold relationship with Barrett—and many others. He died July 7, at age 91.)
The ALR has been critical in maintaining a local food supply, such as it is, but especially in locations facing enormous development pressures, like the Fraser and Okanagan valleys, Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. (Check out the online ALR maps here.)
Think about it: Once upon a time Vancouver Island was totally food self-sufficient.
In that spirit, head out to your local farmers’ markets and farmgate vendors—in Whistler, Pemberton, Squamish, wherever—and buy some of our lovely B.C. produce and products. Like local honey and dairy products (Tree Island Yogurt or Avalon milk, anyone?). Pemberton Valley organic greens, fresh Fraser Valley blueberries and raspberries, or even some Italian prune plums and early apples we’re still expecting from the Okanagan this year since those trees managed to survive the winter from hell I wrote about last time.
Add some of your favourite B.C. wine and/or brews (maybe a pint from Pemberton’s Beer Farmers or Whistler Brewing). And if you’re still an omnivore, maybe some fresh local meats to grill, like from Pemberton Meat Co. and Stony Mountain Farm, originally in Squamish and now up near 100 Mile House.
Also, I’d be remiss in blathering on about this whole era if I didn’t mention that it was the Dave Barrett government that established the Resort Municipality of Whistler. Some say it was also a Bob Williams thing.
Yes, folks, it was Sept. 6, 1975 that the RMOW was incorporated, and it was the vision of people like Franz Wilhelmsen and other locals who were dreaming of the Olympics back in the ’60s that set everyone down the road to Whistler. (Read all about it on the Whistler Museum’s web site.)
In 2018, after several years of struggling with Alzheimer’s, Dave Barrett died at age 87. Although he wasn’t a big fan of bringing the Olympics to Whistler—he, like many others, thought the money could be better spent on other things—thanks to him and his “team,” which I pointedly use during our current Olympian era, this year we can all cheer on the 50th anniversary of BC Day.
Salut!
Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who can barely believe how much the Barrett government achieved in such a short period of time.
