There was a fire smouldering between city council and the St. Albert Gazette in May 1977 and it finally erupted at a meeting early that month. Following a story at the end of April that, through interviews with members of the fire department, listed the service’s shortcomings, Mayor Richard Plain and fellow aldermen unloaded on the paper for what they felt was unbalanced coverage, given the paper had not interviewed any city staff members. Plain was particularly incensed that publisher Ernie Jamison did not attend the council meeting due to a function he was attending that night as the city’s MLA. After taking their turns raking the Gazette over the coals and arguing with four firefighters who had shown up to defend the article, council voted to send a letter to the Gazette demanding the article be corrected. It would not be the last time that council and the paper would butt heads. Plain did have some good news, however — it was announced that The Bay would become one of the tenants at the city’s new $50-million shopping centre, the first stage of which would open the following fall.
The following May saw the demise of one of St. Albert’s institutions. The junior B St. Albert Comets, which had thrilled fans since the 1960s, announced they were folding due to poor fan support and a “disorganized head office.” St. Albert also stood to lose another important fixture as Ald. Myrna Fyfe announced she was seeking the PC nomination for the constituency.
By May 1979 council and the Gazette were at it again, but this time the threat of legal action loomed over the entire affair. In the last week of April, the Gazette had reported that members of city staff had met privately with promoters for the future Galarneau Place shopping area (Tudor Glen). Shortly afterwards a food store, which was not included as an accepted use for the site, was approved, in the paper’s mind, “with undue and suspicious haste” that benefitted the promoters interested in the property. The intimation was the potential existed for city staff to be accused of accepting bribes from promoters. The story drew council’s ire, led now by Mayor Ronald Harvey, as he and aldermen argued the article was unfair because city staff had no way to defend themselves. Council had been invited to look at the Gazette’s evidence. Council promptly passed a resolution to retain a law firm for a possible lawsuit. The Gazette responded with a bold headline declaring, “Gazette will not apologize to council,” with a statement from editor Shirley Jamison reaffirming the accuracy of the story. Days later when Harvey went to the Gazette office to look at the paper’s evidence, he was rebuffed by Ernie Jamison, who told him that, since council was threatening to sue, the evidence was no longer open for public examination.
A new decade brought word from the province it would not fund a bypass road around St. Albert, which meant the city had to expand St. Albert Trail to six lanes. The Kinsmen, who had run minor hockey in St. Albert since 1966, announced they were withdrawing their sponsorship as a new body, the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association, emerged to run the league. But the biggest news of May 1980 was the arrest on charges of arson of 23-year-old Joseph Franklin Murray, who the RCMP alleged was responsible for the February fire that caused $3 million in damage to the St. Albert Inn. Murray was the night clerk on shift the night of the blaze. In an interview with the Gazette, he proclaimed his innocence, worrying the matter would hurt his political career as he had been planning on running for a school board seat.
The talk in May 1981 was all about taxes; not how high they were but the fact more homeowners weren’t paying them. The city had five homes for auction, the most in nine years, due to owners with taxes three years in arrears and another 42 homes with liens against them for being in arrears for two years. The number of homeowners who had paid their taxes had dropped from 97 per cent to 95 per cent over a three-year span and the city was expecting that number to drop again to about 92 per cent.
Skipping ahead to May 1983, Ethel Cuts was inducted into the University of Alberta Sports Wall of Fame. Cuts had been a standout track runner and basketball player from 1927 to 1930, setting the record for the 220-yard dash that was only broken in 1964 by a runner she was coaching. The Catholic school board asked superintendent Dr. W. Zielinski to resign with no specific reason given other than concern over his work after an extended assessment. And with the Cold War heating back up, Operation Dismantle was back before city council, submitting a 1,500-name petition asking for a city referendum on nuclear disarmament. The group noted 122 of 138 municipalities that held such a vote had done so in conjunction with council elections. St. Albert aldermen referred the matter to administration for a report.
Patrons of the Bruin Inn got a real treat in May 1984. After visiting his parents following the Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup win over the New York Islanders, Mark Messier, joined by teammates Kevin Lowe, Dave Semenko, Dave Hunter and Ken Linesman, brought hockey’s holy grail to the watering hole. There was also a political movement gaining a tentative toehold in St. Albert. Taxi driver Robert Lee Carstairs announced he would run in the next federal election under the banner of his new party, the Capitalist Party. According to Carstairs, his party (made up of him and 20 supporters) believed taxation was illegal and should subsequently be voluntary. Individuals who “donated” their income tax would be allowed to vote and receive police protection of their property. Elections, police and the military are all a Capitalist government would spend on. The poor and needy would be encouraged to seek help from friends and relatives.
“I admire the typical Canadian citizen trying to make it without government help,” Carstairs told the paper.
Peter Boer is an editor at the Gazette.
