As much as St. Albert was growing in March 1988, the downtown core remained stagnant. This fact was illustrated painfully when the city decided to send a downtown development proposal to 75 developers in the Capital region. Only two bothered responding. The Gazette was growing, too — publisher Duff Jamison announced that the Gazette had merged with the giant Southam Newspaper Company, but had not given up control of the paper itself. The deal, which was negotiated over a year, gave Southam a minority share in the company’s press operations under Gazette Press Ltd. The Gazette itself would remain wholly owned by the Jamisons (as it does today with new partner Glacier Media). The St. Albert Merchants were the toast of the town — the Capital Junior B Hockey League team downed the Stony Plain Flyers in four straight games to capture the league championship.
The biggest event of March 1989 was a provincial election that pitted Richard Fowler of the Progressive Conservatives against Liberal Len Bracko. Fowler won, but a vote counter error credited him with 1,110 votes more than he actually received. When the tally was corrected, Fowler still won by 2,300 votes.
Angry parents carrying signs that read “Education, not fornication” protested outside the Protest School Division building the following March as the district became the first in Alberta to OK condom dispensers in high school washrooms. A group of teens arrived to protest the protest. Across the city at the cemetery, the solemn job of marking the graves of 98 aboriginals who died of tuberculosis began.
The city contemplated a new industry in March 1991 — prison, specifically a women’s prison the federal government wanted to build in Alberta. Mayor Anita Ratchinsky acknowledged the move could bring jobs and federal grants to the city. In sports, one St. Albert native signed with an NHL team. Geoff Sanderson, drafted 36th overall by the Hartford Whalers, finally inked a deal with the club.
While the Catholic district declared in March 1992 it would name its new school after Fowler, another school site experienced an unexpected problem as members of the Alberta qualified Iron Workers Union showed up at Ă©cole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville to picket the build. The reason — hiring five non-union workers for the steel-erecting crew. One truck was keyed, but the protestors dispersed when the police arrived. Sadly, the Catholic district received some sad news that same month when Vincent J. Maloney, former superintendent and principal, died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 79. In the political world, St. Albert got its first (and only) Reform Party candidate when John Williams defeated Ron Richardson on the fourth and final ballot after trailing for the first three. Other contenders included Ken Allred and Alan Murdock. The city received two gifts — a $12,500 grant to research turning the abandoned grain elevators into a tourist attraction and a new laser speed gun for the RCMP.
One morning in March 1993, Fowler, the provincial justice minister, got a rude awakening when several Edmonton Remand Centre prison guards picketed his home to protest job cuts. After two hours during which the protestors refused to let Fowler leave, they disappeared. Member of Parliament Walter Van De Walle announced he would run for re-election but made it known he wouldn’t mind sitting in the legislature. The Kiwanis club put on its last music festival after 17 years, giving up the title name to the Rotary club because of declining membership. The Perron Street post office also closed to the general public, now catering exclusively to business, a move that angered residents. The downtown also braced for another change as the new managers of the Bruin Inn announced they would turn the historic hotel into a strip club. On the ice, the Saints put on another show as they defeated the Calgary Canucks in a strange best-of-nine series to advance to a best-of-seven semifinal.
St. Albert was the focal point of the province in March 1994 as the three-day Alberta Winter Games kicked off, hosting some 2,000 athletes in several different events. About 3,500 spectators attended the opening ceremonies. The city also got a national nod from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators for a program that saw the demolished Ducky Dome’s material recycled into housing for the poor in Mexico.
Akinsdale stole the local spotlight in March 1995, protesting a proposal to turn 70 Arlington Dr. into a church. By the following March, the Protestant school board and residents came to a compromise that saw the board deed two acres of the five-acre site to the city in exchange for selling the remaining three. Residents, however, were getting used to change — the city introduced the pay-as-you-throw system for the first time. It wasn’t the only first that year as St. Albert Saint Fernando Pisani became the first member of the team to score 100 points since Terry Degner reached the mark six years earlier.
The city took a wrecking ball to the Sturgeon General Hospital in March 1996; the idea was that getting rid of the now-vacant hospital would make the hilltop site more commercially attractive. But the most significant event was a provincial election that saw another upset in St. Albert. Progressive Conservative Mary O’Neill downed Liberal incumbent Len Bracko in a squeaker of a race — the night’s end saw O’Neill with an 11-vote win over Bracko. An official recount certified three days later extended that margin of victory to 16 votes.
