Mavericks by Aritha van Herk

Author:Aritha van Herk [Aritha van Herk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143176954
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP (CANADA)

The rising legistature with Fort Edmonton huddled in the foreground

But back in 1906 the competitive anger between the two cities refused to be banked. Before Calgarians could blink, the premier himself, “Sandy” Rutherford, introduced a bill enabling development of a university. What was the hurry? Unprepared for this swift action, because there were not even sufficient primary schools, the puzzled public watched while the bill establishing a non-denominational and co-educational University of Alberta was passed. Its location was not named, and Calgary assumed that having lost the battle for the capital, they would play host to education. But in 1907 canny Rutherford announced that the university would be located in Strathcona. He had purchased, in his own name, a river lot on the Saskatchewan River’s south bank. Uncle Sandy wanted to be a visionary and Alberta gave him that chance, even though Laurier had chosen him as premier because he looked manageable. But Rutherford was not so easily controlled. He passed legislation for the university and then asked Ottawa for the money. When Ottawa refused, he funded the university through the provincial treasury, infuriating Calgarians once more. But they were learning a hard lesson: loyalties are to “friends” and to “parties” and justice is seldom even-handed. Even Liberals from Calgary were hard-pressed to forgive Rutherford for the university presumption, and that final betrayal cemented the acrimony between the two cities. When the newly designated president of the university, Henry Marshall Tory, toured the province canvassing for both students and funds, Calgarians wouldn’t even speak to him.

The legislature building was less contentious. In 1906 the new government struck a deal with the Hudson’s Bay Company to buy twenty-one acres on the bank of the North Saskatchewan, where Fort Edmonton still stood. Fur-trading Fort Edmonton, ratty and moth-eaten, would have to go, and in 1915, designated an eyesore, the entire jumble of fort buildings was cleared away. History-minded groups wanted to dismantle the fort, number the logs, and reconstruct it, but although the old timbers were stored by the High Level Bridge for years, nothing came of its reconstruction. Now the lawn-bowling greens sit right on top of the old site of the fort, and government offices ring the grounds.

Excavation for that high-browed Minnesota-lookalike legislature building started in 1907—in typical Alberta haste, the foundations were dug even before a design for the building had been finalized. Changes were made until 1912 when the structure was formally opened, although the politicians had been arguing under the incomplete rafters since 1911. Ironically, except for its granite base, the exterior of the building is fine, yellow-brown sandstone cut from the Glenbow Quarry in southwest Calgary. Calgary’s revenge on Edmonton for having stolen the capital continues—the external details are slowly eroding because sandstone is soft and susceptible to environmental damage. As the frame of the building rose, the giant legs for the CPR’s High Level Bridge were being raised across the valley just to the west, two mammoth structures playing against Alberta’s optimistic sky.

The cornerstone to

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