Boondoggles, Bonanzas, and Other Alberta Stories by Brian Brennan

Author:Brian Brennan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: CANADIAN HISTORY
Publisher: Brian Brennan
Published: 2015-06-08T19:23:57+00:00

Watchdog Ousts Edmonton Mayor, Twice—1959, 1965

(EDMONTON ARCHIVES EA-10-696)

Official portraits of mayor and aldermen elected to Edmonton City Council in 1964: “Politicians have no business making money because of their office.”

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Ed Leger had no plans to get involved in municipal politics when he first moved to Edmonton in 1950. He was working as a federal immigration officer after a checkered career that included stints as an undercover police officer in British Columbia and as a special investigator with the Canadian army. His goal in Edmonton was to do well at his immigration job and support his family. However, when he was forced out of the immigration service in 1957, after a dispute with his bosses over his investigation of illegal immigrants, he found himself going down a road that would eventually take him to an aldermanic seat on city council, and a place in Edmonton civic history as a champion of honest government.

His journey to city hall began when Leger combined his $7,000 government pension money with his wife Ida’s savings, obtained a bank loan, and bought the Southbend Motel on Edmonton’s south side. A city hall employee told him that a parcel of city-owned property across the street from his new motel was zoned for industrial use, and therefore a competing motel could not be built. However, the land was subsequently rezoned without Leger’s knowledge and a motel was, in fact, built. Leger wondered how this could have happened without a public hearing, and, after an examination of city hall records, discovered that his competitor was none other than the brother-in-law of Mayor William Hawrelak. Leger the ex-sleuth then went to work, probing the city hall records for other land transactions that might be questionable, and uncovered several suspicious cases.

In the fall of 1958, Leger presented city council with a 568name petition demanding an investigation into the city’s zoning practices. The petition accused Hawrelak of corruption, alleging that he used his position as mayor to make certain land transactions and business deals that directly benefited him, his family, and his associates. During his six years as mayor, Hawrelak had invested extensively in commercial properties that he either resold at a profit or used for hotel and apartment building. Caught up in the explosion of Edmonton’s business growth after oil was discovered in nearby Leduc in 1947, Hawrelak seemed unaware that it was hardly ethical for the mayor to be operating as a land developer.

In January 1959, Premier Ernest Manning, at the request of Edmonton city council, turned the Hawrelak matter over to a judge, Marshall Porter of Calgary, for investigation. Porter delivered his findings on 9 September 1959, saying that Hawrelak was guilty of “gross misconduct” when he used his influence as mayor to have city property transferred to his brother-in-law for motel construction. Porter also ruled that Hawrelak acted improperly in five other land deals. At noon that same day the mayor resigned his office, issuing a press release that stated, “I categorically deny that there

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