File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Jill Sperling

Flyin' Phil

Remembering Phil Gaglardi 25 years after his passing

Sep 23, 2020 | 4:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — A statue of Phil Gaglardi stands outside St. Andrews on the Square, a tribute to the legacy of the pastor and politician.

Today (Sep. 23) marks 25 years since his passing. Gaglardi was known as self-confident and determined by those who knew him well.

“He was known internationally, he was famous, he was written up in magazines and newspapers and reported on around the globe,” said Mel Rothenburger.

Rothenburger was tasked with writing the biography on Gaglardi, Friend O’Mine: The Story of Flyin’ Phil Gaglardi.

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“As we were writing the book, I found that we didn’t get along all that well,” Rothenburger said, “and yet we did because he had a very definite view of his life and what it meant and the things that he’d accomplished and they didn’t always match the facts that I found from others. But there’s no question that he was instrumental in opening up the province to transportation and commerce.”

Prior to his political career, Gaglardi was a televangelist and minister at Calvary Temple, now known as St. Andrews on the Square.

“(He was) very important in this community in relation to the faith community itself through his church, through the Sunday school that he developed, which was really prominent in this town,” said former Social Credit member and Attorney General Bud Smith.

“He was really in this world to help and serve people,” said Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi, Phil’s grandson. “Obviously he did that with his church life and church ministry, serving in politics.”

Gaglardi was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the BC Social Credit League in 1952 and was later appointed the first Minister of Highways in B.C.

“The Yellowhead Highway, which takes us to Jasper was really pretty much a goat trail once you got past a place called Clemina, which is north of Blue River,” Smith explained. “The Fraser Canyon Highway, Hwy. 1, that was all under his purview.”

It was during his time as Minister of Highways that BC Ferries was founded.

“That was started under his portfolio,” Tom Gaglardi said. “He even went to Europe himself and found the engines to power the very first ferries run by the province.”

Gaglardi would later serve as Mayor of Kamloops for a single term.

“As mayor of Kamloops he was like a fish out of water because the pond was too small for him,” Rothenburger said, “he just needed bigger things and I don’t think he really took to that role nearly as well as he did his provincial role as a highways minister.”

Gaglardi passed away on September 23, 1995. At his funeral, the church was filled with family, friends and colleagues who paid their respects to the Kamloops icon.