ROTHENBURGER: The legacy of Flying Phil and Jennie Gaglardi is finally recognized

I couldn’t help but like and admire this man with the huge ego and accomplishments to match. He wasn’t an easy interview because his own views didn’t always jibe with history, but it’s hard to argue with someone with his resume.

I wrote in the book that he was known as the ultimate populist politician but that the reputation was at odds with reality. He didn’t pander to the masses; rather, he said exactly what was on his mind without caring what people thought, and people loved him for it.

“The thing that’s lacking in the political arena today is guts enough to make decisions that are proper, and stick by them,” he told me one day.

“We’ve got so many mealy-mouthed politicians running around the country today in provincial government and in municipal government and in federal government that it’s disgraceful.”

The $15 million donation to RIH from the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Foundation set up by his children and grandchildren is a galaxy away from the humble early years of this remarkable man. The son of Italian immigrants, he grew up in a large family of modest means near Silverdale. He stopped growing at five feet, five inches tall.

Phil worked as a mechanic and heavy equipment operator in the logging and construction industries. He wasn’t given a middle name at birth, but he liked the sound of “P.A. Gaglardi” so he added “Arthur” to his name. After the family converted to Pentecostalism, they attended a church pastored by a young woman named Jennie Sandin, whose Model A Ford kept breaking down.

Phil fixed it for her, several times, and pretty soon he asked her to marry him. She said she would if he became a Pentecostal preacher. So Phil went to Bible College and never stopped preaching after that, including after getting into politics.

They were transferred from one place to another and landed in Kamloops in 1944 to take charge of the Pentecostal Church now known as St. Andrew’s on the Square.

After he was talked in to running for the Social Credit party in the 1952 provincial election, Jennie continued managing the church while Phil traveled back and forth to Victoria for his new duties as public works minister. Each weekend, he returned to preach and to record his Chapel in the Sky program at CFJC.

As highways minister, he built most of the major infrastructure we take for granted today — the Yellowhead Highway, the big bridges at the Coast, the B.C. section of the Trans Canada, the BC Ferries system, the Rogers Pass.

His “Sorry for the inconvenience — P.A. Gaglardi” signs on highways projects were legendary. It was all part of Premier W.A.C. Bennett’s plan to connect the province with asphalt and concrete.

For 20 years, his candid talk, his controversies and his projects gained him international fame. “Testing the curves” in his big station wagon — which garnered him a string of speeding tickets — and flying around in his Lear jet got him his “Flying Phil” nickname.

When he was defeated in 1972 along with the Socred government, he was deeply hurt, though he didn’t admit it. Sixteen years later, he returned to politics and became the mayor of Kamloops.

At the turn of the new millennium, another mayor with whom I’m intimately familiar proposed that the Overlanders Bridge be renamed the Phil Gaglardi Bridge (he’d built it, after all), and City council agreed. But public opposition led by The Daily News resulted in a gracious request from his family that the honour be withdrawn because they didn’t want the community to be divided over it.

A proposal to name the Trans Canada bypass the Phil Gaglardi Parkway got traction with the BC Liberal government for a while but it wasn’t acted upon. However, the little park outside the old church was named Gaglardi Square and a five ft., five-inch statue of Phil was commissioned to stand within it.

I’ve sometimes said that, in order to get your name on something in Kamloops, you need to pay for it. Major donations usually come with naming honours to whichever facility is being built. It’s the way fundraising works these days.

So, sure, naming the new RIH tower after Phil and Jennie Gaglardi was part of the deal but it’s wholly deserved and overdue. It isn’t the first time the Gaglardi family has made a multi-million-dollar donation towards health care but this one is special because it’s in their hometown.

Fifteen million dollars is a magnificently generous donation and recognizing it with the Gaglardi name is especially appropriate because the facility speaks to Phil and Jennie Gaglardi’s lifelong dedication to the well-being of others.

“Jumpin’ Jupiter!” Phil might have exclaimed if he’d been alive to see it. “We just did our best to help people out!”

The new tower will be a reminder of that.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: The legacy of Flying Phil and Jennie Gaglardi is finally recognized

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