Gerald Reimer
Gerald Reimer (1980)
At the age of 42, Gerald Reimer became the youngest Chamber president in its history up until then and one of the city’s biggest boosters.
Reimer has said that Winnipeg is a great city, yet it is somewhat sad that the media in those days did their best to tear apart the city rather than build it up.
The construction of the Bank of Montreal building (the tall building near Portage and Main) was announced when Reimer was president. It was very positive but the The Free Press headline was read as ‘Bank down on Manitoba.’ It was like a totally different event. He went to see the editors and suggested that if his neighbour’s house was burning and he rescued them, the paper would run a headline like: ‘Gerald Reimer breaks into neighbour’s house.’ They told him, oh no, they’d do much worse. They’d likely say: ‘Gerald Reimer rapes neighbour’.
As for other memories of his time in office, he fondly recalls being seated at a Chamber luncheon with two provincial premiers, Sterling Lyon and Alberta’s Peter Lougheed. It was an interesting day, he says.
Another event that stands out, but for opposite reasons, was a fire that destroyed The Chamber Club. He was on vacation in Bermuda that time.
Gerald Reimer (1980)
Gerald Reimer
At the age of 42, Gerald Reimer became the youngest Chamber president in its history up until then and one of the city’s biggest boosters.Reimer has said that Winnipeg is a great city, yet it is somewhat sad that the media in those days did their best to tear apart the city rather than build it up. The construction of the Bank of Montreal building (the tall building near Portage and Main) was announced when Reimer was president. It was very positive but the The Free Press headline was read as ‘Bank down on Manitoba.’ It was like a totally different event. He went to see the editors and suggested that if his neighbour’s house was burning and he rescued them, the paper would run a headline like: ‘Gerald Reimer breaks into neighbour’s house.’ They told him, oh no, they’d do much worse. They’d likely say: ‘Gerald Reimer rapes neighbour’. There’s been a big improvement in newspaper coverage since then.
As for other memories of his time in office, he fondly recalls being seated at a Chamber luncheon with two provincial premiers, Sterling Lyon and Alberta’s Peter Lougheed. It was an interesting day, he says.
Another event that stands out, but for opposite reasons, was a fire that destroyed The Chamber Club. He was on vacation in Bermuda that time.
Jack Hignell (1981)
Jack Hignell
Jack Hignell will always remember a trip to Japan, at the invitation of the Japanese government, and the insight he gained into how they do business. The Japanese were clearly less confrontational when it came to labour/management relations — yes, there were strikes, but workers would be back on the job within an hour or two. During his term, Hignell would face a prolonged postal strike. They went into competition with them (Canada Post). They had their own postal service between chambers. They’d collect mail (from our members) and send it by courier. They’d sort it and then phone to let members know it had arrived.
“By the end of the strike, they (strikers) were as sick of it as we were,” he laughs.
It was also during his presidency that The Chamber moved into the Grain Exchange Building.
“We were on the lower level of what had been the trading floor,” he says, adding although it was never publicized, there was a suspicion that the fire the year before had been arson— occurring at night and gutting the place. Read the rest of this entry »
