ICBA celebrates 50 years of serving open shop construction this year, and we are looking back every week at some of the significant moments, milestones, and people who helped ICBA become Canada’s largest construction association.
Today, we wind the clock back to April 26, 1975.
He may be the most famous politician who was never premier in B.C. history. Flyin’ Phil Gaglardi was a Pentecostal minister who refined his speaking style in weekly radio sermons, and then took his hellfire and brimstone ways into B.C. politics, serving two decades as Kamloops’ Social Credit MLA.
Phil Gaglardi
He was a legend in the mid 1970s, and, when 163 independent contractors formally met to found ICBA at the Terra Nova Motor Inn in Trail on April 26, 1975, it was Gaglardi who gave the keynote address. He spoke in revivalist tones: “There’s no greater privilege and no greater price in this jewel that any individual could hold in the palm of his hand than the ability to be able to choose,” he told delegates.
He went on to say he would “fight to the last drop of my blood” to defend an individual’s right to be able to choose to either belong or not belong to a union. As an old preacher, the Biblical parable of the mustard seed must have come to mind (“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”), as he couldn’t help but prophesy: “This is the start of one of the most powerful organizations ever to be organized in the Province of British Columbia.”
It was a memorable series of meetings. Elmer Verigin led a strong Kootenay contingent, and said participation far exceeded expectations. Ed Kop and others were there on behalf of the Vancouver Island group, with the Fraser Valley and Okanagan also well represented.
Trail’s Terra Nova Motor Inn – the Birthplace of ICBA
With open shop in its infancy in B.C., they looked south for some advice. Representatives of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the organization representing open shop interests in the United States, spoke to ICBA’s founding convention. Former ABC president John Lochary outlined issues and priorities that aligned very closely with the views of the Canadian contractors in the room. Encouragingly, he reported that his association has experienced phenomenal growth, and that in and around its home base of Baltimore, “ABC is doing now more than 80 per cent of all the work and the percentage is growing every day.”
As would often be the case at ICBA events, protestors shadowed participants. Some 30 picketers gathered outside the Terra Nova, handing out pamphlets informing readers: “Union shops ensure a prosperous province. Open shops invite economic decline,” and claiming that unions “are the most democratic forces for progress in Canada.” The response within the convention room was good-natured. “I think that sounds very nice of all the great union organizers from Vancouver and every place else to sacrifice a beautiful day to come out and give us publicity,” Verigin remarked.
The minds of delegates, however, were clearly fixed on the business at hand. Ed Kop urged action: “I just hope that this particular gathering will not go back home until we have decided to unite ourselves through a strong and very unified body of independent contractors, all believing and working for the same principles.” One of the ABC representatives echoed that sentiment: “You need to get this thing rolling,” Skip McComas told delegates. “You’ve got a great task ahead of you.”
Delegates listened – and acted, committing themselves to: “Form an association of contractors and associates in British Columbia. These members would operate under the ‘merit shop’ concept in harmony with all labour and management.”
Ed Kop
A seven-person executive committee was appointed. In addition to Ed Kop as president and Elmer Verigin as vice-president it included: Len Lakes of Creston, Gordon Laarz of Trail, Delora McKinnon of Victoria, Wayne Newcomen of Cranbrook, and Al Roper of Creston. They were tasked with finding an administrator, with a provisional budget of $20,000 for an eight-month period; and with carrying out an action plan that included incorporation, a membership and dues structure, and setting up an office.
That Trail convention set the scene for strong momentum during ICBA’s inaugural year. The executive met again at Victoria’s Pandora Inn in June where it adopted a constitution and set membership fees and legislative priorities. It also hired Ralph Purdy on a four-month contract as executive vice-president and administrator. Purdy was a former secretary-manager of the Employers Association of Saskatchewan, and a passionate believer in the merits of open shop contracting. He had delivered an evening speech, titled “Dictocracy vs. Responsible (Private) Enterprise,” at the founding convention.
The constitution of the Independent Contractors and Businessmen Association of B.C. was filed on August 6, 1975 (the name would morph to Independent Canadian Businessmen Association, and the “men” reference was subsequently dropped, before the current name was adopted in 1986). ICBA would be “the voice of the merit shop in construction and business” and would “assume the responsibility of making that voice heard,” its constitution declared.
