“The road we travel”
Senator Donald M Phillips 433

The word JAYCEE was foreign to me when I left the Ford Motor Company and took up the job of Parts Manager in Aspol Motors in Dawson Creek - Mile O on the Alaska Highway. Mr. Aspol had the Ford Dealership in Dawson Creek when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbour. The Americans after declaring war were afraid that the Japanese would blockade Alaska and decided to build a land link to Alaska. The American army actually built the Town of Dawson Creek and the Alaska Highway. At the height of construction of the highway there were 8000 civilian trucks working out of Dawson Creek. Aspol Motors had a priority on everything from batteries to tires and motors that other dealers in North America could not obtain.

The result was that Mr. Aspol who was in the right spot at the right time made millions. He built a big dealership and after the war went into buying everything like farm tractors, refrigerators, cars and trucks. He, in other words, had the buying power of a fat bank account. I was brought up in a Ford dealership from the time I was 13 years old and my Sunday School Teacher made me take a job in the small Ford Dealership in my home town of Woodstock. From there I took a job in a big Ford Dealership in Saint John, NB as Parts Manager. No less than 7 men working there and all older than me. I knew nothing about how to manage people until an old fellow in the sales department who had designs for me with his cousin gave me the book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. From there on I said please and thank you and explained why I wanted things done.

After a couple of years there I applied for a job and was accepted at the Head Office of Ford of Canada in Windsor, Ontario. Kid from the sticks strikes it lucky and indeed I did! Ford put me into their Executive Training course. The most important part of the course was the Public Speaking course. It gave me confidence and allowed me to come out of my shell. After being transferred as a District Manager to Alberta, traveling the northern part of the Province, Dawson Creek was in my territory. Mr. Aspol knew I had previously worked in the Ford Dealership so he approached me to come and work for him. The idea was that I would eventually buy him out and own the dealership. This was a big step for me to take as I was a young and single, earning $500.00 a month and spending $600.00.

I did leave Ford and took up the position of Parts Manager at Aspol Motors. Dawson Creek did not have a lot of paved roads or other amenities to make it the most desirable place in the world to settle down. The day I arrived in Dawson Creek to stay, the Hart Highway was officially opened giving the area its first road connection to the lower mainland. It did have in my mind a great future, as oil and gas had been discovered in the area. I had seen what it had done for the economy of Alberta and I was convinced it would happen in the Peace River area of British Columbia where Dawson Creek was strategically located.

Being a young man in a young town, I was asked to join the Dawson Creek Junior Chamber of Commerce. It was a fun club with young guys like me trying to make their way up in this little world. The second year in the club I was elected President. I went on a recruiting campaign and started teaching Public Speaking to members of the club. We started doing all the jobs in the community that the Chamber of Commerce talked about, but did nothing about. We put up a huge Christmas tree in the town square each year, had the Mile Zero Post patented. Started a campaign for a new hospital, helped form the Dawson Creek Band, and nagged City Hall for various city improvements. I received my Senatorship for leading the fight for a new hospital. In 1963 I was elected President of Chamber of Commerce. I led a delegation of businessmen along with the Mayor to Vancouver to promote Dawson Creek and let them know that we were part of BC. We almost started a movement before that to have the Peace River area transferred to Alberta. I started a campaign to have the Alaska Highway paved. We eventually had a committee formed with members from Alberta, Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska Sates. I made many trips to Ottawa lobbying the cause.

In 1966 I was asked to run for politics. I was doing well buying out the garage, making monthly payments and had a fantastic staff who told me to go for it. I ran in the 1966 Provincial Election for the position of member of the Legislature for South Peace river Constituency. I won handily after knocking the previously sitting member out of the running at a constituency nominating meeting. After three years on the back bench I decided to quit politics and finish the job of buying out more of the dealership. My family of four rambunctious boys all aged within six years of each other were also causing problems at home when I was in Victoria attending the sessions. I got a friend of mine to run in the 1969 election and after running his campaign for him, he won with a huge majority. His problem began when he was not given a cabinet post, so he left the Social Credit party and joined the Conservative Party. When the 1972 election was called I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The South Peace Social Credit Constituency Association told me in no uncertain terms that I had created a situation that was not good for the Constituency. First I had ousted the sitting member in 1966. I had run in the election and been successful only to quit in 1969 and get someone to run who left the party to join an opposition party.

Therefore they told me that I had to run again. Well, the dealership was running like clockwork and again the staff told me to go for it. I ran in the 1972 election without much help as the fellow who crossed the floor was a hero for standing up to the big and powerful W.A.C. Bennett. I won the election after several recounts by the big majority of 17 votes and ended up in opposition because Social Credit lost the election to the NDP Party. I said on election night that I did not want to sit in opposition. I was an old Jaycee and was a positive person. I soon learned the tricks of the trade and spoke for 13 hours against the NDP Land Reform Bill. The media gave me the nickname of The Silver Tongued, Leather Lunged Orator from the Big Sky Country. That stayed with me for as long as I was in politics.

It was really the Jaycee involvement that propelled me into politics in the first place and after three years in opposition we won the election in 1975 and I was given the dual portfolios of Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Economic Development. I sold the dealership before being appointed to Cabinet. If I had not and we would have sold a car or truck to an industry like Forestry or Mining, I would have be tarred and feathered. As it happened I was accused of wrongdoing when my Constituency Executive and My Executive in Victoria bought shares in a company that was to benefit greatly when I was going to announce the construction of the Grizzly Valley Pipeline. I went through a Judicial Inquiry and the media looked under every rock in Dawson Creek to find some dirt on me.

When I first went into politics I was very leery, scared of the media and after the Grizzly Valley affair I grew a very thick skin because the media had shown that they could not find any skeletons in my closet. They fortunately did not go back into the after meeting parties from the old Jaycee days.

My Jaycee training helped me be successful in Cabinet until I retired in 1986. Jaycees had taught me to be a builder. My history in politics shows that I was very successful in building the economy of BC. During my Cabinet days I was also responsible for International Trade and Investment. I did an enormous amount of traveling and had the biggest expense account of any Cabinet Minister. My Jaycee training and remembering the Jaycee Creed kept me on the straight and narrow so no amount of checking by the opposition party could find any inaccuracies in my expense accounts.(Note: Sorry fellow Senators, but you all know current or former Politicians, they never know when to stop talking (or writing) – Barney).