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The Sommers’ Scandal (Heritage House $16.95)
No deals. No payoffs. No favours. After W.A.C. Bennett and the fledgling Social Credit Party squeaked out a 1952 election victory, the wily Okanagan businessman perched himself and the party on the highest of moral ground.
W.A.C. promised that the conservative, God-fearing Socreds would be different from the defeated Liberals and Tories of the Coalition government.
However, like a logging road carved on steep terrain, high ground has a tendency to shift and crumble in B.C. politics.
Within a year, the province was caught up in scandal that threatened to topple Bennett's regime and would later send a cabinet minister to jail.
Robert Sommers was a popular Rossland-Trail elementary school principal fond of drink, gambling and blowing trumpet in his band. He's described by Betty O'Keefe and Ian Macdonald in The Sommers' Scandal (Heritage House $16.95) as "a dapper schoolteacher from a small Kootenay town. With his sleek black-and-silver cigarette holder clenched between his teeth, sporting a smartly tailored suit, he stood out from his colleagues like Noel Coward at a preachers' convention.";
Following the Socreds' surprise victory in 1952, Sommers was itching to join the elite players on the province's main stage. He convinced the new premier to hand him the powerful Lands, Forests and Mines portfolio -key levers on the province's economic engines. In return he promised to change his ways.
Four years earlier tycoon E.P. Taylor had been denied a lucrative Forest Management Licence when his B.C. Forest Products company applied for cutting rights. Forest ministry staff worried the eastern-based company would cut and run, creaming the best coastal Douglas Fir. Not one to take no for an answer, Taylor directly lobbied Sommers -- having him for tea in his Toronto mansion.
After moving from Rossland to Victoria, Sommers was cash-strapped. He accepted loans from a small sawmill operator named Wick Gray, who had business ties to a high-powered forest consulting firm owned by Charlie Schultz. Schultz also represented BCFP. Thousands of dollars passed from Schultz to Gray to Sommers and $600 worth of carpet also found its way onto Sommers' floor boards.
W.A.C. Bennett was in full expansion mode at this time-laying blacktop, rail lines and dams across the hinterlands to cement his support. A new pulp mill and hundreds of jobs from BCFP would provide yet another ribbon-cutting ceremony, another opportunity to flash his famous smile.
BCFP's request for cutting rights on Vancouver Island got a thumbs up from the premier.
Gordon Gibson, Liberal MLA and millionaire logger sniffed the rumours, blowing the whistle in the legislature in February of 1955. The blustery 'Bull Of The Woods' accused the government of fraud.
"I firmly believe that money talks and has talked,"; he said.
O'Keefe and MacDonald, both newspaper reporters during this period, have detailed government foot dragging, lawsuits, police investigations, and the subsequent trial. While the government stalled, Gibson, the whistleblower, was unseated in a bitter election battle while Sommers was re-elected.
Sommers blew his remaining shreds of credibility by going on the lam in the United States. Premier Bennett was forced to "isolate Sommers, to cut him off like a diseased limb threatening the solid Socred trunk";. Amid this chaos the premier managed to pull off convincing election wins in 1953 and 1956. Critics credited his Attorney-General Robert Bonner with masterful delaying tactics.
Five years after the allegations of impropriety had surfaced, Sommers and Gray were found guilty of bribery and conspiracy, while BCFP and consultant Charlie Schultz got off unscathed.
"The public was confused again by the decisions. Sommers and Wick Gray were nailed hard while everyone else escaped. If Sommers accepted bribes and Gray paid them, where did the money come from?"; ask the authors.
Sommers and Gray spent 28 months behind bars. It was the first time a Commonwealth cabinet minister paid such a price. Sommers' wife worked at a sawmill to support her family, while her husband learned a new vocation in jail: piano tuner.
Vindicated, Gordon Gibson was re-elected as an MLA in 1960. To this day Robert Sommers contends his innocence, telling the authors that money received from Gray was purely a loan with "no strings attached.";
Since the Sommers case, British Columbians have endured more than their share of political scandal. Three premiers have been forced to step down. Under the weight of accusation and criminal investigation, Glen Clark was the most recent to see his political career ground to dust.
The high road still beckons. 1-895811-96-1
[Mark Forsythe / BCBW WINTER 1999]
W.A.C. promised that the conservative, God-fearing Socreds would be different from the defeated Liberals and Tories of the Coalition government.
However, like a logging road carved on steep terrain, high ground has a tendency to shift and crumble in B.C. politics.
Within a year, the province was caught up in scandal that threatened to topple Bennett's regime and would later send a cabinet minister to jail.
Robert Sommers was a popular Rossland-Trail elementary school principal fond of drink, gambling and blowing trumpet in his band. He's described by Betty O'Keefe and Ian Macdonald in The Sommers' Scandal (Heritage House $16.95) as "a dapper schoolteacher from a small Kootenay town. With his sleek black-and-silver cigarette holder clenched between his teeth, sporting a smartly tailored suit, he stood out from his colleagues like Noel Coward at a preachers' convention.";
Following the Socreds' surprise victory in 1952, Sommers was itching to join the elite players on the province's main stage. He convinced the new premier to hand him the powerful Lands, Forests and Mines portfolio -key levers on the province's economic engines. In return he promised to change his ways.
Four years earlier tycoon E.P. Taylor had been denied a lucrative Forest Management Licence when his B.C. Forest Products company applied for cutting rights. Forest ministry staff worried the eastern-based company would cut and run, creaming the best coastal Douglas Fir. Not one to take no for an answer, Taylor directly lobbied Sommers -- having him for tea in his Toronto mansion.
After moving from Rossland to Victoria, Sommers was cash-strapped. He accepted loans from a small sawmill operator named Wick Gray, who had business ties to a high-powered forest consulting firm owned by Charlie Schultz. Schultz also represented BCFP. Thousands of dollars passed from Schultz to Gray to Sommers and $600 worth of carpet also found its way onto Sommers' floor boards.
W.A.C. Bennett was in full expansion mode at this time-laying blacktop, rail lines and dams across the hinterlands to cement his support. A new pulp mill and hundreds of jobs from BCFP would provide yet another ribbon-cutting ceremony, another opportunity to flash his famous smile.
BCFP's request for cutting rights on Vancouver Island got a thumbs up from the premier.
Gordon Gibson, Liberal MLA and millionaire logger sniffed the rumours, blowing the whistle in the legislature in February of 1955. The blustery 'Bull Of The Woods' accused the government of fraud.
"I firmly believe that money talks and has talked,"; he said.
O'Keefe and MacDonald, both newspaper reporters during this period, have detailed government foot dragging, lawsuits, police investigations, and the subsequent trial. While the government stalled, Gibson, the whistleblower, was unseated in a bitter election battle while Sommers was re-elected.
Sommers blew his remaining shreds of credibility by going on the lam in the United States. Premier Bennett was forced to "isolate Sommers, to cut him off like a diseased limb threatening the solid Socred trunk";. Amid this chaos the premier managed to pull off convincing election wins in 1953 and 1956. Critics credited his Attorney-General Robert Bonner with masterful delaying tactics.
Five years after the allegations of impropriety had surfaced, Sommers and Gray were found guilty of bribery and conspiracy, while BCFP and consultant Charlie Schultz got off unscathed.
"The public was confused again by the decisions. Sommers and Wick Gray were nailed hard while everyone else escaped. If Sommers accepted bribes and Gray paid them, where did the money come from?"; ask the authors.
Sommers and Gray spent 28 months behind bars. It was the first time a Commonwealth cabinet minister paid such a price. Sommers' wife worked at a sawmill to support her family, while her husband learned a new vocation in jail: piano tuner.
Vindicated, Gordon Gibson was re-elected as an MLA in 1960. To this day Robert Sommers contends his innocence, telling the authors that money received from Gray was purely a loan with "no strings attached.";
Since the Sommers case, British Columbians have endured more than their share of political scandal. Three premiers have been forced to step down. Under the weight of accusation and criminal investigation, Glen Clark was the most recent to see his political career ground to dust.
The high road still beckons. 1-895811-96-1
[Mark Forsythe / BCBW WINTER 1999]
Submitted on July 22, 2003 in By David.
