Let’s go back to 1909 and check out “Honest John” stepping aside from politics in order to tend to his crops.
A Sept. 4 front page article in The Delta Times with the headline “John Oliver Back” described how Oliver left the political arena to tend to his anxious oat crop in Delta.
“Mr. Oliver is back in Delta again after another spell of politics. A Vancouver Province reporter caught him in the Terminal City the other day en route home and writes:
‘I am not going to address any more political meetings until I get my own oat crop. I must live.’
Mr. Oliver of Delta, generally recognized as the leader of the provincial Liberals, thus, in an interview in the rotunda of the Hotel Vancouver, announced his rural retirement for the next three weeks,” the article read.
“Whether in leather chairs of the leading hotel or with Prince and Duke in the stable of his Delta farm, John can radiate more Liberal optimism to the cubic foot than all the members of his party put together. His words and actions always indicate the imminence of an election…”
The articleabout the farmer politician of the Fraser also read, “'Whenever it pleases the powers in Victoria to bring on the election they will find me ready,' he smiled as he entered a waiting carriage and raced off to his interurban car and his anxious oat crop. Generally speaking, there will be good grain crops in the lower mainland according to the member from Delta.”
John Oliver and his secretary at his office in Victoria in 1920
Oliver moved to B.C. from Ontario with his family in 1877 and took up farming in Delta in 1882, building up one of the most prosperous farms in the area.
After serving in local politics on the school board and municipal council, he was elected to the B.C. legislature in 1900 and became leader of the opposition.
He lost his seat in the 1909 election, however, was re-elected in 1916 and served as the Liberal government’s minister of agriculture and railways.
After Harlan Brewster’s death in 1918, Oliver became the province's 19th premier, remaining in office until his own death in 1927.
A plain-spoken and considered a little rough around the edges compared to other provincial politicains at the time, he was known as "Honest John" for his considerable integrity.
John Oliver Park in East Ladner is named after him.
