It's hard not to remember “Flying Phil" Gaglardi, the colourful and sometimes controversial provincial highways minister who was a supporter of the Deas Island Tunnel getting built.
First elected MLA in 1952, he was appointed by Premier W.A.C. Bennett as the first minister of highways. Also responsible for B.C. Ferries, he oversaw a period of rapid highway infrastructure growth in B.C.
At a March 1956 banquet of the Lower Fraser River Crossing Improvement Association in Ladner, which had over 600 in attendance, he said the decision to build a new tunnel at Deas Island was based on sound engineering facts and “not something dreamed up in my imagination.” He also said, “We are serving the people of British Columbia and not doing it as a favour to you people in Ladner. We must serve the people without fear or favour.” The tunnel opened in 1959.
Of course, he was on hand to celebrate the opening of the new BC Ferries terminal in Tsawwassen.
Gaglardi’s nickname was earned in part because of his propensity for getting speeding tickets, as well as convincing the premier to purchase a Learjet.
He was later appointed to the social welfare portfolio.
He was also a member of the B.C. Harbours Board in the late 1960s when the province expropriated huge tracts of farmland in Delta for future industrial development to serve port needs.
At the time, he urged farmers to be "sensible" about returns expected for their expropriated land. In 1968 he told the Optimist, “Your flat agricultural lands will have to go for industry,” which he said would eventually provide one of the biggest industrial areas on the west coast.
In the late 1980s he was mayor of Kamloops. He died in 1995.
Gaglardi Way in Burnaby is named after him.
