Comment: The power of buying local, as explained by Cecil Bennett

Local businesses pay local taxes and so do the men and women who work for them. They also spend their paycheques locally, which makes more work for other locals who also pay their taxes.

The seventh Island Class vessel built for B.C. Ferries is prepared for recent trial runs in the Danube River in Romania, where it was built, before heading to service in B.C. B.C. Ferries recently signed a contract for more ferries to be built in China. B.C. FERRIES

A commentary by a resident of Mesachie Lake.

The recent spate of letters about ferry construction keep reminding me of an incident in my childhood that I feel obliged to share. It involves a chance encounter in downtown Victoria, a vanilla milkshake and a lesson in simple economics.

For background, theVancouver Suntransferred my father to Victoria in 1948 to cover the legislature.

He was not pleased with the assignment, but the town grew on him, so when theSunrecalled him in 1950 he resigned and was instantly hired at theColonist, where he worked for most of the next 30 years.

People today have forgotten just how difficult the late 1940s were, with 100,000 returning veterans whose lives had been interrupted by the Great Depression and the Second World War looking for homes and household goods to provide for their new wives and growing families.

The short version is that there were families living in ­unfinished garages furnished with packing crates, and my father was just one of tens of thousands of people searching for such luxury.

Fortunately for Dad, a ­then-unregarded MLA noticed his predicament and helped him find decent accommodation for himself and his very pregnant wife, as well as an actual bedroom set that is still in use today.

Naturally, my father remained on good terms with the man in the years after Dad was moved from the political news to other assignments and the MLA went on to cross the floor, join a new party, become its leader and win the next seven general elections.

Jumping forward to 1960 or thereabouts, we find your humble servant home on summer vacation without available daycare.

With two toddlers to care for (one for each hand, as it were), my mother would often persuade my father to take me with him on his rounds, which found me walking as fast as I could to keep up with him as he headed down Fort Street on an errand that was never explained to me, when we met Cecil Bennett headed in the other direction. They stop to talk and since Bennett had an errand to run, Dad turned and walked up Fort with his faithful shadow behind him.

Eventually, we arrived at Price’s locksmith shop where Bennett bought some hardware — I think it might have been set screws, but, after 60-plus years, I can’t be sure.

Whatever it was, having achieved his purpose without ending the conversation, Bennett suggested we repair next door to Johnny’s Café. Given the toll the hot day and long walk had taken on my eight-year-old legs, I thought that was an excellent idea.

I was even more grateful when the adults ordered coffees for themselves and a very cold milkshake for me.

They talked for quite a while until Bennett mentioned his errand related to a doorknob in his office that kept coming off.

He had evidently asked maintenance to fix it, but growing tired of waiting for action, had sallied forth to deal with it ­himself.

In those simpler times, the premier could walk about town without an entourage, but not without answering questions from me.

“Couldn’t you have bought that stuff at Eaton’s?” I asked. “They have a hardware department.”

Bennett replied: “Yes, I could have, but Eaton’s pay their taxes in Ontario and Price’s pays in British Columbia.”

I must have looked as c­onfused as I was, because he continued.

“The closer to home you spend your dollar, the better chance it has to come back to you,” he said.

“Local businesses pay local taxes and so do the men and women who work for them. They also spend their paycheques locally, which makes more work for other locals who also pay their taxes.

“That, young man, means your share of the public debt will be smaller.”

Then, to bring a long story to its conclusion, he turned to my father and said: “Which explains why we are building our ferries here.”

At the time, I appreciated the milkshake more than the lesson in economics, but now I wish more people were as smart as Cecil Bennett.

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