Celebrating 150 years of Winnipeg
The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce reached a momentous milestone last year. On June 13, 2023, the Chamber celebrated its 150th anniversary with a large open-air party at True North Square. More than 500 Winnipeggers turned out to enjoy Party on the Plaza, a day of dance, music and other entertainment by local performers highlighting the talents of our diverse community, food and refreshments and a chance to win one of numerous prizes donated by Chamber members.
“The celebration however was not limited to just the one day,” notes Loren Remillard, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO. “Because this is such an important milestone for us, we decided to hold a year’s worth of programming including sharing members’ stories and hosting monthly luncheons, focusing on our past, present activities and future.”
The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce is older than Winnipeg itself. The only organization that maybe has been around longer, Remillard suggest, is the North West Company.
Originally known as the Winnipeg Board of Trade, the Chamber was founded by a group of far-sighted business leaders in the small community of about 8,500. People such as James Ashdown, Andrew Bannatyne, John Higgins, Colin Inkster and William Kennedy were among them.
“Our founders recognized that Winnipeg was a growing city with the potential to be a great city, a real centre of commerce,” Remillard says.
He adds that the members of the Board of Trade were instrumental in having Winnipeg become incorporated as a city.
And the City of Winnipeg and the Chamber of Commerce have been working hand in glove ever since.
“We have three principal functions,” Remillard explains. “On the one hand, we advocate for and lobby on behalf of our members with the municipal and provincial governments.”
As well, the Chamber supports small business in a variety of ways. Its group benefit insurance program – one of the first such chamber of commerce programs in North America – allows businesses with perhaps only a couple of employees to provide said employees with group benefits that would not otherwise be available to them. Other benefits include Document certification, networking opportunities, cost saving programs and a speaker’s series.
Finally, there is the Chamber’s ongoing effort to better the community as a whole. “The Chamber was instrumental in founding the United Way in 1965,” Remillard points out. “We worked with the police force to introduce the Winnipeg crime Stoppers program. We work closely with the Winnipeg Labour Council. We were involved in planning the expansion of the James Richardson International Airport In the 1970s and ‘80s, the formation of CentrePort Canada, and we initiated a number of industrial skills training programs.
“We don’t focus just on our members,” he continues. “We seek the betterment of all segments of our community. We recognize that you can’t have a strong community unless everyone benefits and contributes. Our members can only succeed if everyone shares in that success.”
The Chamber, Remillard reports, currently has over 2,000 members – 30% of them based downtown and the rest from the suburbs - representing businesses of every stripe. “We take pride,” he says, “in the fact that – on a per capita basis – we have one of the largest chamber memberships in the country. Seventy-five percent of Winnipeg businesses are Chamber members.”
He adds that the Chamber membership also reflects the larger community diversity. “We were the first chamber of commerce in Canada to have a First Nations president and the first to have a president of Korean origin,” he notes. In 2019, Jessica Dumas, an entrepreneur and president of her own business, Jessica Dumas Coaching and Training.
Remillard reports on a recent survey of its members which – not surprisingly – identified the level of crime in our downtown as their number one concern. “On this issue,” he says, “we are co-ordinating with our partners – such as the Winnipeg BIZ, the Exchange district BIZ and the police to develop solutions to this problem. As an organization, our Chamber has always been committed to the downtown. We have always had our head office downtown.”
Despite the current problems downtown, the Chamber CEO foresees a bright future for our city. A lifelong Winnipegger, he observes that Winnipeg is growing at a rate that he has never seen before.
“We are getting so many more people choosing to live here,” he points out. “One of our major advantages is housing affordability. Younger people in places like Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver can’t afford to buy a house. One of our challenges is to create the conditions that would persuade more younger people to choose to come here. We need to have all of our stakeholders come together to develop a strategy for growth – and we need to build more infrastructure.
“Our ongoing goal is to make Winnipeg a destination for new businesses and a city where younger people want to raise their families.”
Sidebar:
Founding Members of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce
James Henry Ashdown (1844-1924)
John Balsillie (1839-1906)
Andrew Graham Ballenden Bannatyne (1829-1889)
Victor Beaupré
Curtis James Bird (1838-1876)
Alfred Boyd (c1836-1908)
Pascal Bréland (1811-1896)
Alexander MacDougall “A. M.” Brown (1820-1895)
James Clouston
Robert Cunningham (1836-1874)
William Drever (1821-1887)
- J. Dunstan
William Flett
Frank Gingras
Edward Henry George Gunter Hay (1840-1918)
John Higgins (1807-1884)
Thomas Howard (1845-1903)
Colin Inkster (1843-1934)
John Inkster
George Kennedy
William Kennedy (1813-1890)
Joseph Octave Lemay (1829-1892)
Alexander Logan (1841-1894)
William H. Lyon (c1833-1897)
William J. Macaulay
Alexander McArthur (1843-1887)
Andrew McDermot (1789-1881)
John McGregor
James McKay (1828-1879)
John Henry McTavish (1837-1888)
Onis Monchamp
Robert Morgan
Alexander “Sandy” Murray (1839-1913)
Robert Patterson
Joseph Royal (1837-1902)
- G. Sonderman
Robert Tait (1830-1912)
150 years worth of President/Chairs of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce
The names of these community leaders are a history of our City
In 1998, the title of President changed to Chair.
Period President / Chair
1879 Andrew Graham Ballenden Bannatyne (1829-1889)
1880 Arthur F. Eden (c1852-?)
1881 William H. Lyon (c1833-1897)
1882 Joseph Mulholland
1883 Charles John Brydges (1827-1889)
1884-1886 Kenneth McKenzie
1887 James Henry Ashdown (1844-1924)
1888 George Frederick Galt (1855-1928)
1889 James Redmond (1853-1926)
1890 Robert Jones Whitla (1846-1905)
1891 Stephen Nairn (1838-1900)
1892 James Elder Steen (1846-1909)
1893 Frederick William Stobart (1859-1935)
1894 William Bain Scarth (1837-1902)
1895 Robert Thomas Riley (1851-1944)
1896 F. H. Mathewson
1897 David Wesley Bole (1856-1933)
1898 Augustus Meredith Nanton (1860-1925)
1899 Edward Lancaster Drewry (1851-1940)
1900 Dawson Kerr Elliott (1853-1945)
1901 William Georgeson (1859-?)
1902 John Russell (c1850-1905)
1903 George Reading Crowe (1852-1924)
1904 Hodgson Wilberforce Hutchinson (1862-1949)
1905 A. L. Johnson
1906 Andrew Strang (1849-1913)
1907 George Frederick Carruthers (1846-1918)
1907-1908 John Thomas Blandell Persse (1861-1927)
1908-1909 Henry Martyn Belcher (1856-1923)
1909-1910 Edward Daniel Martin (1856-1938)
1910-1911 Frederick William Drewry (1855-1927)
1911-1912 Henry Bruce Gordon (1855-1931)
1912-1913 Ezra Arthur Mott (1869-1951)
1913-1914 John Stovel (1858-1923)
1914-1915 Melbourne Francis Christie (1864-1944)
1915-1916 George Nelson Jackson (1861-1944)
1916-1917 Albert Livingstone Crossin (1868-1956)
1917-1918 Alvin Keyes Godfrey (1871-1951)
1918-1919 John Edward Alfred Wildman (1865-1963)
1919-1920 William Henry Carter (1874-1962)
1920-1921 Edward Parnell (1859-1922)
1921-1925 William Andrew Travers Sweatman (1879-1941)
1925-1927 Robert G. Persse (1879-1946)
1927-1928 F. Hedley Marsh
1928-1931 Duncan Cameron (1865-1948)
1931-1932 John McEachern (1867-1942)
1932-1935 Wesley McCurdy (1881-1961)
1935-1936 Frederick John Charles Cox (1860-1939)
1936-1938 Charles Ernest Stockdill (1881-1960)
1938-1940 E. C. Mackay
1940-1941 George J. Cameron
1941-1943 George Henry Stewart (1874-1947)
1943-1944 John Duncan McDonald (c1879-1965)
1944-1947 Milton Daniel Grant (1874-1956)
1947-1949 Ralph Dennistoun Baker (1895-1960)
1949-1951 Allan Harvey Watson (1891-1978)
1951-1952 Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle (1903-1968)
1952-1953 A. E. Longstaffe
1953-1954 G. S. Thorvaldson
1954-1955 John Kerr
1955 Ronald F. Swaine
1955-1956 Alexander Robertson (1909-1985)
1956-1957 Ronald F. Swaine
1957-1958 R. S. Malone
1958-1959 William Scott Neal (1914-1993)
1959-1960 John Stuart “Jack” McMahon (1904-2000)
1960-1961 George Edward Sharpe (1908-1985)
1961-1962 George Richard “Dick” Hunter (1917-1995)
1962-1963 R. G. Barton
1963-1964 Douglas Cole “Doug” Groff (1912-1993)
1964-1965 Alexander Edson Boyd (1912-1998)
1965-1966 Clare E. Atchison
1966-1967 William Stanley “Bill” Dunlop (1912-1991)
1967-1968 Allan Randolph McPherson (1914-2000)
1968-1969 Arthur A. Elliott
1969-1970 David Rothstein (1914-1997)
1970-1971 William Leslie “Les” Wardrop (1915-2017)
1971-1972 William Arthur Johnston (1914-1997)
1972-1973 Lawrence Oliver “Lawrie” Pollard (1928-2019)
1973-1974 Graeme Thomson Haig (1923-1993)
1974-1976 Mel Peaslee Michener (1930-2017)
1976-1977 Norman Louis Coghlan (1927-2013)
1977-1978 Hugh Delaney
1978-1979 Paul Herriot
1979-1980 James “Jim” Cartlidge (1925-2016)
1980-1981 Gerald F. Reimer
1981-1982 John Raymond “Jack” Hignell (1930-2015)
1982-1984 Lloyd McGinnis
1984-1985 Keith Godden
1985-1986 Edward John “Ed” Martens (1941-2015)
1986-1987 John Doole
1987-1988 Dorothy Dobbie (First woman)
1988-1989 E. Michael
1989 Mike Hill
1989-1990 Herb Middlestead (?-2010)
1990-1991 “Buddy” Brownstone
1991-1992 Steve Childerhouse
1992-1993 Sandy Hopkins
1993-1994 Terry Christall
1994-1995 John Granelli
1995-1996 Trevor Hayden
1996-1997 Dave Angus
1997-1998 Carol-Anne Borody
1998-1999 Joe Barnsley
1999-2000 Irene Merie
2000-2001 Murray Sigler
2001-2002 Walter Hill
2002-2003 Robert Kreis
2003-2004 Catherine Kloepfer
2004-2005 Philip Sheps
2005-2006 Larry McIntosh
2006-2007 Trevor Sprague
2007-2008 Ken Jones
2008-2009 Jeffrey Hartry
2009-2010 B. J. Reid
2010-2011 Judy Murphy
2011-2012 Brian Bowman
2012-2013 Brian Scharfstein
2013-2014 Jodi Moskal
2014-2015 Michael Legary
2015-2016 Priti Mehta-Shah
2016-2017 Wadood Ibrahim
2017-2018 Johanna Hurme
2018-2019 Scott Sissons
2019-2020 Jessica Dumas (First Indigenous)
2020-21 Sheeraj Patel
2021-2022 Mark Jones
2022-2023 Liz Choi
2023- 2024 Jeanette Montufar-McKay
2024-2025 Kelvin Selch
