Uncovering Burnaby: South Burnaby rode; North Burnaby walked

“Burnaby walks!” stated the opening line of an article in the Nov. 18, 1912 edition of the Vancouver Sun.

But it wasn’t South Burnaby doing the walking, the article was quick to add.

“South Burnaby is snugly seated in the streetcars, has a good service and rides to its very doors,” the article reads.

“Meanwhile, it is North Burnaby that walks.”

See more: 

• Uncovering Burnaby: The movement for secession in North Burnaby

• Uncovering Burnaby: The city’s century-long effort to be the ‘hub’ of the region

This was, in part, thanks to a vote by the electorate on a proposed bylaw to allow BC Electric to build streetcar infrastructure.

“It is South Burnaby that keeps North Burnaby on foot,” reads a quote attributed to Mr. Harvey, a representative of Trites Co., which would have been served by streetcar infrastructure in the city’s north end.

“It was understood and agreed long ago that there was to be a car service there, but when the matter came to a vote, although a big majority of the whole of Burnaby voted in favour of it, there was enough small-minded opposition in South Burnaby to defeat the bylaw.”

It was also voted down by property owners in the north end who lived beyond the end of the proposed streetcar line, “who were sore because the line was not coming out to their property.”

A representative of Hill, Wall, & Co., which also would have been served by the streetcar, said it was “no small evil that three or four thousand people on the north side of the town are without car service.”

The move prompted a call from Fred Thornton, of Norden & Thornton, to split the city into two municipalities—north and south.

“South Burnaby can whip the north side of the town any time and the people have been asking so much from the BC Electric that the latter finally became disgusted,” Thornton is quoted as saying.

Burnaby Beacon has previously written about a movement to split Burnaby up into multiple municipalities, with the Heights area making significant strides towards such a result. You can read that story here.