WFP: The Greatest Manitobans: #19 Steve Juba

[Only The Lonely..]

The Greatest Manitobans: #19 Steve Juba

Champion of the common citizen

"When I was first elected I didn’t expect city council to do handsprings for me. I was as welcome as a skunk at a garden party." — Steve Juba


Steve Juba grew up poor and Ukrainian.
In his childhood, in Winnipeg, those two qualities were enough to block him from any hope of ever sitting in the mayor's chair. But once he took that august seat, they guided him and the causes he championed.

And in many ways, they were the reasons everyday Winnipeggers kept him in that chair.

It was a different world when Juba, already a sitting MLA, was first elected Winnipeg's mayor in 1956. The city's more affluent denizens looked upon Winnipeg's Ukrainian population as second-class citizens. Even though Juba had made a fortune through his Keystone Supply company, his election shocked many and was widely considered a mistake to be corrected at the next election.

It wasn't. Juba was elected by landslides in the elections to come until he decided to leave office of his own accord in 1977. At the time, he was second only to Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau as the country's longest-serving mayor.

Juba was a man of contrasts: he spent his entire political career living in a modest home on William Avenue and yet he owned two dozen Cadillacs throughout his life.

"What made Steve Juba so special is that he grew up at a time of tremendous inequality," said Al Golden, former city councillor and family friend.

"He recognized this, he was upset about this and he tried to champion every case where people were not equal. He had to share a pair of shoes with his brother when they were growing up, they were that poor. He never forgot it."

It has been more than 50 years since Juba first sat in the mayor's chair, and more than 30 since he surprised everyone and suddenly pulled his nomination papers out of the ring in 1977.

Juba retired to Petersfield and spent his winters in Florida. He died May 2, 1993.

"I'm surprised people still remember him," said Juba's wife Elva. "He would be surprised, too. Who wouldn't be? I know how much he tried to do and did do, all the things he accomplished. But it would still be a surprise to him.

"But he would be pleased, too."

While many young people today might not know who Steve Juba was, he continues to cast a long shadow at city hall with each mayor who has come after judged using him as the measure.

"He did much more than people realize," said former deputy mayor -- and rival -- Bernie Wolfe.

"He was able to generate a real identity for Winnipeg. He projected the image of a city on the move. He wasn't bashful about standing up."

Juba was born in Winnipeg on July 1, 1914, to Gregory and Sophie Juba, two Ukrainian immigrants. He had a brother, Daniel, and a sister, Nancy.

Juba was defeated in his first stab at politics, losing to Stanley Knowles in a federal election. He lost again provincially and twice in civic elections. But he was lucky the fifth time and was elected in 1953 as an independent to represent Winnipeg Centre in the provincial legislature. Three years later, he took the mayor's chair, defeating incumbent George Sharpe.

Because there weren't any rules saying you couldn't, he continued as a provincial MLA and was re-elected to that post in 1958. He quit it in 1959.

During the Juba mayoral years, the old gingerbread city hall building was demolished and the current one erected in its place, the Public Safety Building and the Disraeli Freeway were built, the Winnipeg Convention Centre and Centennial Library (now Millennium Library) opened.

Juba also created the idea of twinning Winnipeg with international cities, including Setaguya-Ku, Japan.

The city also hosted the 1967 Pan American games, but how it got here is a funny story.

Winnipeggers look back at those games as the sporting event that put their city on the global map, a heady time that left it with major sporting facilities including the appropriately named Pan Am Pool, the velodrome (since demolished to make way for stores near Polo Park) and improvements to the Winnipeg Stadium.

But former CJOB broadcaster and Winnipeg Tribune city editor Peter Warren says that's not what Juba had in mind a few years earlier when he returned from meeting Chicago mayor Richard Daley Sr.

"He was bubbling over when he got off the plane," Warren said.

"Mayor Daley had just announced Chicago had Pan Am and he told Steve you should get Pan Am, too. So when he got off the plane, he was so excited I asked him why. And he said Chicago had Pan Am, and he'd like to see Winnipeg get Pan Am, too.

"He said it would be great to see Pan Am Airlines at Winnipeg Airport. That's how it all started."

With then premier Ed Schreyer, Juba founded Folklorama, a cultural celebration now in its 39th year.

Elva still remembers being there when the idea for Folklorama was germinated.

"I remember him and I walking in Copenhagen in Tivoli Gardens, and he said, 'One of these days, we'll have this in Winnipeg'," she said.

"When he got back, he called Mary Kelekis and said, 'We have to have something like Tivoli Gardens here'."

Juba was infamous for his media stunts to help him get his own way.

He drove to the Wolseley area and held hands with the women who circled an elm tree preventing civic crews from removing it. When the provincial government refused to let the city fog for mosquitos, he had all 28 of the city's fogging trucks park in front of the Legislative Building and dropped all their ignition keys on a table in front of the premier.

He plopped a portable washroom in front of the Legislative Building when he was unsuccessfully battling the province against the so-called Broadway Biffy, a public washroom built on Broadway across the street from the Legislature.

While in provincial politics, Juba led several battles including getting margarine coloured yellow in Manitoba, allowing professional sports events on Sundays, letting women drink in bars and allowing lotteries to raise money for hospitals.

Juba also proposed projects that didn't get off the ground including a roof for Winnipeg Stadium and perhaps the most famous, constructing a monorail for rapid transit.

Elva said her husband's politics didn't bother his father, but it didn't win him any affection from his mother.

"His mother thought he was the direct descendent of the devil," she said. "She was a strong Catholic and here he was with the liquor issue and Sunday sports. She was very upset with him."

Elva said Juba ran for a second term as mayor because of his father.

"He wanted to get out after his first term, but he promised his dad he would go two terms, which he did. And then it snowballed. I guess (his dad) knew that if Steve started something, he wouldn't be able to finish it in his first term."

Elva said her husband finally gave up being MLA and mayor at the same time because the grind weighed heavily on him and affected his health.

"It was hard because the house used to sit at night so Steve would go from the mayor's office to the Manitoba legislature. It did take its toll. He had an ulcer and didn't go anywhere without two quarts of milk in the trunk."

Elva said she never pushed her husband to leave politics, even though she knows he could have become a multimillionaire had he turned his full attention to business during those years.

"I let him make up his own mind," she said. "I knew he loved it. I knew he wouldn't be happy at the business without politics."

Elva said it was the failure of getting the monorail that pushed him to leave office.

"He was so disappointed. We had gone to two or three places and got prices. He wouldn't go into something unless he studied it."

Just hours before Juba pulled his name from the election, he expressed pessimism as to how long he would be remembered.

"Nobody will remember what I did 25 years from now. When something blooms in spring, it's fresh and exciting. But when it fades in fall, everybody forgets about it."

But Golden said Juba was wrong.

"He lives on in the tens of thousands of people he helped. He helped people grow. The people he planted seeds of hope in still remember him.

"He gave them confidence, and he gave them hope."