The Mayor of the People continued from page 63
candidate before later becoming an ardent Liberal Party supporter.
As a politician Reinhardt gained a reputation as a man who stuck to his guns and fiercely defended the causes and people he championed. A skillful salesman, he was successful at winning over voters even when they disagreed with his policy positions. He loved personal politics — often meeting people on the street with a handshake, a consoling word and a smile.
“Milt Reinhardt had a winning personality and was a good salesman, most agree, despite backing a perennial losing cause and hard sell in Medicine Hat, namely, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Liberal Party,” Medicine Hat News reporter Collin Gallant wrote of Reinhardt on May 24, 2014.
Reinhardt was first elected to city council in 1968. On council he worked closely with legendary mayor Harry Veiner. Veiner became one of two long-serving mayors, which would bookend Reinhardt’s own brief career in public office; the other being Ted Grimm. Grimm won his first term in office in 1974-1977. He went on to serve as mayor for a second period from 1980- 2001. Reinhardt beat Grimm in 1977 to become mayor, and ran against him twice more in subsequent elections after Grimm reclaimed the mayor’s seat in 1980.
“He took down the man who couldn’t be beaten: Ted Grimm,” said Reinhardt’s son Lyndon in a recent interview. “It was a point of pride with him and definitely one of the highlights he carried with him all his years.”
Reinhardt’s three years in the mayor’s seat were marked by huge divisions within the city itself as many different visions for the future found their advocates on an often dead-locked city council. Reinhardt’s uncompromising pro-business, pro-growth and pro-development stance was opposed by many who liked Medicine Hat just the way it was.
“A city must not grow in only one direction,” Reinhardt said on Oct. 18, 1977 a few days before being elected mayor. “Council must in no way attempt to control the structure of business.”
Reinhardt particularly pushed for more development in the south end of the city around what would eventually become the Medicine Hat Mall, believing that’s the direction where the city’s future growth lay.
“Dad was very business oriented, which is funny because of his socialist view point,” Reinhardt’s younger son Mark recently told the Medicine Hat News. “Getting the mall built and building the Medicine Hat
Lodge was his doing. Ross Glen was just coming on. There was a lot of business development around his time in office. He wanted to run the campaign ‘Medicine Hat Open for Business.’”
Reinhardt may have backed a number of losing causes over the course of his political life but in his vision for the growth of the city he was largely proven correct. Reinhardt always found this fact extremely gratifying.
“He was tickled pink about it,” confirmed son Lyndon. “He saw the growth and he saw the development in the south side, which still to this day is growing. He was very much happy with the direction the city was going with regard to the growth. Everything in life is about risk, and sometimes it’s a calculated risk. Sometimes you get lucky too. It did him well. That growth was spawned because of those few decisions he made.”
In 1978, a year after taking office, Reinhardt confessed he was not expecting to face such heated opposition to his agenda when he came into power.
“I was unaware of how much politics goes on,” he said in a interview with reporter Sheila Pratt. “When I sat on council 10 years ago, the then Mayor Harry Veiner was almost unchallenged on council. I don’t want developers running this city either, but I do feel business is what makes a community grow. When we acquire more businesses it’s good for all citizens. I see too many people going to Lethbridge and Calgary to shop now.”
After getting out of politics Reinhardt became a long-time restaurant manager and good will ambassador at the Medicine Hat Lodge. According to Reinhardt’s son Lyndon, his working at the Lodge wasn’t about the money.
“He’d say: ‘Hey, Lyn I’m going to retire. I’m going to hang it up.’ I heard it at 65, and then I heard it at 70. I heard it at 75. And then I heard it at 80. Amazingly, it wasn’t about the work. It wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about the job. It was about the contact with the people. That was what it was all about with Dad.”
After Reinhardt’s death on May 21, 2014 long-time friend and former Medicine Hat MLA David Carter said he, like many, would remember Reinhardt for the strength of his convictions, his warm personality and personal touch.
“There was a good, solid depth to Milt that I don’t think people appreciated,” said Carter. “He had the gift of looking people straight in the eye, which is not so common these days, especially with politicians."
Milt Reinhardt shakes hands with Justin Trudeau at Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club in 2013.
Reinhardt left behind his wife Maryann and his three children Patricia, Lyndon and Mark. He was pre-deceased by his first wife Ivy. Despite his short time in the mayor’s seat, Reinhardt left his mark on the city he loved. ■
Mark Reinhardt says his father, former Mayor Milt Reinhardt, lived and breathed politics. Milt's strong opinions could make him your greatest friend if he agreed with you and your harshest critic if he didn't.
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