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union, and of course it was an American controlled company,” said Grimm. “I had enough prairie radicalism in me to be involved in the trade union movement because I could see some things that were going on. It wasn’t that the people at the plant were underpaid, but the paternalistic attitude of being instructed, or at least getting out your hankie when somebody sneezed in Terre Haute, Indiana, that just didn’t fly for me.”


Grimm went on to become a well-known labour movement organizer in Medicine Hat before eventually returning to school to finish his teaching certification. After graduating, Grimm came back to Medicine Hat in 1964 and taught at St. Mary’s School. In 1968 he won his first civic election as alderman. He was just 32 years old.


Grimm decided to run for mayor in 1974 after Harry Veiner stepped down. The young, well-spoken, forward-thinking and telegenic Grimm charmed Medicine Hat voters and won the election handily. He immediately set a non-partisan and moderate tone in city politics, declaring his intention to represent all Hatters regardless of their political stripe.


I have never


really measured the success of a city by the numbers you


“It really doesn’t matter to me in the slightest,” he joked during his acceptance speech, “whether our sewers are painted pink, blue or whatever.”


have. You have to measure it by the quality of life you left behind.


Legendary mayor Harry Veiner was also re-elected that same year after a four-year hiatus from municipal politics. Grimm later confessed, while personally respecting Veiner, that he and his predecessor were opposite in style when it came to city management.


“Harry Veiner did not believe in planning,” said Grimm. “He did not believe in a developing direction or anything. I knew we had to start planning because a boom was coming. And we had no short-term, no medium, no long-term vision or anything. It was a disaster.”


Grimm also didn’t waste any time in getting down business, bringing in an ambitious urban development plan laying out the future growth of the


city. He admitted later he probably scared voters in his first term with the scope of the plans he presented and the price tag attached to them. The voters rebuked him in 1977, voting him out after only three years in the mayor’s seat.


“As the mayor you don’t make things happen physically but when you are able to say what’s to happen, and have council onside and can show the sensible plan to back it, they will back it and the community will back it,” explained Grimm. “I had a 20-year vision in here (in my mind).”


In 1980, Grimm was convinced to run for the mayor’s office again after three divisive years of gridlock on city council under his successor Mayor Milt


continued on page 72


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