A political powerhouse in the Bulkley Valley who also shaped one corner of Smithers was recognized last week for his contributions to the communities of the Bulkley Valley.
Carman Graf picked up the David McKenzie Community Booster award at the Smithers and District Chamber of Commerce Business Awards on March 9.
The last person to get it was Dan Young of All West Glass and previous to that was Sandy Nixon. The award was created after its namesake, a community champion who organized many events in his lifetime before dying in 2017.
Graf dedicated the award to his late wife, Joan, noting her support carried him through his political career.
Graf was born in Nova Scotia on March 15 1936. A few career bumps in the road led Graf out west in search of something better.
He started working in a coal mine and quit his job to become a pilot before realizing he didn’t have enough education. After trying to become an RCMP officer, he found out that dream would also be dashed, but this time for his height, or thereof. At the time, he was half an inch too short to meet the height requirements, so he decided to follow his siblings to Quesnel in 1954.
He returned to Nova Scotia to marry Joan and they returned together to B.C.
They made their way up to Smithers in the 1960s with their four children.
In 1972, Graf was elected to Smithers council as an alderman (now known as a councillor). He was on and off council for the duration of the 1970s, when terms were two years. He was then elected mayor in 1981 and held the position until 1985. After losing the mayoral election in 1985, he went back to service as an Alderman throughout the 80s and 90s.
Smithers council during his tenure made some big moves including the revitalization of Main Street which saw the introduction of the Alpine Theme. The not-so-pretty stuff, but equally important, included constructing a major sewer line, adding three sewer lagoons and installing a new water tower.
Also during his time on council, the town purchased the fall fair grounds which they traded for land where the curling rink, BV Pool and Recreation Centre and skateboard park now reside.
All the while, he was also building a small empire at the corner of Highway 16 and Bulkley Drive.
He and Joan bought the gas station from her father in 1962. In the 1970s Graf became a franchise owner of Kal Tire and built the building that currently stands there. He also started up Wayside Industrial Supplies and then Harley Davidson of Smithers with his son Stephen.
After a health scare in 2005 prompted the couple to look for a smaller, more easy-to-manage house, they moved to Telkwa where Graf ran for mayor in 2009 and was elected for two terms ending in 2014.
One of the projects Graf said he is most proud of accomplishing in his political career was helping to get better water for Telkwa. The village replaced the main water line down Highway 16. The original water tower was also upgraded and the groundwork was laid for the new reservoir.
Also during his time at the helm, the village bought an old building on Hankin Avenue and transformed it into the village office with commercial space that is now leased out and added a biomass district heating system.
On the other end of the spectrum, a low point in his political career, Graf said, was getting fired from a volunteer position. The only time he was ever let go from any position was when the provincial health minister fired the entire hospital board, on which Graf was sitting in the fall of 1995.
The facility’s administrator, Greg Gaudaur was also canned. The health minister at the time said the hospital’s budget action plan lacked substance after three years of operating at a deficit. The province then appointed a public administrator.
“We really liked the [previous] administrator,” said Graf. “He was a good guy but he must have ticked somebody off in Victoria because one night at about 10 o’clock I got a phone call to be at a meeting in the morning at seven.
“I went up there, bought myself a cup of coffee for 10 cents and this lady walked in from the Ministry of Health and fired the whole board. An administrator came from Vancouver. He flew up here every week and was here four or five days and flying back and forth to Vancouver.
“Certainly wasn’t very efficient, but that was way it was. They controlled the money so we pretty well had to go along with it.”
While he said he is proud of everything that was accomplished during his time on both councils, he gives credit to everyone at the table.
“I wasn’t an individual, it was all of council at work,” he said.
Graf worked under five different mayors over the years and said confidently the best one was Carl Spicer, who was the first one he ever worked with after being elected in 1972.
“He was a brilliant man,” Graf recalled fondly. “He could see 20 years down the road, where a lot of us couldn’t see past our own nose.”
While Spicer was the first mayor Graf worked with. Graf would become the first mayor another young politician who went on to be a mayor and member of Parliament would work with.
Newcomer to the political scene in Telkwa in 2009, Taylor Bachrach was elected to council along with Graf and appreciated the mayor’s experience.
“Carman had already spent many years in local government, so he brought a wealth of local history and information that, as a relative newcomer, I just didn’t have,” Bachrach said. “So, I found that helpful in terms of understanding how things got to be the way they are.”
Bachrach admitted the two butted heads in the begining but found enough common ground to get things done.
“I think in this valley, there are a lot of different perspectives on the world. And yet, we all live together in the same place and we want our kids to grow up and be successful. And that is a powerful foundation in finding common cause.”
For the last 10 months, Graf said he spent his days by his wife’s bedside. Joan died on February 28. He isn’t sure what he will do now but says he’d like to volunteer at the Bulkley Lodge where she lived before she passed. He is also thinking of taking up carpet bowling again.
A celebration of life for the love of his life will be held on May 18, which would have been their 69th wedding anniversary.
READ MORE: Telkwa mayor honoured with award
