Date(s) -Thursday, September 25, 2025
12:00 am - 9:00 pm
Location: James Bay New Horizons
Categories
Victoria Historical Society invites you to attend the first speaker of our 2025-26 season on Thursday, Sept. 25 at James Bay New Horizons, 234 Menzies Street, James Bay V8V 2G7. James Bay New Horizons opens at 7:15 pm for coffee and conversation; talk starts at 7:30 pm.
Author Patricia Roy has penned a new book called John Hart: A Businessman in British Columbia Politics (UBC Press) and she will provide a preview in her speech in September. As noted in the book’s promotional materials: “Diplomacy works better than bluster, as John Hart knew well. Hart, an Irish immigrant with a talent for compromise and a famously winning smile, was at the heart of BC politics for much of the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on government records, politicians’ papers, and newspaper reports, John Hart illuminates his achievements as finance minister and premier.
“A businessman and Liberal, Hart managed British Columbia’s finances during both world wars and the Depression. As premier during much of the Second World War, he led a coalition with the Conservatives that provided businesslike governance and established the persistent BC political theme of free enterprise versus socialism.”