Discussions

In the year of 1926 Canada was ruled by King George V, who was represented in Manitoba by Theodore Arthur Burrows, 1926-29 the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. Police Chief J. R. Hardy M. C. Headed the Brandon Police Department with nine men under his command. During the previous twelve months they had effectively charged almost five hundred “Errant Pilgrims.” The battles of wits between our Lawmen and the lawless failed to impress Mayor Cator. The Mayor had just been acclaimed into his ninth Chief Magistrate term, and avowed that the City Constabulary was not functioning, as it should. Police Chief J. R. Hardy M.C. was understandably stunned by the charges of departmental ineptness, and placed the onus directly upon the top executive who “is continually interfering with the working and discipline of the force.”  
Captain J. R. Hardy M.C. was appointed in 1919 as Acting Chief with authority to re-organize the Corps after City Council by resolution dispensed with the entire Police Force. He now gave his resignation in mid February, effective on May 18th 1926, which caused numerous Council Chamber clashes. Another ‘bomb shell’ was dropped on Council when the City Manager, Mr. A. W. Ellson Fawkes announced that Chief Hardy, together with another dismissed officer, had been “paid off,” and Detective Barlow appointed Acting Chief. The ‘Throne Holder’, Mayor Cater announced that Mr. Fawkes was over stepping his power and ordered him to replace the Treasury’s money. The Administrator refused, which caused several Aldermen to enter the fray. “If we all started climbing the ‘Golden Stair’,” Alderman W. J. Burchill informed His Worship, “you would find fault.’  
Mayor Cater did not agree with the City Solicitor concerning the legality of payments made by Mr. Fawkes, and gave notice of motion to repeal certain Byelaws, which would effect the Manager’s dismissal.  
The “Sun” wrote thus:  
“Aldermen face an issue calling for calm… Mr. Fawkes has put the City business, the largest in Brandon upon a sounder basis. He has saved the citizens thousands of dollars and reduced a menacing tax rate. What was an experiment has been good for Brandon and highly creditable to the City’s reputation. Mr. Fawkes has passed his test, and City directors face a plain business issue in upholding successful management without fear or prejudice.”  
Upon a majority vote against any change in City managerial powers, City Council received Mayoralty assurance those measures would be ‘sprung’ again, but this prospect was never raised again.  
From Budget deliberations to Relief Dispensation matters, Mayor Cater disagreed with the Aldermen at almost every turn. On the other hand he repeatedly reminded the City Manager “council is running this town.” Anyone found defending Mr. A. W. Ellson Fawkes immediately found himself with executive displeasure. His Worship Mayor Cater suggested, “considerable corporation saving could be effected through elimination of an administrators salary, where upon Alderman J. M. Robertson, by a Letter to the Editor of the Sun declared that a repaid School Board loan and reduced bank overdraft totalling seventy four thousand dollars compensated for the managers salary many times over. Under Mr. Fawkes guidance, the tax rate had been reduced by three mills. “What we need is a new deal, a more progressive Mayor, a man with new vision, surely, such a one can be found.”  
The Sun commented in a front-page editorial:  
“The present Mayor, wanting the limelight, assumes an attitude of superior capacity to which he has no claim. His main objection to the City Manager is that this civic official will not be led around by the nose… Does Mr. Cater want to become the City Manager himself?”  
On November 22nd. 1927 electors returned Mr. Harry W. Carter for his eleventh term of office. He continued to run council in his autocratic manner, but it was not until another election in 1928 after Mayor Cater defeated ex-Alderman F. H. Young, 2,267 – 1,687 that City Manager Fawkes having had enough abuse tendered his resignation to Council. Not surprisingly, Mayor Cater urged his fellow Aldermen to promptly accept it.  
 
Source: Brandon, a City. By G. F. Barker.  
 
Note: I believe that the Mayor is also the Chief Magistrate.