Campbell, who retired from politics in 1972, was an old-style pro-development mayor with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, polarizing views about Hippie movement and the desire to see freeways built downtown.
Seen as the conservative nemesis of Vancouver’s vibrant ‘60s counterculture, Campbell also touched a nerve with his strongly-held conservative views. His antagonism toward Hippies and despise of the emerging drug culture led him into direct conflict, resulting in the 1972 Gastown Riots when riot police, acting on his orders, broke up a peaceful “smoke-in”. He also tried unsuccessfully to ban The Georgia Strait, then a young counter-culture newspaper.
After Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s use in 1970 of the War Measures Act to put down a Quebec terrorist cell, Campbell suggested using the same act to clean up the city’s drug culture.
“Tom Campbell genuinely loved the city and had very strong colourfully and forcefully-held views,” former mayor and premier Michael Harcourt said Friday.”I think he very much wanted to do what he thought was best for the city, but it was an old view.”
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Former+Vancouver+mayor+Terrific+Campbell+dies/6098754/story.html#ixzz1lSYBuUxu
