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Archival description
Only top-level descriptions Bennett, W.A.C. (William Andrew Cecil), 1900-1979
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Press releases and other material

  • GR-1196
  • Series
  • 1946-1955

This series contains press releases and official statements from the Office of the Premier, 1946-1955. The records include a pamphlet on Emergency Flood Legislation.

British Columbia. Office of the Premier

Provincial Secretary executive records

  • GR-0285
  • Series
  • 1949-1975

The series consists of correspondence from various members of the Royal family expressing gratitude for arrangements made for them during visits to B.C. (1959 to 1971), certificates, reports of various royal commissions and commissions of inquiry, and minutes of various committees and commissioners on which Mr. Wallace served in his capacity as Deputy Provincial Secretary.

The series also includes a photograph album of the opening of the Hope-Princeton Highway in 1949 and other photographs.

British Columbia. Office of the Deputy Provincial Secretary

Premier's records

  • GR-1414
  • Series
  • 1953-1972

This series contains official correspondence, reports, briefs to cabinet, articles and messages, etc. accumulated during W.A.C. Bennett's tenure as premier. It includes files on Dominion-provincial relations, civil defence, centennial celebrations, railways and major business corporations. Also includes copies of congratulatory letters sent to senior citizens by Bennett's successor, Premier David Barrett. Photographs transferred to Visual Records Division; maps, plans, and printed material transferred to Library and Maps Section. GR-1414 consists of a large number of records created and accumulated during the tenure of Premier William Andrew Cecil (W.A.C.) Bennett [1952-1972]. The records originally comprised the Central Registry of the Premier's Office. Included are letters from private individuals and business corporations, inter-departmental memoranda, copies of the premier's articles and messages, briefs to cabinet and other reports submitted for the premier's consideration. This unit also includes documents pertaining to Dominion-Provincial relations, as well as correspondence from federal politicians and foreign diplomats. The records, which comprise this unit, were transferred to the Provincial Archives from the Premier's Office in November 1982. Ten years earlier-following the defeat of Mr. Bennett's Social Credit government-the records had been consigned to a vault in the basement of the Parliament Buildings. Sometime later they were placed in cardboard boxes and removed to a builders' shed in the Parliament Buildings precinct. There they remained, apparently untended, until 1982 when they came to the attention of the Archives. When the records were transferred to the Archives a number of file folders were found to be empty. In most cases, the empty folders concerned cabinet ministers and the work of various government departments. Similarly, contemporary file lists [see Box 131, File 11] indicate that a number of folders were missing from the original series of files. No files marked "Anonymous," for example, were among the boxes received by the Archives, despite the fact that files containing anonymous letters inward were maintained over the years by the Premier's Office. Nor were any "Confidential" files included with the transfer, although they were part of the Premier's filing system. These files may have been removed when W.A.C. Bennett left office in 1972, or they may have been removed sometime after 1976 when W.R. Bennett became premier. [In her interview (taped in 1978) Mrs. Mylrea noted that Premier Bennett asked her to "go through" the correspondence files on 31 August 1972, the day after his party's electoral defeat. Mrs. Mylrea spent the next two weeks reviewing "every piece of paper in those files." "I did not find one thing that nobody else could have looked at" she related, "there was nothing that anybody need be afraid that anybody could see, opposition or otherwise." Nevertheless, some of the files were removed and were taken by Mr. Bennett to his Kelowna home. [SMID 3236:1-2, pp.16-17] Researchers should also note the absence of W.A.C. Bennett's constituency files in this collection. According to the premier's secretary, records dealing with the South Okanagan riding were maintained separately in the premier's Kelowna office. After his death in February, 1979, the Bennett family donated the records to the Simon Fraser University archives. [SMID 3236:1-1, p.17] Despite the absence of certain files, GR-1414 is a remarkably rich collection of executive records. The evolution of the Social Credit Party can be detected in many of the memos and reports in the collection; public attitudes towards government policies can be seen in much of the correspondence inward, while the province's economic growth can be discerned in files devoted to industrial development or to particular companies. Federal-provincial relations are also well documented, as are the activities of local chambers of commerce and sundry community groups throughout the province. Indeed, as a source of documentation for British Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s, GR-1414 is unrivalled.

British Columbia. Premier

W.C. Budd fonds

  • PR-2292
  • Fonds
  • 1962-1968

The fonds consists of material accumulated by W.C. Budd between 1962 and 1968 while he served as executive assistant to Premier W.A.C. Bennett. The records consist of correspondence, both political and personal; framed photographs of W.A.C. Bennett and others, correspondence and photographs relating to Bennett's trade mission to Japan in 1966, pamphlets, newsclippings and magazines relating to Bennett and the Social Credit party and other material including two signed copies of a Len Norris cartoon.

Budd, William Clarence

W.A.C. Bennett oral history collection

  • PR-1911
  • Collection
  • 1963-1978

The collection consists of interviews, speeches, and political advertisements of W.A.C. Bennett, Premier of B.C. from 1952-1972.

British Columbia Archives

BC Radio News collection

  • PR-2247
  • Collection
  • 1972 ; 1975-1981

The collection comprises audio recordings of interviews, news conferences, press events, election campaigns, speeches, and other activities related to provincial politics in British Columbia, recorded and compiled by BC Radio News, mainly between 1975 and 1981. Many of these recordings feature New Democratic Party leader David Barrett or Social Credit Party leader (and Premier) Bill Bennett. In addition, there are recordings of Bennett's key cabinet colleagues, as well as MLAs from both sides of the legislature.