‘He deeply cared about our city’

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This article was published 24/11/2022 (1210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Controversial former city councillor Al Golden — who helped his constituents by buying and cleaning up a notorious local hotel and creating a seniors transportation service but lost his seat after a conviction for failing to declare income — has died.

Golden was 76.

“While we were, more often than not, opponents, there is no doubt that he deeply cared about our city,” former mayor Glen Murray said Thursday. Murray served on city council with Golden during the 1990s.

“We should all be grateful to Al and his family for their many years of public service. He will be remembered fondly as iconic and gregarious personality by the many people whose lives he touched.”

Golden’s son, Michael, said his father was known for wanting to do what he could to help his constituents, even giving out his home number so he could be called 24 hours a day.

“He was larger than life,” Michael said. “He cared deeply about Winnipeg. He was a true public servant.

“He had impacts on the community we still enjoy today.”

Michael said his father didn’t do things to gain the spotlight.

“He didn’t want attention on him,” Michael said. “People will remember him as a public servant for all the people. He cared about all his constituents and worked as hard as he could to move our city forward.”

Golden literally had a rags-to-riches story. After losing his father when he was only five years old, he went door to door asking for donations of unwanted fabric to sell by the pound to clothing manufacturers.

He was delivering newspapers in the area around the Health Sciences Centre when he met then-mayor Steve Juba, one of his customers and someone who changed his life.

Syd Storie, a friend of Golden’s for decades, said not only did Juba and the paperboy hit it off, they became extremely close.

“Al would say Steve was his adopted father,” Storie said. “Al lost his father at a young age, so Steve became the father he didn’t have.”

Later, going to school, it became legend that Golden failed Grade 10 and repeated it four times. He never got to Grade 11.

“It allowed him to keep playing high school football,” Storie said. “In the end, he said, he had to go all the way to Thompson to play football.

“But Thompson is where he met his wife.”

Golden became an entrepreneur, owning several businesses during his life, including Academy Transfer, Provincial Drywall Supply and the Transcona Country Club.

Once, when residents in his St. Vital ward complained about the St. Vital Hotel because of public drunkenness and vandalism in the area, Golden’s solution wasn’t to ask police or civic bureaucrats to do something about it — he bought the hotel and turned the beverage room into the Comedy Oasis club. Some well-known stars were among the standup comedians who performed there.

When seniors in St. Vital told Golden they were having trouble getting to Winnipeg Transit stops, or that buses didn’t run as frequently as they should, he bought his own bus, christened it the Golden Retriever Seniors Transportation Service, and used his council salary to run it.

“He never took a penny of his council salary,” Storie said. “He used it to help his constituents.”

Golden founded the Old Market Square Association in 1978, and was instrumental in getting Shaw Park (the Winnipeg Goldeyes home, then named CanWest Global Park) constructed for the 1999 Pan Am Games and building a new Windsor Community Centre.

Golden was first elected city councillor in St. Vital in 1988 and was successful in three re-election bids, but his political career fell apart in 2000, when he was forced to resign his seat after being convicted of failing to declare $727,000 in income and filing a false assessment.

He ran in the byelection called to fill his vacant seat in 2000, but lost to Gord Steeves. He also ran two unsuccessful mayoral campaigns.

Current St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes praised Golden for arguing to save the St. Vital Outdoor Pool while he was on council.

“Everyone who uses that beautiful facility now, one of the people they should thank is councillor Al Golden,” Mayes said.

”Al Golden is the one who stopped the city from selling the land the pool is on. If you would have asked me about Al Golden 15 years ago, I would have just talked about the controversy he faced, but he did some good work for St. Vital.

“And he was one of a kind.”

Former councillor John Prystanski said Golden “was a fearless advocate for issues he believed in.”

“He wasn’t scared about standing up for what he felt was true,” Prystanski said. “I think Winnipeg has lost a great advocate for the city.”

Besides his son, Michael, Golden is survived by his wife of almost 50 years, Sharan, another son, Brock, and four grandchildren, two sisters and a brother.

He was predeceased by an infant son, James Patrick, his parents, two sisters and four brothers.

A private burial will take place next Friday, with a celebration of life to be held at the Hotel Fort Garry the following day.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca