Harold Moffat- A Builder In Prince George

By Ben Meisner

He will be remembered as a visionary, a man who could look beyond the problem to see what the final result might be.

Harold Moffat, former Mayor, retailer for many years, horseman, and a man who loved to talk, will be missed.

I will be the first person to say that I am sorry to see Harold leave this world; on the QT he regularly fed me his thoughts and asked me to put them to paper. I tried my best to let his thoughts be heard, he always wanted to remain anonymous but he wanted to be heard.

I recall back in the mid seventies when he had a vision of a greater Prince George, a community that encompassed all of the areas of the city, like the Hart, North Nechako, and South Ft George. It wasn’t met with favour at the time, but even former South Fort Mayor Len Prop, told me some years later it was a good move.

It was Moffat who strongly believed that we had to develop the downtown. It was his contention that by allowing any development to take place along the 16-97 corridor we ran the risk of moving the central part of the city out of the area and with it, the tax benefits for the city as a whole. Well look around today. He was on the money then, and his thoughts are very applicable today.

He is the one who fought Woodward’s expansion suggesting that it was simply Chunky Woodward trying to prevent development from occurring down town. Again he was right, Woodward’s won that civic election with a slick campaign, the council changed and Woodward’s sat blowing the breeze for another ten years.

It was Harold Moffat who wrote the Premiers of the day suggesting that if Vancouver were to ship its garbage to Cache Creek, it should be burned with coal from Hat Creek to make energy and keep the environment clean. No one listened, but he was right.

He also spoke often about an impending problem with native lands claims, he held some very strong views on the matter and again I believe he will be proven to be right.

Harold Moffat was labelled in his later years as simply an old man with some funny thoughts. He was anything but.  He was a builder in this city, and a piece of Prince George has gone with him.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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