A Playful Policeman Meets the Citizen-Making Teacher looks into the adventurous lives and times of George MacDonald and Olive Webster, who were among thousands of migrating people who helped build and shape Edmonton, then a young and dynamic city of a century ago.
Unlike many of the diverse European or American newcomers they mingled with, George and Olive were multi-generation Prince Edward Islanders who came west as “twenty somethings” in search of opportunities. MacDonald was a carpenter who helped erect many of our city’s finest buildings, and then became a constable and detective with the Edmonton Police Service; Webster taught children at several Beverly and Edmonton elementary schools. They recalled to the author how they walked far or rode street cars, enjoyed summer sporting events in Borden Park or Rossdale Flats, cruised the North Saskatchewan River upstream in paddle-wheeled steamers to picnic at Big Island, and skated on McKernan Lake – activities that still resonate with Edmontontians though venues may have changed.
Robert’s book also explores some more difficult experiences of war, the Spanish influenza epidemic, economic boom and bust, the devastating river of 1915, and British imperialism aimed against non-white or Eastern Europeans immigrants. Learn about Edmonton during a strong and determined but no less complicated era, through recollections of his grandparents who then walked here and made a way for us who follow.
