History

90 Years of Harper’s Tire.

John Munroe Harper was born in Banff, on the coast of Scotland’s Aberdeenshire in 1897. In 1912, the teenager’s family immigrated to Calgary, a city of 62,000 named for a castle on the Isle of Mull. The year the Harper family arrived in the city, sandstone schools were popping up to accommodate the booming population and the local police force recorded the municipality’s first ever serious automobile accident; a vehicle collided with a horse, killing the people in the vehicle and injuring the animal.

In 1914, as the First World War started, J.M., his three brothers and their father all enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army. After serving in France for the course of the war, J.M was offered post-service education and signed up for a vulcanizing course to learn the process of hardening rubber. In 1919, he started working at Fisk Tire where he changed the tires on milk trucks. He married Marion, who had been born in Yorkshire, in 1922.

In November 1931, just days after Dupont started manufacturing synthetic rubber, J.M., by now a father himself, bought Foster’s Vulcanizing at 130 12th Ave SW. He paid the princely sum of $1,450, putting $400 up front and paying $100 a month, with 7 per cent interest. Three generations later, after a few expansions and a couple of locations, a foray into selling boats and skis, a small stack of yellowing NSF cheques and countless tires, Harper’s Tire is celebrating 90 years in business.

Harper’s Tire (1931) Ltd. has a long history of serving customers.

Here is how it all began.

1930’s

Alberta was hit hard by the Depression. At one point during the “Dirty Thirties” a reported 12 per cent of Calgarians were receiving welfare. Weather and insects destroyed crops and decimated herds of livestock. Commodity prices tanked. So did attendance at the Calgary Stampede. In 1935, a Calgary high school principal and Christian evangelist, William Aberhart, swept to victory as the province’s first Social Credit premier. In 1936, he introduced Prosperity Certificates, a form of scrip, meant to acquire goods and services. The poverty reduction scheme failed because businesses were reluctant to accept it. Social Credit, however, flourished, staying in power until 1971. Population: 75,000.

1940’s

In September 1941, the provincial government ordered schools across Alberta to close because of a double shot, polio and encephalitis epidemics. In 1942, all 22 men of the Calgary Highlanders who landed at Dieppe managed to survive the doomed raid on the French beach. The Calgary Stampeders were officially founded in 1945 and in 1946, the first Calgary Stampede Queen, Patsy Rodgers, got her crown. There was much more to yahoo about the following year when Leduc No.1 hit, transforming Alberta’s economy. Population: 88,904.

1950’s

In 1950, the Stampede Corral was built and with its 6,492 shiny new seats it became the largest arena west of Toronto. The following year, wrestler Stu Hart and his wife Helen paid $25,000 for a giant house in Patterson Heights. Hart started training wrestlers including his own sons in the basement, known as The Dungeon. In 1956, Sandy Beach and River Park along the Rideau River finally opened to the public after eight years of infighting and indecision at City Hall. Speaking of City Hall, Harper’s Tire landed a big contract retreading tires for the City buses. Population: 132,000.

1960’s

In 1961, the corn dog made its inaugural appearance at the Calgary Stampede, the City cut the ribbon on Glenmore Park and J.M. retired making way for his three sons, Jack, Don and Stan to take over running Harper’s Tire. In 1968 the Husky Tower opened— the tallest structure in Calgary and the tallest structure in all of Canada, except Toronto. In 1969, a bartender at the Westin Hotel mashed some clams, threw them in a glass with vodka, tomato juice and assorted other ingredients and named it after a Roman emperor, the Bloody Caesar. Population: 262,000.

1970’s

At the height of the 70s boom, as many as 3,000 people were moving to Calgary every month. In 1970, Calgarians started flocking to the brand new Prince’s Island Park about the same time a giant uproar began over a proposed subdivision on Nose Hill. Three years later, City Hall set aside 4,100 acres of the giant prairie slope as parkland. About the same time, Premier Peter Lougheed took a helicopter ride over Kananaskis Lakes and agreed to make the stunning natural area a provincial park before the helicopter even landed. Population: 389,000.

1980’s

In 1981 Calgary was awarded the Olympic Games and spent the next seven years preparing to host the world. Hidy and Howdy, and the rest of the city, welcomed the Jamaican bobsled team, helped launched Eddie the Eagle’s career and put on a terrific show. In 1986, the Flames won 4-3 over the Oilers in the playoffs to head to the Stanley Cup and, heartbreakingly, lose to the Canadiens before bringing home the Cup in 1989. As the decade ended, the Petroleum Club allowed women to become members a few years after denying entry to Pat Carney, Canada first female energy minister. Harper’s Tire, meanwhile, sold the 12th Ave building to TransAlta and build a new facility at 5516 – 4th St. SE. Population: 568,000.

1990’s

In the early 1990s, a bumping Saturday night would see 10,000 people flock to the bars on Electric Avenue. The 11th Ave party—and associated criminal activity—started to die down over the decade. A brand new party started when Nashville North threw open its doors for the first time in 1992. Meanwhile a teenaged Paul Brandt won Calgary Stampede Talent Search and started to build his country music career. Population: 738,000.

2000’s

The decade began with great relief as the world’s computer systems were not wiped out by Y2K. In the coming years Calgary hit—and surpassed—the one million population mark, the Red Mile exploded with enthusiasm for the Flames’ 2004 Stanley Cup run and the price of oil skyrocketed from $20 to about $125. Encana was formed when the Alberta Energy Company Ltd. and PanCanadian Energy Corporation merged and before the end of the decade the company was split in two: Encana for natural gas and Cenovus for oil. Encana started work on The Bow building and Banker’s Hall West joined its twin on the city’s growing and impressive skyline. Meanwhile, a display case at Harper’s Tire started filling up with company artifacts. Population: 927,000.

2010’s

In 2012, the Peace Bridge opened and the controversy over its $26 million price tag immediately started to fade as thousands of cyclists, pedestrians and wedding photographers began to use it. Calgary was named the Cultural Capital of Canada and celebrated with a year of music, dance and theatre. In 2013, historic floods devastated parts of the city and southern Alberta and Calgarians rallied. Thousands of people just showed up at hard hit neighbourhoods, work gloves at the ready, to help dig out strangers’ basements. The Bow opened, giving Calgary a new tallest building and home to Encana’s employees. By the end of the decade the company had changed its name and moved to Denver. Population: 1,190,000.

2021

Just a few months into the decade, Covid-19 showed up and shut everything down. People set up their offices on their dining room tables, started wearing masks outside the house and ordering take out to keep their favourite restaurants afloat. The health care system was strained and the city’s economy, like those around the world, was hard hit by public health restrictions. Calgarians hadn’t seen anything like it since the Spanish Flu swept around the world in 1918, about the same time John Munro Harper was returning from the First World War and learning how to vulcanize rubber and work with tires. Population: 1,581,000.