Thirty Years Ago in the Glebe Report

This retrospective is filed bi-monthly by Ian McKercher of the Glebe Historical Society. The society welcomes the donation or loan (for copying) of any item documenting Glebe history (photographs, maps, surveys, news articles, posters, programs, memorabilia, etc.). Contact Ian at 613-235-4863 or ian.s.mckercher@gmail.com.
Note: All back issues of the Glebe Report to June 1973 can be viewed on the Glebe Report website at www.glebereport.ca under the PAST ISSUES menu.

Women only 5k &10k run

Street closures would be in place on Saturday, October 19 (1991) to accommodate the Glebe’s first-ever “For Women Only” 5k and 10k road races. Women were invited to walk, jog or run either distance. The event was presented by the Running Room at 911 Bank Street in association with the Heart Institute. Store manager Michel Ponton said about 100 women had already registered and they were hoping to get 200 more participants by race day to make it a success. Running Room stores in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary had recently held similar runs for women only.

The race was to start and end at Corpus Christi School and follow a five-kilometre loop along Glebe streets, with 10k participants doing two laps. Change facilities in the school’s gym would be open to runners. A registration fee covered commemorative T-shirts and prize money of $75, $50 and $25 for the first three finishers. A donation of between $2 and $3 per registrant would go to the Heart Institute after costs for staging the run were met.

Municipal Elections

Capital Ward candidates for councillor in the coming November 12 (1991) civic elections were featured in a lengthy article by Marnie Johnstone and Michael Pankhurst.

Incumbent Councillor Lynn Smyth was being challenged for her council seat by Frank de Jong, a public-school teacher and Green Party member; Michael Lynch business economist and past president of the Ottawa South Community Association; and a very youthful-looking Jim Watson, communications director for the Speaker of the House of Commons. (Watson won.) Election issues included the proposed Exhibition Show Complex at Lansdowne Park, the pending demolition of both the Aberdeen Pavilion and the Horticulture Building and public support for bringing a Triple A baseball team to the city.

Ian McKercher is a long-time Glebe resident, a former Glebe Collegiate teacher, a part-time historian and a current novelist whose latest work is Carbon Copy.