Sam Bawlf was a man who followed his passions. The developer, author, historian, former cabinet minister and alderman died Saturday at the age of 72 on Salt Spring Island, his home for the past 28 years.
Elected to Victoria city council in 1972, Bawlf looked enthusiastically to the future, predicting that people would some day buy their groceries via cablevision and that downtown traffic would disappear as motorists left vehicles in park-and-ride locations to bus to work.
But he also had a keen eye for the past. He was an early leader in preserving Victoria’s architectural heritage — he restored and renovated many of the downtown’s significant historic buildings.
Elected as an MLA in 1975, he was appointed to premier Bill Bennett’s cabinet and oversaw the enactment of B.C.’s first heritage conservation act. He also founded the B.C. Heritage Trust.
After losing his seat in 1979, he returned to the business world, working on historical restoration projects and serving as an international consultant on the revival of historic places.
Then he put his reputation on the line with his theory that Sir Francis Drake, not Capt. James Cook, was the first European to explore the coast of what would become British Columbia, some time before 1580. Years of research culminated in his book, The Secret Journey of Sir Francis Drake, which was published in 2003 and sold more than 20,000 copies.
Regardless of whether you accept his theory on Drake — many in the historical establishment don’t — his courage and zeal for pursuing his passions were admirable. We need unconventional thinkers like Bawlf to jolt us from our complacency and cause us to consider things from another perspective.
B.C. is the better for Bawlf’s life and the poorer for his passing.
