LD: Maylor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

Despite the fact that “L.D.,” Louis Taylor, was Vancouver’s
longest-serving mayor (11 years) and that he was active in civic
politics for more than 30 years (1902 to 1934), very little is known
about him now or physically commemorated in the city. Intrigued by this
anomaly, the author tracked down a family archive of L.D.’s
correspondence and memorabilia that enabled him to reconstruct the
political career and personal life of the man who guided Vancouver
through much of its development to international stature in the first
decades of the 20th century.

This well-written and carefully documented biography fills in a key gap
in the city’s history and introduces readers to an extraordinary,
controversial, and yet almost forgotten figure. L.D. served Vancouver
well, putting in place such amenities as the Vancouver airport, a town
planning commission, and the water board, and championed the rights of
the working man in the face of the city’s powerful business interests.
L.D.’s tenure was a period of considerable strife, and his private
life was no less turbulent. His story, as told by noted Vancouver
historian Daniel Francis, makes colourful reading.