Julius Bloomfield on his past, council, real estate, soccer
Julius Bloomfield is a realtor in Penticton and was recently elected to city council. Herald reporter Melanie Eksal caught up with Bloomfield to learn more about his life, ambitions for council and his favourite soccer team.
HERALD: How did you get into real estate?
BLOOMFIELD: I always had an interest in real estate, even back in Britain. I always thought about getting into commercial real estate there. It certainly interests me more than residential. But here, the residential is diverse and interesting so I’m doing both.
HERALD: What’s the draw to commercial compared to residential?
BLOOMFIELD: I just like analyzing businesses and looking at them and seeing how they work, what makes them tick. I have a fairly long history of owning businesses, mostly pubs and restaurants. I have my own real estate business here, though. I’m very interested in demographics and anthropology. I always have been.
HERALD: Was anthropology something you studied in school?
BLOOMFIELD: No, I wasn’t that good at school. We moved a lot when I was a kid, and I went to 12 different schools. I never really did settle in to school, and I always sort of lived on my wits. I learned all the basics at school, obviously, but most of my education since then has been self-taught.
My parents ran a (children’s) home. They were psychiatric nurses that got into child care. I have lots of siblings, half siblings – I was brought up in chaos.
HERALD: Well, look at you now. You’re certainly doing very well for yourself.
BLOOMFIELD: I’ve definitely lived on both sides of the train tracks. I was born in London. Through my childhood, we moved to Sussex, then North Wales, Yorkshire, back to North Wales, Suffolk in the East, back down to Sussex, Luton, which is just north of London … that’s a tough city. I spent my early teens there. It’s a motor city. Lots of industry there and social unrest. That’s where I got the street smarts.
HERALD: My mother immigrated to Canada from England, too. She told me her father wrote down Australia and Canada on two separate pieces of paper and drew one out of a hat.
BLOOMFIELD: That’s exactly what I did! I applied to both Australia and Canada. Australia said no – they always say no the first time, they said yes the second time — and Canada said yes.
I sold the pub in Britain, and life was pretty good. And I thought, ‘What do we do now?’ I had all sorts of offers from breweries that had pubs in Britain, but I said, ‘No, that’s it, I’m done. It’s a great big world out there and I want to see some of it.’
When I phoned Canada immigration, they said, ‘Well where do you want to go?’ They asked if I had ever been to Canada, and I said, ‘No.’ They told me to pick a province and apply to that one.
I got on the train to go and see them (to apply), and at the train station I picked up a Lonely Planet book – ‘Lonely Planet: Guide to Canada.’ So I’m on the train, and I look up B.C. ‘Don’t go to Hastings or Gastown,’ it said. ‘It’s very dangerous. The Okanagan is the place to go.’ So I go in for the interview, and the guy says, ‘So, where in B.C. do you want to go?’ and I said, ‘Well, really, I’d like to end up in the Okanagan.’ He says, ‘Oh you’ve heard of the Okanagan?’ and I’m all, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s the place to go!’
HERALD: And then what? BLOOMFIELD: He told me I had to go over there and find a business, make an offer on it and come back so we can process this application, so that’s what I did. I jumped on a plane, and my wife and children stayed at home, and I came over scouting out the area.
On the plane, I sat next to a guy from Penticton. He said, ‘Little village up here (showing me on a map), called Naramata – there’s a great restaurant. It would make a great pub; you should check it out.’
This was 1988. I came off Highway 3 and stopped at a lookout and said, ‘That’ll do.’
We bought (the restaurant), and when we came – my wife had never seen the place, it was before the internet. I take my wife, and she was Irish, and I walked her and said, ‘Here’s the bar, and we’re buying it.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, not a bad bar; it’s nice.’
I took her out the back and there’s a log cabin, and I said, ‘And this is where we’re going to live.’ But the cabin was only 800 square feet. We have three kids. It’s one bedroom. My wife looks through the door, looks at me and says, ‘You must be (expletive) joking.’
HERALD: What are your thoughts on public safety?
BLOOMFIELD: This problem isn’t unique to Penticton. The fentanyl crisis has really shown the holes in our social system and the absolute lack of support systems. The social housing we’ll have in this city by the end of this year will be adequate. Give credit where credit’s due, the provincial government is putting a lot of money into housing and emergency housing.
We’re working on having a good relationship with the RCMP and bylaw right now. Now it’s down to the CAST system – which I beat the drum about, I really believe in it – and now it’s up to social services to deliver, because now they’ve got the tools.
We’re working close, but not as close as I’d like. We may be working closer with them. Steps have been taken.
HERALD: What’s your favourite soccer team?
BLOOMFIELD: When I was in that tough town – that’s when I used to go watch soccer. So I would watch Luton Town. They have the reputation of being involved in one of the worst soccer fights in history. There was a pitch battle between the two sets of fans and they ripped out the seats and began throwing them at each other.
That’s what Luton’s like!