He was the burr under the saddle of local politics
Steve Sintich was born in 1939 out in the field on the family farm.
Steve said, “If the Prince George Boundary Road extension goes through my place of birth would then be on the centre line of the new road.”
His father Frank Sintich left Croatia in 1929 and headed for western Canada; his mother Anna and their two children came over ten years later. He chose Prince George because he knew people from Croatia that had relatives who lived and worked in the sawmills in Shelley.
His father purchased the family farm located south of Prince George on Highway 97 in 1930. Steve still calls the Sintich farm their home.
Steve grew up and went to school in Prince George and eventually got married.
His first job was working at the airport during the expansion of the diagonal runway project.
He also worked at the Nechako Bakery on Third Avenue and then went into retail work at the Bay.
When Steve was 21 years old he was working at the post office.
He said, “When anyone said ‘party’ we were all there. On one particular party night I had a date and because of a lack of attention to my date someone else managed to steal her away from me. It wasn’t long and I was looking for another dance partner.
“That was when I first spotted Gloria Small. She was so cute and so shy looking and when I asked her to dance she said no and told me I was drunk. Now she really had my interest and I told her I wasn’t drunk because I only had a few drinks and that I was just acting silly and having fun.
“By now I knew I had to tone it down and behave and finally she danced with me with a three arm-length position. I promised her that I would phone her the next day and I knew that she doubted that promise. Heck, I didn’t even have the sense to ask her for her phone number.
“We partied on and finally I knew I had to go home because I had to work in the morning. As it turned out I never went home; I just headed for the post office and slept there quite comfortably on the mail bags.
“I worked all day and couldn’t get her out of my mind. I asked a buddy of mine for her name and he told me where she lived. I checked out the good old reliable phone book and there were four phone numbers to choose from. I made a calculated guess, took a chance and I hit the right number on my first try. To make a long story short she was mighty surprised that I called. It all turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
Gloria Small was born in Toronto in 1940. She was raised by her father and step mother. When she was four years old the family moved to the Revelstoke area. In 1952 they moved to Fraser Lake where her parents went into dairy farming. Gloria went to school in Fraser Lake and finished Grade 11 in Vanderhoof.
When she was 20, Gloria moved to Prince George, found room and board and worked for the Park Superett grocery store on Fifth Ave., which was located across the street from where Kentucky Fried Chicken is now located. It wasn’t long until she found a better paying job at the Safeway grocery store.
Her life was about to change when she met Steve Sintich at that dance. They met in 1960, got married in 1963 and like many other young couples back then they started a family; they had two sons, Ronald and Gerald.
The young family lived and worked on the family farm on Sintich Road, Gloria became a stay-at-home mom and the young couple started the Sintich Trailer Park.
Steve said, “Gloria was actually the boss.”
Of course, Gloria quietly disputed that comment saying she was not the boss at all and that they were partners in everything. Steve reflected back and said, “In 1964 Highway 97 went right through our farm and everything changed. We now had power and a connection to water and with that we went full blast into the development of the Sintich Trailer Park which eventually became the Sintich Mobile Home and RV Park.
“There was a lot of traffic on the new road and soon there was a need for a store so we built the South Way Store on Sintich Road in 1976. The pulp mills arrived and all of a sudden there was a huge need for mobile home parks.”
In 1992 Steve and Gloria went into the business of building recreational boat docks.
Steve drove a school bus for 13 years. They worked the land and the trailer park for 28 years and then sold it all. They retired in 1992 and traveled until 2004.
Steve said, “We were finally doing what we wanted to do and when we wanted to do it until health issues hit us both. Gloria had both knees replaced, shoulder surgery and a low back operation.
“I ended up needing heart surgery and people told me that was impossible because they didn’t believe that I actually had a heart so that is why I had to have open heart surgery. To everyone’s surprise there was actually a heart in there, it just needed to be repaired.”
If you know Steve Sintich you know that he can be quite the colourful character. He might be tough on the outside but I could easily see that he has a soft spot when it comes to his wife Gloria. He gently said that Gloria looked after all the home fires and in return Gloria said, “We have been married for 54 years and those years went by fast. We accomplished a lot and now we are just looking after one another and that is the way it should be.”
Steve’s first taste for politics came when he took out a membership in the Prince George Chamber of Commerce followed by his position as the alternate representative for the Regional District of Fraser Fort George.
In 1975 Steve decided to run for city council. His platform went like this, “The milk pail and the wood pile is gone and now it is time for other recreation facili- ties for our children.”
He was not successful in his campaign but he got the conversation started about the need for recreation facilities in our city.
In 1976 Steve ran for school board trustee and under a rare judicial recount he won by three votes. Steve volunteered his time and worked on the first official community plan in 1979. This project ignited him again and he unsuccessfully ran for a seat on city council in 1980. He ran again in 1981 and successfully landed a voice on city council. He ran for re-election in 1985 and lost and in 1986 he ran again and once again recovered his seat on city council. In 1990 he ran for mayor but was defeated by John Backhouse.
Steve had a loud and irritating voice on many issues.
He said, “I was known as an agitator and I deliberately made waves. I wanted to be the spark plug to get conversations going which gave me the answers to what people were really thinking and to get a reaction to what they would stand up for. I wanted to rile up people to get a good debate going because I represented the general public and not the administration.
“My plan was to be the burr under the saddle of the horse that was in control and to make that horse buck. I wanted to turn controversy into something positive.
“My years in politics were interesting times to say the least and my only regret is that the City of Prince George did not grow any more than it has in regards to population.”
to invite you to attend a local history speaker series at the Bob Harkins Branch of the Prince George Public Library to listen to five amazing local seniors who will give their perspective on the early years of Prince George. The event is a part of the Prince George Heritage Commission under the direction of Darcie Smith, the Prince George Community Outreach Librarian.
The event takes place tonight, it is free to the public, refreshments will be served and you do not have to register in order to attend.
The time is from 6 to 8 p.m. There will be two door prizes: Noreen Rustad has donated a copy of her family’s book Sunshine and Rhubarb Wine the Life and Legacy of Bea Dezell and the Prince George Community Foundation has donated a copy of the book People of Prince George the Foundation of our Community. The eight interesting and entertaining panelists who were selected from my book People of Prince George who will be participating in the event are Jim Imrich, Syl and Linda Meise, Bill and Donna Bosnich, Jack Little and Helga and Erich Bertram. You won’t want to miss this discussion.