THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: 1926
In a move to make money, The Vancouver Sun started selling life insurance to its readers, charging $ 1.50 a year with $ 1,000 payouts.
Robert Cromie probably rescued The Vancouver Sun from bankruptcy when he took it over in 1917. A born promoter, he was always dreaming up new ways for the paper to make money, such as selling Vancouver Sun life insurance. That’s right, The Sun used to sell life insurance to its readers. And it did so with the exuberance of a PNE pitchman.
“You Can Not Afford to be Without a Vancouver Sun Accident Insurance Policy!” blared a full- page Sun ad on Dec. 4, 1926. “The Cost Is But $ 1.50 A Year.”
In case you missed the point, the headline ended with a giant exclamation mark, quite possibly the biggest exclamation mark in The Sun’s 102- year history.
The ad proudly proclaimed “8 Death Claims Have Been Paid to Date.” And proved it by running capsule stories of the dead people whose relatives had been paid off.
“Babs Courtenay, C. P. R. employee of 3968 Hastings Street East, started a holiday trip, and his car turned over at Second Narrows Bridge,” said the ad.
“His injury led to death three hours later. His wife and two children received $ 1,000 through his Vancouver ‘ SUN’ policy — the only insurance he carried.” It was illustrated with a $ 1,000 cheque written out to Mary Courtenay, Babs’ widow.
That might appear a bit tacky to a modern- day reader. But it paled beside the illustration to the story of the unfortunate R. A. Fisher.
“R. A. Fisher, young Victoria, B. C. telegrapher, accepted his responsibility to his parents and took out a ‘ SUN’ policy,” related the ad.
“He was accidentally killed while hunting, and his mother received a cheque for $ 1,000 only two days after proof of death forms were completed.”
The illustration was a “Letter of Appreciation from Mother” to The Sun. “I would like to thank you indeed for the prompt way in which you have dealt with my claim under the Insurance plan adopted by your paper,” said the letter from Bertha Fisher.
“It is also gratifying to have confidence in an institution or corporation, and through my experience it justifies a full confidence in the plan that you have established.”
Many of the insured met with grisly ends. H. L. Kinnock, “a foreman with a labor gang working in the gravel pits, was buried when the side of the pit caved in.” Fireman Joseph Martin “was killed when his fire truck overturned on a slippery pavement.” H. A. Aduddell of Van Anda on Texada Island “lost control of his car at the Van Anda Wharf and plunged into the sea.”
Luckily, they all had Sun insurance, or rather a policy that The Sun was offering in concert with the London Guarantee & Accident Co., Limited. So their families all got $ 1,000 payments!
The other eye- catching ad in The Sun that week was pro- booze, and featured a map of Canada under the headline “Canada From Sea to Sea Has Rejected Prohibition.”
“The Province of Ontario has, by the vote of its people, shaken itself free from the shackles of a prohibitory law,” read the ad, which didn’t say who sponsored it.
“It joins the provinces of Canada, STRETCHING FROM SEA TO SEA, that have found Prohibition a failure and have rejected it.
“The people of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have seen for themselves through actual experience the falseness and dishonesty of Prohibition; they have seen the folly of attempting to build TEMPERANCE on a foundation of BIGOTRY and INTOLERANCE.” It concludes “CANADIAN COMMONSENSE LEADS THE WAY TO THE TRUE TEMPERANCE.”
If you look closely at the map, though, none of the Maritime provinces are named, because Prohibition was still in force there. New Brunswick didn’t repeal Prohibition until 1927; Nova Scotia repealed it in 1929; and Prohibition was in effect in Prince Edward Island until 1948.
Newfoundland wasn’t part of Canada in 1926, but it had repealed Prohibition in 1924.