He saw the potential for future growth in the City of Prince George when he moved here from Vancouver in 1975.
Harry Backlin, now 95 years old, still works as a commercial realtor with Royal LePage on Fourth Avenue.
He could see in his mind’s eye all the commercial enterprises and industrial development it takes for a city to thrive and he has spent the last 49 years helping to make that happen in Prince George.
Mayor Simon Yu recently asked Backlin what businesses he was responsible for bringing to Prince George so he put them down on paper.
There are 35 game changers on the list, including White Spot, Tim Hortons and Wendy’s, Costco, Canadian Tire and Princess Auto, as well as industrial developments like Boundary Road, spaces for oil, lumber and forestry companies, several banks, and impactful institutions like the University of Northern B.C. and the Provincial and Superior Courts of B.C in downtown Prince George.
“Before I moved to Prince George I did a lot of work promoting different companies in Vancouver,” Backlin said. “When my wife Maybelle and I came to Prince George we said we’d stay for two years and see what happens.”
It’s a familiar story so many Prince George residents have lived.
Backlin said he thought he could promote the businesses he had worked with in Vancouver and bring them into Prince George.
“So I got started by snooping around and talking to people and made connections that introduced me to Mayor Harold Moffat, and when I met him I told him who I was and what I was doing,” Backlin said.
“I was welcome to come to city hall and get any help I needed to do what I wanted to do.”
Back in 1975 the city was marketing thousands of acres of property donated by the Province of B.C. for development opportunities including residential, commercial and industrial, Backlin added.
“The government said to the City of Prince George that they should arrange to develop these parcels of land for the market,” Backlin explained.
“When I found out what was happening I bought five lots from the city. They cost $2,000 each at the time. Can you imagine what they are worth today?”
That’s when Backlin became a realtor.
Backlin knew the White Spot from his time in Vancouver and when a lot in the heart of downtown Prince George became available he got hold of the owner, Peter Toigo, to pitch the new location.
“Peter and one of his assistants flew in one day and out the next,” Backlin said. “They looked at it and I told them the City of Prince George would roll out the red carpet and roll away the red tape to help bring a business like the White Spot to town. The next day he phoned me from the head office in Toronto and he said ‘Harry, write it up!’ and that’s how we got the White Spot in town.”
And that was how it started for Backlin to bring more businesses into Prince George.
“As a matter of interest I was responsible for 17 restaurants opening in Prince George, including Moxie’s,” Backlin said. “I have appeared before city council over 100 times and have dealt with seven mayors during my time here. My philosophy of life is caring and sharing, I learned that from going to church every Sunday and I believe that is the foundation of success.”
When industry developed to the maximum in Prince George, more than 2,000 acres of land on the outskirts of town were considered and that’s when Boundary Road became a viable option for development.
“That’s when I got hold of Henry Rempel who had 30 apartments in town,” Backlin recalled. “So I asked him about the idea of Boundary Road and I showed him pictures and I rented a helicopter because that was the only way to see the land because it was all bush.”
Boundary Road was developed by Rempel as a connector road between Highway 97 and Highway 16.
“Henry told us once it was done we would have a whole lifetime of promoting commercial, industrial on that 2,000 acres and it’s still being developed today,” Backlin said. “There’s a lot more opportunities to be had in Prince George, we just have to be positive about it.”
