Walter Fitzgerald poses with a $1,OOO Christmas tree outside city hall.The Canadian Press
Walter Fitzgerald, a schoolteacher turned politician, boasted a remarkable electoral record. In a political career that spanned almost 35 years, he went from Halifax alderman to mayor to provincial cabinet minister to opposition member of the Nova Scotia legislature, then back to alderman and mayor again.
A man without pretensions – he frequently insisted that "what you see is what you get" – Mr. Fitzgerald took his first run at municipal politics in 1966, when he was a teacher at a junior high school.
"I was always shooting my mouth off about this and that, and finally someone said, 'If you know so much, why don't you run?' So I did," he told Halifax's Daily News in 1994.
With only $400 to finance his campaign, Mr. Fitzgerald ran for alderman against two more experienced candidates. At that time, there were two aldermen for every ward and each voter cast two ballots. "We just asked for one of their votes – it didn't have to be their first," he later recalled with a laugh.
From then on, Mr. Fitzgerald, who died in Halifax on Oct. 11 of heart problems at the age of 78, became a household name in the city. But he was better known by his nicknames, whether Googie (a pet name given by an uncle when he was a baby), Goog, Fitz or Fitzy. "When somebody calls me Mr. Fitzgerald, I have to look around and see who they're talking to," he once said.
"I always nicknamed him Mr. Halifax," said his nephew, Paul Fitzgerald. "Everything he did was for the city."
In 1971, Walter Fitzgerald became mayor of Halifax for the first time and served until 1974, when he jumped into provincial politics. Running as a Liberal, he won the riding of Halifax Chebucto and became the labour and housing minister in the government of then-premier Gerald Regan. Mr. Fitzgerald always held firm to his motto that "people are the priority," sometimes going against his own party. When he didn't agree with a housing program, for example, he picketed outside Province House, home to the legislature.
"He was not a partisan," said Roland Thornhill, a long-time friend and retired Nova Scotia politician. "If he felt something, he just did it. He was generally a favourite with the public."
When John Buchanan's Conservatives defeated Mr. Regan's government in the 1978 election, Mr. Fitzgerald was the only Liberal winner in the Halifax-Dartmouth area. He served for three years as an opposition MLA. But in 1981, he lost his seat to Alexa McDonough, who went on to become leader of the federal New Democratic Party.
After seven years in provincial politics, he longed to be back in municipal politics, but first returned to his teaching career and later became a school principal.
Born in Halifax on May 8, 1936, Walter Ronald Fitzgerald grew up in an entrepreneurial family. He credited his businessman father, Walter, who sold everything from cars to fruits and vegetables, for his own salesmanship and love of sports. Young Walter spent his childhood playing hockey on Chocolate Lake near his home, and called hockey the first love of his life. He dreamed briefly of being a professional hockey player, but eventually opted for the security of a teaching degree.
At Dalhousie University, he captained the varsity hockey team and also played football. He later coached hockey at the university and minor league levels, as well as played charity tournaments and oldtimers' hockey.
A community leader from the time he was in high school, Mr. Fitzgerald had a knack for bringing people together and helping the underdog, whether it was when serving as a principal in a tough city school, or as mayor.
"He literally never closed his door," said his wife, Linda Snow-Fitzgerald. He might have a meeting with business leaders at 2 p.m., but if a homeless man he met two days before showed up for a coffee at 1:45 p.m., he would take time to talk. "It was almost like the world was his living room. He'd say come on in and sit down. He didn't distinguish between his private and his public life," she said.
Every year Mr. Fitzgerald held a horseshoe tournament, dubbed the Chowderbowl Challenge, at his cottage at Queensland Beach, and made enough chowder to feed the dozens of people who came. Everyone, from friends to political opponents to people he had just met at the grocery store, was invited.
"He was always optimistic, always upbeat," said his childhood friend Dennis Connolly. "He never held a grudge. Any swipe was quickly forgotten."
With his jovial personality, Mr. Fitzgerald loved to campaign. One day, after spending hours knocking on doors, he returned to campaign headquarters. "How did it go?" Mr. Connolly asked. "Great, great," Mr. Fitzgerald replied. "Everybody is voting for me."
He would often board city buses during the morning rush hour, shake everyone's hands, get off at the next stop and wait for another bus to come so he could do it all again. "He loved every minute of it," Mr. Connolly said. "People could see that. He was always smiling."
Known for his boundless energy, he'd roll into campaign headquarters at midnight excited about an idea for a new speech. After working on the speech till the wee hours, he would head to the nearest Tim Hortons to chat with Haligonians over their morning coffee.
Seven years after losing his MLA seat, Mr. Fitzgerald returned to municipal politics. In 1988, he was elected to city council and later served as deputy mayor. In 1994, he took the mayor's seat again and two years later oversaw the amalgamation of four municipalities to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. He left politics in 2000 after being defeated in the mayoral race by Peter Kelly.
Mr. Fitzgerald's devotion to public life had an impact on his family, however. His first marriage, to Gwen, with whom he had five children, ended in the early 1980s. In 1982, he married Linda Snow, a teacher whom he met at a teachers' conference.
"I love this city," Mr. Fitzgerald said in 1994. "It has almost anything anyone could ever want. My wife, Linda, sometimes complains I have a mistress – the city. She's right. The city is my mistress."
He not only loved the city, but was also its biggest cheerleader. In the mid-1990s, he sparked some controversy by suggesting that Halifax pursue the dream of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Using the exposure from the 1995 Group of Seven meeting in Halifax to catapult onto the international scene, he argued that the city should vie for the Olympics and other international events. "It's only limited by the imagination," he said at the time.
Mr. Fitzgerald leaves his wife, Linda; sons Gregory, Harry and Stephen; daughter, Heather, and extended family. He was predeceased by his son Hugh, who died in 2005.
He was proud of his involvement in many municipal initiatives, including redeveloping the Halifax waterfront, constructing the Pockwock water treatment plant and bringing the 2000 Memorial Cup to the city.
"He intuitively knew what people thought," Mr. Connolly said, "and what they were willing to accept."
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