Robin Fisher, "Regulating Fuels in the Depression: The Coal and Petroleum Control Board of British Columbia," BC Studies 66 (Summer 1985)

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title
Robin Fisher, "Regulating Fuels in the Depression: The Coal and Petroleum Control Board of British Columbia," BC Studies 66 (Summer 1985)
type
article
date
1985
url
https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/1208/1252
seen
original
access
public

Read 10 Oct 2026. Pattullo's fight with the oil companies, 1934-1940, by his biographer.

  • His outlook: "a longstanding personal commitment to government regulation of public utilities. This was not a view that he had developed in response to the depression."
  • The fight: after the companies lost in the courts in 1940 and stopped selling gasoline, he would not let the industry become "a sort of gasoline super state," and looked to the day the province "will not be dependent upon foreign gasoline in the hands of insolent companies."
  • Verdict: "Pattullo was patently not motivated by ideology, and his ultimate objective was the preservation of capitalism"; yet his government "was less the client of big business and more vigorous in its response to the depression than most Canadian governments during that discordant decade."

See Duff Pattullo, 22nd Premier of British Columbia: what did he get right, and what did he get wrong?.

  1. ---
  2. title: "Robin Fisher, \"Regulating Fuels in the Depression: The Coal and Petroleum Control Board of British Columbia,\" BC Studies 66 (Summer 1985)"
  3. type: article
  4. date: "1985"
  5. url: "https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/1208/1252"
  6. seen: original
  7. access: public
  8. ---
  10. Read 10 Oct 2026. Pattullo's fight with the oil companies, 1934-1940, by his biographer.
  12. - **His outlook:** "a longstanding personal commitment to government regulation of public utilities. This was
  13. not a view that he had developed in response to the depression."
  14. - **The fight:** after the companies lost in the courts in 1940 and stopped selling gasoline, he would not let
  15. the industry become "a sort of gasoline super state," and looked to the day the province "will not be
  16. dependent upon foreign gasoline in the hands of insolent companies."
  17. - **Verdict:** "Pattullo was patently not motivated by ideology, and his ultimate objective was the
  18. preservation of capitalism"; yet his government "was less the client of big business and more vigorous in
  19. its response to the depression than most Canadian governments during that discordant decade."
  21. See `pattullo-premiership`.
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