Larry Campbell

Location:British Columbia| Profession: Military/Law Enforcement Agents - Politicians

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Karen Kain 1971

Larry Campbell was born in Brantford, Ontario [??], growing up in a community of World War II veterans. After finishing high school he worked in a steel mill for nearly a year before applying to the RCMP. He trained in Regina, then moved to a unit in Vancouver. He worked for the force for a decade and then left to become chief coroner of Vancouver, eventually becoming the inspiration – and co-writer – for the TV show, Da Vinci’s Inquest. In ___, in a landslide victory, he was elected mayor of Vancouver. He is now a member of the Canadian Senate.

Karen Kain 2005

Profile

The RCMP:

I joined the Mounted Police when I was twenty-one in 1969. First, we had to pass the six month training period. In those days, it wasn’t that tough. You needed your grade twelve, you needed to be physically fit, and you needed to pass a psychological test. It was nothing compared to what they go through today. Also, you had to be single – you couldn’t get married for three years after you’d joined.

There were swimming tests. You had to come out of it with a bronze medallion – and some of those guys from the prairies had never seen a lake! You also had to type sixty words a minute. The academic side was difficult, but I loved it. I was just like a sponge. Everything they taught me, I absorbed. It was the best six months of my life.

My first posting after that was to North Vancouver. I was happy to head west because I wanted to see Canada. When I first arrived, it was like dying and going to heaven. I remember coming over the Portman Bridge and looking to the left towards the ocean. It was night-time and there were lights everywhere. I got there on November 27 and it was warm. Warm! There was no snow on the ground! Lots of snow up in the mountains, but none on the ground.

I immediately felt comfortable there. I felt, this is where I want to be. The thought kept reinforcing itself all my time there. I was golfing on January first while my dad was shovelling snow in Hamilton! How great can this be?

It was a good time to be there because the RCMP were hiring like crazy and there was a whole bunch of young guys. We learned good police work and we learned good teamwork. The seventies were a wonderful time to be in the RCMP. The golden age. You could go out and work surveillance. You could go and work drug squad.

The first six months in the field is still part of your training. It was all pretty routine. They had a training book and you had to go through it. You’d serve summons and warrants, you’d make traffic stops and take complaints.

In those days the uniform was blue pants with a yellow stripe, a brown jacket and a Sam Brown cross-belt. Then in ’73 – which was our hundredth anniversary – we wore boots, briefs and Stetsons. Imagine the whole year with spurs. Try driving a car wearing spurs!

Lessons:

If I had to give any advice, I would say, don’t ever be afraid to change things. Don’t ever be afraid to go out and try things. I’ll use an analogy from fly-fishing. I imagine a trout underneath the bank, looking out, and it’s sitting there just finning back and forth. And all the while, things are floating by. And that fish has to make up its mind whether to go out – whether the energy it expends is worth the energy it takes in – because if it keeps going out and it expends energy, it dies. Likewise, you could go out there and get the hook, and die. What you need to do is watch.