A Terrace Mayor, Alderman, Businessman, and Fisherman.  Albert (Bert) Goulet

In 1951 thirty three year old Bert Goulet left Vancouver with his father and drove to Terrace.  He purchased a lot on Lakelse Avenue next to the Tillicum Theater and built a small store.  With his last two hundred dollars he lined the shelves with canned goods and opened up Bert’s Grocery, a business he ran for sixteen years.  And at the time he moved his wife Patricia into a shack next door.

A Terrace Mayor, alderman, businessman, and fisherman, Albert (Bert) Goulet was born on May 12, 1918 in Biggar, Saskatchewan to parents Leon and Antoinette Goulet.  The Goulets were hard working French Canadians who operated a General Store.  They were full of dreams and fired with a pioneer spirit.

In 1920 they sold out, loaded all their possessions into a rail car bound for Terrace, BC with two year old Bert.  Their dream was to homestead in BC.  They settled in what is now Thornhill, but after two years of hard work logging, clearing land and fighting the bugs and snow they moved back to northern Saskatchewan.

Prior to the time that the Goulets arrived, Antoinette’s father, St. Jacques, had purchased 640 acres of land in Thornhill, sight unseen through the Winnipeg Free Press.  The property was located at the bottom end of Krumm Road.  Mr. St. Jacques split the property into quarters, giving each son and his eldest daughter Antoinette a section of land, which had attracted the Goulets to homestead in Thornhill.

From 1922 to 1934 Bert lived in Carrot River, Saskatchewan.  Carrot River was a small community at the end of the rail line.  Bert began school when he was six years old and that is where he learned to speak English for the first time.  He remembered being teased a lot and being called a frog.  He had many fights.

As he grew older he loved hunting rabbits and gophers.  He had fond memories of one particular family pet.  His father had acquired a bear cub from a local resident that they kept for over a year.  His parents owned and operated a general store that was the gathering place for the community.  The family lived in an apartment attached to the back of the store.

It was in the general store that Bert was imprinted with the value of talking with and helping his neighbours, shooting the breeze with friends and getting involved in serving and building up the local community.

Growing up he had one brother (Maurice) and he was six years younger.  Bert learned at a young age to get by on his own alone.  In 1934 at sixteen years of age Bert was sent off to St. Boniface College near Winnipeg, Manitoba.  This was a Catholic boarding school where he studied various courses in business and commerce.  He graduated in 1936.  From 1936 to 1941 Bert lived back home in Carrot River.  These were happy years.  He told many stories of going to dances in all the neighbouring towns, late night drives with a girlfriend, and getting in trouble with his father for coming home late.  As a young man he blossomed as a baseball player and was invited to the US to play in the professional leagues.  His father would not allow him to go, and he always wondered how things might have turned out if he would have gone. Shortly before the war he purchased his first car and with another friend and their girlfriends set on out on an exciting road trip through the Rockies to Vancouver.  Even then he loved the adventure of traveling and meeting new people.

In November 1941 Bert enlisted in the Canadian Military.  His desire was to be a pilot but severe motion sickness put him behind a desk.  During the first years of the war he was stationed on the west coast of BC.  He spent time in Coal Harbour and Vancouver.  He went overseas and spent the last few years of the war in southern England near Torquay.  He was discharged in May, 1946.  After the war Bert moved to Vancouver.  His parents had retired to the Fraser Valley and he followed.

Bert worked at several jobs and in 1947 he and a partner set up Harbor Electric.  Bert ran the office and did the estimates and dispatched the workers.  He struggled with city life, living in the west end of Vancouver.  In 1949 he met Patricia Hoy, a girl from North Vancouver and in May, 1950 were married.

Leon and Antoinette Goulet

Now a responsible married man, Bert decided to set out on another adventure, and start a store on his own.  Convinced that the north was full of opportunities, in 1951 he left Vancouver and drove to Terrace with his father, and started “Bert’s Grocery”.  It was during these years that he developed habits that would characterize the rest of his life.  He was a softy who didn’t like conflict.  He gave lots of goods away on credit, concerned with the needs of young struggling families.  Bert worked hard seven days a week, twelve hours a day.  He made many friends in the community and enjoyed late night poker games with the guys and curling bonspiels.

During the years of “Bert’s Grocery” he determined he needed to seek out peace and quiet so he decided to take up fishing.  Without telling his wife he purchased his first rod and reel.  He went to the mouth of the Kalum River and on his first cast the whole rod and reel flew off into the river.  He was left holding only the handle.  So it was many years later before he tried fishing again.                                                                                                                                                                                               

 It was in 1959 that he built his new home for his growing family a ways out of town on Davis Street.  He lived there for the next forty years.

The 1960’s saw Bert’s increased involvement in the community of Terrace.  He worked energetically with a variety of service clubs including the Rotary and Kinsmen, promoting and building up the City of Terrace.  In 1962 he was elected to the municipal council and in 1965 he was elected the Reeve, a position known as mayor today.

In the late 1960’s with the opening of larger chain grocery stores, Bert closed his store and made a brief venture into building houses.

In 1969 he set out on another new adventure, opening Northwest Sportsman on the corner of Lakelse and Kalum.  His passion for fishing sent him out summer and winter to the rivers and lakes.

IN 1981 Bert suffered his first heart attack.  In 1986 he retired and sold the store and adapted himself to a much more easy going pace of life.

He underwent several operations, surviving a second heart attack, and a stroke.  A car accident in 1997 left him in a coma for two weeks.  He took months to recover, but he was able to attend his mother’s 100^th birthday.  Bert Goulet passed way November 3, 2001 in Smithers, BC.  Bert had moved to the Bulkley Lodge in Smithers in 2000. His three children--sons Greg and Bert, Jr and a daughter Cheryl survive Bert.

Bert Goulet served as Reeve 1965-1967.  He traveled to Vancouver and with his effort  Safeway came to Terrace.  Bert Goulet was a good citizen of Terrace who came to Terrace and dedicated his life in working with others in making Terrace what we enjoy today.

  Back to Stories Index

Home