Harry Rankin (May 8, 1920 – February 26, 2002) was a

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lawyer and long term member of the

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Early years

Rankin was born Harry Riffkin in Vancouver to secular

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ish immigrants from

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. His father worked at a factory while his mother grew up in

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's working class Jewish community. At 14, Rankin dropped out of secondary school to work in a bakery and through the trade union he got involved in politics. During World War Two he served in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...

with Vancouver's

Seaforth Highlanders of Canada , colors = , colors_label = , march = "The Piobaireachd of Donald Dhu" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

. He attained the rank of sergeant and was wounded on 23 May 1944 during the Battle of the Hitler Line. Rankin married a Jewish divorcee, and they had a son, Phil Rankin, who went on to become a Vancouver lawyer. A documentary film, the Rankin File, was premiered in 2018, which was a biography and a background to the 1986 Vancouver mayoral election between Harry Rankin and Gordon Campbell.

Law

After the war he completed his secondary education and pursued undergraduate studies at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

, where he also earned a law degree. During his time at U.B.C., he joined the Communist University Club, briefly serving as its vice-president.

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

were banned from joining the bar and the

Law Society of British Columbia The Law Society of British Columbia is the regulatory body for lawyers in British Columbia, Canada. Purpose The society's primary mandate under the ''Legal Profession Act'' is to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of ...

interviewed Rankin at length prior to admitting him to the bar about his views on God, whether he would defend his country if attacked, and whether he was a member of the Communist Party of Canada, then called the

Labor-Progressive Party The Labor-Progressive Party (french: Parti ouvrier-progressiste) was the legal front of the Communist Party of Canada from 1943 to 1959. Origins and initial success In the 1940 federal election, the Communist Party led a popular front in se ...

, something he was able to deny as the Communist University Club was an independent and unaffiliated organization. In the wake of the Law Society refusing to admit Gordon Martin to the bar on account of his being an avowed communist, Rankin had to sign a declaration that he was not a communist prior to being allowed to join. He went on to become head of the Law Society in 1979 (a position then known as Treasurer, later known as President). As a lawyer, Rankin fought for and helped establish the province's legal aid system. In 1950 he was one of the founding members of a committee that created a list of lawyers who were willing to take on cases, mostly pro bono, preceding the establishment of the BC Legal Aid Society by 20 years. Rankin worked as a criminal lawyer and labour lawyer, and he spent a significant amount of time working for

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

clients, most notably in the much-publicised case of Fred Quilt.

Politics

Rankin ran for office more than a dozen times before being elected to the

in 1966 as the sole independent

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on a council dominated by the conservative

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. Vancouver's aldermen were elected through an "at large" system rather than by

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

meaning voters from wealthier neighbourhoods were able to monopolise council elections and that only candidates who could afford a citywide campaign had a chance of being elected. Rankin helped form the Committee of Progressive Electors (COPE) as a left wing civic political party and it subsequently pushed for a ward-based electoral system to be introduced in Vancouver, culminating in a referendum in October 1973, at which the ward proposal was defeated. Rankin was a 20-year veteran of city council when he ran for

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in 1986, losing to

Gordon Campbell Gordon Muir Campbell, (born January 12, 1948) is a retired Canadian diplomat and politician who was the 35th mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993 and the 34th premier of British Columbia from 2001 to 2011. He was the leader of the British Co ...

. He returned to city council as an alderman in the subsequent election and remained on the body until his retirement from politics in 1993. He died on February 26, 2002, from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

, aged 81. Rankin's widow, Connie Fogal, is the former leader of the

Canadian Action Party The Canadian Action Party (CAP) (french: Parti action canadienne, PAC) was a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997 and deregistered on 31 March 2017. The party stood for Canadian nationalism, monetary and electoral reform, and oppose ...

. Rankin's son, Phil Rankin, continues in his father's footsteps as a lawyer and advocate for legal aid. His grandson, Micah Rankin, is a law professor at Thompson Rivers University. His nephew, Lee Rankin is a lawyer and was a long-time councillor in

Burnaby, British Columbia Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard ...

and was a federal Liberal candidate in

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and a

BC Liberal The British Columbia Liberal Party, often shortened to the BC Liberals, is a centre-right provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition. Subsequent to the 2020 British Columbia general ...

candidate in the 2009 provincial election.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rankin, Harry 1920 births 2002 deaths Canadian communists Lawyers in British Columbia Coalition of Progressive Electors councillors Canadian Army personnel of World War II The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada soldiers Canadian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Canadian socialists of Ukrainian descent