By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer
Mayor Joe Dagan was a man who thought big.
When he was elected our 34th Chief Magistrate in 1914 Sarnia had been a ‘Town’ for nearly six decades. In fact, its status hadn’t changed since 1857, the year the Municipality finally shed ‘Village’ designation.
But Dagan planned to change all that. He dreamed of creating an important industrial City on the banks of the St. Clair River.
Unfortunately, there was a major obstacle in his path. In order to achieve Cityhood a community had to have a population of at least 10,000 people and, in the early years of the 20th century, Sarnia was a few hundred citizens short of the magic number.
All that changed shortly before the 1914 election.
It happened after Council – at the urging of then Alderman Dagan – agreed to give the Mueller Brass Co. a $30,000.00 grant if it would build a local plant employing at least 75O men. The facility, which opening its doors in June, 1913, attracted the extra people Sarnia needed to bring its population up to 10,000.
Dagan, who was elected Mayor six months after Mueller opened its doors, didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the influx of new citizens. Within days of taking Office he called on the Ontario Government to elevate the Municipality to ‘City’ status.
He knew the change in classification would be of more than just symbolic importance. As historian Edward Phelps noted “as a City Sarnia would be far more appealing to new industries looking for a base in Southwestern Ontario. City status also meant a significant saving in revenue as a result of various rights conferred upon Cities over Towns”.
The elevation to Cityhood was a triumph. Over the next two decades several more industries located in Sarnia, doubling the City’s population.
But Dagan’s term in Office wasn’t without its disappointments. In fact, he came under heavy fire for raising taxes. But The Observer felt he was a sound manager of the tax dollar. In an editorial, it said, “complaints have been many and pronounced on the increase in the tax bills, but these increases are due to Mayor Dagan’s desire to put an end to the vicious system that has prevailed in the past of under-estimating the expenditures and meeting deficits by overdrafts on the banks. This method of shoving over the debt to their successors was done to gain credit for ‘keeping down taxation’, when in fact it had the opposite effect by piling up indebtedness, upon which large sums in bank interest were paid”.
“Mayor Dagan is entitled to credit for an honest effort to meet the City’s obligations fully as they fall due”.
Dagan was born in Port Hope but settled in Sarnia as a young man in order to establish his own tailoring business. He died on April 19, 1930, at age 71, leaving behind a wife and two children.
