VEINER, HARRY

VEINER, HARRY (1904–1991), Canadian farmer, rancher, mayor. Veiner was born in Dysart, Saskatchewan, into a family of Jewish immigrant farmers. In 1930 he moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta, where he opened a retail hardware business. Soon a prominent local businessman, Veiner expanded his holdings by successfully investing in a series of ranches and farms in southern Alberta. With the outbreak of World War ii, Veiner enlisted in the South Alberta Regiment. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was responsible for overseeing the logistics of prisoner-of-war camps in Canada. He was repeatedly elected mayor of Medicine Hat from 1952 to 1966 and again from 1968 to 1974. With 20 years in public office, he became the second longest-serving mayor of the city.

Regarded as one of Canada's most colorful small-town mayors and a tireless municipal booster, Veiner was something of a local folk hero with articles written about him in Time, Life, and Maclean's magazines and appearances on radio and television. Athletic and competitive, Veiner entered and won numerous competitions at fairs and rodeos and enjoyed challenging other mayors and officials to compete against him in skating, boxing, and racing.

Veiner's wife, Fanny, served as president of the local Hadassah and was involved with Youth Aliyah. Veiner visited Israel several times and was proud to have met the prime minister and other government officials. He was prominent in the sale of Israeli bonds in Alberta and, at the request of the agriculture department of the Hebrew University, he arranged for a shipment of sheep to be sent to Israel for research. Dedicated to communal service as well as Zionist ideals, Veiner was active in both the Medicine Hat Rotary Club and B'nai B'rith and participated in many fundraising events. In memory of his mother, in 1982 he donated 26 hectares of land valued at $1.1 million to build a branch campus of Medicine Hat College in Brooks.

[Aliza Craimer (2^nd ed.)]