Percy Sparks
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Born on March 7, 1880 in Ottawa, on the site of where the Supreme Court stands today, Roderick Percy Sparks was the great grandnephew of Ottawa pioneer Nicholas Sparks. Educated at the Ottawa Public School, and the Ottawa Collegiate Institute, he was a garment manufacturer as well as president of the Canadian Association of Garment Manufacturers, president of the Commercial Protective Association, and member of the executive committee of the Canadian Manufacturers Association.
A noted conservationist, tariff expert and successful businessman, he waged battles against government corruption in the twenties, playing a key role in the 1926 Customs Investigation, and defended workers rights in the thirties, helping Conservative MP H.H. Stevens establish the Select Committee on Price Spreads. He also dedicated nearly a quarter century of his life to building a park in the Gatineau hills.
The Ottawa Journal of March 30, 1959 credited Percy Sparks with being the “father of the Gatineau Park,” adding that, as chairman of the Federal Woodlands Preservation League from 1937 to 1947, he “brought about the first purchase by the Dominion government of what is now […] Gatineau Park.” On May 12, 1955, the same paper said that “Mr. Sparks and his associates are generally credited with ‘selling’ the late Prime Minister Mackenzie King the idea of setting aside a national recreation area on the outskirts of Canada’s capital.”
As chairman of the research committee of the Federal Woodlands Preservation League, Sparks had urged the Bennett government to commission a survey of the Gatineau hills forests in a letter of April 3, 1935 to Interior Minister T. G. Murphy. The importance of the resulting study was acknowledged in the 1952 annual report of the Federal District Commission: “The government, having been concerned about the cutting of the forest cover in the Kingsmere area, authorized an extensive survey of this matter and the findings were published in the Lower Gatineau Woodlands Survey. [In 1938], as a result of the above-mentioned report, the Commission commenced the development of Gatineau Park by the acquisition of land.”
While chairman of the League, Sparks also wrote several documents that were crucial to the creation and initial development of Gatineau Park. They include a December 13, 1937 memorandum to the office of Prime Minister King outlining a proposal for creating the park; a preliminary master plan proposal for Gatineau Park sent to the Federal District Commission on October 9, 1945; and a May 27, 1946 memorandum the Standing Senate Committee on Tourist Traffic.
Sparks also played a central role in helping orient the park’s design and development in his capacity as chairman of the Advisory Committee on Gatineau Park from 1947 to 1954. He did so by, among other things, writing the 1949 Report of the Advisory Committee on Gatineau Park and – perhaps most importantly – the 1952 the Report on a Master Plan for Development of Gatineau Park (the latter being, in effect, the first comprehensive master plan for the park). His last major contribution to park development and administration was the 1955 Memorandum to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons on the Federal District Commission. He died on March 29, 1959.
French urban planner Jacques Gréber, author of the landmark report on Canada’s capital, which advocated enlarging the park, acknowledged Sparks's key contribution to the park in his 1950 Report: “The Advisory Committee to the Federal District Commission on Gatineau Park, of which Mr. P. Sparks is Chairman […] are in full and enthusiastic accord with us on the possibilities of this wooded reserve, and have, in large measure, inspired our recommendations relative to practical developments of this providential asset of the Capital Region.”
Perhaps Sparks's most eloquent vision statement for the park is to be found in the 1949 Report of the Advisory Committee on Gatineau Park:
"The prime objective of this plan should be to retain throughout the main area of the park the atmosphere of the Canadian woods and to preserve for all time the natural beauty of the lakes and wooded hills as an inspiration to all those who can enjoy them, whether residents of the surrounding district or visitors from other parts of Canada or foreign lands. As part of the National Capital and thus the possession of all the people of Canada, this park should be developed in a manner in which all Canadians can take pride. While this park will serve a useful purpose as a place of recreation, bringing physical benefits, its greater purpose lies in its possibilities as a spiritual and moral force in the lives of those who visit it."
Percy Sparks’s contribution to the creation and early development of Gatineau Park was officially recognized at a ceremony held at the park’s Visitor Centre on July 8, 2005, when the exhibition hall located there was dedicated to his memory. In addition, the legislation concerning Gatineau Park currently before the Senate and House of Commons is largely inspired by Sparks's vision for the park
