Recollections of CEDA’s First Honourary Life Member

May 25, 2018

By Harry G. Horsman

The first secretary manager of CEDA was Mr. Dick Edmunds. Upon his retirement, Mr. Norman Franks — a retired executive of CGE — became our secretary. Similarly, on his retirement, Mr. Douglas McKellar — a retired executive with Northern Electric — became our third secretary manager.

There is no question in my mind that in our industry the stature of both Mr. Franks and Mr. McKellar enhanced the position of CEDA and we were and are indebted to them.

In addition, a long list of executive officers of CEDA willingly gave their time and knowledge for the benefit of all our members. As well, in each regional area where our national convention was being held, local members put in a tremendous amount of time and work. We are indebted forever to all those members past and present.

I suppose the perennial question which faces our manager, our executive nationally, and our regional directors, both from the members and from prospective members is “What has CEDA done for me lately?” Or, “What can CEDA do for me?”

Speaking for Western Canada, and I presume for the Maritimes and Newfoundland (one half hour earlier), since CEDA’s inception the monetary gains have been considerable. The list of products on which we have gained equal treatment by manufacturers is long. I have to state here that our Central Division (Ontario-Quebec) members took up the inequality of treatment as if it were their own. All of us enjoy that equality today. There has never been a better example of that phrase, “All for one and one for all.”

Some of the problems that were solved by CEDA with the cooperation of the national membership are worth noting:

• Wiring devices such as G.E., Smith and Stone, etc. were the first anomaly that CEDA rectified. While these products historically were prepaid across Canada from Lakehead West, our then margin from the trade price was 21% vs. 23% in the Central Division of Canada. It was literally amazing to us in the west that this inequality existed.
• Motor controls — General Electric with their own manufactured, and Northern Electric’s exclusive with Cutler Hammer, were sole distributors. The Square-D Company was instrumental in opening up these products to the independent distributors. Many years later Allen-Bradley and other foreign manufactured products became available.
• Pole line hardware simply could not be purchased by the independent distributor.
• Wire and cable manufacturers, while recognizing the independent distributor, had many products that were in the category of non-distributor items. Over the years CEDA has been instrumental in increasing the list of distributor products.

Over and above all of the business aspects of CEDA, I have always considered the friendships and the shop talk beyond any formal program have been well worth the price of admission.

Finally, I recall a western Division meeting NAED Convention in Victoria BC (We in BC exchanged invitations with them over several years on our CEDA annual western conventions.) Since they always invited their ladies to each convention, we learned to reciprocate, and later we included the ladies in our own national conventions. From NAED we also adopted the principle of paying the airfare of one delegate from each member to our annual convention. (Note: this practice was discontinued in 1981.) This, I am sure, helped maintain our high rate of membership attendance.

The courage, foresight and dedication of that group of men in 1934 has my admiration and respect, as well as a debt that is impossible for me to match, let alone pay in kind.

In 1979, Harry G. Horsman was named the first honourary life member of CEDA.