Upper Westmount and Westmount Summit seen from King George Park, Westmount, Quebec, Canada.

Not everyone in Westmount, Quebec, Canada, was enamored initially by the idea of appointing a city manager, according to an article published recently in the Westmount Independent. One alderman, in fact, suggested that the city’s affairs could be managed perfectly well by a board of directors. That idea, however, never gained any traction among city leaders.

Instead, on March 17, 1913, the Westmount City Council adopted a resolution to appoint an acting general manager. Just prior to the resolution’s adoption, the Westmount governing body ran an advertisement for the position, and it eventually appointed George W. Thompson as the first chief administrative officer. The experiment was an absolute success; Mr. Thompson died in office in 1930, after 17 years of service.

Duncan Campbell, current Westmount director general (as the position is now called), longtime ICMA member, and 2014 Annual Conference Planning Committee Chairman, recently recounted the history of professional management in the city during a presentation before the Westmount Historical Association on the 101th anniversary of the solicitation for city manager—the first in Canada.

To learn more about the history of professional management in Westmount, watch for the article “Canadian Flashback: The Birth of City Management in Canada" in the September 2014 issue of PM. To learn more about the many milestones in the history of ICMA, its members, and the professionalism of local government management, visit icma.org/anniversary and scroll through the anniversary timeline on the home page. Then, click on “The ICMA Experience” tab at the top of the anniversary home page, and add your personal experiences or reminiscencees.