Stephen Juba

Stephen Juba, (July 1, 1914 – May 2, 1993) was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1953 to 1959, and served as the 37th Mayor of Winnipeg from 1957 to 1977. He was the first Ukrainian Canadian to hold high political office in the city. Born in Winnipeg to Gregory Juba (1885-1958) and Sophie Nasedyk (1888-1970) who were both born in Ukraine. He married Jennie Brow on April 14, 1946 at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church in Brooklands, Manitoba. They divorced in 1948. He next married Elva Juba. There were no children by either marriage. His brother Daniel Harry Juba (1909-1986) was mayor of Brooklands, Manitoba, Juba Street in Brooklands was named after his brother.Juba left school at age fifteen, when his family could no longer pay for his education. His father, a building contractor, saw his practice decline after the stock market crash of 1929. Juba worked in odd jobs for several years, and also started two small businesses before he was twenty-one: Weston Builders Ltd. and S.N. Juba & Co. These names reflected Juba's gift for self-promotion. Weston Builders Ltd. was not actually an incorporated company; Juba had simply added "Ltd." to its name to make it "look official". In the case of S.N. Juba & Co., he added a fictitious middle initial because he thought it "sounded good". He was largely unsuccessful as a businessman until 1945, when he started a wholesale distributing firm called Keystone Supply Ltd, which would make him wealthy. Juba's first forays into electoral politics were unsuccessful. He ran as an independent candidate in Winnipeg North Centre in the Canadian federal election of June 1949, against rising CCF star Stanley Knowles. He later acknowledged that had no chance of winning, but entered the race "to gain experience" and "to be educated by an expert". He received only 694 votes, finishing a very distant fourth. In the provincial election of November 1949, Juba ran in the riding of Winnipeg Centre as