A prominent businessman who helped lead the Westside to incorporation rather than amalgamation with ѻý has died.
Rusty Ensign was 65.
He overcame a rugby accident at age 23 that left him in a wheelchair to play a central role in West ѻýѻý economic, social, and recreational circles.
“Rusty was a true pillar of West ѻý. His courage, vision, and unwavering commitment to community uplifted countless lives,” Mayor Gord Milsom said this week.
Along with his brothers, Ensign built Ensign Bros. Enterprises Ltd. into a large supplier of sand and gravel products for construction, road maintenance, and landscaping. He was also active in neighborhood associations, irrigation districts, the chamber of commerce, and sports groups.
“Really, he was the No. 1 champion of Royal LePage Place,” Milsom said, referring to West ѻýѻý hockey rink.
For many years, the Westside was ѻýѻý largest unincorporated area, and voters had to decide in 2007 whether to incorporate their own municipality or amalgamate with ѻý. Ensign led the pro-incorporation campaign, which narrowly prevailed in a referendum.
But Ensign failed in his bid to become the cityѻý first mayor in the 2007 municipal election, losing to Rosalind Neis, whose entire campaign was based on somehow undoing the referendum result and effecting amalgamation with ѻý.
Ensign prided himself on being a no-nonsense businessman who favoured practical solutions. During his successful run for a council position in the 2014 election, he told a story of how his dad, a cattle rancher, once discovered piles of garbage on the family property, then dug through the trash looking for papers with a name on it.
He took the garbage and dumped it on that personѻý yard. “Thatѻý how you deal with illegal dumping,” Ensign said approvingly.
But Ensign failed to win re-election in 2018, and an attempted political comeback in 2022 was also unsuccessful. During his one-term on council, he was involved in two conflict-of-interest affairs. In 2016, he was directed by other councillors to take a course on how to avoid mixing business with politics and vowed to improve his behaviour.
“This is the end of Rusty being in conflict,” he said in December 2016.
Ensign is survived by his two brothers, three children, and five grandchildren. Throughout his life, he was involved in the family farm, and oversaw the planting of its first vineyard in 2021, according to an obituary posted online by his relatives: “Sadly, he won’t be here to enjoy the first crop to be harvested this fall.”
A memorial service will be held Aug. 9 beginning at 1 p.m. at Springfield Funeral Home, 2020 Springfield Rd.