Click on the pictures to see a larger version.
Above: A 1951 or '52 Dodge Crusader from the Sargent Taxi fleet (the styling was the same in both years). The Crusader was the Canadian version of the Dodge Meadowbrook. Sargent Taxi began operations in 1935 and disappeared in 1958, probably absorbed by Moore's Taxi, Veterans-Nash or Duffy's. Below: The same cab with metal sun visor attached. The Manitoba Legislative Building is in the background.
Source:
Top:1952. Sargent Taxi. Archives Manitoba, Hall, Frank 99. Bottom: Hall, Frank, 99-3.
Winnipeg Cab History / 74
Postwar to the 1950s (1)
The end of World War II brought with it the problem of reintegrating returning soldiers into the work force. Many of the cab owner/drivers who left the taxi industry for military service came home expecting to take up their old profession.
As well, the wartime prosperity that the industry enjoyed thanks to the wartime economy and the restrictions of the Transit Controller attracted newcomers who also applied for cab licenses. The sudden glut of license applicants presented the industry with a serious crisis.
Governments were understandably not keen to deny veterans access to cab licenses. The Transit Controller began relaxing quotas on taxi licenses as early as 1944 and in 1946 the Manitoba Taxicab Board approved 60 new licenses. This move naturally alarmed the existing cab license holders.