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The life story of Edgar James (E. J.) Casey is quite a remarkable one. It reads like an adventure novel set against the backdrop of the Canadian Prairies. Born in Belleville, Ontario, Edgar migrated west with his family to Winnipeg in 1905 on a “Harvester Special”. He would serve his country overseas on the famous French and Belgian battlegrounds of the First World War and in pre-revolution Russia. Raising a family and struggling to find steady work in the Depression, he turned a $1,250 investment into a carnival company that employed up to 120 people and which travelled from Eastern Ontario to the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Along the way he endure many personal tragedies including: losing his father to a railway accident, his war bride at a young age to Tuberculosis, his eldest son shot down and killed in the Second World War and his second son dying from a naval accident shortly after the war. His carnival business was also affected by the loss of employees in the Second World War as well as fire and floods. He would be recognized for his relief effort in the 1950 Red River Flood and appreciated by many for his tireless charitable work with children and veterans. From Soldier to Showman is the story of E. J. Casey but it is also the story of Canada in the early 20th century: migration, military, enterprise and community.
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