Mayor McGeer's action to cut bond interest rates coincided with a meeting of western mayors in Calgary early in 1935. The Calgary meeting was part of an uncoordinated pattern of regional meetings of mayors throughout the country at about the same time. All the meetings were concerned primarily with the problems of too many unemployed and too little money to pay for their relief. McGeer, heading a delegation from British Columbia, convinced the Calgary convention to approve a series of resolutions, "Gerry's Quintuplets" (a reference to the famous Dionne Quintuplets born that year): restoration of civic grants (taken away earlier by the provinces), national credit, controlled inflation, assumption of relief by the federal government, and the organization of municipalities. The delegates to the Calgary meeting also received an invitation to a national meeting of mayors - scheduled for later in March - from Montreal's controversial mayor, Camillien Houde. The B.C. delegation flew to Montreal.
