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Mt. View/Spectrum High School Distinguished Alumni Recognition

  On June 1, 2023 my high school alumni recognized my career with this designation.   Here are my comments at the ceremony. Thank you Mayor Dean Murdock for the introduction; congratulations other alumni for the recognition – it is an honour to be in your company; and a special thanks to my family – all members of my family for so much support for so many years. Allow me to make three comments: 1.         Just how much this means to me.   I attended nine schools in 12 years – my father was transferred around BC, and we rented once or twice at each stop - so it would be remarkable if anyone even remembers my attendance – thus to be presented with a recognition like this is extraordinary and I am truly grateful. 2.         As I look to some here who are travelling similar paths to mine, I want to stress that the goal was never to collect titles and positions – the goal is to make the most of these opportunities.   Winning an election is not the goal – taking advantage of the oppo
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Clara Isabella Leonard

  Clara Isabella Leonard (nee Akwa) was born in Vancouver August 21, 1930 to Edward and Queenie.  Mom’s Dad – Eddie – was born to a German mother in Finland while her Mom was born in England.  Mom was raised in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver; in fact she attended Mount Pleasant school across the street from her home which was attached to her Dad’s tire and auto wrecking business. Mom was a pretty good softball pitcher and seemed to have a pretty happy childhood albeit within a family that had to be fairly frugal.   She and her sister Edna helped her Dad with his business – Mom liked to talk about that ‘Mr. Pattison’ that would come around looking for used tires for cars he was selling and to be amazed to see that he is now BC’s very own Jimmy Pattison.   Her grandmother – Nanna – lived upstairs in their home and seemed to entertain a lot of different gentlemen, let’s say. The spelling of her last name changed during the WWII as her dad told them all to say they were
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Francis Vernon Leonard

  Francis Vernon Leonard Dad was born in Vancouver on January 27, 1930 to Frank Leonard and his wife Alma.   Frank Leonard died when Dad was a young infant as his lungs suffered from working at Britannia Mines and being gassed at Ypres in WWI.   Alma soon married Frank Gowan and Dad and his brother Stan grew up in Kitsalino while his stepdad operated a gift shop at Prospect Point in Stanley Park. Unfortunately Frank Gowan died when Dad was a teenager so he quit high school to support his Mom and brother.   Dad would sometimes say he’d done well for a kid that started out with a single mother on welfare. Dad worked at a flower shop, had other odd jobs and then met my mother Clare while managing a Moose Club bar and dance lounge.   Mom and Dad were married in 1951 and celebrated their 70 th anniversary in May 2021.   Dad was working for the Nutty Club when I was born in 1954 and his father-in-law and tire dealer Eddie Akwa insisted he learn the tire business as he believed no one co
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Routine for you; Once in a lifetime for them

  Routine for you; Once in a lifetime for them We had hopped on a small private plane after our business meetings in Vernon for a beautiful flight to Vancouver Island when the latch on the door I was sitting next to popped up.   “Don’t worry about that,” said the pilot, “happens all the time; just push it back down and you’ll be fine.”   So you bet I pushed it back down and I did so again when it popped up a few minutes later.   In fact, I pushed down hard on it for the rest of the flight. ‘Happens all the time’ meant that this was just routine for the pilot but obviously this was not routine for me – it was once in a lifetime and thankfully I’ve been able to talk about it for decades since.   This is also true for those in public office – just another council meeting, just another speech, just another greeting may be routine for you but you need to remember it may be once in a lifetime for others. For example, I’m surprised when a parent comes up to me with their young children an
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Know what you know; Know what you don't

  Know what you know; Know what you don't My Regional District colleague and I were preparing to propose ‘clean air bylaws’ in the early 1990’s, which is a political way saying we were going to ban smoking in quite a few private and public places.   We had excellent advisors but wanted a second opinion so sought out a coffee meeting with a public health official in Metro Vancouver. My colleague had a background in health care so the two of them took off in conversation about many things I knew very little about but when the official said, ‘and what about that Mogilny trade?’ – my colleague froze.   He knew a great deal about health care but no matter how long he searched his memory, he could not seem to find anything about a Mogilny procedure, level of care or disease .   Fortunately I’m quite a sports fan and jumped in to say ‘wow, I hope he plays on a line with Bure.’ You see I knew I didn’t know health care issues to the level that they did so my role was to sit quiet, liste
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Leveraging Community Volunteers

  Leveraging Community Volunteers One of the most important aspects of serving in local government is the relationship you have with community volunteers.   Local government politics may be the front line of democracy and in a vibrant, healthy community the front line is populated by active community volunteers. So I developed three rules for myself that helped to leverage their efforts into what I called ‘happy endings.’   Rule #1: get out of their way. Our municipality owned a rundown heritage home and the neighbourhood wanted to restore it and create a unique seniors’ centre.   Most of my colleagues were skeptical and municipal staff were aghast at the potential cost but I just kept clearing ‘yah-buts’ out of the way.   I wasn’t their champion – the volunteers were the best champions such a project could possibly have – I was their ally.   I opened doors to Cabinet Ministers that could obtain grants, service agencies that could provide advice and introductions to a similar cen
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Compensation for Local Government Politicians

Compensation for Local Government Politicians   At time of writing, several Provincial MLA’s are retiring or are ‘being retired’ and the value of their pensions and severance pay is being reported.  This tends to increase the comments to me when I’m out in the community such as ‘how’s the retirement going, are you enjoying your pension?’ I tend to lightheartedly reply that I’m not very good at retiring and maybe that this is because I don’t have a pension.  This shocks almost everyone – they assume that my 28 years on Saanich Council - 18 of them as a fulltime Mayor - created a pension benefit.  So let’s get this out of the way: the only municipal council in BC which is part of the Municipal Pension Plan is the City of Vancouver. Every local government has annual compensation for elected officials and many have some benefits such as extended health and dental.  Some in Metro Vancouver have a contribution to a RRSP plan and a very few have a ‘transition pay’ upon leaving office.  Put th
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