Tributes pour in for longtime councillor
Vic Derman remembered by colleagues, family as a man of principle, passionate advocate for the environment
Longtime Saanich councillor Vic Derman is being remembered as a man of principle and a staunch advocate of environmental issues and sustainability.
Former Saanich mayor Frank Leonard said Derman, who died March 17, was “dogged and determined” about water conservation, sustainability and climate change, which were his chief considerations when making any decisions. Leonard said Derman always stuck to his principles.
“If you had anything to do with climate change, you’d know where he stood on it. He was on that file way before it was fashionable. He’d been riding his bike before there were bike lanes,” Leonard said. “Every policy, from the most important documents in an official community plan right down to a line item in a community budget, he was looking for sustainability.”
Derman, a member of Saanich council since 2002, would often come into Leonard’s office, bike helmet under his arm, to give him a heads-up about the issues he would be raising at council.
“He was always straight up with me,” Leonard said.
Derman’s wife of 30 years, Lauraine, said her 72-year-old husband had been fighting a nasty cold for a couple of weeks and the family was shocked when he died in his sleep.
Derman’s 28-year-old daughter, Michelle, said her father was a “visionary” who was ahead of his time on climate-change issues. He had been cycling for decades and was ahead of the curve in ditching plastic for reusable materials.
“To me and my mom, he was our everything. He was a loving husband and amazing father. He was our best friend. It’s hard to imagine life without him,” Michelle told the Times Colonist on Sunday. “Everything in life we did together.”
Derman was born June 1, 1944, in Saanich and lived in the municipality his entire life.
“He was very loyal to Saanich and insisted on staying in Saanich,” Lauraine said. “He saw Saanich as being very progressive and an opportunity for sustainable living, smart urban growth and agricultural farming.”
Derman and Lauraine met in 1986, when both were playing squash competitively. Lauraine hit a stray ball that walloped Derman in the face, leaving him with a bruise for several weeks.
“I left my initial mark,” Lauraine joked. The two were married in December 1986 and had Michelle two years later.
Lauraine said the family loved to take road trips around the Island, with yearly trips to Tofino and Parksville. Last summer, the family embarked on a month-long cycling trip across Europe.
Derman paid close attention to the cycling networks in Amsterdam and Paris and pushed for Saanich council to move forward on a $12.5-million plan for bike lanes and pedestrian walkways along the Shelbourne corridor.
Coun. Fred Haynes, who joined council in 2014, said Derman was a great mentor who was always willing to give advice. “He had ideals that he was tireless in working for,” Haynes said. “He was a high-level thinker on the approach that all levels of government need to look at mitigating what he saw as the catastrophe of climate change.”
Haynes said Derman, who had also served on the Capital Regional District board since 2005, was always willing to stop and talk to residents. “In a way, he spent his life working for the community in one form or another.”
Coun. Judy Brownoff said while some see municipal politics as just a stepping stone to higher levels of government, Derman was in it for the long haul. “[He] was thinking about the future generations and what they would inherit from us as policy makers.”
Coun. Vicki Sanders said Derman was always willing to listen to other points of view, but “didn’t let up on what he believed in.”
Coun. Colin Plant called Derman the “conscience” of Saanich on council. “He was a man of integrity. He would walk the walk and talk the talk.”
Coun. Dean Murdock said on Sunday that he was still struggling to accept that Derman wouldn’t be in his seat at Monday night’s council meeting.
Murdock said the two would often get together at the QuadraMckenzie Starbucks or the White Spot on Quadra Street. Ever the proud dad, Derman would brag about his daughter’s academic and athletic accomplishments.
Lauraine and Michelle said they were heartened by the warm tributes that have poured in on Facebook.
View Royal Mayor David Screech said Derman was passionate and committed to making Saanich and the entire capital region a better place.
Lana Popham, MLA for Saanich South, wrote on Facebook that her friendship with Derman began in 2004, when Popham began her run for Saanich council.
“Vic took me under his wing and guided me through my first election. His commitment to remain issue-based and non-partisan was strong, but that never stopped us from touching base on everything political. Thanks Vic, for being a friend, for being a unwavering advocate for climatechange mitigation, and for your commitment to Saanich.”
Popham said she will miss their meetings at Red Fish Blue Fish “and our bike rides to get there.”
Before being elected to office, Derman was a teacher at Cedar Hill Middle School, Lansdowne Middle School, Spectrum Community School and Shoreline Middle School.
Journalist Sean Holman said Derman was one of the most influential teachers of his life. Derman’s social studies class “taught generations of students how to organize information hierarchically, which helped me immeasurably as both a thinker and writer,” Holman wrote on Facebook.
Derman also introduced students to multimedia storytelling well before most people even knew what that was, Holman said. At Cedar Hill Middle School, he championed the purchase of computers that he used to teach students graphics, animation and even video-editing skills. “Vic is a testament to the outsized influence teachers can have on their students, ” he wrote.
Lauraine said Derman had a particularly keen group of students interested in his multimedia lab. Some students would get to the lab at 6 a.m. and stay after school to work on projects.
Several of those students went on to be successful filmmakers and producers, and stayed in touch with Derman.
Derman first became interested in community politics when he was an executive member of the North Quadra Community Association from 1990 to 2002. The association successfully fought to preserve Christmas Hill as a park after plans were put forward for a major development.
“That was the issue that really spring-boarded us into community politics and municipal politics for him,” Lauraine said.
He was also a founding director of The Land Conservancy of British Columbia and was its vicepresident for five years.
More recently, Derman was working with the Ministry of Transportation to measure the environmental impact of the McKenzie interchange on Cuthbert Holmes Park.
In June, Derman was shaken up when a car he was driving on the Patricia Bay Highway was struck by a van. He was taken to Saanich Peninsula Hospital for observation, along with his passengers, Haynes and Plant.
Haynes said while Derman took the brunt of the impact in the crash, he wouldn’t let that derail their plans to attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention in Winnipeg.
“It just goes to show the tenacity that he had,” Haynes said.
Lauraine said Derman was just getting back on his bike after that accident.