The double life of school board trustee Chris Richardson
To many in Vancouver, Christopher Richardson is a politician, school trustee and former park board commissioner. He is a familiar face to some of the city’s wealthiest people, who seek his advice as a chartered accountant specializing in charitable giving. Judges, bankers, developers, scions of industry: the city’s most powerful and connected people know just who he is.
But for 43 years, Richardson has led a not-so-secret double life, often at night, sometimes in danger, and very much in public. Look carefully as you go to Rogers Arena for a concert and there he is, standing in the middle of the street, directing traffic — windmilling arms and effortlessly getting vehicles moving.
At 60 years old, he has no desire to slow down.
For 26 of the past 43 years, Richardson was a Vancouver police reserve officer, rising to the rank of reserve inspector before the service was collapsed after the province rescinded permission for police reserve and RCMP auxiliary officers to carry guns.
I joined the reserves in 1983. Chris had already been there a decade … I go from being a 19-year-old kid to being chief in May at 51, and throughout my entire policing life I have known Chris Richardson.
ADAM PALMER VANCOUVER POLICE CHIEF
It is a decision that has rankled Richardson since. For the last 17 years, he has been the top dog at the Vancouver Traffic Authority, the replacement service created in 1999.
If you were around during Expo 86 when Prince Charles and Princess Diana came to town, you might have seen Richardson at their elbows as they entered BC Place. He was also there in the wings when Mother Teresa visited Vancouver, and at countless hockey, basketball and football games.
Always ‘a constant’
Richardson has been an employee of the Vancouver police board for so long that no one — from Chief Adam Palmer on down — has been there longer. Many senior executives now in the department started their policing careers in the reserves alongside or under Richardson.
“I joined the reserves in 1983. Chris had already been there a decade,” Palmer said. “He has always been a constant. I go from being a 19-year-old kid to being chief in May at 51, and throughout my entire policing life I have known Chris Richardson.”
For a person who has spent nearly a lifetime with the force, Richardson said he never wanted a policing career. He initially wanted to be a lawyer. As a youth, his mentor was his next door neighbour, Howard Green, the MP for Quadra and public works and external affairs minister in the Diefenbaker government.
“He thought I should be a lawyer,” Richardson said.
“He said there are these silly people who run around all these events wearing orange raincoats and white hats, and direct traffic at public events. He said if you are going to play in the game, you need to know both sides. So he thought that being a reserve constable would give me the practical side of law.”
So at 17, Richardson donned the orange raincoat, and has directed traffic ever since. In those early days, he also worked alongside police officers at roadblocks and on walkabouts. The idea of being a lawyer left him, and he chose to be a chartered accountant, but never thought about giving up his role with the police.
“I still enjoy it,” Richardson said.
“It allows me the opportunity to be in the middle of the action.”
Controversy over guns
Richardson ran afoul of his superiors in the late 1990s, when the provincial NDP government conducted a review of incidents involving armed RCMP auxiliary officers and then-attorney general Ujjal Dosanjh ordered all reserves to give up their guns.
He protested. “I was going to the chief to express my concerns about the safety of our members not carrying guns,” he said. “I was the senior reserve constable and I lost sleep over the fact.”
The next day, he received a fax from Murray Day, the regular officer in charge of the reserves, busting him down from reserve inspector to constable.
At the time, Richardson was beginning to explore running for office at the park board. “The day I got nominated to the park board in 1999, I was demoted to the bottom of the pack,” he said.
Richardson recovered from the demotion, but has never wavered from his belief the reserves and traffic authority officers should be armed. Like all officers, he now wears a bulletproof vest.
Richardson said he doesn’t plan to retire any time soon. But he has started to slow down a bit. This year, he missed the annual Polar Bear Swim at English Bay, only the second time since the event started. But he had a good reason: he and his wife were in Hawaii celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary.