OFF THE FRONT LINES
Tim Louis ranks mayors
After more than three decades in the political arena, Tim Louis is moving out of the spotlight.
Inspired by his role model Harry Rankin — a lawyer, city councillor and mayoral candidate who died in 2002 — Louis crossed swords with successive mayors and erstwhile colleagues, developers and 2010 Olympics boosters, while standing up for the little gal and guy.
A tribute for Louis, 59, will be held in February for the litigation lawyer and outgoing executive of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), two-term park board commissioner and two-term city councillor.
Q: Are you retiring from poli- tics?
A: It depends on what you mean by retiring. I’m moving away from the front line, you could put it that way.
Q: You’ve been active in politics for a long time, you got HandyDart rolling while you studied law at UBC.
A: I still remember getting the call when I was in exams my first year of law school, 1981. The Urban Transit Authority awarded the contract to a co-op I set up, a co-op made up of HandyDart users called the Pacific Transit Co-operative. So for 20-odd years the users ran their own transit system. The only transit system in the world I’m aware of where the HandyDart user was in the driver’s seat. It was a million-dollar contract: We had no business expertise, we had no line of credit, we had no office, we had no vehicles, and we were given something like 19 days to get it up and running, and we ran it perfectly. Never a strike, never a lockout, never a work slowdown.
Q: Do you feel like ranking Vancouver’s mayors?
A: Do I what? Rate the mayors? Boy, that’s a tough one.
Q: Mike Harcourt?
A: Harcourt, I’d give a good mark to. It was a Harcourt-COPE council where we saw council really put to work on behalf of the entire city, the citizens of Vancouver, and not on behalf of the developers.
Q: Gordon Campbell?
A: We went back to a developers’ council with Campbell. You can see that very clearly when you look at the north side of False Creek with its high towers and density developed under Campbell and compare it to the south side of False Creek, where there is mixed income, low-rise and much lower density.
Q: Philip Owen?
A: Philip was a very decent man. Give him credit for bringing in the four pillars (drug strategy), the supervised injection sites.
Q: That brings us to your sparring partner, Larry Campbell.
A: He came to COPE and we made a big mistake.
Q: Have you guys ever buried the hatchet? A: No. Q: Sam Sullivan?
A: Sam would be another developers’ mayor. He called it eco-density, which was just a greenwashing, taking density and giving it a green veneer. But back to Campbell and the distinction between Campbell and Owen. Owen took a very good position on gambling, there would be no gambling expansion within the City of Vancouver. Campbell changed that so there would be casinos, the Great Canadian Gaming Corp. got the green light and after he left the mayor’s chair he wound up on their board of directors.
Q: And Gregor Robertson?
A: As far as I’m concerned Vision is the NPA, only with bicycle lanes.
Q: You argued strongly against Wal-Mart in Vancouver in 2005. In hindsight, was it the end of the world?
A: I never predicted it would be the end of the world, but what sort of world do we want? Do we want a world where it’s a race to the bottom? Do we want multinationals that put small businesses out of business?
Q: You have a congenital disease that’s left you a quadriplegic, but I’ve read the only disability you say you have is a political one.
A: Yes, being a socialist in a free-enterprise society, that is a political disability.
Q: Among the things you’ve been accused of is a take-noprisoners attitude that provokes constant arguments.
A: If taking a firm position on issues creates arguments, so be it. One of the ways to avoid arguments is to issue meaningless platitudes.
Q: What will you miss the most?
A: I’ll miss going to bat for the average person at city council. I’ll miss the intellectual wrestling. I will miss being of service to constituents. It’s been a slice. But I’m not saying goodbye, I’ll still be speaking out and speaking up.