| Sam Sullivan | |
|---|---|
| 38th Mayor of Vancouver | |
| In office December 5, 2005 – December 8, 2008 |
|
| Preceded by | Larry Campbell |
| Succeeded by | Gregor Robertson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1959 (age 52–53) |
| Political party | Non-Partisan Association |
| Alma mater | Simon Fraser University |
Sam Sullivan, CM (born 1959) served as the 38th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and has been invested as a Member of the Order of Canada,[1] the country's highest civilian award. He is currently President of the Global Civic Policy Society and Adjunct Professor with the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.[2]
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Sam Sullivan was born in 1959 to East Vancouver residents Lloyd and Ida Sullivan. His father ran Sully's Autoparts on East Hastings Street. He has three brothers Donald, Patrick, Terry and sister Carol. Sullivan attended Chief Maquinna Elementary and Vancouver Technical Secondary School in East Vancouver.
The extremely athletic 191 cm Sullivan became paralyzed after he broke his neck in a skiing accident at the age of 19.[3] Sullivan suffered a fracture dislocation of his fourth and fifth cervical vertebra, leaving him almost completely paralyzed. He has no use of his fingers or triceps, but has some limited use of shoulders, biceps and wrists. Sullivan can write notes, use the telephone pressing buttons with his knuckle, and drive specially outfitted vehicles.[4]
After a seven year struggle with depression,[3] he successfully completed a Bachelor of Business Administration degree at Simon Fraser University.[5] Sullivan later founded six non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life for disabled people in North America. Sullivan is also known for his advocacy on behalf of the physically disabled. In 2005, Sullivan was invested as a member of the Order of Canada by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson. Sullivan was inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Peter F. Drucker Award for Innovation.
On September 11, 2001, he became the first quadriplegic in history to throw out the opening pitch of a professional baseball game when he threw out the opening pitch, with the assistance of a device made by Tetra Society volunteers, at the Vancouver Canadians minor league team's home opener at Nat Bailey Stadium.[3]
As a quadriplegic Sullivan recounts that he became depressed and suicidal. After overcoming this difficult period in his life, Sullivan set out to try and find ways to improve the lives of others with similar physical limitations. In the late 1980s he formed the first of several affiliated societies devoted to improving the mobility of disabled people like himself.[6] These include the British Columbia Mobility Opportunities Society, which provides opportunities for people with disabilities to experience outdoor, wilderness-based activities. The foundation of the society’s programs is the TrailRider, a multi-terrain wheelchair that allows two able-bodied “Sherpas” to aid a disabled person’s access to the outdoors. The TrailRider was co-invented by Sam Sullivan and engineer Paul Cermak. TrailRiders have been used by disabled people to climb Mount Kilimanjaro several times and climb to the base camp of Mount Everest once.[7]
Sullivan began the Disabled Sailing Association of British Columbia, which employs equipment such as the Martin 16 sailboat and (mouth-operated) sip 'n' puff technology to allow a person with a physical disability to sail independently.
Other societies begun by Sullivan include Tetra Society of North America, devoted to the creation of unique, customized assistive devices; the Disabled Independent Gardeners Association; the ConnecTra Society, a group devoted to improving social connections and educational opportunities for people with physical disabilities; and the Vancouver Adapted Music Society, which supports and promotes musicians with disabilities.
All of the nonprofit societies are linked to the Sam Sullivan Disability Foundation which has raised $20 million and touched the lives of 10,000 people with disabilities since its inception. For his work in this field, Sullivan received the Christopher and Dana Reeve Award, the Terry Fox Award and Peter F. Drucker Award for Innovation.
After being involved in creating non-profit societies and volunteering for non-profit initiatives, Sam met a number of people involved in politics. Former BC provincial cabinet minister Grace McCarthy suggested that Sam consider running for council. He had spent quite a few years improving the lives of others with disabilities, and realized government had a lot to do with that area.
Sullivan was first elected to Vancouver City Council in 1993 as a member of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA). Sullivan served for 15 years total on Vancouver city council.
In Vancouver's 2002 General Local elections, Sullivan was the only incumbent member of city council from the Non-Partisan Association to win re-election after the NPA-dominated council was defeated by the COPE party.
In 2004, he led the Knowards campaign opposing the COPE-initiated campaign to replace the city's at-large system of choosing councillors with a ward voting system. The proposal was defeated 54% to 46% in a referendum.
Critics accused of mis-using a political donation when $5000 raised for the Knowards campaign through the Nanitch Policy Society was used to buy tickets for campaign volunteers at a 2004 NPA dinner. Calls for an inquiry by Vancouver city council opposition members were subsequently dismissed by the Provincial government. In December 2009, The Tyee published a letter from Sullivan where he explains the background behind the Nanitch Policy Society, and in particular the donation made to the NPA.[8]
Following the 2002 electoral losses, the Non-Partisan Association rebuilt its slate for 2005. Several high-profile names were nominated to be the NPA mayoral candidate. One of the most prominent contenders was the former BC Liberal Party deputy-Premier Christy Clark. Sullivan defeated Clark to become the moderate, pro-business, NPA mayoral candidate.
Sullivan ran against several candidates, the most prominent of which was Vision Vancouver councillor Jim Green . Sullivan defeated Green by a narrow margin of 3,747 votes of 130,000 ballots cast in the November 19, 2005 municipal election. A second, independent, candidate named James Green also ran in this election gaining over 4,000 votes. Along with Sullivan, five other NPA councillors were voted into Vancouver City Council chambers and formed a majority government.
On May 2, 2006, Sullivan provided a statement to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about his past decisions to provide money to illegal drug users. Sullivan claimed he did this because he believed drug addiction was a type of disability, and that the drug maintenance programs which he was advocating for reduced crime, disease, and help people manage their addiction disabilities. Because of increased public awareness surrounding these incidents during the mayoralty race, the Vancouver Chief of Police requested that the RCMP investigate these incidents.
Sullivan's statement gave a brief account of his decision to provide financial support to a 20-year-old woman working as a prostitute in his neighbourhood in the late 1990s, by providing $40 a day for three weeks for heroin. This story was originally featured five years earlier on the front page of the Vancouver Sun on December 2, 2000 in an article by reporter David Beers with little public comment. Sullivan also gave money to a severely addicted crack cocaine user so he did not have to steal and let him smoke in his van.
Sullivan has a long history with British Columbia's Chinese community and is the first Vancouver mayor capable of speaking basic Cantonese and of reading Chinese.[9] He also learned to make speeches in Punjabi.
Mayor Sullivan was the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary Citizen Sam. It premiered in November 2006, and the film was nominated for a Gemini Award.[10]
Sullivan took part in the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics, in the ceremony where the Olympic Flag was passed from Turin to Vancouver. The ceremony involves an official of the current host city waving the flag eight times, then handing it off to an official of the next host city, who waves it eight times. When it was his turn, the flag was put into a special bracket built into Sullivan's wheelchair by Jay Drew, a member of the Vancouver based Tetra volunteer society that Sam was also involved with. Holding it with one of his hands, Sullivan then swung his wheelchair back and forth eight times to wave the flag.
During a press conference before the Ceremony, Sullivan poked fun at his disability, questioning whether they "should send Vancouver's worst skier to the Olympics to represent the country."[11] Sullivan also revealed that he had practiced the flag waving in parking lots during nights.[12]
After the event, Sullivan received thousands of letters from people across the world who were inspired by the act, and received many invitations to be a keynote speaker at conventions. A reporter from NBC also offered to help him write his autobiography. "I especially was moved to get letters from people who wrote very eloquent letters, saying they had considered suicide, and changed their mind when they saw me perform my duties...To see I had such an impact on people's lives was truly a humbling experience," Sullivan said in response to the reaction.[13]
On March 19, 2006, Sullivan returned to Turin to repeat the flag ceremony process, this time for the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Paralympics. Sullivan received the flag from International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven and waved it in the same manner as the Olympic flag, then handed the flag over to Whistler mayor Ken Melamed. This marks the first time a physically disabled mayor has accepted the Paralympic flag in the closing ceremony. Sullivan remarked, "There are a lot of Paralympic athletes who have contacted me. They say the fact of my being a mayor in a major city, an Olympic and Paralympic city, sends a strong message that disabled people can play an important and crucial part in society."
Sullivan's return to Turin was also marked by people recognizing him on the street, most likely due to his appearance at the Olympic closing ceremonies a month earlier. "I would get out of the car in the central square, the piazza, and people would come up wanting to talk to me and wanting my autograph," said Sullivan. "I wasn't really aware that so many people knew who I was." [14]
Sullivan represented Vancouver at the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic games as a torchbearer giving several interviews on Chinese national media speaking in Mandarin.
On February 25, 2010, Sam Sullivan was announced Canada’s ambassador for the 2010 Winter Paralympics, held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, between March 12 and March 21, 2010.[15]
Sullivan conducted an informal survey on his website asking visitors how they felt about Civil Disorder in the City of Vancouver. On November 26, 2006, he released the results of his survey and created a new program called Project Civil City, which is known as the mayor's effort to enhance public order in Vancouver's public areas. The fundamental premise of Project Civil City was that police were not the answer the city's social problems. The Police Chief of that time was opposed to the Project saying "I'm not in favor of this kind of position" and "I can do this job".[16] Throughout his term Sullivan was criticized by the opposition for his reluctance to hire more police. An important initiative of Project Civil City was the creation of the Street to Home Foundation whose goal was to encourage philanthropists in the city to contribute toward the solution to homelessness.
There are four main goals of the project which include reducing homelessness, aggressive panhandling and the open drug market by at least 50% by 2010. Former Attorney General Geoff Plant was appointed to the new position of Civil City Commissioner to play a leadership role in helping to achieve the targets outlined by the Mayor. Project Civil City was opposed by a number of councilors on city council, but passed in a 6-5 vote. Critics have charged that the initiative amounts to little more than a campaign to further displace the city's homeless population and a repackaging the crackdown on crime that is already underway.
Sullivan traveled to Ottawa seven times, and to Victoria numerous times during his term to advocate for many issues. He offered 12 city-owned sites free of charge with no taxes for 60 years on the condition that social housing be built. The provincial government agreed to build up to 1200 units. He also committed to contribute $5 million to the provincial government toward the renovation of 18 SRO low income hotels dedicated to the hard-to-house.
As of January 2008, all the major initiatives of Project Civil City had failed. Sullivan predicted the project would see a 50% reduction in homelessness, drug offenses, and street disorder by 2010. However, in its first two years, homelessness went up 54 to 78 per cent, drug offenses doubled, and street disorder went up 84 per cent.[17] The project was cancelled in 2010.[18]
In 2010 the College of Family Physicians of Canada made Sullivan the only non-medical doctor that year to become an Honourary Member in recognition of his "efforts on behalf of marginalized inner city populations".[19]
In advance of the World Urban Forum held in Vancouver in June 2006, Mayor Sullivan was joined by a number of environmentalists, community activists and academics to launch his proposal called EcoDensity.[20] In a move that was roundly criticized by both community members and the local media, Sullivan's staff registered the term EcoDensity with the patent office under his name. Sullivan responded that the trademark was processed using city employees, was paid for by a city cheque with the address being City Hall and there was never any intention to personally gain from using the name.
EcoDensity has a goal of protecting the local and global ecology through the use of densification as a means of reducing the City's ecological footprint. Sullivan claims that by increasing density throughout the city, there will be a reduced requirement for people to make unnecessary car trips, hence reducing carbon emissions.
UBC Professor Patrick Condon advised Council during the EcoDensity debate that Vancouver was the first city in North America to unapologetically accept increased density as official city policy.
EcoDensity also aims to increase housing affordability as well as make cities more competitive by making them less reliant on fossil fuels. Sullivan indicates that if more cities around the world enacted EcoDensity principles, it would have a great impact on climate change. Recent changes to zoning permitting the construction of Laneway houses is an example of how the EcoDensity principles are being applied.
In 2009 the Canadian Institute of Planners gave the EcoDensity Initiative the highest award for City Planning.[21]
On Feb 26, 2007, Mayor Sullivan unveiled an initiative to assist the thousands of drug addicted individuals living in Vancouver.
CAST was a proposed research trial targeting chronically addicted people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Initially, researchers will place a particular emphasis on providing treatment for 700 chronic offenders (arrested 5 or more times in the last year) and survival sex trade workers.
CAST proposed to work with addicted people to change from using illegal street drugs to legally available, orally-administered prescription medications. After a consultation, Physicians will prescribe appropriate medications. Clients will be monitored on a regular basis and provided with counseling for their addiction issues and assistance with accessing supportive housing options.
Ending drug dependency is the ultimate goal of the trial. Substitution treatment is a means of reducing the users’ impact on public order and public health until durable solutions are reached.
In June 2007, CAST was formally approved in principle by the Vancouver City Council by a vote of 9 to 1. Only one City Councilor, George Chow, voted against the proposal while, Councilor Raymond Louie was absent for the vote.
The CAST concept was adopted by the Inner Change Foundation, which was founded by then Mayor Sam Sullivan. He recruited a politically diverse board and raised $200,000 which was used to develop the proposal for the SALOME Project drug maintenance research trial.
A civic strike of Vancouver's inside, outside, and library workers that began on July 26, 2007 was dubbed "Sam's Strike" by the strikers.[22] The unions personally blamed Sullivan's intransigence at the bargaining table for prolonging the strike.[23] In his defense Sullivan insisted that bargaining with the union was not the politician's role, and refused to be drawn into negotiations being conducted by the Greater Vancouver Labour Relations Bureau. The union cited the city never tabling a written counteroffer as evidence of the city not negotiating.[24] A mediator was called in who recommended 17.5% [21% compounded] which was the amount accepted by the rest of the municipalities in the region. When two of the civic unions rejected the recommendation public support collapsed and within the week a new vote by the three civic unions accepted the deal. On October 19, 2007 CUPE Local 391 voted 71 percent in favour of the city's offer and ended the strike.[25]
For their 2008 municipal election nominations, the NPA board ruled that incumbents should be "green-lighted" as nominees for the election thereby endorsing Sullivan as the NPA mayoral candidate. NPA councillor Peter Ladner eventually announced that he wanted to challenge Sullivan for mayor. Sullivan, and subsequently the other NPA incumbents, then announced that they would not exercise their option to be fast-tracked. Sullivan held the support of the majority of his caucus, with all members of NPA city council caucus except Ladner endorsing Sullivan's candidacy.
On June 8, 2008, it was announced that Peter Ladner had defeated Sullivan to win the NPA's mayoral nomination.[26] Ladner beat Sullivan in a tight, 1,066-to-986 vote after convincing enough NPA members that Sullivan would be defeated in the municipal election without a change in leadership. Ladner proceeded to lose against his mayoral opponent by a wide margin of nearly 20,000 votes.
In November 2009, after a year-long self-imposed hiatus from public view after leaving the Vancouver mayor's office, Sullivan announced he had formed the Global Civic Policy Society.[27] The Global Civic Policy Society is a charitable non-profit organization, started with a donation by the Annenberg Foundation among others, devoted to developing urban growth strategies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and seeking solutions to the problems caused by drug addiction and mental illness. The official goals of the Society are listed as encouraging a more knowledgeable citizenry and research and reflection on local government issues. It hosts a series of Public Salons at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre in collaboration with Green College UBC to disseminate the ideas of the "thinkers and doers of Vancouver". It also hosts Greeting Fluency seminars whose aim is to teach citizens seven useful phrases in the multicultural languages of the city.
In February 2011, Sullivan founded the Centre for Market Urbanism which seeks a greater role for economic analysis and market economics in the development of cities. The Centre was initiated on March 17, 2011 at 1:22 PM by David Owen, New Yorker Magazine staff writer and author of Green Metropolis.[28] At this time he also started the Metro Vancouver Sprawl Meter which measures the 9 ft.² per second of green space in the region that is converted to sprawl.[29]
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