Sam Sullivan
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Categories: Articles needing additional references from July 2007 | Articles with sections needing expansion | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007 | 1960 births | Living people | Mayors of Vancouver | Members of the Order of Canada | Politicians with physical disabilities | Simon Fraser University alumni | People with quadriplegia | Vancouver city councillors
Sam Sullivan, CM (born 1960) is the Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Early lifeSam Sullivan was born in 1960 to East Vancouver residents Lloyd and Ida Sullivan. His father ran Sully's Autoparts on East Hastings Street. He has brothers named Terry Sullivan and Pat Sullivan. Sam Sullivan attended Vancouver Technical Secondary School. QuadriplegicSullivan became paralyzed after he broke his neck in a skiing accident at the age of 19. After a struggle with depression, he successfully completed a Bachelor of Business Administration degree at Simon Fraser University. Sullivan later founded six non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life for disabled people in North America. Though he is considered quadriplegic, Sullivan has retained the use of his feet and hands to limited degrees, and can thus write, use the telephone, and drive.[1]
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 purpose-built catapult, at the Vancouver Canadians minor league team's home opener at Nat Bailey Stadium. City councillorAfter 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 lots to do with that area. Sullivan was first elected to Vancouver City Council in 1993 as a member of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA). With twelve years of council experience, Sullivan is currently the longest-serving member of the 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 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. 2005 mayoral raceFollowing 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. Because of increased public awareness surrounding these incidents after 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 heroin 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. Sullivan said he bought crack in 2001 for 41-year-old drug user and Downtown Eastside resident Shawn Millar, and let him smoke it in his van. Sullivan's version differs slightly from Millar's in a few places, most notably in who suggested going back to buy drugs a second time. Millar said in previous interviews with The Vancouver Sun that Sullivan complained to him after the first buy that he hadn't been able to really see what happened, and that he asked Millar to go back a second time to get more drugs so he could observe more closely what happened. Sullivan says in his statement that Millar bought drugs once and "smoked it while seated in my passenger seat" before Sullivan started driving him home. "But partway there he said he wanted to go back for more. I agreed, but asked him if he could tell me what he was looking for as he weaved through the crowds. I parked in what I thought was a better location to see the deal and gave him money."[2] Olympic and Paralympic GamesImage:Sullivanflag.jpg
Sullivan waving the Olympic flag at the closing cermonies of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.
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 holder built into Sullivan's wheelchair by James 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."[3] Sullivan also revealed that he had practiced the flag waving in parking lots during nights.[4] 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. [5] Image:Sullivan-Paralympics.JPG
Sullivan accepting the Paralympic flag at the closing cermonies of the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Turin.
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 Phillip 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." [6] Project Civil CitySullivan 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. 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.[7] Police boardBy virtue of being mayor, Sullivan also serves as chair of the police board and was at odds with then-Chief Constable Jamie Graham on various occasions. Graham had Sullivan investigated during his election campaign for admitting that he gave money to drug addicts to purchase narcotics and then allowing the drugs to be consumed in his van. On another occasion, Sullivan sought the advice of the Police Complaints Commissioner after Chief Graham left a bullet-riddled target on the City Manager's desk. No formal punitive action was taken in either case. In August 2007, the Vancouver Sun reported that Anna Lilly, the mayor's former spokesperson, had confirmed that she edited out this incident from his Wikipedia biography. Her edit was reverted shortly thereafter.[8] Deputy Chief Jim Chu was recently appointed as the new Chief of Police for Vancouver. The new Chief Constable is anticipated to have a much stronger relationship with the Mayor than the previous Chief.[9] EcoDensityIn 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. In a move that was roundly criticized by both community members and the local media, Sullivan registered the term EcoDensity with the patent office under his 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. CAST (Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment)On Feb 26, 2007, Mayor Sullivan unveiled an initiative to assist the thousands of drug addicted individuals living in Vancouver. CAST is 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 will 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. Civic strikeA civic strike of Vancouver's inside, outside, and library workers that began in July 2007 has been dubbed "Sam's Strike" by the strikers. The unions personally blame Sullivan's intransigence at the bargaining table for prolonging the strike.[10]
2008 mayoral raceFor their 2008 nominations, the NPA decided to allow incumbents to be "green-lighted" as nominees for the election. 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.
Trivia
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