Four of five Vision Vancouver park board commissioners, including chair Aaron Jasper, will not seek re-election for the board in the November civic election.
Meanwhile vice-chair Constance Barnes told the Courier this week she also will not seek a third term on the board. Instead, Barnes will seek a federal nomination with the NDP to run in Vancouver-Centre, a years-long stronghold of Liberal MP Hedy Fry.
While commissioner Niki Sharma announced in February she will be seeking a Vision nomination for council, both Sarah Blyth and Jasper are putting politics on hold while they raise young families.
The Courier was not able to reach Trevor Loke, the lone Vision Vancouver commissioner to not make an announcement about his future in past weeks, before deadline.
Jasper said he came to his conclusion while recently signing his three-year-old daughter up for swimming lessons and soccer. He said he realized what he’d be missing if he continued with the board. Jasper and his wife Arminder also have a son who is almost one-year-old. He said serving on the board would mean too many missed family dinners, soccer games and walks in the park.
Jasper is a two-term commissioner and served as chair for three of those six years. He says his goal in running was to make the park board more accessible and accountable to the residents of this city.
Jasper noted his first three years in office were difficult as the board was forced to make dramatic moves to recover from the recession.
“We had to sort out the budget,” said Jasper. “And that meant some really tough decisions. Staff asked us did we want to close the farmyard and the petting zoo or the farmyard and the Bloedel Conservatory? Those were the kinds of decisions we were forced to make.”
Jasper said his leaving has nothing to do with the ongoing, often contentious issues and discussions surrounding the joint operating agreement between the park board and the city’s community centre associations. While 12 of the associations are still in discussions regarding the new JOA, six filed lawsuits against the park board last fall.
“I remember when I ran with COPE in 2001, 2002, the JOA was under discussion,” said Jasper. “I felt it was an obligation that people had invested in us as politicians to get this done, no matter what kind of bruising we took. At the end of the day it’s been very productive and respectful and if I can finish out this term knowing the JOA is complete, I’ll be happy with that.”
Sharma has been endorsed by several Vision Vancouver elected officials, including school board chair Patti Bacchus and city councillors Geoff Meggs and Andrea Reimer. Sharma, the mother of a five-month-old girl, is a lawyer who specializes in aboriginal law, representing residential school survivors and working for band councils across B.C.
Blyth told the Courier in March she would not seek a third term on park board at the request of her 10-year-old son.
Blyth, who works evening shifts at her job as a seniors outreach worker at a low-income apartment building in the Downtown Eastside, said her son Sebastian made it clear he wanted to spend more time with her.
“He asked me not to run, so I’m not going to,” Blyth told the Courier in March.
sthomas@vancourier.com
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(This story has been updated since it first appeared online.)
