Don Lanskail

\ on twin towers,
developers and
West Van growth

- hy did you get involved
in politics? ‘‘I started
off in communications
. engineering at UBC,
an but then I started getting involved
in student affairs, as president of
the United Nations Association at
. UBC and as president of the young
liberal club. [ decided quite early
. . in the game that 1 was never going
an to be satisfied building telephone
i pole lines, so I switched to law.""

teat Did you ever run for provincial of-
Te fice? ‘‘Yes, the election of 1952,
and it was the only election I ever
lost. I ran in Delta as a Liberal
candidate. There’s a joke that I tell
people: ‘I ran a perfect campaign
except for three mistakes — I ran
for the wrong party, in the wrong
riding at the wrong time."”’

Why did you run for mayor?
“During retirement, and I kept
track of them, 49 people asked me
to run for mayor. It was never a
hunger on my part. I could have
been mayor on at least two occa-
sions during my career on council
om but you can’t be mayor and work
é full-time. I never had any over-
whelming desire to be mayor, but
, there appeared to be a real need
rn for change at that time and I
me decided to respond to those re-
. v4 quests.””

_ From page 32
council by acclamation. ‘*That’s
almost unheard of as an alder-
: man,”’ he points out, ‘‘And that
nr : was after serving for 18 years.’’
: But Lanskail wasn’t born with a
y silver spoon in his mouth. Things
8 : didn’t always go according to plan.
wae In 1962, for example, he reluc-
tantly rejected an offer to run in
a the federal Liberal riding of Bur-
a rard-Vancouver. ‘‘If I’d been born
so : with money,’’ he says looking
: back, ‘‘which I wasn’t, | would
an have probably had a career at the
oO provincial or federal level. But I
. had to work for a living and sup-
: . port my family, which was my
eo primary responsiblity. That’s a
rule I’ve always followed. And I’ve
never relied on politics for
money.”’
: Family is sacred to Lanskail.
- Hanging on the wall of his office is
: the original 1851 copy of his
: . great-grandfather’s sailing ship
ee, . papers, which he removes carefully

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i Family matters to Lanskail

33 - Sunday, April 8,

INFLUENCE

= . NEWS phato Nell Lucen
A GREAT believer in team work, Mayor Don Lanskail consults with West Vancouver's municipal clerk. Doug
Allan.

What has been your mast difficult
issue as mayor? ‘‘The 320 Taylor
Way issue. That decision was
decided in 1981 under Derek
Humphreys and it received the
unanimous support of council.
Quite frankiy, we were naive
because we didn’t realize the
Ambleside Ratepayers were going
to stir up the pot again and get
trouble started.”’

over 26 votes. ! believe the
municipality was totally justified in
what it did. Some people just have
an endemic hatred of highrises, but
they're part of the housing stock
and they’re necessary.”’

the referendum was in two parts.
Seventy five per cent said they
wanted us to develop the land for
revenue; there was a margin of 26
votes against building a highrise on
the land. Now the ones who voted
against any revenue production
were the same ones who voted
against the highrise.

If you read the thing as a whole,
there was a clear expression by the
community that they wanted reve-
nue production and the maximum
revenue production. And it
wouldn’t have been right to put the
community in an expensive lawsuit

On charges that development in
West Vancouver has increased at
too fast a pace: ‘Absolutely not.
Some people don’t want any
growth. Once they move here they
say, ‘I’m the last one here and
from now on, no one else can
move here.’ Obviously that’s not a
very workable position. The

Why did you decide to go ahead
with the Twin Fowers when the
majority of residents voted no to
it? ‘You have to understand that

and reads aloud, line by line. ‘It
says here he was allowed these ra-
tions: three quarts of water daily,
two and half pounds of biscuits,
one pound of wheat..."’

And while his great-grandfather
made a great sea voyage to bring
his family to Canada, Lanskail is
content to have made a lasting
contribution to his family’s latest
port of call.

—Evelyn Jacob

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growth in West Van is much lower
than other areas, but the popula-
tion is going to increase in the
region and every part of the region
has to accept some of that
growth.”*

On charges that developers have
gotten away with too much: ‘‘No,
that’s not true. People tefl us we
have the tightest controls of any
municipality in the Lower
Mainiand.**

On relations with his aldermen:
“They’re good. One of them —
the new alderman (Caroi Ann
Reynolds) — is a bit more dif-
ficult, but that will come in time.
She’s a bit different. It’s just
another problem that has to be
solved somehow.”’

Strengths as mayor: ‘‘I think I
have a record that shows I have
more than average amount of
competence and ability, and I’m
able to work with council as a
team. Things couldn’t have been
done if I tried to run the whole
show by myself.”

Weaknesses: ‘‘I have too much
difficulty saying no sometimes.
I’m a person who likes to get along
with people. Also, trying to do too
much.”*

On his hobbies: ‘‘I play golf and
curl a little bit. I’m a fly and
steelhead fisherman. I haven't
been able to do that for years but
I'll get back to it when I retire.”

On what te plans to do with
retirement; ‘I don’t know yet. I
will not be vegetating.’’

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