From page 13 Ernie Crist was and what Ernic Crist wanted, Other battles during this time included taking on the Greater Vancouver Regional District over plans to turn the North Shore into a high-den- sity residential area, and fighting off a developer who had sights on Maplewood Mud Flats. Like many public figures, Crist is slow and guarded when offering details about his personal life. He married his Canadian-bom wife Joyce in 1959, and had two children with her. Their son David is principal trumpet in the German Opera of the Rhine Orchestra, and Crist talks enthusiastically of the 33- year-old’s musical successes, Crist’s. mood changes, however, when asked about his daughter Katherine, who died in 1985 at the age of 26 in a diabetic coma. “When you bury your mum or your dad or your uncle or your sister that's very cruel,” Crist says, slow- ly and deliberately, “But when you have to bury your own children (pauses) that's truly terrible.” Katherine hurt her back in a fall and was prescribed pain killers that made her sick to her stomach. The tragic mix- ture of her daily shot of insulin on an empty stomach plunged her into a coma she Grant support for care A $48,038 GRANT will help North Vancouver District and. the North Shore Neighbourhood House renovate and expand a child-care facil- ity. “Families in our commu- nity have made it clear that they need more school-age and special. nceds_ child care,” said North Vancouver- Lonsdale MLA David Schreck. The grant is for Lynn Valley Kids Club's out-of- school care program. It includes special needs support. The North Shore Neigh- bourhood House Society has been serving families in North Vancouver for 56 years, The new funds will be used to renovate the Lynn Valley Kids Club. The facility will be increasing its capacity from 25 to 30 children and expanding its out-of-school care program. The centre also includes programming for special needs children. The grant is among 14, totalling $631,744, awarded through the facilities and equipment grant program. The funding will help create 424 new child-care spaces in communities around the province. The facilities and equip- ment grant program matches funding provided by non- profit, societies and local governments to create new licensed child-care spaces. The grants are awarded uvice a year by the provin- cial government. a never awoke from. Crist will be forever coming lo terms with the loss of his only daughter. Since his election in 1979, Crist has served on seven councils, and has become known as a development watchdog on council. He credits his longtime voter support to this fact, but adds he doesn't think, even after being elected seven times, as devel that voters would make him mayor. He notes that to get the financing to run for mayor (he figures at least $25,000), he would have to compro- mise his position by accept- ing monies from developers, Indeed, during his last campaign he received a cheque for $1,000, a turkey and a bottle of wine from a well-known North Shore development compuny. “EL sent the cheque back, donated the turkey to the North Shore Christmas Bureau and gave the bottle of wine away,” he says. A recent setback for the councillor was a hip-replace- ment operation that needed to be repeated after the first hip didn't take. But the tenacious, bull- dog-like upproach — Crist- Wednesday, May 1, 1996 - North Shore News - 18 watchers have grown accus- tomed to served him well as he is buck in his routine of walking through the Seymour Demonstration Forest at [east once a week, Testimony to Crist’s never-stop attitude can be culled from any reporter or editor who has come into the arbit of the whirling dervish that is Ernie Crist when he has an issue to discuss. lopment watchdog “In a weaker moment | was foolish enough to give Ernie my home fax number," admits former North Shore News editor Noel Wright, a decided conservative who has respect for Crist, Such respect from people of conservative views is a refiection of Crist's steadfast integrity, and likely why Ernie Crist has no regrets about his past. en Mom.said she loved the wafflemaker and the photo album, ~ f-she might have been exaggerating.) Ea ’ ne ¥ ton’s. We want to be your store.