August 09, 2022
TEAM For A Livable Vancouver has nominated four candidates to run for seats on the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation in the October 15 civic election.
TEAM believes the Park Board has gone seriously off-track over the past decade. City Council has taken away its authority over operations and facilities, and the Board is now focusing on priorities outside its core mandate of maintaining and enhancing parks and recreation for all Vancouverites.
A TEAM majority on the seven-member Board would work to ensure that Stanley Park and other parks in the city are accessible to all, that parks and recreation facilities are safe and well-maintained, and that the system expands to meet the needs of a growing population. TEAM Commissioners would emphasize walkable parks and recreation facilities, including off-leash dog parks, in each neighbourhood.
A TEAM-majority Park Board would stay within its core mandate, while a TEAM-majority City Council would restore the Park Board’s authority over its operations and facilities.
TEAM’s four Park Board candidates, chosen at a Zoom meeting of members on Monday, August 8, are:
Kathleen Larsen. Kathleen combines a background in urban planning and heritage preservation with an enthusiasm for Vancouver’s parks and recreation facilities. North-Vancouver-born, she moved to Vancouver in 1986, where she studied regional planning at UBC and urban design at SFU. She was a community and heritage planner for the District of North Vancouver from 1990 to 2017, and since 2021 has been a director on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. Extremely active, she’s a long-time powerlifter, runner, and biking enthusiast who frequently uses the Arbutus Greenway and city parks and recreation centres.
Michelle Mollineaux. Michelle was born in London, England, and moved to Canada in 1983. She spent more than two decades in marketing and business development management in the high-tech sector. Her accomplishments include the co-founding of KoolProjects, a free social enterprise platform where people or organizations can showcase projects from start to finish. At Science World, she developed an award-winning networking program to help connect young people with science and technology leaders. A soccer mom for the last ten years, she’d like to see expansion of parks and sports fields, safer parks and recreation facilities, and the updating of existing community centres while the possibility of building new ones is explored. She also recognizes the importance of increased accessibility for children and seniors’ programs, and of resolving the confrontational issue of cars and bikes in Stanley Park.
Patrick Audley. An active member of Vancouver’s startup and development communities whose projects have ranged from supercomputing to genetics, Patrick brings a wealth of problem-solving skills to the Park Board. Recent work in geospatial and satellite analysis has given him a new view of the challenges the city faces. He’s drawn to the Park Board because he believes green spaces and public amenities have the power to shape society and provide a level of enjoyment, beauty and education that lifts everyone.
James Buckshon. Born and raised in Vancouver, where he’s worked in the arts since 1983, James has lived or operated businesses in many of the city’s neighbourhoods. He knows the city’s parks well, and in his travels to 30 countries, has watched how other cities approach their parks. He believes the most important role of Park Board Commissioner is to protect and maintain parks, keep them natural, beautiful and safe, and to ensure they are operational and affordable for all, especially families.
Read the good ideas in TEAM's Parks and Recreation platform. Scroll down that page for a link to further details.