Scenes like this will hopefully disappear from our beaches now that the new bylaw has been passed.
“I’m not doing it. I’m not the guy who’s gonna lead the charge. If [the] park board decided that they wanted to vote in favour of that, I would probably vote in favour of that because I don’t think smoking is a good thing for anybody.” – former NPA Park Board Commissioner Marty Zlotnik, June 2007
“What I might be supportive of is testing. In other words, there may be a particular area of the beach that a family could go and know that in that area there is no smoking.” – current NPA Park Board Commissioner (and former chair) Ian Robertson, June, 2007
Last night the Park Board passed a groundbreaking decision to ban smoking in our parks and beaches. After listening to the proceedings, and monitoring the overwhelmingly positive news coverage, this was a decision that was long overdue.
This step is the natural progression within a city that has moved on from systematically banning indoor and patio smoking. The fact is that smoking within public spaces like beaches and parks – where families congregate for recreation – is simply not acceptable.
Park Board Commissioner Stuart MacKinnon had the line of the evening, when in his remarks he recounted an applicable saying his mother used to tell him:
“Your right to swing your fists ends at the tip of my nose.”
The decision, however, draws light to the fact that the previous NPA majority were not only gutless, but without any vision when it came to a clear political winner.
As can be seen from the above quotes, the ever elusive Marty Zlotnik was most likely too focused on his golf game (as it happens, Zlotnik was once again down in Arizona last night, preventing him from speaking about the First Tee Youth Golf program at last night’s meeting, which he had a lot to do with getting off the ground while he was a commissioner).
As for Ian Robertson, his wishy-washy position from a few years ago carried over to last night, where he didn’t even bother to show up for the decision.
Maybe if the former NPA park board majority had spent more time meeting and consulting with the community (check out page 7 for the contrast between then and now), maybe they would have understood that this is a political accomplishment that they could have benefitted from.
Regardless of who has done it however, this is something that will improve the quality of life in the City of Vancouver. Period.
In fact, I am going to be bold and state that this might be the most significant and impactful decision made by this current incarnation of the Park Board thus far into the term.
Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen (minus the nowhere-to-be-found Robertson).
