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“Well-rounded learning is important for everyone and especially for people in decision-making roles,” says Sullivan.
At 47 years of age, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan boasts a track record that would make politicians twenty years his senior blanch. In addition to his decade-plus experience in municipal politics, Sullivan is also a member of the Order of Canada, the founder of six charitable foundations, an experienced inventor with over 60 creations to his name, is fluent in Cantonese, Punjabi and French (and can read Chinese.) In light of these accomplishments his well-publicized status as Canada’s first-ever disabled mayor seems more like a footnote. Yet it’s that disability—the result of a skiing accident as a teenager—that ended up laying the groundwork for his infamous overachieving personality.
The accident happened during a downhill skiing trip in the late 1970s, and it left the energetic 19-year-old Sullivan paralyzed from the waist down, with limited use of his hands and arms. After being told by friends, family and his doctors to lower his expectations, Sullivan fell into a deep depression which eventually manifested itself in suicidal thoughts. Over the next seven years he became increasingly reclusive, shutting himself into his home and relying more and more on homecare workers for his daily activities.
Then he began volunteering at the Canadian Paraplegic Association, where he wrote a series of articles profiling successful disabled Canadians. The personal, redemptive stories of people like Stan Stronge, Doug Mowat and Ed Desjardins made Sullivan realize that he could build a meaningful life for himself. “I learned, when I wrote the profile series, that others in my situation had expected a lot from life and achieved astonishing things,” Sullivan explains. “I came to the conclusion that I was the only person holding myself back.”
In the two-decades since, Sullivan has become known in his home province for being an overachieving and inspirational leader who devours learning opportunities.
Sullivan’s accident left him a C4/5 quadriplegic, meaning his injury occurred high enough on his spinal column to qualify him as a quadriplegic—but low enough that he retained some use of his hands (he can still write, drive and use the telephone.) Not surprisingly, a huge part of his learning involved devising better ways for him to get around more independently. One of the earliest results of these efforts was a series of inventions geared toward helping people with disabilities enjoy the outdoors—a near-requisite part of life in British Columbia. One of the most successful of these efforts was the TrailRider; a high-tech chair with wheels that, when pulled by human “sherpas”, allows quadriplegics to experience the pleasures of off-road hiking. Since 1995, hundreds of people have taken advantage of the TrailRider and it has been used on two trips to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
“People are disabled by the barriers and obstacles in their lives,” Sullivan says. “What I have worked to do is remove those barriers, so that a person’s physical impairment is not so disabling.”
Over the past year, the profile of Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan earned an international dimension thanks to his role in a moving flag ceremony at the closing of the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. His landmark appearance there—the first-ever by a disabled mayor—was witnessed by millions of TV viewers around the world, and brought global attention to many of his causes.
To watch video of the Olympic ceremony, see Sam Sullivan’s website.
To watch Sullivan’s visit with the CBC’s Rick Mercer, see the Rick Mercer Report website.
In June, Mayor Sullivan was on hand in Vancouver to help launch a pilot project between the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) and the Vancouver Learning Initiative. The year-long Community Learning Strategy will see Vancouver utilize data from CCL’s innovative Composite Learning Index to develop a customized profile of learning conditions in Canada’s third-largest city. To read more about this new program, see CCL’s announcement for the Community Learning Strategy.
For example, his British Columbia Mobility Opportunities Society offers people with disabilities chances to explore wilderness areas, while the Disabled Sailing Association of B.C. teaches disabled people how to take part in sailing. The Tetra Society meanwhile recruits engineers and technicians to volunteer with disabled people to help modify their environments in innovative and personalized ways.
The fundraising skills and community connections that Sullivan developed during this period quickly brought him to the attention of Vancouver-area politicians. In 1993 Grace McCarthy, a cabinet minister in the former provincial government, informed Sullivan that he was expected to run for Vancouver city council. “She announced I would be running for the position and that was that,” he explains. His new career in public life began later that year, when he was elected to council on the upstart Non-Partisan Association slate. Over the next 12 years he earned a reputation as a bit of a maverick, backing controversial environmental bills and championing the use of safe-injection sites for heroin addicts. His political career culminated in a come-from-behind victory during the 2005 mayoral race, when he beat frontrunner Jim Green for the top job in Canada’s third-largest city.
Sullivan has surprised many onlookers by the unique brand of intellectualism and audacity that he has brought to his role of mayor. A voracious reader, he believes a successful politician must acquire perspective on the state of knowledge in society by learning as much as possible from great thinkers. “Well-rounded learning is important for everyone and especially for people in decision-making roles. I read about science and philosophy and economics because it makes sense to benefit as much as possible from the discoveries and thoughts of others, and to build on those discoveries and thoughts.”
For example, Sullivan learned Cantonese by watching university-course videos during his lengthy morning routine which can take hours.
But he readily acknowledges that his critical learning experiences have come from a host of non-intellectual sources as well. Life experience has taught Mr. Sullivan compassion and empathy, which has equipped him with an interesting and controversial world view—one that distinguishes him from many of his political rivals. For example, he regards drug addiction as a disability not unlike his own.
“People used to tell me that I could walk if I just tried hard enough—that other people with spinal cord injuries had walked,” he recalls. “It’s the same thing telling a drug addict that he can quit. Many of them can not quit and I know what it’s like to face an impossible task because I’ve been there.”
As a result, Sullivan is a proponent of expanded heroin maintenance programs in Vancouver. This landed him in hot water during the mayoral race after reporters learned that he had allowed a crack-addicted friend to consume drugs in his van. “I didn’t do it because I believe drugs are a good or useful thing, I did it because I wanted to understand more about my friend’s situation.”
But his mayoral career hasn’t been all controversy. His role as the flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy vaulted Sullivan to near-celebrity status after it was viewed by an audience around the globe. The unexpected image of Sullivan propping up the white flag in a specially designed holder and then waving it the customary eight times using his electric wheelchair, sparked thousands of letters, calls and e-mails to his office from both disabled and able-bodied viewers.
That appearance generated media interest from across Canada and the globe; including numerous interviews with U.S. TV networks, an offer of a book deal for his autobiography, a documentary about his life, and a visit from CBC Television personality Rick Mercer. Sullivan’s appearance on the Rick Mercer Report neatly summarized both his uncompromising outlook and his down-to-earth attitude about his new-found fame. In the midst of a leisurely hike with Mercer, Sullivan (who is strapped into a TrailRider) suddenly decides to go off-road; dragging the befuddled and muddy host with him. When Mercer inquires about his status as Canada’s first disabled mayor, Sullivan deadpans: “You can’t get anywhere in politics these days unless you're a quadriplegic.”