West Vancouver Coun. Michael Lewis has died.
Lewis, a three-term council member and longtime volunteer who supported the arts and autism advocacy, died early Saturday morning after a brief illness with lung cancer. He was 66.
His council colleagues are mourning the loss of a soft-spoken and reasoned member of the council who had a good sense of humour.
“Today is a very sad day for everyone who knew and worked with Michael…” said Mayor Michael Smith. “Our thoughts are really with his wife and his two boys. We wish them all the best. He will be very much missed as a member of our council.”
West Vancouver residents have Lewis to thank for helping to ensure their taxes were kept low, Smith said.
“I would think his biggest legacy is his commitment to fiscal prudence and responsibility,” Smith said. “We’ve kept our tax increases, since he was on council, to below the rate of inflation. I think he can take a large amount of the credit for that. He was constantly challenging our senior staff to look for ways of doing things more effectively and efficiently.”
During council sessions, Smith regarded Lewis as a voice of reason who spoke up only when he had a measured and thoughtful comment to add to the debate.
“With all the politicking and the posturing that goes on in council, Michael never varied from the reason he felt he was there, which was to make the best decisions he could for the community. He wasn’t there to promote himself or play any games,” Smith said. “He didn’t speak just for the camera time. He really was quite unique and quite special. He was quiet and thoughtful and when he did have something to add, people listened.”
Those were qualities that applied in equal measure to his life outside council, according to Lewis’s wife, Jean.
Since Lewis’s illness became public, his family was deluged with calls and letters of support not only from West Vancouver residents but also frontline workers in the municipality and people across Canada.
Jean said from the time she and her husband met, he was always a very service-minded man, interested in looking after the needs of others.
“He always had this capacity and this huge empathy for people in need of help,” she said.
When their youngest son was diagnosed with autism, the family became highly involved in the autism treatment and advocacy movement, including spearheading landmark lawsuits that opened up more funding of treatment.
“He was able to do for our son what we needed to do but he took it a step further and said ‘This wrong needs to be corrected for every other child. It starts with fairness and justice. Just because we can afford it, what about everyone else that can’t?’”
Stemming from his advocacy, he became president of the Autism Society of British Columbia and then the Autism Society of Canada. He also was a president of the British Columbia Boys Choir board of directors and was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his volunteerism.
Lewis took a “no call too small” attitude in his constituency work, Jean said. He once personally saw to a senior who didn’t know what to do about a dead crow on her patio, and he would frequently visit the site of even minor variances being requested of council, she added.
“Whatever he did, he did well,” she said. “I think his legacy will be a culmination of all of his public service, whether it’s political, disability advocacy or arts advocacy. He was a very multi-faceted person”
The district will be lowering its flags to half-mast in Lewis’s memory and setting up a book of condolences for residents to sign at municipal hall.
A public memorial has been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 15 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Gleneagles Golf Course clubhouse.
Under the Local Government Act, the municipality must appoint an elections officer “as soon as practicable” after an elected member has died and a byelection must be held on a Saturday within 80 days of a chief electoral officer being appointed.
