Former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen dead at 88

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A former three-time mayor is being remembered as a true Vancouverite, through and through. Philip Owen has died at the age of 88. He served as the city’s 36th mayor between 1993 and 2002.

According to a statement, Owen died on Thursday from complications related to Parkinson’s disease.

Before his time as mayor, he was elected to the Vancouver Park Board in 1978 and served on Vancouver City Council as of 1986. Owen was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2008.

“As a family we have always been proud of our father,” said his son, Christian Owen. “He loved this city, every part of it, and you could see this in how he found the right balance, even when it came to the toughest issues. He was a gentleman and a devoted Vancouverite, right to the end.”

He passed on the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court Ruling keeping Insite going.

“There’s certainly some serendipity there,” said Christian. “The fact that Insite was open and he had to fall on a political sword to get that done — that will be, I think, the most long-lasting legacy.”

#BREAKING: Former three-term Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen has died at the age of 88. A statement from his family reveals he died of complications from Parkinson's Disease. Owen was best known for being a champion of the Four Pillars Drug Strategy. #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/R4iLkTnSM4

— John Ackermann ???? (@jackermann) October 1, 2021

“He was, at least in my opinion, probably one of the best mayors — if not the best mayor — that Vancouver ever had,” said Senator Larry Campbell, who succeeded Owen.

Campbell says Owen’s legacy is the Four Pillars Drug Strategy, which emphasizes prevention, treatment, enforcement, and harm reduction. Some of Owen’s work led to the establishment of Insite, the first supervised injection site in North America.

“His leadership on the opioid crisis was the start that obviously has not finished and has not gone as well as we’ve wanted,” Campbell said. “It saved lives and was landmark, as far as addressing drug problems.”

"If he hadn't been treated so shabbily by [the NPA], I would never have gone into politics," says Campbell who succeed Owen in 2002. "Because he would have continued on. But it was as a result of that that I actually ran for mayor, yes, that's true."

— John Ackermann ???? (@jackermann) October 1, 2021

On a personal level, Campbell remembers Owen as a gentleman.

“Always a gentleman. Every dealing I had with him, he was kind to me, considering I was probably of a different political stripe,” he said.

Owen was born and raised in Vancouver. He was a student at Prince of Wales Secondary School, and later attended New York University.

He was well known for being a champion of the Four Pillars Drug Strategy, and some of his work led to the establishment of the first supervised injection site in North America, Insite.

The former mayor is survived by his wife, Brita, their children, several grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.