Andrea Reimer is a Canadian politician, who served on

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

from 2008 to 2018. She was first elected in 2002 to the Vancouver School Board as a

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

candidate."2002 Election Results"
, ''Vancouver City Website'', Accessed September 1, 2009. She was defeated as a Green Party candidate in her re-election campaign in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

"2005 Election Results"
, ''Vancouver City Website'', Accessed September 1, 2009. and then joined the

Vision Vancouver Vision Vancouver is a green liberal municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vision was formed in the months leading up to the 2005 municipal election. Formation Vision was founded by former Coalition of Progressi ...

party to support Gregor Robertson's mayoral campaign.Naiobh O'Connor. "Green Party staple opts for new Vision". Vancouver Courier, May 7, 2008. She subsequently ran for and won a council seat in the 2008 municipal election."2008 Election Results"
''Vancouver City Website'', Accessed September 1, 2009. After serving four terms on council, she chose not to run for re-election in the 2018 municipal election. She is currently an adjunct professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

, and served on the UBC Board of Governors as a provincial appointee from December 2019 to October 2020.

Background

Reimer was born in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and put into

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state- certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family mem ...

.Linda Solomon. "The Wild Side of Intellect", ''Today's Vancouver Woman'', August 22, 2008. When she was eight months old, she was adopted by a couple from Vancouver who subsequently relocated to

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Janet Steffenhagen. "Protest started early for school trustee", ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

'', December 10, 2002. prior to her starting school. Reimer's adoptive parents divorced when she was a pre-teen. Reimer started smoking and drinking at the age of 10 and started to experiment with

illicit drugs The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. An area has a prohibition of drugs when its government uses the for ...

at the age of 11, and

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

at the age of 12. She was homeless between the ages of 14 and 19,"Andrea Reimer’s Rising Star"
, ''Today's Vancouver Woman'', August 23, 2008.O'Connor, Naoibh. "Street smarts", ''

Vancouver Courier The ''Vancouver Courier'' was a Canadian semi-weekly local newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by the Van-Net chain owned by Glacier Media Group. In 2007, it was Canada's largest distributed community newspaper, with a we ...

'', July 25, 2004, Page 1. which included travel to places throughout

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. During this period she dumpster-dived, got arrested several times, got involved in

hard drugs Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime. When a psychoactive drug enters the user's body, it induces an in ...

, and developed addictions. When she was 18, Reimer worked in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

at a low-income housing project, which she later cited as the catalyst for her environmental awareness."Crusaders for a green planet: Our emerging leaders", ''

'', February 17, 2007, Page B-2. Although an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, at 19 Reimer enrolled at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

to major in

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

. She

dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

during her first year after six weeks of classes, and moved to Vancouver. In Vancouver, Reimer joined a government-sponsored job training program and started working with Gordon Neighbourhood House Youth Works. She was then sent for a practicum to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. Reimer eventually worked her way up to become the executive director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee,"Andrea Reimer: Wilderness, Family, City Hall"
''

Vancouver Observer ''The Vancouver Observer'' is an independent online newspaper. The site was founded in 2006 by journalist Linda Solomon as an online platform for Vancouver bloggers, writers, reporters, photographers and filmmakers. Novelist Ruth Ozeki was invo ...

'', December 10, 2008.Doug Ward. "Vancity boss takes green lessons from Al Gore", ''

'', January 13, 2007. where she was paid approximately $2000 a month.Glenn Bohn. "Green winner will tackle Liberals: SCHOOL BOARD: Andrea Reimer says she expects 'tough times' ahead Series: Civic Election 2002", ''

'', November 18, 2002. While executive director of the Wilderness Committee, Reimer supported the creation of a

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions from producing goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the hidden Social cost of carbon, social costs of carbon emissions. They are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emis ...

by the BC Provincial Government. It was subsequently passed. In 2007, she was chosen by

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

to deliver the Inconvenient Truth presentation to local audiences.

Political career

Green Party

Reimer joined the

in 1996, and volunteered in the 1996 provincial election, the 1999 civic election, the 2000 federal by-election and the 2001 provincial election. She has held internal elected office as Communication Chair, Green Party of BC (1999–2002) and Chair, Green Party of Vancouver (2002–2008). Reimer was the first Green Party candidate elected to a school board seat in Canada when she was elected in 2002.Mike Howell. "Vision quest; Energetic and flooded with members, Vision Vancouver led by Gregor Robertson believes it's poised to take over city hall. But as a "progressive" party backed heavily by developers and casino operators, what does it really stand for?", ''

'', September 24, 2008. She ran for re-election as a Green Party candidate in 2005 yet was defeated.

Vision Vancouver

Reimer joined the

party to support Gregor Robertson's mayoral campaign, which she co-chaired. She subsequently ran forGerry Bellett. "Former Green seeks Vision; Ex-school trustee Reimer will run for city council nomination", ''

'', July 17, 2008.Catherine Rolfsen. "New faces vying for city seats; Vision, NPA slates have candidates targeting key demographics", ''

'', October 11, 2008. and won a council seat in the 2008 municipal election.

School Board

As a school trustee, Reimer supported efforts to remove vending machines and corporate logos from schools. She pushed for getting school garden programs into schools. In January 2003, she supported the Green Party's position against bringing the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

to Vancouver in 2010 due to concerns about the money it would require. In 2008 she characterized her position as still ambivalent about the money spent on the Olympics but prepared to put her full energy into ensuring the Games were as good as possible.

City Council

As City Councillor, Reimer was a member of Gregor Robertson's Greenest City Team. The team was tasked with catalyzing immediate action on green issues, a ten-year action plan to become the world's greenest city and creating an environment supportive of green economic development in the city of Vancouver. Reimer introduced a motion, which passed, to open Vancouver city data to the public and endorse the principles of

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

. Reimer introduced a motion, which passed unanimously, to allow Vancouver residents to keep hens in their backyards."Vancouver latest municipality to allow urban chickens"
, ''

'', March 4, 2009. The motion was opposed by the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Vancouver Humane Society, and the BC Poultry Association. The proposal was brought forward as a result of a recommendation from the City of Vancouver's Food Policy Council. Reimer's other appointments on Vancouver City Council included: * Chair, Standing Committee on Planning and Environment"Councillor Andrea Reimer"
''Vancouver City Website'', Accessed September 1, 2009. * Vancouver Economic Development Commission * Joint Childcare Council * Family Court-Youth Justice Committee Reimer also sat on the Metro Vancouver Regional District board and was appointed to the Regional Planning Committee, Agricultural Committee, Electoral Area A Committee and GVRD/UBC Joint Committee.

Twitter controversy

In October 2009, Reimer posted on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

regarding the British Columbia Minister of Housing and Social Development

Rich Coleman Richard Thomas Coleman is a Canadian politician and former police officer who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia, representing Fort Langley-Aldergrove from 1996 to 2017, and Langley East from 2017 to 2020 ...

's weight"Think before you Tweet"
''

CKNW CKNW (730 AM) is a commercial radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it broadcasts a talk radio format. Its offices and studios are in the TD Tower in Downtown Vancouver. CKNW is powered at 50,000 watts, ...

'', October 30, 2009. in response to provincial legislation proposed by Coleman to bring homeless people to shelters during extreme weather, even against their will. Reimer posted that instead of police bringing homeless people to shelters during extreme weather, she was thinking of introducing legislation to have the police bring Coleman to

Jenny Craig Jenny Craig, Inc., often known simply as Jenny Craig, is an American weight loss, weight management, and nutrition company. At its peak, the company had more than 700 weight management centers in Australia, the United States, Canada, and New Ze ...

, an international weight loss company, on his next visit to Vancouver."Impolitic Twitter post prompts apology"
''

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

'', October 31, 2009. Coleman responded by calling the comment amateurish and from a councillor that "doesn't know any better." Reimer later apologized for the posting.

Family

Reimer and her husband have a child. They live near Trout Lake in

East Vancouver East Vancouver (also called East Van or the East Side) is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the ea ...

References

External links

Andrea Reimer
at Vancouver City Council {{DEFAULTSORT:Reimer, Andrea 21st-century Canadian municipal councillors 21st-century Canadian women politicians British Columbia school board members Canadian environmentalists Canadian women environmentalists Green Party of British Columbia politicians Living people Politicians from Saskatoon Vision Vancouver councillors Women municipal councillors in British Columbia Year of birth missing (living people)