Peter Ladner (born February 12, 1949) is a former

Vancouver 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 ...

lor,

Metro Vancouver The Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD), or simply Metro Vancouver, is a Canadian political subdivision and Corporation, corporate entity representing the metropolitan area of Greater Vancouver, designated by provincial legislation as o ...

vice-chair and business owner. Ladner has more than 40 years of journalistic experience in print, radio and television; is the author of ''The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities'', published by New Society in November, 2011; and is a frequent speaker on business, food, community and sustainability issues. From 2009–2011, he was a Fellow at the Simon Fraser University Centre for Dialogue, researching, teaching and organizing public events around the theme ''Planning Cities as if Food Matters''. He has a lifelong interest in growing food. As a city councilor, he worked with the Vancouver Food Policy Council in initiating the city’s program to add 2010 food-producing

community garden A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plot ...

plots by 2010.

Early life and education

His paternal grandfather was the founding partner of what has now merged into Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, a prominent Canadian law firm, Peter Ladner grew up in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood of

. His ascendants also originally settled and gave their name to the community of Ladner,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Career

Pre-politics

Ladner briefly attended the nearby St. George's School, before graduating from

Shawnigan Lake School Shawnigan Lake School is a co-educational independent boarding school located on Vancouver Island in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded by Englishman Christopher Lonsdale, Christopher Windley "C. W." Lonsdale in 1916 and was p ...

on Vancouver Island, and proceeding on to 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 ...

where he obtained a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Sociology and completed one year of a

Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Urban Planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

. Ladner worked for the ''

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 ...

'' as a journalist for parts of two summers while attending UBC. He later worked at newspapers on Vancouver Island and was editor of the

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

alternative weekly ''

Monday Magazine ''Monday Magazine'' is a free arts and entertainment magazine in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Contrary to what the name suggests, ''Monday'' was distributed throughout the greater Victoria area every Thursday until July 2013 when it became ...

'' from 1981 to 1986. He has written for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', ''

Canadian Business ''Canadian Business'' is the longest-publishing business magazine based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and founded in 1927. The print edition terminated in the end of 2016. Beginning in January 2017, the magazine was published online only. In Octob ...

'' and '' Saturday Night''. Peter Ladner co-founded the weekly newspaper ''

Business in Vancouver ''Business in Vancouver'' (''BIV'') is a weekly business news journal co-founded in 1989 by Peter Ladner in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Published on Tuesdays it receives about 62,000 readers per week with a print circulation of about 1,8 ...

'' (BIV) in 1989 and worked as a BIV columnist until 20127. With a weekly readership of 60,000, BIV is branded as Vancouver's leading source of business news, targeted at senior decision-makers. It is responsible for several prominent recognition events including the Top 40 Under 40 awards and the Influential Women in Business awards. Business in Vancouver Media Group also publishes an online daily newsletter and numerous magazines and special publications. As publisher of BIV he was nominated for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Media category in 1999.

Political career

As a former member of

Vancouver City Council Vancouver City Council is the governing body of Vancouver, British Columbia. The council consists of a mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city ...

, Ladner was a director of TransLink and vice-chair of

, the Regional District. He has been vice-chair of the Metro Vancouver Sustainable Region Initiative and a member the World Urban Forum Committee. On City Council, he chaired the budget committee and was a member of committees on transportation and traffic and planning and environment. He was also a member of the Vancouver Economic Development Commission. During his time on

, Ladner was a sustainability and liveability advocate on issues such as transportation,

green buildings Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's l ...

, energy use, and

waste reduction Waste minimisation is a set of processes and practices intended to reduce the amount of waste produced. By reducing or eliminating the generation of harmful and persistent wastes, waste minimisation supports efforts to promote a more sustain ...

. He championed

greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...

reduction, setting a goal of making Vancouver

carbon neutral Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and Greenhouse gas removal, removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon diox ...

by 2030. An avid cyclist, Ladner introduced the first motion in favour of a

bike sharing A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. B ...

program. On June 8, 2008, Ladner won the

Non-Partisan Association The Non-Partisan Association (NPA) is a municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was established by the city's business leaders in 1937 to challenge the democratic socialist British Columbia CCF, Co-operative Commonwe ...

's mayoral nomination for the 2008 municipal election, defeating incumbent mayor

Sam Sullivan Sam C. Sullivan (born November 13, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the MLA for Vancouver-False Creek. Previously, he served as the Minister of Communities, Sport, and Cultural Development with responsibility for Translink in the ...

in a surprise upset. He defeated Sullivan by 1,066 to 986 votes, after convincing NPA members that Sullivan would be defeated in the upcoming election. However, he was soundly defeated on November 15, 2008 by Gregor Robertson, the mayoral candidate of

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 ...

Personal life

Activism

Ladner is the chair of the

David Suzuki Foundation The David Suzuki Foundation is a science-based non-profit environmental organization headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with offices in Montreal and Toronto. It was established as a federally registered Canadian charity on Jan ...

and former chair of The Natural Step Canada board and the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation board. He also served on the boards of the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, Leadership Vancouver, the International Centre for Sustainable Cities, the

Alumni Association, New Media BC, the International Association of Area Business Publications, the Fraser Basin Council and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. He participated in the Vancouver City Planning Commission, the capital campaign committee for

Vancouver Public Library Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2023, VPL had more than 4.6 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 10.4 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video gam ...

and the Central Valley Greenway. Ladner is a long-time

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

, healthy living enthusiast, and advocate of the smart city concept of using technology to make government more efficient and effective. He blogs occasionally about the urban food revolution at urbanfoodrevolution.com and on issues of

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

and civic governance in Vancouver and elsewhere on his personal website. He is a former age-group record holder in the North Shore Knee-knackering Trail run, a 50-km ultramarathon from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove.

Sister's death

On April 3, 2009, Peter Ladner's sister, Wendy Ladner-Beaudry, was found dead in Pacific Spirit Park, "the victim of an apparent random attack."Peter McKnight, "Let's not hand over our parks to those we fear". ''

'', April 7, 2009, p.A1 Wendy was the co-chair of the

BC Games Society The BC Games Society is a provincial crown corporation in British Columbia created in 1977. The organization is the governing body responsible for the BC Summer Games and BC Winter Games, and manages the Team BC program at the Canada Games. R ...

and "past board member of Sports BC and chair of the KidSport Fund, a national charity set up to help low-income families participate in sport." John Furlong (VANOC CEO) had become a close friend to Wendy and reserved a spot in the 2010 Olympics Torch Relay for the Ladner-Beaudry family. Peter Ladner stated that, despite the tragedy of his sister's murder, Vancouver remains a safe city to live in. In a public statement, Ladner stressed that: "Our family, all of us, pledge to work diligently with the police, the neighbours and the wider community to bring this killer to justice and establish the safety of our entire community."Ladner speaks out about sister's killing
Sunday, April 5, 2009, CBC News

References

External links

PeterLadner.caVancouver Non Partisan Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladner, Peter 1949 births Living people Businesspeople from Vancouver Non-Partisan Association councillors University of British Columbia alumni Canadian newspaper journalists Canadian political writers Canadian male bloggers St. George's School (Vancouver) alumni Writers from Vancouver Place of birth missing (living people) Shawnigan Lake School alumni 21st-century Canadian municipal councillors