By Cheryl Chan, The Province
In the twilight of his reign as mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan tells The Province what Sundays have been like for him and wife Lynn Zanatta, and what he envisions for his post-mayoral Sundays. Hint: No speeches or ribbon-cutting, less handshaking, more hand-holding. You were elected mayor in 2005. What have Sundays been like?
Up until very recently, it was just constantly at events — three or four events — on Sundays. Lynn was married to the city, basically. She was completely focused I got everywhere I needed to get to. She loved it, too. But the reality of the last few years is that we go to events we were invited to. I give my mayoral speeches and cut my ribbons. Now that I’m winding down my mayoral roles, it’s quite nice. It’s a pleasure to be able to reconnect with Lynn. We’re actually spending time together and doing walks, reading, things like that. I’d still go to events on the weekends, but nothing as strenuous as before. Where do you and Lynn go for walks?
In the downtown area. There’s so many worlds to explore. Each block is like a different world in itself, with its own character, feel and personality. I love to explore them. The seawall is an entity of its own. It’s a beautiful place to appreciate Vancouver.
What Sunday activities are you looking forward to resuming after your term ends?
A nice little ritual would be to go to church when I could. I’d like to go to the bookstore and get some magazines, keep up to date on things, go down to the CD store on Hastings Street, buy a CD or two. Favourite haunts?
Sophia Books is the one I go to most. It has a good international selection and you can buy French-language and Chinese books. It’s right by Sikora’s, a store for classical CDs. When they see me coming, they open the door and put the ramp out. Then there’s a couple coffee shops on the corner there, and I’d drop by the coffee shop and read my book and look over the CD. Sometimes on the way back, I’d stop at Chapters for the New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Maclean’s. They have a much better selection of newspapers, too.
Nice reading material. What about your music preferences?
I like chamber music. I used to play classical piano before my injury, about 30 years ago [Sullivan was left a quadriplegic after a skiing accident at age 19], and I love chamber music. They usually have really good salespeople there, and often, they have their own favourites and they can tell you some of the good ones. I like to buy at least one, then I take it home, and listen to it the next week until the next Sunday when I can go buy a new one.
