Sanders eulogized before bureaucrats he often criticized

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2016 (3394 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lost amid all the maneuvering on the floor of city council Wednesday was a touching moment from Coun. Ross Eadie, who offered an eulogy to local activist and city hall critic David Sanders.

Sanders, who died Sunday, had been a staunch opponent of the city’s rapid transit project – which took up most of the shenanigans leading up to Wednesday’s vote to approve the Hydro land needed for the transitway corridor. Though Sanders’ facts, arguments and presentations over the last three years were unable to persuade council to either abandon the controversial dog-leg route to the U of M campus or abandon the project entirely, Eadie made sure that Sanders’ contribution to openness and transparency in civic politics was recognized for the record.

“It’s worthwhile to mention this man, Madame Speaker, because he was a selfless person who immersed himself in the issues of the city of Winnipeg and many other places in the community, the university, and so many places as a civil servant,” Eadie said as he began his four-minute eulogy.

Eadie’s comments must have stung Winnipeg’s senior administrators, who were often, appropriately, the targets of Sanders’ criticism. A two-time deputy minister in the provincial government, Sanders was aware of the responsibility owed by public servants to the community and he clearly did not believe Winnipeg’s senior administrators lived up to that obligation – and he let them know it, on many occasions.

“You may not have agreed with the man on every issue but what you could rely on, Madame Speaker, you could rely on his detailed research, educating people about some of the detail that people may never have thought of because that’s the kind of person he was.

“He would spend hours and hours looking at legislation, making sure we had a safe, healthy community.”

In conclusion, Eadie said: “One last thing to mention about David Sanders – I don’t think anybody could ever, through his whole life, ever know all the things he contributed to make sure we had a great, beautiful city of Winnipeg and a province that we can all count on to ensure that we all could experience  that sense of well being.”

A little-known fact: The obituary for David Sanders which appears in today’s Free Press, states that Sanders’ father, Howard Russell Sanders, and Ernest Howard Shepherd, the illustrator for A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, had been friends who met while recuperating in hospital from battle injuries suffered during First World War. The “Mr. Sanders” sign hanging over the doorway to Winnie-the-Pooh’s home was Shepherd’s acknowledgement of his friendship with the elder Sanders.

David Sanders funeral is Saturday, 10:30 a.m., at All Saints Anglican Church, 175 Colony St.