The battler: Longtime Vancouver politician George Puil dead at 92

George Puil played rugby for Canada, and was a Vancouver politician spanning five decades. He was renowned for his toughness in both roles.

Renowned for his tenacious aggression both on the rugby field and in the political realm, George Puil was a different character at home.

“He was a pushover,” said Puil’s longtime wife Judi. “Easy-peasy. He was a very, very easy guy to get along with … A fun guy, very caring for his family.”

Puil, a longtime municipal politician, high school teacher, star athlete, coach, entrepreneur and family man — Judi called him “a multitasker” — died in his sleep on Sunday, Dec. 4, at age 92.

“He had an incredible dedication to making the city better,” Judi said. Unlike some other elected officials, Puil ensured his home number was listed in the phone book during his decades on city council, she said. “He wanted people to be able to call him at any time and let him help them. And he got tons of calls … I’d get them at all hours of the day and night and just pass it on to George, and he’d take care of it, all kinds of different circumstances.”

Born in Alberta in 1930, Puil moved to Vancouver as a child, where he attended King Edward High School and then the University of B.C., where he was an all-star rugby and football player.

A member of the UBC Sports Hall of Fame, and the B.C. Football Hall of Fame, Puil also represented Canada at rugby and was renowned for both his dangerous running and ferocious tackling, despite his diminutive size.

Puil was a Vancouver politician spanning five decades, from the 1960s until the 2000s. He was first elected to the Vancouver park board in 1962, where he served for 12 years.

In 1974, he was the Non-Partisan Association’s mayoral candidate. An NPA campaign ad that year in The Vancouver Sun announced: “George Puil has been dedicated to tackling big problems ever since his rugby-playing days. Size and strength of opponents have never stopped this five-foot-nine-inch bundle of vigour.”

Puil lost the 1974 mayoral race to TEAM’s Art Phillips, telling The Sun on election night that his “aggressive nature” may have turned off some voters. That aggressive nature was by then already a common theme of media coverage about Puil, and continued to be after he won a seat on city council for the NPA in the 1976 election, where he served for the next 26 years.

Former TEAM Coun. Marguerite Ford, who served on council with Puil in the 1970s and ’80s, called Puil “a real fighter.”

“I think he regarded council as an extension of a rugby match,” Ford said.

“The public didn’t know much about him except that he seemed cantankerous, bullheaded, combative,” wrote former Sun city hall reporter Frances Bula in 2003, following a roast of Puil by fellow politicians after he, and most of the other NPA candidates, were defeated in COPE’s landslide win in the 2002 election.

Sam Sullivan, a fellow NPA councillor who served with Puil before becoming mayor himself, said Puil’s battles with left-wing COPE Coun. Harry Rankin were particularly famous.

“People would come to city hall just to watch Harry and George fight,” Sullivan said. “It was kind of like cockfighting. They really went after each other.”

But behind the scenes, Puil and Rankin were actually close friends, Sullivan said, and while Puil’s “bulldog” reputation wasn’t without basis, it was also something of “a show.”

Away from the theatrical battles of the council chamber, Puil was “very soft” and kind-hearted, Sullivan said, adding that Puil’s 38 years as a Vancouver politician could be a record.

While some people viewed Puil as a “caricature of a grumpy west side guy,” Sullivan said, “he was actually very much a regional thinker.”

When TransLink launched in the 1990s, Puil was its first chairman. His time at the helm of the regional transit authority included a contentious, months-long 2001 bus strike, during which angry protesters rallied outside his Kitsilano home, a load of manure was dumped on the family’s front lawn and Puil told reporters he received death threats.

Mike Harcourt, who served as both councillor and then mayor during Puil’s time at city hall in the 1970s and ’80s, said Puil’s “eagle eye on the budget and people’s tax money being spent well on basic services was legendary.”

“Although we were political foes, we became friends with he and Judi,” Harcourt said.

Puil also served as chairman of the regional government then known as the Greater Vancouver Regional District, elected by other mayors and councillors throughout the region because he had “a regional perspective, and was not simply advocating for Vancouver,” said fellow NPA councillor and GVRD board member Jennifer Clarke. “It’s why he was chosen for the role, he had a bigger vision and ability to put aside parochial concerns.

“Although he could appear a bit crusty on the exterior, he was a very warm and loyal person once you got to know him,” Clarke said. “He could be a good listener if you had a good case to make about something. But he did not have time for fools or people who hadn’t done their homework.”

Puil also had a great sense of humour, Clarke recalled, even when he was the butt of a joke.

During his time at city hall Puil also taught at Kitsilano Secondary School, where “he resonated with a lot of young people in the school because he talked about things other than just the textbook,” said Steve Rai, a student in Puil’s civics class in the 1980s at Kits, who is now deputy chief of the Vancouver Police Department.

“He was the first guy to awaken me to issues in the city … Green space, parks, crime, budgets, how the city works,” Rai said. “It wasn’t just: ‘Read Chapter 12.’ He would kind of trick the class into getting into a debate … Getting you to think about social issues and developing critical thinking in young people about what’s going on.”

Puil is survived by four children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

An entrepreneur, Puil also ran a busy travel agency, Judi said, and the family enjoyed excursions around the world.

The family is organizing a memorial service and will release details at a later date.

Puil’s legendary toughness has meant the family is now “a bit late” organizing his obituary and memorial service, Judi said.

“We never expected him to die,” she said. “You just think, with a guy like that: ‘He’ll pull through.’ ”

dfumano@postmedia.com

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