Heated community topics like the sports complex and a loss of rural living have re-ignited the political fire under Steve Heeren.
Since sitting politically dormant for the past seven years, Heeren has stepped up to the plate as the Coldstream Ratepayers Association’s new president.
Following Gyula Kiss (who temporarily held the position after Andy Danyliu resigned in March), Heeren admits he’s got a lot to learn. But he’s ready to put his burning passion for Coldstream to work.
The retired psychology professor has been living in Coldstream since 1995 and was a good friend of Paddy Mackie.
He’s served two terms on Coldstream’s Advisory Planning Commission and has attended several public meetings.
But it was the sports complex debate that re-ignited the political fire in 70-year-old Heeren.
“Right away my antenna were up on this issue,” said Heeren, who was among the majority of residents who voted against the complex.
Another issue that Heeren feels strongly about is the rural feel of Coldstream.
He recites Margaret Ormsby’s book Nulli secundus.
“To me she’s right, nulli secundus, Coldstream is second to none.”
But with recent growth he can only laugh at such things as Coldstream’s old saying ‘Rural Living at its Best.’
“My private agenda is I’d like to keep Coldstream like it was in 1995, but that’s too late,” said Heeren, who moved to the area from Saskatchewan.
An example is right from the picture window of his lake and mountain view home, where he has watched Middleton Mountain evolve into what it is today – covered in pavement and homes.
He says it won’t be long until there’s a house on every square inch of all of Coldstream’s hills.
So when Heeren came across the Coldstream Ratepayers Association he didn’t waste any time in taking out a membership.
“I really like this organization because it’s grassroots,” he said.
Heeren’s been involved in other such grassroot efforts, such as a Kelowna demonstration before the war in Iraq started.
But trying to get a message across to George W. Bush from an Okanagan rally wasn’t working very well.
So when he joined the CRA in May, he thought: “It’s time to think globally and act locally.”
Times have also changed, as Heeren has observed over his lifetime, making it easier to reach at least the local politicians.
“You can fight city hall, whereas when I grew up the message was you can’t fight city hall.”
He is also a strong believer in democracy and education (something that is evident not just as a former professor, but by the stacks of books in and around his coffee table, including a dictionary sprawled open in the middle).
He has offered a couple of philosopher cafes at the Mackie House, taught a class at Okanagan College and is currently giving lectures for the Society for Open Learning and Discussion on psychoanalysis.
When he doesn’t have his nose buried deep inside a book or pressed up to the computer, he plays tennis or badminton,
Heeren is a father of three grown girls, who live in Montreal.
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