Councillor Tim Stevenson

Tim Stevenson was elected to Vancouver City Council in 2002, and was re-elected in 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Tim holds bachelor of arts (University of British Columbia), master of arts (Holy Names College, California) and masters of divinity (Vancouver School of Theology) degrees. He was first elected to the British Columbia Provincial Parliament in 1996 and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health. Subsequently, he became Deputy Speaker of the House and then was appointed Cabinet Minister, holding the portfolio of Employment and Investment. He became the first openly gay Cabinet Minister in Canada in 2000.

Prior to being elected to office, he was the minister at St. Paul’s United Church. Currently, he also teaches Comparative Religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) in the Religious Studies Department at Langara College in Vancouver. Tim was the first openly gay person ordained in a mainstream Christian denomination in Canada.

Tim spent 10 years in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside working with the inner city poor while sitting on the Board of the First United Church. Tim has also worked in the Philippines and South Africa where he was one of the Canadian representatives at the African National Congress Conference in Durban in 1991 where Nelson Mandela was elected as the ANC’s party President. He was also one of the International Observers in the South African elections in 1994.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Tim now lives in the West End of Vancouver with Gary Paterson, his partner of 25 years, who is also a United Church minister. Together, they have raised three daughters.

His current local and regional appointments:

• Director, Metro Vancouver
• Vice Chair, Electoral Area A Standing Committee, Metro Vancouver
• Utilities Standing Committee, Metro Vancouver
• Lower Mainland Treaty Advisory Committee
• Hastings Institute Inc. Board
• Delegate, Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Board
• International Relations Standing Committee, FCM
• Municipal Finance and Intergovernmental Arrangements Standing Committee, FCM