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Ogilvie remembered as local government legend
By Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
Jim Ogilvie was the man.
Way back in 1991 when I covered my first Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) board of directors’ meeting, I noticed two things; then District of Sparwood Mayor Toto Miller was a way-out there fella and City of Kimberley Mayor Jim Ogilvie was a no-nonsense kind of fella.
Both initial observations were quite spot on – with no disrespect to the late Toto Miller, who served his community with the same passion and fire as Jim Ogilvie served Kimberley.
Only Jim did it for much, much longer – than any of his local government peers.
Why should such longevity be celebrated? Because municipal politics can be a bone-crushing endeavor that depletes families of time spent together and endless headaches and heartaches.
Through it all, Jim Ogilvie (OBC) kept his head held high, his humour dry and he happily injected huge doses of levity and focus in his work, keeping fellow politicians on track. The City of Kimberley was always extremely well represented in regional and political affairs.
E-KNOW only contacted a few of Jim’s former peers and admirers and they all shared the same sentiments – that with his passing August 24, Kimberley, the East Kootenay and the Province of B.C. lost a legend of public service.
“On behalf of myself and council I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the Ogilvie family at this time of mourning,” said Kimberley Mayor Ron McRae. “Jim genuinely loved the City of Kimberley. His vision of transforming Kimberley from a resource-town preparing for a mine closure to a lifestyle-centred resort destination has kept Kimberley vital for future generations. A few weeks ago, it was our great privilege to honour Jim by renaming the major thoroughfare between Kimberley and Marysville as Jim Ogilvie Way.”
City Councillor Jack Ratcliffe, who worked with Ogilvie on numerous councils over the years, said the former mayor lived and breathed Kimberley.
“Jim was involved with so many projects over the years. The most significant, of course, (and it was a series of projects) was the post Sullivan transformation of Kimberley. His character strong point was his persistence in bringing tasks/projects to fruition. He was like a bulldog in that regard,” he said, adding, “Everyone salutes Gail for her support of Jim over the years, particularly the later years. Jim lived and breathed City of Kimberley. It was his life. We won’t forget him and his many accomplishments.”
City chief administrative officer Scott Sommerville simply summed Ogilvie up as “a true legend!”
Other regional politicians and leaders expressed their grief over Ogilvie’s passing.
“I’m very saddened by the news. All of his colleagues have known that his health was failing for some time, but his death still hits hard,” remarked former long-time Village of Radium Hot Springs Mayor and RDEK director and board chair Greg Deck, currently the appointed Mayor of Jumbo Resort Municipality.
“You saw him in action for almost as long as I did at the RDEK board table, so you know well what a force he was, not just by virtue of how seriously he took his political roles but also by what an enormous reservoir of knowledge he possessed,” Deck told e-KNOW. “He was around for so long that he was a mentor to both me and my father (George Deck) as RDEK directors, for example, and we’re a tiny part of the list of other politicians who learned at his feet.
“Very few of us ever make the kind of difference within our communities that Jim Ogilvie made in Kimberley, and Jim’s influence extended across the entire East Kootenay. While he was President of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), it extended across the entire province, and successive members of the provincial cabinet felt his persuasive power for many years afterward when he went to Victoria to advocate for Kimberley and the RDEK.
“For some of us, who got to share in a substantial part of his career, his passing is very much the end of an era. As always, I continue to stand in awe of the man. I will always think of him fondly, and my sympathies go out to Gail and his family. They shared him with the community for so long that I’m sure they felt a little deprived of his attention. I’m sorry that they will feel it even more so now,” Deck said.
Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald first encountered Ogilvie as Mayor of Golden, before he entered the provincial political ring.
“Not many people have given so much to public service,” he said. “In many ways they (municipal politicians) are volunteer positions. It really is a full-time job and you have to answer directly to people, whereas (people in higher levels of government) don’t.”
Echoing others, Macdonald said Ogilvie “was really a legend in local government” who wasn’t just respected regionally but provincially.
“He always put Kimberley first,” he said, “And he gave credit where it was due and was always willing to take them on (provincial government) when they sold Kimberley short.”
RDEK Electoral Area B Director Heath Slee, currently the longest serving member of the regional board, remembers Ogilvie as a leader and mentor.
“I think of Jim as being the mentor to all the directors on the board at the time who worked with Jim or as in my case, worked with Jim when he was chair of the board. Jim was the type of person who had an incredible wealth of knowledge, and experience to fall back upon. Once Jim set his mind to a particular project or issue, there was no going back,” said Slee, the first East Kootenay politician to serve as UBCM president (2011-2012) since Ogilvie.
“Jim had an incredible tenacity for staying the course, as he proved to all in the delivery of funding for the conference centre in Kimberley after his community had suffered so many setbacks what with the mine, and hospital closures in the city. Jim was also the only serving president of more than one term on the board of the UBCM. He worked long and hard along with others, at bringing the Municipal Insurance Association into being while he served in local government,” he said.
Someone who watched and worked with Ogilvie for many years is current RDEK chief administrative officer Lee-Ann Crane.
“The one thing that always stood out for me while working with Jim was that he always brought a regional perspective to issues at the board table. Of course he would ensure that the interests of Kimberley were protected, but he would look at the ‘big picture’ realizing that what benefits the region, benefits the city as well. He believed in the region and its people and worked tirelessly to try to make life better for both residents and business,” she said.
A memorial service for Jim Ogilvie, OBC, will be held on Friday, August 29 at 2 p.m. at the Kimberley Conference & Athlete Training Centre.
Lead image: Jim Ogilvie poses with other RDEK board members in his final group shot with the board in November 2011. Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
E-KNOW anticipates receiving more comments from people contacted and will add more to this story as they arrive…
