'Revenge' of the fired school trustee: marrying the education minister's daughter

Art Charbonneau still remembers the car ride to meet his future son-in-law.

"My daughter said 'Dad, I'd like you to stop in for dinner. I'd like you to meet someone,'" the former B.C. education minister recalls.

"'Oh, and by the way, you fired him once.'

"I stepped into the house and discovered that Guy was dating my daughter."

Twenty years ago, Art Charbonneau and Guy Heywood were the main players in another B.C. education drama — not unlike the one this week between Mike Bernier and the Vancouver School Board.

The B.C. NDP was in power, and Charbonneau fired the entire North Vancouver School Board for not balancing its budget.

Fired board chair Guy Heywood — then a B.C. Liberal member — said underfunding from Victoria was to blame.

Now, the adversaries-turned-in-laws reflect on what happened the last time the B.C. government sacked a Lower Mainland school board — and what should be done differently.

'Oh no, not again'

There are, of course, differences between North Vancouver in 1996 and Vancouver in 2016, including the spectre, this time, of senior staff on leave and unspecified "bullying" allegations under investigation at the VSB.

But the key conflict — of a school board without a balanced budget or the power to raise funds — is very familiar.

As the news broke this week, Heywood thought: "Oh no, not again."

"All this drama about 'firing' and 'being fired' is a bit silly," he said.

"It doesn't accomplish helping the system ... or helping the public's confidence in the system."

Looking back, Charbonneau says he's often thought of one thing he'd do differently.

"I should have tried one more meeting, a direct meeting with the board," said the former minister. Discussions had happened at the staff level.

"It might not have worked, and I [might] have ended up firing the board anyway, but I should have tried."

In North Vancouver, the firing actually helped the district, said Heywood, because the government-appointed trustee recommended additional funding and got it," and life went on."

(His own political martyrdom came cheap, Heywood notes: being a trustee is not a day job and he was later re-elected.)

Public v. private education

Though they once belonged to opposing parties, Charbonneau and Heywood are united in their deep concern for B.C.'s public education system — and the flight of pupils to private schools.

"What happens in a district like North Vancouver is we're losing market share to the private schools, and we're seeing the upper middle class abandon the system," said Heywood, who has left the B.C. Liberals, in part, over education policy.

"If we allow for a high grading of the public system ... we are destroying our middle class, because public education creates a middle class."

Both think the system needs more money to create smaller classes and more support for special needs.

And both wish all B.C. children went to school in a "reasonably-funded" public system.

"And our politicians, all of them, should have their children in the public school system, such that they are fully aware of the problems," said Charbonneau, who has also left the B.C. NDP.

The B.C. Liberals have come under fire for public money going to private schools, to which the education minister says: "We don't fund private schools. We fund students," so parents can choose for themselves.

"These are the issues that should be debated," said Charbonneau. "By comparison, the firing of any board is, in the long term, a minor educational issue."

'Revenge' of the trustee

Heywood jokes that he got "revenge" on Charbonneau by marrying his daughter, but in reality, the former politicians have gotten along just fine since their dinner years ago.

"I tried to put him on the spot, but he was unflappable, as he was as minister," said Heywood.

They still disagree on some points of how education should be funded and whether wealthier districts should have the power to raise more for their schools.

All grist for the next fishing trip.

"The last time out I certainly caught the largest fish," said Charbonneau.

"True," said Heywood. "But I caught more fish."