Brent Hayden, who won a bronze medal for Canada in 100 metre freestyle at the London 2012 Olympics, threw his swim cap into the political ring on Labour Day.
Hayden hopes to win a park board seat for Vancouver First in the Nov. 15 civic election. At a news conference in Kensington Park, he joined fellow candidates Massimo Rossetti, a former Hastings Community Association president, seniors advocate Doug Starink, and Yogi Johl, a retired Olympic wrestler and brother of party founder Jesse Johl.
The Mount Pleasant resident said he chose to run for public office instead of make a comeback from his 2012 competitive swimming retirement.
“My body is stronger than I was before and healthier, but this is more what I need to be doing now,” Hayden told the Courier. “I don’t need to go for a fourth Olympics — I’ve done three already — a fourth would just be for fun. It was a tough decision, one that I’m very comfortable making and actually feel better for it.”
Thirty-year-old Hayden, the 2007 world champion in 100m freestyle and husband of Nettwerk-signed singer Nadina Zarifeh, is a photographer, motivational speaker and swim coach who is concerned about the surprise plan by the ruling Vision Vancouver to replace the Vancouver Aquatic Centre with a new facility near the Granville Bridge.
“I do believe that the aquatic centre needs to be replaced. We’ve got an amazing location and amazing view and we encased this entire aquatic centre in concrete so no one can look outside,” he said.
But taking an Olympic-size pool and “trying to fit it into a fishbowl” without community involvement every step of the way is “absolutely unacceptable.”
“It’s not what the community needs. We’ve got more people who will be moving into downtown through densification, so we need a bigger community centre there and one that we can be proud of and actually use,” he said.
Why join the right-of-centre Vancouver First?
“This is a party of real people and real solutions, we’re not made up of politicians,” Hayden said. “Politicians are part of the problem that we’ve been experiencing in the city. It’s time to get some real people behind it that has no interest in political games and bureaucracy.”
Joining Hayden and his fellow park board candidates at the Labour Day announcement were controversial school trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo. In June, Denike and Woo were expelled from the NPA caucus after holding a press conference in which they claimed a new school board sexual orientation and gender identity policy would deter foreign property buyers in the city. Denike later denied their concern was about real estate.
Hayden said he had no concern running for election in the same party as Denike and Woo.
“One thing I learned growing up in sport was that if I want to be focused on my own performance, I have to stay out of the politics,” Hayden said. “That might be a little bit contrary to the situation, considering I am getting into politics. Political games, they’re not important to me. People can say what they want. The important thing is that we take this community in the direction that it needs to be going in.”
