Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Mayor's foster son illustrates pitfalls of political family life

FROM 'BILLYGATE' TO BOOZING BUSHES, POLITICS BRING PERSONAL LIVES INTO PUBLIC EYE

At the end of his Nov. 19, 2011 re-election speech, Mayor Gregor Robertson thanked his children Hanna, Satchel, Terra and "birthday boy Jinagh."

Little did those in the Sheraton Wall Centre ballroom or watching on live TV know, Jinagh Navas-Rivas was addicted to cocaine and, the night before his 21st birthday, had brokered the sale of a Ruger .22 calibre handgun to an undercover cop.

While the mayor was at work March 13, Navas-Rivas was led out of a Richmond courtroom in handcuffs, sentenced to four years in jail for his role in a dial-a-dope gang. Hanna and the Mayor's wife, Amy, were utterly distraught.

Navas-Rivas had been abandoned by his mother at age 5 and grew up in foster care. Judge Patrick Chen heard nothing to indicate living with city hall's "first family" from 2007 to 2009 contributed to Navas-Rivas's problems. While free on bail for nine months, Navas-Rivas returned to stay with original foster parents Kathy Leavens and Peter Noble and, occasionally, the Robertsons. Chen commended them for supporting Navas-Rivas in his quest for a better life.

Politicians want the election night happy family photo ops to be lasting images. But the perks of power are often offset by the sacrifice of privacy.

The Kennedys were the prototypical political clan for the TV age. The closest the United States had to a royal family. Their tragic deaths and divorces, drink and drug capers spanned several generations and spawned books and movies.

President Jimmy Carter's younger brother Billy was a good ol' boy whose reputation inspired a brand of beer. Billy was also paid to lobby for Libya and its dictator Muammar Gaddafi. "Billygate" hastened Jimmy's return to peanut farming.

George W. Bush gave up booze long before he became president. In 2001, twin daughters Jenna and Barbara were charged with underage drinking offences in Texas.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was photographed performing a pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth II, but it was wife Margaret's dancing at Studio 54 in New York and partying with the Rolling Stones in Toronto that caused a tabloid storm. She even had an affair with Ted Kennedy. Pierre and Maggie split in 1984, but the family reunited in grief after youngest son Michel died in an avalanche at Kokanee Glacier in 1998.

It couldn't have been easy living in the White House for Chelsea Clinton when it was confirmed that her father Bill had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. Likewise, for the family of Premier Gordon Campbell when his Maui drunk driving mugshot was published in 2003.

Parents across B.C. breathed a sigh of relief along with Campbell and his wife Nancy, after hearing their sons Geoff and Nicholas called from New York City to say they were safe on Sept. 11, 2001.

Premier Christy Clark created B.C.'s Family Day. She has a sister, Jennifer, in Edmonton and brother, John in East Vancouver, but her brother Bruce is her biggest influence. Clark shares custody of son Hamish with ex-husband Mark Marissen. The day after winning the leadership in 2011, she invited the media to one of Hamish's hockey games. A year later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper came to watch him in goal. More recently, young Hamish was cast in Family Day-themed political advertising to promote Clark's motherhood and rescue her dwindling fortunes.

2010goldrush@gmail.com

twitter.com/bobmackin

$(function() { $(".nav-social-ft").append('
  • '); });