The BCSPA has lost one of its founders and probably its most passionate presence over our 30-year history.
Dr. Patrick (Paddy) Smith, Professor of Political Science at SFU, passed away recently. Paddy made tremendous contributions to the political science community and to political studies education in BC, particularly through his work with the BC Legislative Internship Program.
Gerald Baier (UBC), Academic Director of the BCLIP writes...
For nearly every moment I've been associated with the BCLIP Paddy Smith’s influence was evident. He left a direct legacy in the dozens of participants he led through the years, but his humor and kindness shaped the culture of the program, its participants and its leadership even more.
That humour and general joy for life was an annual treat for me in the many years that we conducted interviews together. I was always introduced to candidates as being from UBC, but also from the North Shore, just like the fresh glass of water he had put down in front of our nervous interviewees. Paddy always wanted to slip a joke and a little bit of learning into the moment. I’m not sure how many of them had ever given a thought to where Vancouver’s drinking water comes from, but Paddy was going to tell them and tease me no matter how tense the audience for his lesson was!
His red Converse sneakers are an easter egg in many a formal portrait for each class of interns with the Speaker of the Legislature. I’m sad to say I haven’t kept up the tradition—but have followed in those red footsteps in a different way. His parting advice to me when I took the reins as Academic Director was to make sure I used some of my honorarium to spoil the interns now and again. I hope I’ve lived up to the promise to do so—but it is emblematic of his care and concern for the interns and his generous instincts that he passed on that bit of wisdom.
