What do 27 years around Bowen’s Council table teach you about what local government can — and can’t — accomplish?

Alison Morse has lived on Bowen for about 30 years and has served on every municipal Council since incorporation. Now she’s asking voters to return her to Council and elect her to the Islands Trust.

In this conversation, Alison reflects on what all those years have taught her: the importance of listening, explaining difficult decisions, fiscal responsibility — and the tendency of councils to put more into their strategic plans than a small municipality can realistically get done.

We talk about housing and Bowen’s need for more choices for young people, workers and seniors — and the reality that accommodating them may mean accepting a little more density in some parts of the island.

We also get into the new Official Community Plan and Monday’s Council discussion, including the proposed changes to the Land Use Map and the unusual process of asking Council to approve changes before they’ve been incorporated into a complete second draft.

And Alison explains why she wants to return to the Islands Trust, where she believes her accounting, budgeting and long experience with Bowen government could be useful at a time when the Trust itself is wrestling with costs and governance.

The Bowen Island Podcast is produced in a small cabin in the woods on Bowen Island, on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw — the Squamish Nation — with gratitude for their stewardship of these lands and waters over countless generations.

If you’d like to explore more of my work on conversation, community and polarization, you can find me on other broadcast/podcast platforms, including The Conversation Lab, Everything Podcasts.com, Central City Foundations Hope Dialogue, or on Substack. 

Thanks for listening