Scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki is pictured in Toronto in November, 2016.Chris Young
For this feature, Globe B.C. borrows from Marcel Proust (and other media who have popularized the French author's questionnaire), as a way to get to know notable people around the province.
Here is David Suzuki, who needs little introduction given his decades-long work as an academic, broadcaster and environmental activist.
1. What is your greatest fear?
What I've been warning about for years actually happens.
2. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?
An eagle – to soar like a bird is my greatest fantasy.
3. What is the best line you have ever written?
I just repeat what my dad taught me: "You are what you do, not what you say."
4. If you could live anywhere in Vancouver, where would it be?
The same house I've lived in for more than 43 years because it's my home, not real estate.
5. What restaurant have you eaten at the most?
Kibune Sushi
6. If you could be a fictional character for one day, who would it be?
Don Juan
7. What's the best present/gift you've ever been given?
Each of my children.
8. What is the greatest issue facing Vancouver?
Like every city in the world – climate change.
9. When and where were you happiest?
When I won an environmental award from Monaco. I decided not to give it to my foundation, as I have done with past awards, and use it to take my wife, Tara, our two daughters, their husbands and a grandchild to French Polynesia for two of the happiest weeks of my life.
10. What is the best book you have read this year?
In 2017 – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
11. Bike, walk or drive?
Bike, but not enough.
12. Least favorite holiday?
Victoria Day.
13. Personal trait you most despise?
Tardiness.
14. What was your first paying job?
Working on a farm picking berries when I was 11.
15. If you had $1-million to give to charity, what cause would you select?
People working to find an alternative to capitalism.
16. What life lesson have you learned this year?
Raising children is a joy and a huge challenge, especially when you have twins as my daughter just did.
17. What is Vancouver's greatest park?
It's not a park, but it should be. Namely, the entire shoreline.
18. If, thanks to a time machine, you travelled back to 1975 and had the floor at a city council meeting, what advice would you offer?
Build lots of affordable housing; find ways to reward people who stay put rather than flipping property; give all Crown land back to Indigenous people of the area; prohibit foreign ownership of land.
19. What's your current state of mind?
Disillusioned. How on earth did we elevate such greed to such a lofty state?
20. What is your motto?
Whatever you do, do it with gusto because you only get out of it what you put in.
Ian Bailey