In his 23 years on Prince George city council, under four different mayors, there was never any doubt where Murry Krause was coming from, what he stood for and who he was representing.
In a city that routinely elects right-of-centre candidates to provincial and federal office, local voters consistently threw their support behind an openly gay man who fearlessly championed social issues from a left-of-centre perspective.
His announcement Thursday that he will not be seeking another four-year term leaves a huge vacancy for the next mayor and city council. His experience, his kindness and his never-ending efforts to find common ground will most certainly be missed.
Krause was the head of the committee that formed the Prince George Community Foundation in the 1990s (Lyn Hall was also a member of that committee) and was the 2000 recipient of the Citizen of the Year Award. A decade later, I was put in the rather awkward position of serving on the Citizen of the Year nominations committee with Krause and Michael Kerr, the 2008 Citizen of the Year.
The first name I put forward for the 2011 Citizen of the Year was Matthew Church. Krause knew that would be a controversial nomination, seeing as how Church was just 24 years old at the time and the honour was widely seen as a lifetime achievement award for philanthropy and community service. Krause backed my nomination of Church, recognizing that Church’s work with the Prince George Library Board, the Prince George Road Runners club, and other groups, as well as his student advocacy while still in high school at Duchess Park and then at UNBC easily met the Citizen of the Year criteria.
(Two years later, Church showed the brain chops that earned him a presidential scholarship to UNBC and acceptance at all seven Canadian medical schools he applied at after graduation by becoming the first-and-only person from Prince George to ever compete on the Jeopardy! game show.)
When I returned to the Citizen in 2012 and started writing critical editorials about Prince George city council decisions, Krause remained as gracious as always. He recognized that his job as a city councillor and my job as a journalist reporting and commenting on city council business had nothing to do with us working together to recognize worthy residents and help the Prince George Community Foundation raise money at its annual Citizen of the Year dinner.
Speaking of honours, there’s one more to give to Krause and it should happen late this year or early in 2023, soon after the new mayor and council take office. The Freedom of the City is the highest award city council can bestow on a local citizen or group for “exceptional merit and contribution.” Many other long-serving mayors and city councillors, such as Shirley Gratton, Cliff Dezell, Don Bassermann, Colin Kinsley and John Backhouse, have received the Freedom of the City.
Krause should be next.
While his absence on the next city council will be felt, this is also an opportunity for some new names and faces, with new energy and ideas, to step up. Let’s hope they do so with the same compassion and enthusiasm Krause brought to the table.
