Fred Bass

Fred Bass is a former city councillor, environmentalist and preventive medicine physician in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As an epidemiologist and physician, he focused on reducing tobacco smoking. He served on Vancouver City Council from 1999 to 2005.

Background Bass was born in New York City, attended Antioch College, Case-Western Reserve Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. With the Vancouver health department, he became Canada's first director of health promotion. and organizing a race with live turkeys in Robson Square to publicize a cold-turkey campaign. In 2001 he was given a Canadian Medical Association Honorary Membership for his work in tobacco control.

Bass himself had started smoking at age 16, and was a pack-a-day smoker when he quit at age 28. His political priorities were action on the environment and transit. Bass was outspoken in his opposition to the expansion of gambling and to excessive expenditures for rapid transit by a faction of his party under the leadership of Mayor Larry Campbell.

In order to encourage cycling and walking, Bass introduced a controversial motion in 2005 to explore devoting two lanes of the six-lane Burrard Bridge for cycling (cyclists had been sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians). His first step was a minimal-cost trial of using one lane in each direction for bicycles, reserving the existing sidewalk for pedestrians. A plan to widen the bridge sidewalks was slated to cost $13 million if Bass's $2 million trial failed. Some cyclists applauded the move, though other users of the current bridge sidewalks questioned whether any changes were necessary. Concerns about motorist rage did not deter Bass, who stated "Motorists called for my head long ago and my head is still on my neck." Heritage advocates strongly supported the bicycle trial, since the sidewalk-widening would impair the heritage value of this landmark, art-deco bridge.

In 2005, three COPE councillors and the mayor split from the party to form Vision Vancouver. Bass and councillors Tim Louis, David Cadman, Anne Roberts and Ellen Woodsworth remained in COPE. Bass was not re-elected in the 2005 election, finishing 12th overall with 48,248 votes. In late 2006 he announced his aspiration to run for mayor in the next Vancouver civic election because of his concerns for respect, global warming, homelessness and lack of affordable housing. In August 2007, he announced that he no longer intended to participate in the mayoral race.

Environmental activism Bass described his anti-smoking work as "practice" for campaigning against global warming.

Personal life Bass's family comes from an Orthodox Jewish tradition. While he was studying for his undergraduate degree, he became involved in a work-study project in Alaska that was led by Quakers. He remained connected with Quaker communities thereafter, and in later life became a Quaker. He also practices Soto Zen Buddhism.