Community People Profiles are a series on the Salt Spring Exchange featuring local personalities on our island home. These profiles are short interviews, with one answer questions to share with you a little about what each of these folks are thinking about as they go about their lives living on Salt Spring Island.

This weeks featured local people profile is: Charles Kahn

Here’s a bit about Charles;

I have lived on Salt Spring for 24 years. I have an editing and writing background, mostly in educational publishing (textbooks and government publications). I have been president of the island's Historical Society, Friends of Saltspring Parks, and the Channel Ridge Homeowners Association. I have also coordinated Salt Spring Island Restorative Justice for several years and continue to volunteer with the organization. I have worked on the Public Library Board, on a focus group in the first revision of the island's community plan, and with BC Parks and CRD Parks on an ongoing basis over many years.

I was highly involved in the acquisition of a property at the top of Mt. Erskine, which led to the establishment of Mt. Erskine Provincial Park, and I was also the lead person in the Salt Spring Island Conservancy's acquisition of two other properties when I was the chair of the Conservancy's Covenant Committee and later its Land Acquisition Committee. These projects involved a lot of fundraising and liaison with many island and provincial organizations.

I continue to do quite a bit of volunteer work, including helping to develop and sign the island's trails, hospice work, and helping international students in Gulf Islands Secondary School learn English. I enjoy hiking, biking, and kayaking and spend a great deal of time outdoors.

Perhaps my most important contribution to the island is my writing. Salt Spring: The Story of an Island (Harbour Publishing, 1998) is the only history of the island and gave me a great understanding of the island's development and many contacts with people who have lived their entire lives here. Hiking the Gulf Islands (Harbour Publishing, 3rd ed. 2011) covers all the Gulf Islands, from Bowen to Cortes, as well as a number of the larger marine parks. Hiking the Gulf Islands gave me a solid understanding of the Gulf Islands and excellent contacts on all of them. I've also written three smaller history books on Mouat's, Cusheon Cove, and the Lady Minto Hospital.

What brought you to Salt Spring Island?

My partner, Judy Norget, had a house here, so we decided to start our time on the West Coast on Salt Spring, and we've never wanted to move away.

What one thing about Salt Spring would you tell someone who has never visited the island?

That it's one of the most beautiful places on earth with the best climate in Canada and a great variety of fascinating people living here. There are endless projects to get involved in with a very generous volunteer community to interact with. Salt Spring is a very caring community and is a great place for young families as well as retired and retiring people.

If you had a magic Salt Spring wand, what island thing would you change?

I would like to see pedestrian access to private property as it exists in Britain and throughout much of Europe, so that we could walk all over Salt Spring with impunity and pleasure. People here are so worried about their private property being infringed by others or by the threat of liability, which really doesn't exist except in the minds of lawyers and insurance salespeople, that they immediately react negatively to this idea. But why should something like that work so well in Europe and Britain but not here. The result of the fairly unlimited pedestrian access to private property over there is a healthy, happy population at liberty to enjoy the outdoors and the beautiful natural environment.

Which well known person, living or dead, do you think would be a good addition to the island?

I think we have enough celebrities here already. I'm not sure that well-known people actually improve one's environment.

Is there a special project, business or initiative you are working on that islanders should know about?

I continue to work on the development, signage, and maintenance of walking trails so that my dream of an island-wide trail network might become a reality.

Is there a really good interview question we should have asked you?

How do you fill your time?

How would you have answered your question?

I would have recounted many of the volunteer commitments that I listed above and encouraged more people to get involved in helping others in the community and making Salt Spring an even better place to live. Such activity is good for your soul and makes you feel very happy.