After 32 years around the Langley City council table, Gayle Martin may be retired from politics. But that’s not going to stop her from being in council chamber for at least one more council meeting later this month.
Martin is being granted Freedom of the City on March 20, and council, City staff, and the public are invited to join for the special event.
Freedom of the City is the highest honour that a city can bestow upon an individual. This honour is intended to recognize a deserving distinguished person who has demonstrated qualities that set a person above or apart from others, an individual who has given exemplary service or made an outstanding contribution to the City and its citizens, explained Mayor Nathan Pachal.
Back in mid-January, the current council unanimously voted to bestow Martin with this honour.
“No one is more deserving of this distinction than former councillor Gayle Martin who served on Langley City council for 32 consecutive years from 1990 to 2022, longer than anyone else in its history, during which time she sat on countless committees, task groups, boards, and working groups,” explained Pachal.
“Gayle has been an avid volunteer throughout her life, sharing her time amongst numerous valued organizations in the community, and we are excited to recognize her significant accomplishments.”
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Learning of the honour, Martin was humbled and thankful.
“I was overwhelmed with emotion when I heard that I was to receive the Freedom of the City,” she said, thanking her former council colleagues who have put her name forward.
This elite honour is bestowed as a prestige form of appreciation and gratitude for her dedication in serving others, read the lengthy motion approved by council.
At the recent City volunteer appreciation banquet Martin elaborated further on her reaction to the news, admitting she doesn’t know what goes along with the title but simply grateful for being honoured in such a prestigious way.
“When I first found out about it, I was very, very emotional and overwhelmed, to the point of tears because this is not something given lightly,” she said.
Among her accomplishments listed, she will be lauded for serving on council from 1990 to 2022, where she sat on countless internal and external committees, task forces, and boards. She is also listed as a founding member and past president or Soroptimist International of the Langleys, a director (including past president) of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, a Gateway of Hope, St. Joe’s soup kitchen, and Critter Care Wildlife Society volunteer – and participant in various other community groups and initiatives – in her role as a councillor and as a champion of her community.
The formal conferring of the Freedom of the City on Martin will happen during the regular council meeting on Monday, March 20. The meeting traditionally gets under way at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City hall, 20399 Douglas Cres.
MORE ABOUT HER – IN THE CITY’S COUNCIL RACE: Gayle Martin
Only a few of these have been handed out in the City’s history.
• April 15, 1957 – Richmond Archie Payne Esquire
• March 24, 1975 – Hunter Bertram Vogel
• Nov. 18, 1983 – David Leon Nicholas
• April 27, 1995 – Reginald Henry Easingwood
• March 5, 2001 – Royal Canadian Legion
• March 10, 2008 – John B. Jeffery
• Jan. 16, 2023 – Gayle Martin
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