Longtime MP Libby Davies, a friend of Hamilton’s, says it’s a “sad day” to know she’s no longer with us. “She’s just been like an icon in our city,” Davies tells NEWS 1130. “I’ve known her for, wow, gosh, probably close to 40 years, and I think what it really so important about Jamie Lee is that she never gave up on her advocacy for people, even during really tough times, when it wasn’t popular to advocate for the rights of sex workers in the Downtown Eastside or in the West End when she was fighting against the injunction that was taken out in the 1980s. I mean she goes so far back.” Davies remembers a moment in 1998, when Hamilton dumped garbage bags full of high heeled shoes on the steps of city hall representing the sex workers believed to have been missing from the downtown Eastside. It was part of an effort to get politicians to recognize there was a serial killer — a theory that ultimately came true in the following years with the conviction of Robert Pickton.

It’s like a book club, but on the radio! Every week, NEWS 1130’s John Ackermann pulls a new title from the 1130 Bookshelf, and as 2019 draws to a close, he has compiled a list of the 10 best books published over the past year… Outside In: A Political Memoir. From community organizer to city councillor to Member of Parliament, Libby Davies has spent a lifetime fighting for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Now, she is sharing her story in a book.

For the people person: Outside In Libby Davies You don’t have to be a political junkie to get something out of this memoir from the longstanding MP from Vancouver East. Her four decades of political activism is inspiring, sure, but this book is an historic document as Davies grows alongside important political groups and issues. Her early inside view of Vancouver politics is especially interesting as many of the same issues remain front and centre in our city.

For the people person. You don’t have to be a political junkie to get something out of this memoir from the longstanding MP from Vancouver East. Her four decades of political activism is inspiring, sure, but this book is an historic document as Davies grows alongside important political groups and issues. Her early inside view of Vancouver politics is especially interesting as many of the same issues remain front and centre in our city.

Any one of a great number of Vancouver bus riders could have offered a similar thank you to Libby Davies whose political memoir Outside In: A Political Memoir (Between the Lines) includes a full account of her 20-year fight to save the lives of thousands of heroin addicts dying on city streets, because the police, civic, provincial and federal authorities were too thick to understand that drug addiction was a medical problem, not a criminal matter. Davies superbly balanced work (she took a course at UBC on memoir writing when she retired as the member of Parliament for Vancouver East, and it shows) provides numerous lessons from real life on how to make a difference as a social justice activist, working with street people from a store front, sitting on city council, or as deputy leader of the federal NDP. Davies was a close associate of Jack Layton, and here she gives an engrossing account of the rise, and fall of NDP fortunes in the Layton years. For many, the very personal stories Davies chooses to share with her readers will be the most interesting part of this highly readable, enjoyable book.

Outside In featured in the Hill Times list of best non fiction of 2019.