Councillor Christine Boyle was elected to Vancouver City Council with OneCity Vancouver in 2018. During her time on Council, Christine has been a leading voice on affordable housing, climate action, Indigenous rights and more.
Councillor Boyle has been a tireless advocate for rental, co-op and non-market housing, including pushing for walkable neighbourhoods and corner stores in every neighbourhood of Vancouver. She led the development and adoption of Vancouver's Climate Emergency Action Plan, one of the most comprehensive municipal climate plans in North America. And she co-chairs the city's taskforce to implement UNDRIP, alongside Squamish Nation Spokesperson Khelsilem. You can read updates on her Council work here.
Christine has an BSc in Urban Agriculture and First Nations Studies from UBC, and an MA in Religious Leadership for Social Change from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is a community organizer, an ordained United Church Minister, and a founding member of OneCity Vancouver.
Christine joined the team at Canadian Memorial United Church and Centre for Peace as Minister of Community Life in January 2016. She also spearheaded national efforts within the United Church to divest the church’s funds from fossil fuels. In 2015 she traveled to the Vatican for events around the release of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change and the economy, and later that year was a civil society delegate to the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris.
Prior to that, Christine spent four years supporting progressive local governance and leading strategic communications at the Columbia Institute’s Centre for Civic Governance. She organized training conferences for progressive local leaders in BC, Saskatchewan and Ontario, and supported the research and development of innovative municipal policy solutions. During that time she also supported the development of GreenJobs BC, bringing together environmental, labour, and community leaders to advocate for a just transition.
Christine also worked at First United Church in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, doing programming and community outreach. And spent five years at Grandview/ ?Uuqinak’uuh Elementary School, directing the After-School Program, coordinating the School and Community Garden, and supporting children and families.
In her free time, Christine created Spirited Social Change, an initiative aimed at engaging people across generations to explore the intersections between faith, spirituality, and our work for a better world. Through that work she was part of initiating and leading The Self Care Project, and Fossil Free Faith.
As an adult she’s volunteered with California’s Prop-8 Marriage Equality campaign, coordinated SFU’s Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements, sat on the board of the First United Housing Society, helped launch the Heartwood Community Café, co-chaired the board of the InterSpiritual Centre, and volunteered on numerous local, provincial and federal election campaigns.
As a high school and university student in Vancouver she worked at Moore’s Bakery in Kerrisdale, coached and refereed youth soccer, taught cycling with Pedalheads, was elected to UBC’s AMS student government, campaigned to protect the UBC Farm, cooked for Otesha Project and Sierra Youth Coalition trainings, and organized events around Amnesty International’s Stolen Sisters report.
Christine was born and raised in Vancouver. She graduated from Point Grey Mini School and has lived in neighbourhoods across the city. She currently lives in East Vancouver with her partner and two kids.