One of Vancouver's most upbeat former politicians has passed away at the age of 75.

Art Cowie had the rare distinction of serving on the Vancouver park board, Vancouver city council, and as an MLA. He was also a  landscape architect and developer who often shared his opinions on city issues  on his www.remembernow.com Web site.

He was elected as the Liberal MLA in Vancouver-Quilchena in the 1991 election, and later stepped down two years later  so that the party's new leader, Gordon Campbell, could run in a by-election.

In 1996, Campbell chose to run in his home constituency of Vancouver-Point Grey, and Cowie lost the Liberal nomination in Vancouver-Quilchena to Colin Hansen, the current finance minister. Campbell did not intervene to ensure that Cowie would get the nomination again  after generously resigning so that Campbell could run in a safe constituency.

This weekend, the premier issued a statement declaring that he will be "forever grateful" for Cowie's actions. "Art Cowie will be truly missed throughout British Columbia," Campbell said.

Cowie was first elected to the Vancouver park board in 1970, serving two terms and filling the chair's position in 1973 and 1974. In 1975, he was elected to council  on the TEAM slate, serving a single term. From 1988 to 1992, he was back on the park board with the NPA, serving as chair again from 1990 to 1992.

In the  2002 civic election, he ran for council with a third party, VCA Team, and collected 18,535 votes.

Cowie was an avid supporter of modest densification of single-family neighbourhoods. In 2005, he was an early backer of Sam Sullivan's mayoral candidacy because he felt that the other sitting NPA councillor, Peter Ladner, didn't have the backbone to take on neighbourhood groups that wanted to preserve single-family zoning.

Ladner voted against a three-unit townhouse project that Cowie wanted to build in MacKenzie Heights, whereas Sullivan voted in favour.

Cowie  was a former director of the Pacific National Exhibition and he had a keen interest in Hastings Park and the future of horseracing in Vancouver. He often suggested that the park needed a larger track to guarantee the sport's long-term future in the city.