Nils Jensen, a consummate politician and public servant, was remembered by his sons as a dedicated family man with a penchant for corny family sweatshirts, cross-country road trips and an unorthodox baseball coaching style.
On Thursday, hundreds were at Oak Bay High School to attend the former Oak Bay mayor’s celebration of life, with the 440-seat Dave Dunnet Community Theatre filled to standing room only, requiring the use of two overflow rooms with video screens.
In a eulogy, his eldest son, Nicholas, said even after Jensen was diagnosed with cancer in January, he stayed positive, unwavering from a quality that fuelled his entire life.
Jensen was utterly devoted to his family, Nicholas said, even with his demanding career as a Crown prosecutor, Oak Bay councillor and two-term mayor.
Nicholas and younger brother Stewart grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s and their youth was thoroughly documented by Jensen through the lens of a hand-held camcorder.
The family amassed thousands of videos, narrated by Jensen, who would casually interview his sons as they played.
“What comes across from those videos is how much dad loved spending time with us,” Nicholas said. “For such a busy man, this was his greatest accomplishment of all.”
When Jensen, his wife, Jean, and the two boys moved from the nation’s capital to B.C.’s capital, Jensen had sweaters made that said “Ottawa to Victoria, 1994-95.” The whole family wore them on the plane ride over.
Jensen made similar personalized T-shirts emblazoned with “Trans-Canada Odyssey” in 2005 when the family drove from Victoria to Montreal to send Nicholas off to university.
“[Dad] wore his love for his family like a badge of honour, right on his sweater,” Nicholas said. “He never took family time for granted and that’s his legacy.”
Jensen coached Stewart’s little league baseball team and Stewart remembered that his dad let each player pick their position, even if it wasn’t the most strategic thing to do from a winning perspective.
When Jensen coached on third base, he wouldn’t waste time with subtle hand gestures, but yell “steal on the next pitch,” Stewart recalled, eliciting laughter from the audience.
“He was trying to tell us that winning isn’t everything,” Stewart said. “No one remembers the scores of the games, but we remember the experience and how it made us feel.”
Jensen would take a unique approach to his Santa Claus role during family Christmas parties, remembered long-time friend Michael McEvoy. After asking if the child had been good, he’d ask if they left the tap running while brushing their teeth.
“Santa doesn’t think it’s a good idea to waste water,” Jensen would say, a position in keeping with the water conservation efforts that marked his political career.
For all his joviality, Jensen was a formidable prosecutor, and legal colleagues described him as a “smiling cobra.” He was a natural orator in front of a jury and was moved by an unflappable passion for justice, McEvoy said.
Born on July 26, 1949, in Copenhagen, Jensen immigrated with his family to Montreal in 1957. A photo tribute showed a black and white photo of Jensen with his parents, another of him as a child wielding a hockey stick. More photos showed the family’s trips across the world, Jensen smiling and laughing.
The last photo was from his time as Oak Bay mayor, a position he held from 2011 to 2018. Jensen was known to greet the tourists who disembarked the double-decker bus that would stop in front of the municipal office, said Oak Bay Coun. Tara Ney.
He’d boast about the community and quiz international visitors about the electric vehicles or sustainable initiatives in their home countries, Ney said.
Jensen was also a champion of the arts, and to recognize that, the District of Oak Bay renamed the Oak Bay Public Arts Fund the Mayors’ Arts Legacy Fund. In lieu of flowers, people are encouraged to donate to the fund. Ney also unveiled a plaque that commemorates Jensen’s 22 years of public service, along with a quote from Pablo Picasso: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
“Nils fundamentally believed that art, freedom and creativity will change the world faster than politics,” Ney said. “He was part of the social fabric of Oak Bay. He had an unyielding commitment to make the world a better place.”
Just before his family left the theatre, carrying a marble urn, the VOC Sweet Soul Gospel Choir, led by Checo Tohomaso, sang Stand By Me, with an energy, enthusiasm and spirit reminiscent of the way Jensen lived his life.
