Tuesday's Vancouver's City Council meeting was the final one for Mayor Sam Sullivan.

After 12 years on council, and three in the mayor's chair, he's leaving public life for now.

CTV caught up with him moments before he wheeled into council chambers Tuesday to talk about the legacy he leaves behind for British Columbia's biggest city.

Paralyzed at the age of 19, and on welfare in his twenties, his rise to city council -- and ultimately -- the top post -- was an unlikely one

"What a honour, I never imagined right after my injury [that] I'd ever get the chance to serve the public in this way, he said.

When he is asked about his legacy, Sullivan says his goal was to leave the city a better place than when he found it. However, he said it's not for him to say whether or not that goal has been achieved.

"That will be for people in the future to determine, because a lot of things I started will not bear fruit for the next couple of years,'' he said.

That would include the 2010 Olympics, even though he will not be mayor when the Games begin.

Sullivan says he has no regrets about the fact that Gregor Robertson will now be the Olympic mayor.

"That was never my goal,'' he said.

Rather, he says his greatest accomplishment is the creation of 3,800 units of social housing.

Sullivan's term in the mayor's chair was full of turmoil. It included the longest civic strike in the city's history.

But if he has any regrets about how he handled the civic strike, he isn't revealing them.

"No, I think it was the right and proper mandate of the staff to do all the negotiations,'' he said.

Still, one veteran political observer says it was tunnel vision that led to his downfall.

"He went his own way all the time without checking out with the public and with other people whether they were supporting what he was doing,'' said Frances Bula, a CTV blogger.

For the moment, Citizen Sam is staying mum about his future.

"I'm going to go off into a new phase of my life,'' he said.

On December 7th, he will hand the reigns of the city he loves to Gregor Robertson

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson.