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2010 Olympics

2010? I've Changed My Mind

Why I went from Olympics booster to boo bird.

Rafe Mair 15 Dec 2008TheTyee.ca

Rafe Mair writes a Monday column for The Tyee and is a spokesperson for the Save Our Rivers Society.

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Thrill of Biathlon? Think I'll miss it.

Okay, Chris Shaw of the University of British Columbia, outspoken critic of the Winter Olympics from the outset, was probably right about the 2010 Olympics. We should have, albeit gracefully, refused the honour.

These games run from Feb. 12 to Feb. 28, 2010, 17 days in all including opening and closing ceremonies. Chris and others opposed these games for many reasons, not least of which dealt with the Sea-to-Sky highway and real estate development.

I, on the other hand, swept up in the massive municipal masturbation, didn't listen to Chris and now see his nightmares coming true.

Being a resident of Lions Bay on the Sea-to-Sky, I should have listened to the boo birds. But, here's what the Highways Department said about the project:

"As part of Highway 99, the Sea-to-Sky Highway winds its way through the spectacular Coast Mountains, linking communities from West Vancouver to Whistler. British Columbia's Ministry of Transportation has initiated the $600 million Sea-to-Sky Highway Improvement Project to increase this road's safety, reliability and capacity. In addition to meeting the area's future traffic needs, the upgrades will also enhance economic development opportunities in communities along the highway and in the province as a whole.

"During construction, project staff is working hard to ensure the improvements are carried out safely, efficiently and with minimal disruption to the public. These efforts to keep traffic running smoothly will continue until the project is completed in 2009, in time for the 2010 Olympics."

It's difficult to believe that this amount of horse buns could be crammed into two paragraphs. There can surely be no one except the chauffer-driven minister, Kevin Falcon, who could read that crap and keep their dinners down.

Endangered by an upgrade

As one who totalled a car and damned near killed himself and his wife, I can attest that especially after dark, this highway is a death trap. In my opinion, those working on the road have not implemented enough procedures to insure safety. In Lions Bay, we hear sirens from our ambulance and police several times a day. The road markings, if they exist at all, are confusing in the extreme. At night you have to pray that both you and oncoming cars are on their proper side of the road. Signs are misleading, potholes abound, and safety supervision non-existent.

As to "minimal disruption," those words are stomach turners for those of us who play go-go-stop every day. We who live along this recipe for disaster have had enough.

The environmental impact, especially at Eagleridge where Minister Falcon, rather than building a safe, relatively cheap tunnel, chose to wipe out crucially important wilderness, was all the more important because of its closeness to human habitation.

Developers cashing in, per usual

There is a big plus for Autocrat Campbell and his toadies. All along the highway there are new developments built by Liberal supporters. As Kevin Costner's character was told in Field of Dreams, "Build it and they will come." Within a few years, the Sea-to-Sky will be as busy as or busier than ever before. The only good thing you can say about the parlous times we're in is that some of these developments will no doubt be postponed for palmier times.

Now we see that the traffic patterns in Vancouver, on the major bridges as well as Highway 99 and the Sea-to-Sky, will all but end normal use of our streets for a stretch of 17 days. Evidently those of us who live on the Sea-to-Sky will have residents' passes, while the rest of non-Olympics traffic will have to stay home. Actually, this might not be a bad idea after all. Perhaps this could be made permanent so that only people whose permanent residence is on the highway would be able to drive it, exceptions being deliverers of beer and other staple products. As for the raving lunatics who kill and maim us, as well as themselves now, as they try for new speed records to Whistler and back, surely they could be trained to join Canasta Clubs, or go lawn bowling or stay home with the kids and the pooch.

Sports few ever play

But Rafe, you surely ask, aren't you excited at the prospect of all those world class athletes coming to our village by the rain forest and plying their trade? Why, you'll be able to watch things like the biathlon, bobsleighing, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and all manner of skiing.

OK, let's have a peek at that biathlon. We're told it's "A demanding combination of exertion and precision, the biathlon combines cross-country skiing and riflery. It was originally devised as a means for hunting." Am I, then, to don my trusted snowshoes and tramp along the trails shouting and clapping my applause?

Frankly, I just don't give a damn about the biathlon so scratch that from my list. Actually, I don't give a fiddler's fart about bobsledding and luge, either. C'mon now, how many of you can name anyone who does this?

Lot's of Canadians love skiing. In my case, along with bungee jumping, hang gliding and free falling from a glider, etc., it's on my list of ways I'm not going to die.

Curling? Right up there with watching paint dry, as a spectator sport. This leaves skating and ice hockey but somehow I don't like them so much that I'm prepared to pay the charge for admission.

I'll be on a warm beach in 2010

Let's be brutally frank here. A majority of events you can't see in person and must, surrounded by the comforts of home, watch on the telly. Only a small per cent of you will actually go to the skating or the hockey. What we have here, then, is a public spectacle of events, which will be seen by the vast majority on television. And this is worth all that money?

Ah, you cry, got you there, Rafe. This is all about "showcasing" (a dreadful word dreamt up by ad men) Vancouver and Whistler.

I say, "dream on." Vancouver in February is not all that showcase-able and Whistler is already well enough known to wealthy offshore skiers.

Wendy and I have carefully looked this situation over and have concluded that all we would ever see of the Olympics would be on the idiot box, and that we can do that just as well in Auckland, Maui or Cape Town, bathed in warm sunshine, as we can in Vancouver during the monsoon season.

So, fellow suckers, enjoy our tax dollars being pissed away on overweight gentlemen with blazers and the Olympics logo and on athletes you've never seen before and will never see again. Wendy and I are off to balmier climes and, frankly, I don't even care if our room doesn't have a TV set!

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