Who the hell does Gordon Campbell think he is?

It would be nice if we could call Gordon Campbell the former premier of BC. Except that's not what he is. The sonofabitch gets out in front of the media last week, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed pitch to regain some popularity, announces that it's time for a new leader, calls for a leadership convention and then appoints himself the interim leader until a convention produces a new face.

Listening to all the fawning and goo-gooing last week from any high placed individual who could find a microphone, one would think Gordon Campbell was one of the most popular people in BC. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most people, for most of Campbell's time in office, despised the man. He is arrogant, self-absorbed and unbelievably condescending. All of that on top of the fact that he's outwardly two-faced. And most people didn't vote for the BC Liberals because of him; they did so despite him.

Some wiener had the temerity to suggest that Gordon Campbell was a great man having brought the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver. No mention of the unbelievable wreckage he leaves in his wake, the torn up labour agreements, the secret deals with his big business buddies, soaring ferry fares, increased child poverty, ad nauseum.

And I still contend that BC Rail was sold in an effort to generate quick cash to buy his way out of the one problem the International Olympic Committee saw as an impediment to Vancouver winning the Olympic bid - the Sea to Sky highway. Further, because it all had to happen quickly, many bidders claim the sale was rigged to favour CN.

The problem now is, he's still there. He still rules over his Vancouver centric cabinet... after having effectively resigned.

Of course, since he's still there perhaps he can start answering questions surrounding the Sea to Sky highway. Or maybe get the minister responsible to start talking. Because it appears we're still being lied to by the Campbell crowd and some people are coming closer and closer to exposing a dirty secret Campbell and his capos don't want you to get to close to. 

BC Liberals (who are actually not liberal at all) need to remind themselves that Campbell is poison and the longer they let him occupy an office at 501 Belleville Street the more difficult it will be to rid themselves of the toxins.

Get rid of him. Now.

Give us someone like Kevin Falcon in the interim. We still have a few questions to ask him too.

The Sea to Sky highway, the 2010 Olympics and the BC Rail link up

Ever wonder why there are no tolls put on the Olympic legacy known as the Sea to Sky highway?

There are tolls. Campbell promised them to his big business buddies. And we're paying them. But what you may not know is that at least one journalist reported back in the early days of the Sea to Sky project that the BC Ministry of Transportation was spending money, ($166 million), gained from the sale of BC Rail to fund phase 1 of the highway project.

Think about that for a minute.

Campbell promises that he won't sell BC Rail, then, suddenly, while falsely claiming that BC Rail was a money-losing proposition, puts it on the chopping block. Ideology of a fanatic bottom-liner or was there something more sinister at work here?

Here's some meat to chew on. The Vancouver/Whistler Olympic bid was not a sure thing. In the first round Pyeongchang, South Korea led the short list with 51 votes to Vancouver's 40. Salzberg, Austria received only 16 votes which effectively eliminated that city. What that meant was that virtually all of those who had voted for Salzberg would have to shift their votes to Vancouver if the Vancouver bid was to succeed in the second round of voting.

Problem. Money. Campbell, who had a bevy of pals wrapped up in the Olympic bid process, was made fully aware that the greatest stumbling block to a successful bid was a highway between Vancouver and Whistler that was too long, too dangerous and subject to road-blocking slides. The only way to overcome that massive obstacle would be to commit to IOC officials that the thoroughfare would be totally rebuilt in time to host an Olympic party. But where would the money come from?

Sell an asset... and sell it fast. BC Rail.

On 28 August, 2002, Vancouver makes the short list of four cities bidding on the 2010 Winter Olympics. The IOC cites the Sea to Sky Highway as a problem. The Vancouver Olympic bid committee has until 10 January, 2003 to submit a bid book, complete with the proposed plan to solve the one problem cited by the IOC. * 

On 13 May, 2003, Gordon Campbell broke an election promise and announced that BC Rail would be sold.

On 2 July, 2003, the IOC announced that Vancouver would host the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

On 25 November, 2003, Campbell announced that the government had accepted the bid from CN to purchase BC Rail. (OK... a 990 year lease.) More than one of the other bidders complained that the deal had been rigged in favour of CN.

On 10 January, 2004, flush with money from the sale of BC Rail, the Campbell government releases a Capital Project Plan known as the Sea to Sky highway improvement project.

If you don't smell something there your nose isn't working.

Over to Laila Yule.

* Paragraph added as update.

Lies, Damn Lies and BC's Campbell government

This is a nice shiny 16 page report telling you, dear taxpayer, what a good deal Gordon Campbell's Olympic orgy turned out to be. It's also an attempt to blow sunshine up your ass, being so far from an accurate accounting of the cost of the 2010 Olympic Games as to constitute a joke.

As far as the truth-challenged crowd on Victoria's, Belleville Street are concerned, the BC Government contributed a total of $925 million to hold the Olympic Games. What they conveniently omit from any public statements is that Campbell promised that the Olympic Games would never exceed a cost of $600 million. (Not that anybody believed him then either.) In any case, using just those figures, Campbell's ego party is now at a $325 million over run.

What the report touches on but does not include in the final figures is the federal costs associated with games security. Despite various reports suggesting that the final bill came in at just under $1 billion, there has been no comprehensive final accounting. In fact, you can expect the final figure for that operation to come in at well over $1 billion. (The original estimate handed to the public was $175 million.)

And then there are all those "off book" expenses which the report mentions but neatly ignores on the financial statement.

Sea to Sky highway rebuild - Estimated at $600 million, the Campbell government has never released the actual figures. There are plenty of sources who put the construction cost alone at over $1 billion. Add in 25 years of maintenance (it is a P3 project) and the cost jumps to $3.5 billion. Given the state of the S2S highway before the Olympics there is a good chance it would have had to be reconstructed anyway, but the Olympics turned it into a "hurry up" deal which added to the price. Oh yeah... no tolls. No explanation. For anyone in BC who lived on the wrong side of the Coquihalla highway, in the Fraser Valley beyond a bridge or, heaven forbid, in the provincial capital of Victoria, tolls, tariffs and exorbitant ferry fares are a continuing source of anger. Why does the hedonistic Whistler crowd get a free ride?

Canada Line rapid transit - Estimated at just under $2 billion. Would they have built it if it weren't for the Olympics? Maybe, but Campbell has been trying to download this type of thing onto local levels of government. Even if it had been built, it wouldn't have included an LRT station at the Olympic Athletes' Village. None of the cost of this system was included in the final Olympic money tally.

Then, we have some other stuff. BC Hydro said they contributed $15 million in goods and services plus $1.8 million in "customer appreciation" promotions. They also introduced a two-tier billing system which has caused most hydro bills to increase significantly.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia insured all VANOC vehicles and drivers at no charge to VANOC. Cost of giving away insurance? $6.2 million. The stunning part of this is that ICBC paid out claims of $2.8 million and then declared that they had made a "profit" of $3.4 million. Thanks for that. I expect to see my premiums go down. No?

BC Lottery Corporation spent $15 million. They say that it had no effect on taxpayers since they recovered all money in gaming sales. Wrong! BCLC would exist as a provincially-owned obscenity if it weren't for the return of profits to the community in the form of gaming grants. Note that the BC government has brutally slashed gaming grants to charities, arts and recreational programs across the board.

Vancouver Convention Centre - $900 million which was rushed to create a world-class media centre.

BC Place Stadium - $19 million rushed in for improvements after VANOC spent $11 million.

Making Cypress Mountain wintry - A steady stream of trucks bringing snow from Manning Park, well over two hours away, to dump on top of bales of hay which had to be imported... well, who knows? Suffice to say that a $7 bale of hay, after being touched by a fleet of helicopters, earth movers and construction crews soared to the $700 each range.

Do the math. Try not to get sick.

Burning stick meets burning stupid

Burning stick! Burning stick!U.S. citizen Wayne Gretzky lit the torch and we television viewers were treated to a couple of hours of modern dance and extremely impressive stage effects to mark the opening of the Vancouver games. Nicely done, though neither of my kids would believe kd Lange is a woman at first. I liked Shane Koyczan's poem, but he should have started working on his beard a little earlier or shaved. And apparently Canada was settled by tattooed fiddling Celtic barbarians - who knew?

Burning stupid! Burning stupid!

And here's a newsflash for "Blayze" the masked protestor who speaks to the press at the end of the video here: "The next level" of a peaceful protest is not smashing windows and trying to provoke the cops and it isn't "the perogative" of the some self-important douchebag in a black hoodie and bandana to make the sensible people who are trying to make a point in a civilized way look bad just because he thinks he's a revolutionary who is going to bring racist exploitive capitalism to knees by throwing newspaper boxes through shopfronts. Dude, your friends are not activists, they are assholes.

These stupid self-proclaimed anarchists should be aware that The Man has 15,000 troops at his beck and call, 15,000 cops, soldiers and rent-a-cops who would probably like nothing better than to have a quiet two weeks, but who aren't above knocking the crap out of a whole bunch of people who don't deserve it because of the anti-social antics of a few shit-for-brains who think smashing windows serves the cause of social justice.

And yes, I have heard the theories about agent provocateurs that are already making the rounds. Those taking part in the legitimate protests won't be lead astray by such people. If you are at a protest and someone starts talking about "getting" the cops, or starts picking stuff to throw, the best thing to do is tell them to cut it the hell out and grow the hell up. There is not a crowd of protesting civilians anywhere in the world that is going to win a street battle against prepared, trained and well-armed cops, so there is no point at all in starting a fight. And trying to provoke a response by the police so that the news cameras can get footage of the "true nature of the fascist oppressors' brutality" is idiotic and is going to get the wrong people hurt.

There are many legitimate complaints to be made about the Vancouver games and the Olympics in general, but smashing windows and putting bystanders in danger is not the way to make the statement that needs to be made.

Seabus bomb scare

RCMP detonated a fishing rod in a tube mistakenly left behind at the Seabus Terminal in North Vancouver yesterday, so that's one less Olympic terrorist incident to worry about.

The suspicious package was discovered at 2:30pm and detonated at 5pm after city blocks were evacuated and buses, all CNR trains on the waterfront area and the SeaBus harbour ferry connecting North Vancouver to downtown Vancouver were halted for three hours while RCMP helicopter Air One circled overhead and dog and explosive disposal units and a bomb-diffusing robot combed the area.

The Province : "RCMP spokesman Const. Michael McLauchlin said there is no longer a threat to anyone."

The $10-million Olympic Storage Shed

aka the Canada Pavillion for the 2010 Games

The pre-fab tent was built by a company from Chicago for $10-million.

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Vancouver architect Bing Thom :

"We listened to too much advice from the Americans. There was all this talk about not being worried about the architecture."

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Out here this style of architecture is usually called a Vancouver Special.

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Last Wednesday Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said the pre-fabricated structure will be the public face of Canada's $1.23-billion involvement in the Olympics.

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h/t Dammit Janet.

Security vs Security. VANOC fuck ups. Vol 1

So, I'm flying home. No big deal. It's just that the "company" picked the wrong date to return me to the world. 29 January, 2010. Olympic security kicks into full court press.

"Picture ID please, Sir."

"Don't have any which I haven't paid for. I'm a Canadian, in Canada flying between Canadian points. If you want to see my picture look up the "outstanding warrants" poster or pay to see that which I personally paid for."

"We can deny you passage."

"No. You can't. Read the existing legislation."

"I'm just doing my job."

Goddamnit! I weakened. She was telling the truth and I buckled. I gave her the weakest of my photo IDs... and I shouldn't have done it.

"Where do you live?"

"It's on the card."

"We need your permission to transmit this information to the RCMP as a part of the Olympic security system."

"Really?! Then I want an assurance that the RCMP will provide a detailed report as to where and when this information was used and a certificate that it was destroyed when it served no purpose outside the duration of my flight."

"Huh?"

Once again I gave in to the desire to simply "get home".

"Just give me the fucking boarding pass."

Security screening was a whole new experience... at least in Canada.

The normal over-the-top "we're protecting you" x-raying of everything you're carrying evolved into "I am going to do a secondary search of your baggage.... Sir." The "sir" was added to present an illusion that this was still Canada.

The security person, someone to whom I wouldn't have given a graduation certificate of an Ordinary Seaman Under Training, proceeded to open everything. Everything. Including documents.

When that person got to the PROTECTED B documents, I protested.

"You have no authority nor the requisite clearance to look though those. Read the markings."

"We're allowed to look at everything," she demanded.

"Not without the permission of the person that classified them, you're not," I told her.

By the time I had finished protesting, she had ripped open the sealed envelopes and had read the names, dates of birth, professional IDs and home addresses of persons who believed their personal information was secure in my custody.

She had made sure my paper was not a bomb. She had also violated Canadian law.

When I asked for her ID (so as to report the breach of PROTECTED B documents) she refused to provide it. Adamantly.

I obeyed the law. The security system flaunted it.

Welcome to the Olympics. 2010 Vancouver. 1936 Berlin.

Same rules. Same outcome.