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Students at W. Earle Miller Public School

In an editorial comment from Wednesday’s Metro Vancouver, Paul Sullivan outlined his five reasons to not ‘Believe’ in the Olympic Games. While I can appreciate the jab at CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the games, I find little else to agree with in his reasons. Lets take his points one by one.

Number 5: Sullivan says “The Olympic mascots are endangered or non-existent species [...] Somehow this says it all.” I have no idea what this says. Yes, the Olympic mascots are hybrids of endangered and mythical creatures. The animals that are threatened or endangered have not reached that point because of the Olympics. To my mind, all this says is that VANOC is conscientious of the amazing wildlife that BC is privy too. What does highlighting that fact say? If anything it brings further needed attention to animal populations under threat.

Number 4: “The Games will cost at least $6 billion [...] what are we going to do with a $104.9 million toboggan slide?” The first point to note with this claim is the standard tactic of anti-Olympic voices citing the figure of $6 billion as the cost of the games. As I’ve pointed out before, that number includes the construction costs of the Canada Line, the Sea-to-Sky Highway improvements, construction of the Vancouver Convention Centre, improvements to the Port Mann bridge and the construction of the Pitt River bridge. I strongly suspect that most, if not all of these infrastructure projects would have been undertaken were Vancouver not playing host to the games. They certainly are not ‘but for’ the Olympics. I should hope that any Vancouver resident is at a bare minimum proud of the fabulous new Canada Line. At a cost of $1.7 billion the rail line represents almost 30% of the oft quoted $6 billion figure; it is worth every penny and happy to have that argument with Sullivan. It baffles me how people seem to treat the $6 billion as money that is just lost. Do I really need to point out that these are investments? There is a reason that the latest quarterly growth figures from the Conference Board of Canada have BC atop the pack in terms of economic performance. I presume I don’t need to explicitly state why this is. I imagine that with the bobsled track we will see stronger luge, bobsled and skeleton teams in the future, as well as a new yearly World Cup event in Whistler. Wait for it; I expect that will bring a positive economic impact to the community.

Number 3: “The entire world now knows our dirty little secret: The best city on earth has one of the poorest neighbourhoods on earth [...] Imagine what it would look like if we spent $6 billion on housing the homeless, treating the addicted and providing care for the kids.” Again, the first part of his statement is correct, but I don’t see this as a bad thing. Would Sullivan be more comfortable if we were able to hide the seedy side of the city from the world? I think not. Vancouver’s urban issues are real. They are not but for the Games. Any spotlight brought to bear on this cities problems is more than welcome in my books. I suppose that one can argue that instead of spending on infrastructure improvements (see point number 2) that all monies should be directed to social programs. I simply disagree with this and speculating on directing all funds away from infrastructure is a thought experiment that neglects to take into account current measures the city and province are taking to address social ills. I will be the first to admit that we can and need to do more on those fronts. They are separate issues from the Games however.

Number 2: “Why hold the Winter Olympics where there’s no winter?” On this point I would simply ask, does Whistler’s contribution to hosting the games not count? And despite Vancouver’s warm climate, it still has a strong connection to winter activities. I will grant that the optics around the events at Cypress mountain have not been good. Much of that comes from media. The story that things haven’t gone quite as planned but a successful contingency is being implemented is not nearly as sexy as speculating on cancelled Olympic events. Would the IOC and FIS have given their okay to the venue if they did not have confidence in it? I would hope not, but we will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon when the women freestyle skiers hit the moguls to see how all that work atop Cypress has panned out.

Number 1: “What does it avail a city to own the podium and lose its soul? Vancouver is a billion dollar police state: Surveillance cameras; dissenters turned away at the border in violation of the Charter of Rights.” I can’t argue with this point to much. $1 billion is way too much spending on security measures in my mind as well. A small supplement to our current police force would more than sufficient in my opinion. I assume that when Sullivan references dissenters being turned away at the border he is talking about Martin Macias Jr. being denied entry to Canada last Saturday. As I wrote at the time of the incident, I think this was a poor decision to make on the part of Canadian Border Services. My interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights may be incorrect, but as an American citizen I would not imagine that Macias would be privy to any of the rights afforded by the Charter. And while I do disagree with the decision to turn Macias away, there is no doubt that that decision solely and rightly lies with border services.

Mr. Sullivan is an excellent writer and I always look forward to his work on my morning commute. This editorial though, while it does contain many true statements, does not wash for me as an effective argument against the Olympics.

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