Excerptcize

Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Going on right now (it’s 8:09pm PST) is the Paralympic Torch Relay. In fact, it’s passing right beneath my window! And it will be back in about half an hour! This torch run is somewhat different than the Olympic relay, but it is just as moving and heartwarming, if not more so. This flame was not kindled by rays of sunshine from far away Greece; this flame has been brought forth anew every morning of the relay. This morning it was re-lit by members of the Musquem First Nation for the last time. Overnight the flame will move throughout the heart of downtown Vancouver on a community relay that circuits Robson St, Granville St, Smithe/Haro St and Bute St. The relay will continue until 2pm tomorrow, at which time it will move to BC Place Stadium for the opening ceremonies. If you are able to, do yourself a favour and stop and see (and even follow for a bit) the torch run.

• Building Towards The Big Hockey Game I am a newer resident of Vancouver, and was only 10 years old when the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in '94 and rioting erupted throughout the streets. I don't...
• How Wrong Is It To Contractually Require Promoters To Not Denigrate (Your Product)? A short while back on the CBC Radio3 blog, host Tariq Hussein linked to a blog post by Carey Mercer, the lead singer of the band Frog Eyes. In this post he was lamenting the...

• Learn to Run the Safe Way There are more people running than ever before. This is because they want to stay in shape and running seems to be a great way...
• Olympic Torch Relay Comes to Meaford Go Canada Go DECEMBER 29, 2009 – 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Followed by BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS (by donation) (Pancake Breakfast) Meaford Arena followed by...

The flame screams out "Let me free!" photo courtesy of Steven Johnson

Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later today, three Canadian men will jump in the aerials final tonight and Joanie Rochette will skate in the final flight in the ladies individual figure skating competition. Three more days of competition remain after today that are sure to also contain many Olympic highlights. As we near the end of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, the retrospective analysis has begun.

In a piece in yesterdays Vancouver Sun, Jeff Lee notes the surprise of VANOC officials over the exuberant outpouring of national pride from Canadians and their enthusiastic support of the games. It’s nice that they’ve been pleasantly surprised, but it’s important to note that their surprise is at least partially a function of the huge amount of negative (often inaccurate or misleading) press coverage the games have received, both before and during their execution. As someone who is generally pro-Olympics and has put some effort into push back against false arguments from Olympic detractors, I may have spent more time than most listening to negative press. But if the organizing committee, by default the games biggest cheerleaders, were apprehensive that Canadians wouldn’t get behind winning gold medals at home and Olympic hockey, I think it’s fair to say that the negative stories had reached a saturation point.

Something else Lee noted that  illustrates this story very specifically is the handling of the Olympic Cauldron. Fearing all the press about protesters, VANOC felt the need to hide the cauldron behind a chainlink fence extremely far back from the Cauldron with a large phalanx of police officers milling about, both within the enclosed area (along with the lucky few who due to volunteering or knowing the right people are able to have an unobstructed view) and outside. VANOC CEO John Furlong said they were blown away by the desire of the people to see the flame. I say that’s baloney. The flame is an enduring symbol and being drawn to fire has to be one of the oldest human instincts around. I think VANOC had higher expectations of the numbers of protesters and demonstrations that would occur based on the media narrative and needlessly increased security based on that. The enormous outcry from the public about the cauldron forced VANOC to act, although their fix, installing a plexiglass section in the fence and constructing an elevated viewing platform is still wanting. Paul Sullivan writing in the Metro had a much better idea last week suggesting completely removing the fence, putting up a velvet rope and staffing as many serge clad mounties as needed to provide security directly around the flame. Let VANOC’s shortsightedness due to media distortions serve as a lesson to future hosts (I’m looking at you London.)

• In Response To Paul Sullivan's '5 Reasons' Against The Vancouver Games [/caption] 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...
• Olympic Legacies [/caption] The cauldron in Coal Harbour has been extinguished, the Olympic flag has been lowered and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games have ended. That means  two things; it's time for me to start doing some...

• Choosing the Right Ball pt 1 Choosing the right golf ball is critical if you are trying to cut down on your golf handicap. Choosing the right ball is going to...
• Buzz On Your Own Together With Haunted Residence Adobe Flash Video Games Maybe you have experimented with your odds with actively playing an activity that's really scary and you will feel goose protrusions right on top of...

I am a newer resident of Vancouver, and was only 10 years old when the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in ’94 and rioting erupted throughout the streets. I don’t have any direct memories of that event, but it is easy to feel the remembrance of that shameful incident this city collectively has as we inch closer to the one of the most anticipated hockey games this country has ever seen; Canada’s mens hockey team wraps up Olympic round robin play this afternoon at 4:30PT/7:30ET when they face the United States of America. I feel that it is no accident this particular game was scheduled for a Sunday, as opposed to a Friday or Saturday; liquor stores close earlier and I presume officials are also hoping that many revelers will remember to go to work Monday morning and restrain their intake of celebratory libations (a futile hope in my mind).

The nervousness of Olympic officials was put on display before Sunday as a jittery Vancouver Police Department made a request to the BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to order the closing of liquor stores city wide at 7pm as opposed to the typical time of 11pm. The order affected both public and private stores, but did not extend to off rack sales at pubs and bars. This measure was apparently in response to the events of Friday night in downtown Vancouver. The particulars of those ‘events’ are another matter. I was downtown on Robson and Granville on Friday night. It was busy. There were plenty of people in the streets. Many of those folks were drunk. As far as I know from my own anecdotal gatherings, as well as what I can find in published news reports there was no inciting event that turned the large, festive and yes, intoxicated crowd disruptive or violent. They simply remained a large, festive and drunken crowd; and that’s it. I am sure that there would have been some individual isolated incidents of assaults of varying natures, but that is par for the course for a weekend night on Granville Street. More notable to me is what appears to be an extremely low level of unfortunate events given the massive influx of people celebrating in the city.

There is no doubt that the police have been lenient in terms of enforcing public intoxication laws. I think they are to be commended for this. It is a good thing for police to be able to exercise their powers with a certain amount of discretion. If the police are becoming concerned that they levels of public intoxication are approaching levels that are becoming dangerous then why would they not begin to enforce intoxication laws just a bit more than the stance they have previously taken? Did we not spend an obscene level of money on security for reasons just like this? For his part, convicted drunk driver Gordon Campbell told CTV News the early store closures were necessary, saying:

“There’s a huge number of people downtown and we have to make sure everything goes well for everyone [...] I think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

• GE Ice Plaza [/caption] Just over two months ago, after a nearly 10 year absence, outdoor skating returned to Robson Square. In my own humble opinion it has been nothing but a spectacular success; on every occasion I've...
• On The Importance Of Signs As we've moved into the homestretch of final preparations for the Olympic Games, which kick off with the opening ceremonies here in Vancouver on February 12th, the city has been doing a fantastic of installing...

• First Ever Youth Olympic Games The International Olympic Committee has given their approval on the sports program for the first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games. The Youth Olympic Games will...
• I Want To Live In Stars Hollow I am a HUGE fan of the show Gilmore Girls. The only season I watched as first run episodes was the last season. The rest...

With one run remaining in the womens skeleton, Great Britain’s Amy Williams is ahead of Canada’s Melissa Hollingsworth by 0.54 seconds. This is an extremely large lead in a gravity sport such as the skeleton. I’m hoping that if Williams is able to hold on for the gold, the British press can stop taking a shit on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I’ve been to busy and engaged with the city of Vancouver and the fabulous party that has been going on that is the games to follow much of the media response to the games so far, but I have still been hearing peripherally that Fleet Street’s knives are out. The only way possible to be covering these games thus far in a completely negative light would be if one went in with the intention to do so. Paul Sullivan had a nice piece in this morning’s Metro Vancouver noting that the US media has certainly changed their tune since American domination of the medal count has become the normal day to day story. Great Britain’s medal drought will soon be over. One hopes that will also be the case for the negative coverage for the sake of negative coverage from the British press.

Update: Amy Williams of Great Britain laid down an excellent 54 second flat fourth run in the womens final run of the skeleton just now to capture the gold medal. Kerstin Szymkowiak of Germany had a fabulous final run to jump into 2nd place to claim the silver, with Anja Huber, also of Germany finishing in the bronze medal position. Canada’s Melissa Hollingsworth had an amazing start to her final run, but had a few sketchy turns. She still managed to place 5th in an extremely strong womens field. The final two runs in the mens skeleton are up next. CTV’s Olympic webpage will have the coverage live in HD, where Canada’s Jon Montgomery currently sits in second place after two runs 0.26 seconds behind Martins Dukurs of Latvia.

Update II: After the third run Canada’s Jon Montgomery sits in second 0.18 seconds behind Latvia’s Martins Dukurs in the mens skeleton. CTV will broadcast the final run live or you can watch in almost real time at CTV’s webpage.

• There's Gold In Them There Hills! [/caption] A lot of Canadians (myself included) were predicting that the gold medal drought on home soil would end on the first full day of competition by Jennifer Heil in womens freestyle skiing competition. That...
• A Mixed Day For Olympic Impressions I strongly believe that judgement on the success of the upcoming Winter Games should be on based upon the actual execution of them, not based upon issues that have arisen at past games. Prior incidents,...

• MonaVie Gaming Google to "Combat Negativity" and "Manage what People See on the Internet" Someone emailed my friend Amthrax a letter that MonaVie recently sent out to its distributors about online reputation management. The gist of it is that...
• The Great British Hertiage Pass The Great British Heritage Pass was established over 30 years ago by VisitBritain (formerly known as the British Tourist Authority). It is run by the...

Alexandre Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que. skis to second place in dual moguls competition at the Canada Post Freestyle National Championships at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver, Sunday, March 29. 2009. Photo by Mike Ridewood/Canadian Freestyle Ski Association

A lot of Canadians (myself included) were predicting that the gold medal drought on home soil would end on the first full day of competition by Jennifer Heil in womens freestyle skiing competition. That was not to be, as the American skier Hannah Kearney was just that much better, edging Jen out for the gold. Heil is still a champion, she has WON an Olympic silver medal to go with her gold from Torino and all Canadians should be very proud of her.

Day 3 brought another great chance for Canada’s gold medal drought to end with four Canadians in the mens freestyle final, including Alexandre Bilodeau, who was expected to challenge for the top of the podium. The reigning mens champion from Torino, Dale Begg-Smith had skied before Bilodeau, laying down an excellent run, but it was not flawless and there was room for Bilodeau to surpass him. Alexandre started off in spectacular fashion, laying down a nearly perfect double twisting backflip before launching himself through the middle section of moguls with  barely controlled reckless abandon. Holding form throughout, Alex was set up huge iron cross backflip. Crossing the finish line, Alexandre and the rest of Canada knew that his run was good enough to put him in first place. Anxious moments passed, but finally the judges scores were posted and they concurred with the entirety of Canadian national opinion; Bilodeau was in first place with one competitor left.

I watched the competition on Robson St. in downtown Vancouver with my brother, his girlfriend and one of my dearest friends, packed together with hundreds (thousands?) of other excited Canadians. When the scores were posted for the final skier and it was a done deal that not only was Canada’s first gold of the games secured, but also a long drought of not winning at home was over, the crowd lost itself. Decades worth of pent up frustration were released into the beautiful Vancouver night sky (no rain either!) Alexandre appears to be nothing but an exemplary young man and all of Canada is extremely proud of his accomplishment. In both post race interviews I saw with Bilodeau, he was quick to note that his gold is only the first of many to come for Canada at these games as the Canadian team is extremely strong. I could not agree with him more. Make sure to tune in this afternoon to the mens snowboard cross, where Canada entertains further medal hopes.

CTV does not allow for embedded videos, but you can watch Alexandre’s gold medal run in great streaming quality here.

• Is Obama Looking for a Bone from Harper? Writing in the Jurisprudence column at Slate.com, Dahlia Lithwick has an excellent article up regarding the Obama administrations decision to try some Gitmo detainees in federal court, while continuing to try others before military tribunals...
• Medal Hopes Mounting For Canada [/caption] In just over an hour the womens mogul competition's final round will begin. At the conclusion of the event Canada stands an extremely strong chance of winning it's first Olympic gold medal, both of...

• Peter Schiff's Favorite Canadian Oil Stock Recommendation I recently downloaded a free copy of Peter Schiff's Five Favorite Investment Choices, a short pdf e-book of five of his top stock picks -...
• Traveling to Canada: You Will Need To Convert to Canadian Money (Canadian Dollars) If you're driving up north over the border, you won't be able to use your U.S. dollars in Canada.  You will need to buy Canadian...

Jennifer Heil of Canada jumps off the ramp to take first place during the finals Women's Moguls at Sauze d'Oulx, Italy, 2006. (AP / Peter Dejong)

In just over an hour the womens mogul competition’s final round will begin. At the conclusion of the event Canada stands an extremely strong chance of winning it’s first Olympic gold medal, both of these games and on home soil. Should that be the case, it would most likely be from Jennifer Heil claiming first place. Jen is the reigning Olympic champion, as well as being currently ranked first in the World Cup standings. Jen is an amazing athelete and accomplished young woman. She currently lives in Montreal where she is an economics student.

Canada has two other women competing in the final round who are both medal threats. After the qualifying round Kristi Richards was in fourth place, with Chloe Dafour-Lapointe sitting in ninth. The qualifying round merely sets the start order for the finals, so it is a brand new competition, and there are even multiple podium places possible for Canada. Should Heil (or one of the other Canadian ladies) win gold, look for a party tonight in Vancouver that will be talked about many years from now. Go Canada Go!!

• Stephen Harper: Tactician Extraordinaire [/caption] Amidst reflecting on the year gone by, looking forward to the coming one and forming resolutions that will more often than not be forgotten by February, the end of 2009 also brought the opportunity...
• Oh Yeah, That Whole Senate Thing [/caption] In my haste to post on the prorogation of parliament, I completely forgot to mention one of the more tangible reasons for Mr. Harper to do so; Senate appointments. As I understand it, (mostly...

• How to Increase Gold Coin Values for Profit Coin collecting has been a hobby since the 1800s. The hobby was something which was started by the wealthy as a way to hold on...
• What The Olympics Taught Me About Personal Finance I am completely obsessed with these Olympics. When I get home, I plop myself on the couch and sit for house watching whatever is on....

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.

• Fun With The Olympic Budget [/caption] This past Monday, the local 24 Hours newspaper featured an article entitled "Let the Bailout Games begin". While the piece,  by 24 Hours staff writer Bob Mackin does contain many good pieces of factual...
• Different Flavours Of Social Conservatism The other day while discussing the prorogation of parliament with my dad, an interesting point came up that is worth mentioning here. I was saying how depressing it can be paying heed to events as...

• Byron Wien's 2008 Annual Top Ten Surprizes List Byron Wien, chief investment strategist for Pequot Capital, has once again published his annual list of economic, market and political surprises. Last year, he got...
• Golf as an Olympic Sport? Top golf players are full of enthusiasm as their appointed ambassadors work to have golf included as an Olympic sport. Players are citing that the...

Dana and Yuji Kaneko skate with son Koji on the GE Ice Plaza at Robson Square

Just over two months ago, after a nearly 10 year absence, outdoor skating returned to Robson Square. In my own humble opinion it has been nothing but a spectacular success; on every occasion I’ve been, the rink has been full of smiling, excited people of all ages. Granted, I live within walking distance of the rink, and as I grew up being able to skate outside my back door on a rink built by my father most years of my life, I am extremely biased to having a positive view on the new skating facility and the corporatey, corporate investment by GE that it is. That being the case, I decided to seek out the opinion of some others.

Some skaters were there for the first time, while others had previously been multiple times. Everyone had nothing but positive comments about the facility itself , as well as the staff. One trio of skaters that I met bookended the evolution of skating at Robson Square very nicely. Dana and Yuji Kaneko both remember skating at Robson Square as kids, in addition to participating in other activities like public music recitals. The closing of the rink was just one more element contributing to an underused downtown core. When they learned about the reopened rink from friends, they bundled up, boarded public transit, and along with their son Koji made their way into the city. Like everyone else they had a great time. The image they formed of Mom, Dad and Child going for a recreational skate is one that is quintessentially Canadian. Many thanks are due to the City, Province as well as GE for bringing outdoor skating back to the heart of downtown Vancouver. The province maintains a webpage where you can view information about hours of operation of the rink, rental prices and more here.

If you are making a trip into the downtown core to go skating, it may be IS prudent to call ahead first to ensure that there are no planned events altering skating hours, or that warm weather has not overwhelmed the machinery that maintains the ice surface is Vancouver’s ‘winter’ temperatures. Call 604-646-3559 for the latest conditions.

• Paralympic Torch Relay Going on right now (it's 8:09pm PST) is the Paralympic Torch Relay. In fact, it's passing right beneath my window! And it will be back in about half an hour! This torch run is somewhat...
• Undue Canada Bashing From Colbert Continues Stephen Colbert's assault on the Canadian speed skating team and Canada in general continued this Thursday on 'The Sport Report' (pronounced The Spore Rapport) when Stephen once again attacked Canada in regards to his beef...

• How to Rotate Inline Skate Wheels It is important for you to know why it is important for you to rotate the wheels on your skates, and it is also important...
• Moving to Providence Following the war, the economy shifted from maritime endeavors to manufacturing , particularly machinery, tools , Jewelry, silverware and textiles. At one time, Providence boasted...

The CBC has a story up indicating that later today, Clara Hughes will be named as Canada’s flag bearer in the Opening Ceremonies of the upcoming Winter Games. There could not be a more appropriate representative for Canada. Many congratulations to Clara as well as her friends and family. Clara is an outstanding athlete and person. More to follow.

Update: True to the earlier reports, Clara Hughes was introduced this afternoon at Richmond City Hall as the Team Canada flag bearer for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, which are set to happen two weeks from today. Regardless of ones feelings of the games themselves, I think it’s fair to say that they try and bend towards an ideal. Reasonable people can disagree about how successful the games are at fulfilling that ideal, but Clara Hughes is an embodiment of it. Not all athletes should be thought of as role models, but Clara Hughes can’t help but be one, and Canada could not hope for a better sports ambassador on the world stage. Hughes accomplishments in sport are many, and at 37 years of age, she is still a medal threat; at a race in Norway last November she just missed the podium, finishing 4th. Clara is the only Canadian, and one of only four athletes in the world, to have won a medal in both the summer and the winter Olympics. Across four previous Olympics, she has won 5 medals, including a gold in the 5000m at the Torino Games in 2006. After winning that medal, inspired by American speed skater Joey Cheek, Hughes donated $10,000 of her own money to the organization Right to Play and has been an advocate for that group ever since. As a member of Canada’s cycling team in 1996, Clara won the first Canadian medal of those games with a third place finish in the road race. I remember having a crush on her then, and it’s safe to say that I still do. I am very much looking forward to Clara and the entire speed skating team putting on an amazing display in a few short weeks.

PHOTO BY: JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press

• Looking Forward, Looking Back [/caption] Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later...
• It Just Wasn't Our Day Congratulations go out to the US Under 20 Hockey Team, as they defeated Canada 6-5 in overtime to win the IIHF World Junior Championships in a game for the ages. Some records are meant to...

• Way Off-topic... The World Cup, Soccer (football) and the U.S. As most people have heard, the World Cup is over. Italy has won and a month-long tournament to choose the true WORLD champion of Soccer...
• Athlete Profile of Bode Miller Date of Birth: October 12, 1977 Where Was He Born: Bretton Woods, NH Interesting Youth Highlights: Bode’s parents took a novel approach to raising him...

This afternoon will see announcements on two big news stories that are only mildly related. On the political front, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to appoint five new Conservative senators later today. In sporting news (and since it’s the Olympics there is some political aspect built in) Canada’s flag bearer for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

While the reasons for the PM’s prorogation of parliament are myriad, and to a certain extent only known to himself and his inner circle of tactical geniuses, one reason that is clearly evident is the fact that parliament not being in session gives him the perfect opportunity to make some appointments to the senate. While not gaining an outright majority in the upper chamber, the conservatives will have a plurality of members, shifting the balance on key committees as well as their ability to affect the agenda.

The naming of the flag bearer is one that always tends to receive a lot of press. The fact that much attention is heeded the flag bearer itself becomes a story, as in the past many athletes have declined the honour as they thought it would serve as a distraction. As the media loves ‘curses’ there is even a supposed one that descends upon the chosen flag bearer. Of course reality shows that flag bearers have gone on to career performances in the games, suffered great disappointment and everything in between. All the athletes deserve plaudits for their life of dedication to sport, and I’m sure whoever is named as our representative to march in the opening ceremonies they will do an excellent job.

Tune to your regular news sources for updates on both these stories.

• The Post In Which I Hedge Against My Previous One [/caption] On Friday I wrote the following: [...] socially conservative, right wing political factions in the US have truly earned the label 'noise-machine'. Social conservatives in the States are vocal, well organized, well funded and...
• Slow Week, Fast Week This last week of the year (and decade) has been very enjoyable and relaxing for myself as I've just returned home from a visit to my families house in Northwestern Ontario but it appears that...

• US Open, New York This week in tennis features the US Open, the final major of the year that is held in New York. While the tournament will be...
• Athlete Profile: Elena Dementieva Elena Dementieva was the star of the ASB Classic. The world's number four player, the 5' 11" tennis star was the highest ranked player to...

US Speed Skating - Powered by The Colbert Nation

Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Nation’s  sponsorship of the US speed skating team was a story I wrote about when it first came about, but I foolishly haven’t been posting on any of the latest developments. Back in November, City of Richmond spokesperson Ted Townsend wrote to Stephen inviting him to come to the games as an official ombudsman to ensure no funny business would happen (at the time Colbert was hammering Canada about not letting the US get enough practice time at the Richmond Olympic Oval.) Stephen stated he would be coming to the games, but only if it were as a member of the US Olympic Team (I guess he couldn’t stand to wear a pink toque the whole time.) So began Stephen Colbert’s Skate Expectations: Kicking Ice and Taking Donations On The Slippery Slope Down The Icy Path To The Frozen Road Up To Vancouver ’010 and his bid to join the US Olympic Team.

First came his attempts to join the skeleton and bobsleigh teams. These efforts failed despite Cobert’s “God given talent for lying down and surrendering to the effects of gravity”. He was further hindered by the fact that most members of the bobsleigh squad do not enjoy “a little vomit on their Lycra.” Next, Colbert tried to “HURRY HARD!” his way into the Olympics as part of the curling team. Once again his efforts were to no avail. Not giving up though, Colbert dug deep, remembered that his first love is speed skating and orchestrated a hilarious race with World Champion Shani Davis. All of Stephens well developed cheating instincts failed him, as Shani went on to decimate him, despite a head start of over 10 minutes. However, Colbert’s wily ways did catch the notice of the coaching staff, and he will be joining the team as an assistant sports psychologist. This is a fantastic development and I look forward to some great pieces of journalism from Stephen during the games. I’ve often wrote that I strongly believe in using the Olympic platform to shine a light on the fair city of Vancouver, both the good and the bad. The Colbert Report has and continues to be an excellent force for peering into some of the darker cracks in society and I fully expect to him to highlight some of the social issues that are present in this city. Previously I suggested that Colbert and Rick Mercer pair up for some international comedy dueling, but after thinking on the viability of this, I remembered that CTV is this years host broadcaster in Canada, and as Mercer is a CBC employee this would not work. Perhaps John Dore is up for challenging Colbert.

Apologies to those with Canadian IP addresses; you will need to click here to view the above clip, as the Comedy Network does not allow for embedded video clips.

• Naive Me The title 'Naive Me' has so much breadth and depth that it would probably make for a good regular feature, but in this particular case I am referencing Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow...
• On The Importance Of Signs As we've moved into the homestretch of final preparations for the Olympic Games, which kick off with the opening ceremonies here in Vancouver on February 12th, the city has been doing a fantastic of installing...

• Tiger Woods Helps End Fitting President's Cup In San Francisco The Presidents Cup wrapped up this Sunday with the American team is still undefeated at home. Making a flop shot from out...
• Our Girls...? Choke?! I feel more than qualified to comment on the recent performance of the United States Women’s World Cup soccer team because of my experience with...

The Sea-to-Sky Highway; An Olympic Waste?

This past Monday, the local 24 Hours newspaper featured an article entitled “Let the Bailout Games begin“. While the piece,  by 24 Hours staff writer Bob Mackin does contain many good pieces of factual information, I do

have to take issue with some of the analysis and accounting within. To start with, Mackin writes the following:

Amid the Great Recession a year ago, VANOC’s message was all about being the shining light to guide B.C. to recovery because it had a billion dollars to spend. Spring came and chief executive John Furlong admitted a profit was unlikely.

Both of these sentences are accurate enough, but I have no idea how one idea is related to the other. The way they are linked in the piece makes it seem like the author is concluding and implying that since the odds of VANOC generating a profit have diminished since a year ago, spending on games related endeavours does not aid in economic recovery. I am no economist and I don’t have any specific numbers to cite (partly because I am having a hell of time getting the relevant data from the Stats Can webpage) but I am quite confident in asserting that injecting a billion dollars (or more, depending on what number people are tossing around as the ‘cost’ of the Games at this time, more on that later) is, and has been, very beneficial to economic recovery.

Mackin’s article then goes on to mention the Olympic Village in Vancouver. While the term ‘bailout’ is more than appropriate to apply to the measures the city was forced to take a year ago to ensure financing for the village, the article, along with many others when discussing the athletes village look at the $1 billion dollar price tag on the project as if it is money that is gone down the tubes, never to be seen again. Nothing could be further from the truth. Once the games are finished most (if not all) of the units will be sold on the open market, and in case you haven’t noticed, Vancouver’s insane real estate market has more than recovered since last year. While a profit is no longer expected from these sales, the city does expect to break even, and with the recovery of the housing market, turning a profit is not out of the realm of possibilities. What is most distressing about the village is the potential for there to be no lasting affordable housing legacy. This would be shameful, and ideally will not come to pass with the healthy rebound in prices Vancouver has seen this past year. Further to serving as the Athletes Village during the games, new housing and hopefully affordable housing post-games, the facilities at the site are also state of the art ones that feature some of the latest technologies in energy efficiency; this further adds to the value of this investment.

• The Colour Red To Bring Notice To Homelessness During Games [/caption] While it will be easy enough to find red (and white) in Vancouver this February, PIVOT Legal Society is hoping that you notice the colour for a different reason, as they kick off a...
• A Mixed Day For Olympic Impressions I strongly believe that judgement on the success of the upcoming Winter Games should be on based upon the actual execution of them, not based upon issues that have arisen at past games. Prior incidents,...

• Determining the Best Age to Start Social Security Many baby boomers are in the home stretch toward retirement and thinking about what will be the best age for them to claim Social Security...
• How The Federal Reserve Helped The Rich Become Super Rich! Here's an incredibly interesting video about how the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan directly helped the rich become Super Rich by keeping interest rates artificially...