I am a pragmatist. I am not a Gordon Campbell-hater. He’s done some things I strongly supported, like crushing a rather frivolous teachers strike and saving money while he did it, and he made some harsh but fiscally necessary decisions in respects to health care. I have parted ways with him, however, over the HST debacle which some people still don’t see gives increased borrowing power to successive provincial governments via the de-facto 7% they will extract from each home sale, and be able to hold and invest for a fiscal year (in some cases a tad more) until they are obligated to turn this GST over to the Feds. “What” you may ask “will be the incentive to reduce PST in BC if they are already doing short term investing with GST from the same transactions?” Well anyway…

I am also not an Olympic hater. Not to say that I like them either. I really do not care about what kind of ball or rubber cookie young people from the lower classes are going to chase about on ice or grass or snow for the amusement of the bored and easily amused Euro-American middle class. I with only one exception I will expound on later, will not watch a single minute of the games, successful or otherwise, because I do not feel them any more relevant than the colors of Elizabeth May’s sweaters. Generally speaking, unless strong moral obligations present themselves, I am a fiscal conservative. So if the Olympics irritate a few Birkenstock-clad dreadlocked hippies, I really don’t care, but if they are going to bleed the province of what is ultimately my money, or infringe on the rights and freedoms of BC residents, then I am going to take serious issue with them. So, unlike the Olympics of 76 or 88, though perhaps because I have not really cared to look into these, I do take issue with the 2010 games.
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All protest is about anger – someone said that in a documentary I watched recently. The rage you feel when you see something you know is wrong moves you to act against it. Admirable. Especially in the sea of apathy and numb complaisance that seems to be the hallmark of modern life. As you know, the 2010 Winter Olympics are fast approaching in Vancouver, and ever since they were announced, they’ve been a source of great anger for anti-poverty groups in the Lower Mainland.

The facts are undeniable:

Homelessness in Vancouver has doubled since we won the bid in 2003, at the same time that Vancouver introduced new by-laws making it illegal to ask for money or sleep outdoors – thereby making the very existence of homelessness illegal. Far from being green or sustainable, the race to erect new Olympic venues has been the cause of a great deal of ecological damage. However, it is this one glaring fact that truly angers Olympic protesters – 6 billion dollars have been spent bringing the Olympics to Vancouver, where poverty and homelessness are a real and deathly problem.
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The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are Brewing Constroversy

With the 2010 Winter Olympics just about a year away, controversy plagues the city of Vancouver. The reason? Mismanagement of the Vancouver Olympic Village which has led to a “financial crisis” for the city.

To sum up in one sentence – Vancouver Olympic organizers screwed up, and the citizens of Vancouver are expected to pay for it. It seems like ordinary citizens paying for others’ failures via tax dollars is a recurring theme nowadays.

In a move that seemed reasonable at the time, and in line with what other past Olympic hosts have done in the past, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Organizing Committee decided to build an Olympic Village that would be later sold as apartments or condos. The project was to be built by Millennium Development Corporation and financed by Fortress Investment Group (FIG), a U.S. hedge fund. The project was budgeted at $750 million and construction was to be finished by November 2009.
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