Canadian urban mobility is woefully lacking, but building a better future is still possible. - By Betsy Donald and Shauna Brail, The Conversation
06 OPENING REMARKS It’s been a confusing election season for many, apparently, but on Oct. 19, it’s time to cut through the confusion and cast a ballot, writes editor Braden Dupuis.
08 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR This week’s letter writers take one more kick at the election can before the main event on Saturday, Oct. 19.
11 PIQUE’N YER INTEREST In a world where everyone’s got an opinion, less comment and conjecture in public life may do us some good, writes former reporter Scott Tibballs.
54 MAXED OUT If you haven’t voted, think hard about it, writes G.D. Maxwell. If you have, he hopes you understood the math.
12 GET A LIFE Whistler officials are grappling with an age-old question when it comes to the Community Life Survey: How to better engage young people?
13 CANDY FOR ALL Two out of three provincial candidates met last week in Pemberton for one final debate ahead of the Oct. 19 election.
34 ON A RAMPAGE Whistler was well-represented in both the men’s and women’s fields at Red Bull Rampage last weekend.
40 FLUTE AND FRIENDS The Whistler Chamber Music Society kicks off its fall season Oct. 27 when it welcomes a quintet from West Coast Chamber Music.
COVER I think no matter the engine, internal combustion or electric, “sharing” is probably the only eco-friendly way to get around. - By Jon Parris // @jon.parris.art
Publisher SARAH STROTHER - sstrother@piquenewsmagazine.com
Founding Publishers KATHY & BOB BARNETT www.piquenewsmagazine.com
Cut through the confusion and cast a ballot on Oct. 19
BY MANY ACCOUNTS , it has been a confusing election year for a large chunk of British Columbians.
First there was confusion over the resurgent BC Conservative Party, which, at least as the provincial NDP asserts, people are
BY BRADEN DUPUIS
confusing for the federal Conservatives led by
The NDP is reportedly still working to get the B.C. distinction added to the ballot next to Conservative candidates—a desperation play unlikely to have much effect come voting day.
There was confusion about the former BC Liberals, which rebranded as BC United last year—so much so the party quickly collapsed in a heap of unclear messaging and bungled branding.
Among local candidates, there is apparently some confusion over the need for access and transparency, as well as the role newspapers play in elections, and how advertising dollars impact editorial coverage (here’s something we shouldn’t have to say, but they absolutely don’t—advertising with a newspaper does not guarantee you exclusive or favourable coverage, and if you believe it does, it seriously calls into question your judgment and ability to represent your constituents).
And among casual voters, there is
apparently a more general layer of confusion about our political system. As one NDP canvasser relayed on Twitter, at least one constituent proudly claimed they were “voting for Kamala.”
Yes, the American presidential candidate. No, said constituent is not American.
Editorial inboxes are stuffed to the brim with competing press releases, all of them promising the world, or pieces of it, without really offering any realistic specifics.
Attack ads on the TV, multi-coloured lawn signs peppering every spare piece of real estate through the corridor.
You can be forgiven for calling it exhausting, annoying, infuriating, even.
All those things may be true, but it is vitally important—and it will all be over soon.
you are eligible to vote—just make sure you take your ID to the polls.
If you don’t have ID, you can have someone vouch for you—read more at elections.bc.ca/id.
Advance polls have already closed in Whistler, and according to Elections BC, on Thursday, Oct. 10, more ballots were cast than on any other advance voting day in the province’s history: 171,381, to the previous record 126,491 set in 2017.
All told, 477,095 people have already voted in the province, of a total 3,550,017 registered voters, with advance voting still taking place in some communities as of press time.
In West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, 4,679 people had cast an advance ballot as of Oct.
In 2020, when voters went to the polls in the midst of a pandemic, voter turnout was 53.86 per cent.
If you’re still lost in the confusion, it’s worth taking an hour or two to do some research for yourself.
Start with the party platforms: the NDP’s can be found at bcndp.ca/actionplan, the BC Conservatives’ at conservativebc.ca/ ideas, and the Green Party’s at bcgreens2024. ca/2024-platform.
Then see what the local candidates have to say. If you missed last week’s Pique cover feature, you can find it online at piquenewsmagazine.com/cover-stories/ piques-2024-bc-election-guide-9641420.
Beyond that, you can revisit Pique ’s coverage of local all-candidates debates at
As one NDP canvasser relayed on Twitter, at least one constituent proudly claimed they were “voting for Kamala.”
B.C.’s provincial election is Saturday, Oct. 19.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid it all to this point, now is your last chance to join the political circus and cast a ballot.
It’s really quite easy. You likely received a voter card in the mail, but if not, voting takes place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. this Saturday at Myrtle Philip Community School.
If you’re 18 or older as of Oct. 19, a resident of B.C. since April 18, and a Canadian citizen,
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15, of 43,151 registered voters.
Province-wide, voter turnout has been on a steady decline for decades.
In 1996, 71.5 per cent of all eligible voters cast a ballot, which dropped slightly to 70.95 in the 2001 general election, then again to 62.36 per cent in 2005.
In 2009, voter turnout dropped to 55.14 per cent, before rebounding in 2013 (57.10 per cent) and 2017 (61.18 per cent).
piquenewsmagazine.com, or if you’ve got more time on your hands, you can even watch the full Whistler debate on Vimeo: vimeo. com/1014994149.
And with just a little bit of homework, you’ll be perfectly equipped to join the thousands of other British Columbians heading to the polls on Oct. 19. With a little bit of effort, maybe we can get that turnout back above 60 per cent. n
Whistler 7019 NestersRoad• Squamish 1200 Hunter Place
MLA Sturdy: Fulmer ‘stands out’ in West Van-Sea to Sky
Over the last months I have been frequently asked for my thoughts on the upcoming provincial election and the available options in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky. So for those of you that haven’t had the chance to ask me personally, for better or worse I will share my thoughts.
I think it’s first worth mentioning that I am politically homeless and feel abandoned by the leadership of what was the BC Liberal Party. The new leadership spent far too much time catering to a vocal fringe who refused to understand a BC Liberal was not a Federal Liberal and as such wasted precious resources and political capital in a fantasy brand swap that is most notable for its futility. While BC Liberals by no means got everything right, we did accomplish much and left office with a healthy provincial balance sheet, a plan for the future and a long list of successful capital projects like the Port Mann Bridge, the Canada Line and of course the Sea to Sky highway upgrade, our local game changer. But what is past is past, the free enterprise coalition of federal Libs and Cons is no more and my “red tory” sympathies will eventually need to find another home.
I have lived much of my life in this extraordinary riding, had kids, built a business here, served as
your MLA since 2013, and before that, three terms as Mayor of Pemberton. That’s a long time in public service and the public eye, and it’s past time for me to concentrate on my family and to build a future for our farm business so it can survive generational change in what I am experiencing as a deteriorating business environment.
So when Saturday comes and it’s time to cast my ballot, the implications are potentially profound. Housing, affordability, transportation and taxation are all critical issues affecting my ability to accomplish what I must for my family,
my staff and my business. Given that I don’t have a political horse in this race, I have the opportunity to cast my ballot not along party lines, but for the candidate that I feel brings the most to the table for the region.
I do know and respect the abilities of all the candidates and if I was to provide a little tongue-in-cheek advice to all it may well be, “careful what you wish for.” That said, I have read everyone’s literature, listened to their appeals, watched the debates and came away with the distinct impression that two candidates
were good, and one candidate was exceptional. Yuri Fulmer is far and away the best choice for the Sea to Sky for this next term, whether in government or opposition. Yuri has extensive experience and sophistication as an ethical, thoughtful, innovative owner and operator of British Columbian businesses. He has demonstrated a deep love for this province and country. He has been one of the province’s most significant philanthropists, an advocate for the environment and Indigenous reconciliation, and a compassionate and respected businessman.
I knew of Yuri and his quality reputation, but as we know, not everyone can easily make the transition to political life. However, when I saw him debate in Whistler it was obvious to me that he was fluent in the local, provincial, and national issues as a result of his work and
FOR THE RECORD/
An article in the Oct. 11 Pique, “RMOW replaced aging Rotary chairs…,” incorrectly stated the chairs in question cost $4,000 in yearly maintenance and labour costs each.
The RMOW has since clarified the costs to Pique
“All-in, the annual cost of maintenance of the wooden chairs was approximately $4,000, including labour and supplies,” a communications official said. “This was for all the chairs annually, not each chair.” n
life experiences. He has reasoned, intelligent, strategic positions on the issues and has clearly thought through the consequences of his views.
His opponents, on the other hand, seemed to be parroting talking points off the party script with little appreciation of the impacts of these ideologies. We cannot afford another four years of increasing costs, growing bureaucracy and lack of delivery. It’s important that we have visionary economic leadership that thinks to the future, and in that, Yuri stands out. He has built businesses and improved opportunities for British Columbians, he also sees the bigger picture and the need for a plan for this province to rebuild its lost prosperity. I am confident that he can make an outstanding contribution and is exactly the sort of person we need in public office.
I am pleased to recommend his candidacy and hope you will join me in supporting him.
MLA Jordan Sturdy // Pemberton
Why is the RMOW running Meadow Park like a private gym?
I love the Meadow Park Recreation Centre. I’ve been attending classes there for 20 years. It is a wonderful facility and has kept me in shape. Thank you!
We had a yoga class that was being held on Monday mornings at 9 a.m. It’s a prime exercise time and the class was always full, often with a waiting list. Payment was made with a pass or one-time payment. Recently it was changed to a non-pass-using class. Same time, same instructor. This change more than doubles the cost to attend the class.
When I questioned the change, I was given an explanation that yoga requires special trained instructors, and yoga is sold throughout the valley at a much higher price. I agree that it requires special training, but no more than the instructors teaching circuit training, TRX, step, aquafit, gentle fit. I would argue it takes fewer hours to be a yoga instructor than a fitness trainer. As for comparing costs to other yoga classes, that has nothing to do with it. It is a municipal gym, subsidized by taxes.
I’ve also done some research around the province at recreation centres, and nearly all except Meadow Park provide a senior discount. When I approached the municipality, I was provided with another marketing response indicating they chose to market this recreation centre differently and not provide a senior price. Not a very satisfactory response considering it is a municipal gym.
My question is, why is the muni running Meadow Park like a private gym? It is not a private business and should have input from users/taxpayers. Why can’t we have a senior price—we represent approximately 30 per cent of the population—and why can’t we have an inexpensive yoga option?
After all, the Audain Art Museum gives members a $5 yoga class with a membership. Fix it, please!
Karen Gardner // Whistler
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Happy to be left with one choice this election
Those in the Sea to Sky riding have a dilemma, albeit a fortunate one. We have to choose one of three pretty likeable candidates to represent us. From the point of view of character any one seems a good choice.
It is not so simple, however, when we look at who will be governing the province. It will not be the Greens, with their unfilled candidature, so strike out one otherwise positive candidate. Our Conservative candidate has unfortunately saddled himself to a leader who rejects anthropomorphic climate change, so does not take advice from science, wants to increase logging and reduce the stumpage fee, and while he claims to not be against vaccinations, still wants to fire Bonnie Henry on Day 1 (the person who most of us see as the civil servant who really led us through the COVID crisis).
This seems very similar to the Republican “2025” policy promoting the replacement of all U.S. civil servants with those who have Republican values; a move toward autocracy; please not in Canada.
So while I could have voted for any of the three individuals in this riding, I am happy to be left with just one.
Al Whitney // Whistler
Exercise your democratic right this weekend
It pains me to admit that this is my 20th year of voting eligibility—am I really that old now?
To date, every election I’ve voted in before has been determined well before election day. 2024 is new territory where my single vote potentially matters for a whole province.
As a small business owner in the tourism industry wanting to raise a family in Whistler, housing affordability and environmental sustainability are the primary issues on the table this week. For us though, it’s not just an election cycle talking point—it’s an absolute that we need represented in Victoria, forever.
With the Conservatives and NDP at a deadlock provincially, a strategic vote for the Green Party in the Sea to Sky means the BC Greens could help form a coalition government and Whistler would have an over-represented voice in government. Even if there’s a majority for either main party, at least we would have an independent voice in Parliament to speak on what matters most for the corridor on the key issues for our present and future.
I feel the most change possible in Whistler is by electing the first Green Party MLA in our province on the mainland.
Regardless of your political views, I hope everyone who is eligible exercises their democratic right to vote this weekend.
Will Stewart // Whistler n
Write to us! Letters to the editor must contain the writer’s name, address and a daytime telephone number. Maximum length is 450 words. Pique Newsmagazine reserves the right to edit, condense or refrain from publishing any contribution. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer and not that of Pique Newsmagazine. Send them to edit@ piquenewsmagazine.com before 11 a.m. on Tuesday for consideration in that week’s paper.
A FEW YEARS AGO at a casual job I had, a colleague learned I was a journalist and told me they wanted to be a “conservative opinion writer,” and started testing out a few of their opinions on me.
I told them they had a ways to go between where they were at that moment stacking
BY SCOTT TIBBALLS
stibballs@piquenewsmagazine.com
shelves, and writing content that would be consumed and regarded as think-piece level discourse appealing to a particular political demographic.
They didn’t believe me for a number of reasons, and that’s OK, because I didn’t care. I told them as much.
In polite society this makes me an asshole, but a sharp stop on the torrent of unsolicited opinion was needed.
That was one interaction, years ago. But unsolicited opinion is everywhere, and I think we should all re-learn keeping feelings to ourselves.
Don’t believe me? Social media is the domain of the unwelcome brainfart; everyday conversation is littered with inappropriate conjecture that is out of context with everyday niceties; legacy media leans on it too much.
More of us need to be told that opinions aren’t profound and don’t need to be shared for the sake of it, even just to test the efficacy of a thought.
In my own wheelhouse in the media landscape, I’d go as far as to suspect that a large part of the decline of the industry has come with the proliferation of opinion pieces. Apologies to those who sign my own paychecks, but in any given edition of Pique Newsmagazine there are three explicit opinion pieces (Opening Remarks, Pique’n and Maxed
up a physical newspaper these days I’ve often been horrified to find opinion printed on the front page—a space that should be preserved for news, and news alone.
In an era where the “fake news” label is thrown around with impunity, and disinformation is a real and recognized threat to social harmony, the proliferation of opinion in media makes it fertile ground for all the worst impulses in society, and a target.
Anybody and everybody can say whatever they like and add the trite
and that makes them cheap. If we start thinking of opinions as cheap, we can treat them as such. Facts take time to collect and confirm, making them expensive and giving them value. It has long been my OPINION that legacy media debases itself by depending on opinion to generate content and engagement with audiences, who deserve more than the thoughts of a nobody the reader has no reason to trust, be it me or someone else.
On a personal level and more aligned with the opening lines of this unsolicited opinion piece you are reading, we should stop asking ourselves whether an opinion is the right one and who to share it with—we should ask whether it needs to be shared at all.
Similar to the observation that when we are stuck in traffic, we are the traffic—we should acknowledge that when we complain about how loud and divisive discourse is—we are the discourse
Out) and at least another two columns written in an opinion style. That’s a lot of pages, and a lot of ink for the opinions of a few in a weekly community paper.
Open the webpage of any major news outlet and you’ll find opinions and comments from dozens of people on a daily basis. Tune in to television news and you’ll find pundits and opinionators engaged in verbal diarrhea on the issues of the day. Go to social media and you’ll be awash in it. The few times I’ve picked
addendum that it’s “just my opinion,” but we need to understand what an opinion at face value is: Feelings formed into a stance molded by opaque factors and unknown motives. We don’t live in each other’s heads and most of us lack the ability to properly share our feelings. Why, then, do we think we can properly articulate an opinion for mass consumption?
In consuming media, we need to take more time to understand opinions are free,
And no, this isn’t an attempt to tamp down on freedom of speech. It’s a suggestion from one person with no authority that more of us should go back to keeping opinions to ourselves, to stop letting intrusive thoughts win, to cease the outbursts and push back (quietly and internally) on the lessons learned over the past few years that every opinion is valid and worth sharing. They are not.
Less opinion, less comment and less conjecture in public life may do us some good.
I’ll start. n
BUGGY SEASON!
RMOW wrestles with reaching right audience in Community Life Survey
MUNI LOOKS TO HIT PAUSE ON RESORT-WIDE SURVEY FOR 2025 PARTLY TO REIMAGINE HOW IT ENGAGES YOUNG ADULTS AND SECOND HOMEOWNERS
BY BRANDON BARRETT
WHEN IT COMES TO the resort-wide Community Life Survey (CLS), Whistler’s municipal officials are wrestling with an ageold question: how best to reach a young demographic on the cusp of putting down roots here?
“Certainly, we’re going to be putting more of a focus on youth engagement in 2025,” said Karen Elliott, the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) GM of community engagement and cultural services, at an Oct. 8 Committee of the Whole meeting, where staff presented highlights from this year’s CLS. “We need to hear from them how they want to be engaged, and will they pick up a phone and do a 15-minute survey? I don’t know … I think that’s something we need to discover because we really are missing their voice.”
One of the best barometers the RMOW has to uncover what both permanent residents and second homeowners think about everything from municipal services and decision-making to housing and community well-being, the CLS typically involves a phone and online poll that reaches several hundred people combined each year.
But like so many outreach efforts locally,
the hardest-to-reach demographic is often the one that underpins the day-to-day workings of the resort: the young, transient workforce that is, for understandable reasons, less engaged with the wider community.
“Those young people that we fall all over ourselves to find out what they think, they love it here. That’s why they’re on the mountains having a great time, making lattés for us. They’re stoked with their experience—and why wouldn’t they be?” said Councillor Ralph Forsyth. “I think young people generally … whether you grew up here or grew up on the periphery, it wasn’t until you made a commitment to the town that you started caring about what was happening in the town.”
Richard Kemble, municipal economic development officer, admitted how challenging it was to reach Whistler’s temporary residents, saying he recalled 2017 being the last time the RMOW specifically tried to target that population with the survey.
“It is something we’ve done in the past, but it is extremely costly and extremely difficult, more so than the second homeowners, which certainly says something,” he said. “We know how many are responding to the online survey and it’s minuscule.”
Given the reality pointed to by Forsyth, both he and Mayor Jack Crompton agreed there was more benefit in targeting Whistlerites in the survey who have resided locally for a handful of years.
“I’m more interested in the person who has been here three to five years, and while talking to those who have been here six months helps you because they are very soon going to be here three to five years, ultimately I think you are right,” Crompton
said to Forsyth. “Three to 10 years is the group we don’t talk to much and they are different to connect with, and that is incredibly important and interesting for us. I think you’re right to draw that line.”
In highlighting how respondents get their municipal information, there was a notable split between permanent residents and second homeowners. While the “local newspaper” (cough, cough) led the way for both populations, second homeowners were far more likely to turn to Pique as their main source, at 57 per cent, than permanent residents, at 32 per cent. For residents, the RMOW’s social media and email channels weren’t far behind, at 24 per cent, while second homeowners were more likely to look to friends and neighbours (14 per cent) than the RMOW (11 per cent) for their local government information, a sign, Elliott said, of the varied age demographics between the two groups.
“[The second homeowners’] demographic skews older, so they would turn more to traditional media more than younger generations,” she said. “Twenty-four per cent [of permanent residents] are turning to the RMOW’s social media and digital channels— not enough, in my opinion—but certainly more than our second homeowners, who don’t actually seem to be aware of them or connected to them at all, which is something I think we can work on.”
As the RMOW looks to focus on how to improve community engagement, it’s worth looking at how the community feels about how it gets to engage with the municipality. One of the survey questions the RMOW has tried to improve upon for years asks how
satisfied respondents are with existing opportunities to provide input into municipal decision-making. The 2024 CLS showed that figure, 45 per cent, is up five per cent from last year, but it remains a concern for the RMOW, which hasn’t seen satisfaction higher than 56 per cent in the past half decade.
It’s a big reason staff recommended hitting pause on the CLS for 2025.
“When we look at these results and just how hard it’s been to budge that number around engagement, and we see that not enough people are connected to us from our own channels, we would really like to do a couple things on engagement this year to reach those folks,” explained Elliott.
One of those things is finding new ways to connect with second homeowners, such as sending targeted regional mailing out inviting them to connect to the RMOW’s digital channels, weekly newsletter, and future surveys.
The municipality also wants to better understand the data it has collected over more than a decade and a half through the CLS.
“Now that we have 16 years of data and the world is changing all the time, staff would really like to take this year to look at: what is the data that we’ve been collecting all the time?” Elliott said. “Is it being used by both people within the RMOW, but also externally? Are these the right indicators that will take us forward into the future that we feel is revealing itself to be more unpredictable and providing more complex challenges?”
Check back with Pique (or, uh, your preferred information source?) for more on the full CLS results once they are formally released at a future council meeting. n
PRIOR ENGAGEMENT Whistlerites meet with municipal officials at a budget open house. The RMOW is looking for ways to engage different segments of the resort through its Community Life Survey. FILE PHOTO BY ROBERT WISLA
NDP’s Ford, Greens’ Valeriote vie for progressive vote at Pemberton debate, while Cons’ Fulmer is a no-show
THE LEFT-LEANING CANDIDATES MOSTLY PLAYED NICE AT OCT. 9 MEETING, ALTHOUGH EACH TOOK SWIPES AT ABSENT CONSERVATIVE
BY BRANDON BARRETT
THERE WERE MORE audible slams in the jiu-jitsu class next door than between the two candidates who actually showed up at the Pemberton All-Candidates Meeting held Wednesday, Oct. 9, just 10 days before B.C. decides its next government.
The debate hosted by the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce was mostly a staid affair—with a few notable exceptions— between the NDP’s Jen Ford and the Greens’ Jeremy Valeriote, who are vying for the progressive vote in what should be a tight race in the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding.
“I think we’re more alike than we are different,” said Ford in response to an audience question about what the two candidates and their parties have in common.
“We agree on Woodfibre LNG. Well, the NDP [doesn’t], but Jeremy and I do. We also agree on health-care. We also agreed on $10-a-day childcare. We agree on regional transit.”
That doesn’t mean barbs weren’t thrown. Each candidate took Yuri Fulmer’s lastminute absence as an opportunity to criticize a Conservative candidate who turned heads with his economic acumen at the Oct. 1 debate in Whistler, the first held in the riding this election season.
“Our friend over there,” said Valeriote, pointing to Fulmer’s empty chair, “isn’t showing up at all, which tells you all you need to know about how he’ll show up for you.” The remark drew applause from the 60 or so assembled crowd at the Pemberton Community Centre.
In a statement, Fulmer said he owes it to “the people of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky to speak with them about their concerns over the direction of our province and how we can make it better,” and would therefore be spending the remainder of his campaign “engaging with voters directly” door-to-door.
Moderator and Chamber VP Sierra Townley told attendees Fulmer notified organizers the night before he would skip the meeting. Fulmer also previously missed an environmentally themed debate in Squamish due to his participation in an economic panel the same night with BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau and former NDP Minister Moe Sahota.
SPLIT DECISION
Skipping Pemberton’s debate was likely a political calculation for the Conservative entrepreneur and West Vancouver resident, whose party is banking on the Greens and NDP to split the left-leaning vote in the Sea to Sky. According to projections by 338Canada, based on provincial and regional polls, at press time, Fulmer is polling at 38 per cent (with a sevenper-cent margin of error), with Valeriote at 36 per cent (+/- eight per cent), and Ford at 26 per
cent (+/- six per cent).
It may end up being a safe bet for a region that has long espoused social and environmental values and helped push the Greens within 60 votes four years ago of winning their first-ever mainland MLA, in Valeriote, a fact he has hung his hat on from the outset of his 18-month campaign.
But times have changed since that pandemic-era election, as they have for Ford, who canvassed alongside her political opponent in 2020, waving Valeriote’s Green signs on the side of Highway 99.
“Jeremy keeps saying the NDP was a distant third [in 2020]. But it wasn’t distant,” she said, pointing to the NDP’s Keith Murdoch garnering 6,197 votes to Valeriote’s 9,186. “[Murdoch] didn’t have any time to build a campaign. It was a snap election; that was crummy for all of us.
“It was a close third, in spite of the very challenging election that it was, so stop saying that.”
The potential vote split has certainly been on the minds of Sea to Sky residents, including a debate attendee who asked Valeriote why voters “terrified” over John Rustad’s Conservatives taking power should choose a party with virtually no chance of forming government over the NDP.
“We typically get 15 to 20 per cent of the vote [provincewide] and two to three per cent of the seats because the way our system runs, and this is one place where that can be corrected, taken into account, and we can bring representation that brings something different than the binary system of the two parties that we’re currently living under,” Valeriote said.
ON THE ISSUES: AFFORDABILITY
The Oct. 9 debate was a looser and more informal affair than Whistler’s all-candidates meeting Pique also attended—and not just because of the jiu-jitsu class on the other side of the gym partition. While the format placed time limits on the candidates, audience members taking the mic had no such constraints, allowing them to, at various times, air out their frustrations and share poignant and personal anecdotes.
Several attendees, from a local farmer to a public service worker, brought up the issue of rising unaffordability and a ballooning provincial budget.
“The provincial government [under the Liberals] had decades of cuts, and we have a growing population that requires more help and more services,” Ford said. “So, when you have a government that is investing in services, that is investing in $10a-day childcare, that is investing in housing solutions … they have to spend that money, and therefore, the only option to growing your spending is also growing your economy.”
Valeriote took on a pointed question asking how he could relate to voters having to choose between “paying their hydro bill or buying decent groceries” in a given month, when his wife, Whistler’s CAO and the municipality’s top earner, made $284,449 in total remuneration last year.
“You can look up what the CAO of Whistler makes and that’s been our sole income for the last year while I’ve been the candidate as well as a volunteer. No doubt I’m in a privileged position to be able to do that. We are a family of four, we live in Whistler, and I feel what you feel when I go to the grocery store,” he explained. “However, I think the idea of representation is being able to listen with empathy. I can’t walk in your shoes—and every family has struggles on what they can pay for and what they can’t, regardless of salary—but what I can do is listen carefully to where people are.”
FIRST NATIONS
A Lil’wat Nation leader took to the mic to express her deep concerns over BC Conservative Leader Rustad’s pledge to repeal provincial legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), instead claiming his party would honour the declaration “as it was intended” by advancing economic reconciliation and Indigenous autonomy. She asked what the candidates would do to protect that legislation, as well as support local First Nations. Ford started by highlighting the Nuk ’w7ántwal’
Regional Gathering, a forum for the Lil’wat and other Stl’atl’imx Nations to gather with local governments such as the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) to share information and strengthen relationships for a brighter future.
“I have committed to Nuk ’ w7ántwal ’ because I believe in the power and opportunity for us all to work together,” she said. The NDP hopeful also spoke about her fear of a Conservative government repealing UNDRIP legislation, as well as Rustad’s recent comments around Indigenous rights and title in the B.C. Land Act. “We cannot let that happen. We cannot go backwards,” she said. “[The Conservatives] also started this fear around the Land Act, and you can go and watch the YouTube of that. It’s gross, so we can’t let that happen.”
In his response, Valeriote said non-
Indigenous Canadians “don’t talk enough about [their] relationship with Indigenous people. We absolutely need to. We need to talk about the elephant in the room, the threat to repeal [UNDRIP], the opposition to the Haida [Nation Recognition] Act, which gives the Haida the rights to own their land and secures their property rights, contrary to what Conservatives would have you believe in their fear-mongering.”
TRANSIT
Local and regional transit came up several times at the meeting, a sign of the public’s frustration with the current state of transit in Pemberton.
Regional transit, or rather the lack thereof, has been a persistent, longstanding headache for residents, as well as Sea to Sky and First Nations officials who have yet to see successive B.C.
governments agree on a model to fund it.
Over the years, both municipal and provincial representatives have promised to get a deal done, but they have so far been just that: promises. Less has been said about how exactly they plan to convince a B.C. government that, no matter the party in charge, has seemed reluctant to pony up its share of the money.
Valeriote committed to making regional transit his “primary focus” during his first year in office, even going so far as to say he would “camp out in the middle of the Minister of Transportation’s office” if that’s what it would take.
“Maybe it’s a little extreme,” he admitted, “[but] that is not civil disobedience, that is just the dedication I will pursue this with because nobody’s questioning that it is long past overdue.”
Ford is the only candidate with direct experience developing a regional transit plan, primarily through her past role as chair of the SLRD.
“The last six years on the [SLRD], we’ve had intense work on advocating for and building an actual plan to deliver regional transit that will connect Mount Currie to the Lower Mainland. We weren’t willing to accept a little bit here and a little bit there,” she said. “The BC NDP has committed to an intercommunity express transit system, as well as reevaluating—because it’s been years—the viability of train service from the Lower Mainland to Pemberton.”
Sidecut Steakhouseintroduces
HOT TOPICS L to R: The NDP’s Jen Ford, the Greens’ Jeremy Valeriote, and moderator Sierra Townley.
PHOTO BY BRANDON BARRETT
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Whistlerite speaks out about Rad e-bike fire
SAMANTHA
ROBERTS WANTS OTHER RIDERS TO KNOW ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH E-BIKE BATTERIES AFTER HER E-BIKE CAUGHT FIRE WHILE SHE RODE IT THIS SUMMER
BY LIZ MCDONALD
ON A BEAUTIFUL, sunny day in late August, Samantha Roberts hopped on her RadRunner 2 Utility e-bike and left her home in Alpine. As she rode down to the end of her street, Roberts heard a strange popping sound behind her, then felt liquid on the back of her leg.
“I ended up coming to a stop on the next street, and when I stopped, my bike caught fire. I jumped off and ran as far away from it as I could,” Roberts said.
Her three-month-old e-bike battery started to explode as residents came out of their homes to watch the scene unfold. Roberts immediately called the Whistler Fire Rescue Service (WFRS), which arrived on the scene while a bystander recorded a video of the incident.
“Many people since the incident have told me they don’t think they would have jumped off in time, if this had happened to them,” she said.
“I want the public to know about the dangers of e-bike batteries catching fire, not just at home when charging, but also when riding.”
An experienced e-bike user, Roberts rides year-round on the Valley Trail. She and her
partner both have e-bikes and reserve their car for long-distance trips. She’s well-versed in how to safely charge and store her bike’s battery and is at a loss for how her lessthan-three-month-old investment purchased directly from Rad went up in smoke.
HOW DO E-BIKE BATTERIES CATCH FIRE?
E-bikes use lithium-ion batteries which can
overheat, catch fire or explode because of a process called thermal runaway. According to Pinkbike, thermal runaway “happens when a fault within the battery—usually caused by a manufacturing defect, misuse or external damage—creates a short circuit that releases a lot of heat within a battery cell.” A chemical reaction occurs, creating heat which spreads through the battery and catches fire.
While it’s difficult to determine the exact number of e-bike fires, EV FireSafe,
ALL-CANDIDATES MEETING FROM PAGE 14
Ford took the opportunity to explain how the transit funding model works among the local governments in the Sea to Sky.
“The fact there are two different bus passes between the Pemberton Transit system and the Whistler Transit system is because they are both paid for by those municipalities. And then the hours that have been given by the [B.C.] government to expand the transit system, that’s not nothing. There’s been thousands of hours added to expand transit in each municipality,” she said. “The connection between them is challenging, and I’d absolutely like to take that back to the transit committee, of which I sat on for six years.”
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The most tense moments between the otherwise amicable candidates came when an audience member asked Valeriote about the conflict of interest that could arise if he were elected, with his wife, Ginny Cullen, being Whistler’s top municipal staffer.
“There is potential for conflict of interest, but we’re both professional engineers. We’re both professional people. We both have a strong sense of ethical and moral duty,” Valeriote said. “We know what the rules are about confidential information, and we absolutely respect that … This does happen in small communities, when people put on different hats and they have to be
an Australia-based database funded by the Australian government, tracks global battery fire data. Their data shows from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2023, light electric vehicles (LEVs) like e-bikes had the highest number of reported fire incidents. There were 500-plus battery fires, 138 injuries and 36 fatalities.
Some reasons LEVs have higher SEE PAGE 18 >>
trusted to figure out which hat they’re wearing and compartmentalize that. I can do that, and I’ve shown I can do that for many years, and so has my spouse.”
Ford questioned Valeriote’s ability to represent the Sea to Sky in Victoria given the potential conflict.
“My experiences as a current elected official, three times elected in Whistler and at the SLRD, is that when we go to advocate with the province on behalf of our community, we take our MLA with us. Typically, that MLA provides support,” she said. “If that person can’t go, free of conflict, to that advocacy meeting, it’s a challenge for the local council.” n
incidents include location, with LEVs kept in structures like private homes, and the speed at which they catch fire compared to an electric vehicle. The battery cells are often lower quality and more easily abused than electric cars.
Because transportation is responsible for about 23 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations, rapid electrification of transport is one of the best tools consumers and governments can use to reduce climate-change-inducing emissions.
However, increasing electrification also comes with increased fire potential. In April of this year, CTV News reported the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs is seeing a rise in e-bike fires, though the proportion of fires compared to sales is likely in the ballpark of one in 10,000, according to Pinkbike.
Some jurisdictions require UL Solutions certification for batteries. UL is a third-party organization that can certify a battery is fire safe, and its logo is commonly found on battery-powered items.
In Toronto this spring, Metrolinx started requiring UL or CE certification before a rider can bring an e-bike onto GO Transit, according to CBC News. CE is the European Union’s version of safety standards for lithium-ion batteries. The change came after an e-bike ignited in a TTC subway car in 2023. New York City launched a program that allows property
owners to charge and install their e-bike batteries outside to prevent house fires, and also launched a trade-in program for unsafe e-bikes alongside a public education campaign. Denver’s rebate program now only works for UL-certified batteries.
RAD MOVES TO UL-CERTIFIED E-BIKES
Shortly after Roberts purchased her e-bike batteries on a 2-for-1 deal this spring, Rad launched new UL-Certified models of bikes and batteries. Their website notes the new
bikes and batteries they sell have passed UL 2849 and UL 2271 standards.
The former “ensures electrical, fire, and shock safety” for e-bikes, and the latter “tests e-bike batteries for safety against overcharging, short-circuiting, and temperature abnormalities and ensures that battery packs have adequate measures in place to prevent fire and explosions.”
While the move should help prevent e-bike fires from Rad bikes, Roberts wants to draw attention to the batteries previously sold by Rad.
She purchased the battery directly from the company during a buy-one-get-one-free sale this spring, because she thought she wouldn’t need to worry about charging her battery.
“It was pretty instrumental in me deciding to go for this bike … I’ll get that and then I don’t have to worry about the battery at all,” she said. “Irony of ironies.”
After her Rad bike exploded, she contacted the company, and they are still in communication. She said Rad offered to reimburse her for the bike, but won’t cover the cost of added items she purchased directly from Rad.
“That doesn’t even bring me to the whole value of what I bought in May,” she said.
Pique reached out to Rad to determine what action the company is taking in response to the incident, whether it tracks fires related to its e-bikes, and how it communicates potential danger to Rad e-bike owners. The
E-BIKE BOOM Samantha Roberts with the remains of her RadRunner 2 Utility e-bike.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMANTHA ROBERTS
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New child sex assault trial for Pemberton’s Roger Molinaro underway
COURT HEARD DIFFICULT TESTIMONY FROM KEY WITNESS ON OCT. 15, MUCH OF IT RETREADING THE ORIGINAL TRIAL
BY BRANDON BARRETT
A NEW TRIAL surrounding child sexual assault charges against Pemberton man Roger Molinaro began Oct. 15 in Pemberton Provincial Court.
Molinaro was originally found guilty on several charges related to the abuse of minors and was sentenced to fiveand-a-half years in jail in August 2022. Molinaro successfully appealed the conviction in December and was granted a new trial earlier this year, as previously reported by Pique. (At the time of the appeal, Molinaro was anonymized as “R.M.” in court documents. A related publication ban was lifted in April.) His legal team argued on appeal the trial judge’s approach to the evidence was irreparably flawed and enabled guilty verdicts that overlooked serious credibility and reliability concerns regarding the testimony of witnesses.
The defence argued at trial the complainants’ evidence lacked specificity, involved material inconsistencies and claims or descriptions of what occurred that were “implausible,” Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten said in the Dec. 11 decision.
The Court of Appeal ordered the convictions on all counts be set aside, with an
acquittal entered on one of them, and a new trial ordered for the rest.
On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the Pemberton courtroom heard difficult testimony from one of the key witnesses, much of it retreading the original trial, as well as cross-examination by the defence.
E-BIKE FIRE FROM PAGE 18
company did not respond to the request before press time.
WHISTLER’S E-BIKE STATS
Pique also reached out to the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) to determine how popular e-bike use is in Whistler and whether the WFRS has responded to similar incidents like Roberts’.
Communications official for the RMOW, Julia Montague, wrote in an email that one quarter of Valley Trail users use e-bikes as of 2024. The RMOW estimates of 12,000 users, 3,000-plus are e-bikers, and the number of e-bike users has more than tripled since 2020.
Fire Chief Thomas Doherty noted the WFRS responded to two e-bike fires this year.
“Two in Whistler this year, that we are
aware of, is very concerning. It’s a sign of a potential emerging problem,” he wrote in an email.
Doherty suggested users read manufacturing instructions, understand how lithium-ion batteries can catch fire, and to use caution when charging and storing an e-bike. More information is available at whistler.ca.
Roberts is not ready to get back into the saddle after her bike exploded, and she dreads hearing about another case like hers. When fires like the one seen on Crabapple Drive earlier this month start in Whistler, she immediately wonders whether an e-bike was involved.
She’d like to see independent investigations by Canadian authorities into her bike’s battery and other instances of Rad bike battery faults, as Rad bike sales qualify for a provincial e-bike rebate program
Molinaro has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.
The trial resumed Wednesday, Oct. 16, as Pique went to press. Check back with Pique for more as it progresses. n
Molinaro was arrested in April 2020 after police launched an investigation into allegations of historical child sexual assault. At his original trial in 2021, he was found guilty on several charges related to the abuse of minors. The victims were between the ages of nine and 12 or 13, and six and 12, respectively, in the periods when the alleged conduct was said to have taken place.
launched in 2023.
“Since my accident, I have found many cases [online] of e-bike batteries including Rad Power batteries catching fire, and if B.C. is going to continue to promote the use of e-bikes, we need greater regulation to ensure public safety,” she wrote in a subsequent email after a phone interview.
“Rad Power was part of a government incentive program to adopt e-bikes in households around B.C., which, based on their market share in our community, they would have done extremely well from.”
She said an investigation could determine if the incident was isolated or if there’s bigger risk to consumers in North America and abroad.
Have you had a similar experience with a Rad Power e-bike battery catching fire? We’d like to hear from you. Email emcdonald@ piquenewsmagazine.com. n
They are midway between the sun and the moon (detail), 2020, acrylic, cold wax, sand, cut canvas and pastel on wood panel, canvas, raw silk, and cotton Purchased with funds from the Audain Art Museum Acquisition Fund
Council wants to spend big on Whistler’s 50th anniversary
OFFICIALS LEANING TOWARDS LARGER $120K BUDGET FOR 2025 MILESTONE CELEBRATION
BY BRANDON BARRETT
AS WHISTLER’S FIRST born-and-raised local voted to council, and a consummate party planner herself, Jessie Morden could hardly contain her excitement when discussing early ideas to mark the community’s 50th anniversary in 2025.
“I really would like us to get involved in the nitty gritty of this. I know we don’t get involved in operations, but I feel like this is different,” she said of the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) at an Oct. 8 Committee of the Whole meeting. “I don’t know what that looks like. Do we create a task force? A 50th committee so we could meet outside of council meetings? What does this mean? Because I really want to be involved in this. I really, really want to be involved in this.”
Morden isn’t alone in her excitement. Whistlerites, as we know, appreciate a good party, and as it turns out, so do mayor and council. Getting their first glimpse at a draft framework for next year’s celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the resort on Sept. 6, 1975, elected officials were presented with two potential options from staff. The first, limited to “a communityfocused, intense community love-in” that would primarily take place on the September
Labour Day long weekend, explained GM of community engagement and cultural services Karen Elliott, was budgeted at approximately $60,000, funded through the Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) and local taxation. The second option would be wider in scope, involving several different events running from the early September holiday through to Whistler Blackcomb’s opening day in November. That is budgeted for approximately $120,000, funded through the MRDT, local taxation, grants, and possibly, sponsorship.
Save for Councillor Arthur De Jong, who recommended taking a “quality over quantity” approach like Whistler Blackcomb’s 50th anniversary in 2015, elected officials expressed their preference for the larger, more costly option. (Couns. Cathy Jewett and Jen Ford were not in attendance.)
“You only have one 50th birthday, and to me, it’s option 2-plus,” said Mayor Jack Crompton. “It feels to me we should find ways to really invest into this and bring value to it, and if that is sponsorships or more investments out of MRDT or taxation, I’m eager to see us do a really good job of this.”
RMOW staff have met with several community partners to discuss the celebration, and both options would leverage those partners’ own plans to mark the 50th. The second option in particular could also take
advantage of the existing events on Whistler’s calendar, such as GranFondo (slated, as it were, for Sept. 6 in 2025), the Whistler Writers Festival, and Cornucopia.
“On the budget front, I think we spend what, like, $600,000, $700,000, $800,000 on [Festivals, Events and Animation] for people to come for no particular reason? So, I feel like spending money on this over a period
“Bigger, better, well-funded—and we’ll get into the details later.”
- RALPH FORSYTH
of time is good value, and we know that’s a slower time so if we can invest some of that money, I think people will see value in that,” said Coun. Jeff Murl, adding the long timeline gives community partners ample runway to plan their own programming.
While no programming specifics have been discussed, the RMOW did lay out
some preferred guidelines and goals for the anniversary. One key tenet surrounds sharing Whistler’s history, while involving the community’s future leaders.
“One of the big ones is this idea of looking forward, but bringing the youth with us,” Elliott said. “There were so many important community builders that built Whistler to this point, and we need to encourage that transfer of knowledge and energy and lift those voices of the new leaders coming up behind them.”
Using Whistler’s 40 th anniversary in 2015 as a benchmark, RMOW staff and community partners also want to do a better job of recognizing the First Nations’ presence and long history of the land upon which Whistler sits.
“I think one of the things the 40th anniversary didn’t do was situate Whistler’s history within the thousands and thousands of years of presence the Lil’wat and Squamish have had on the land,” Elliott noted. “Our community partners, as well as staff, felt the 50th was an opportunity to do that a bit differently and really situate our history in the broader context.”
More detailed anniversary plans are anticipated to come before council as the RMOW continues to work on its 2025 budget plans.
“Bigger, better, well-funded—and we’ll get into the details later,” said Coun. Ralph Forsyth. n
THEWINNING PROGRESSIVE VOTE
Resultsfromthe last election (2020)
This elec tion,votewithyourheadand your hear t. Vote forwhatyou want.VoteBCGreens. Let’smake histor yinWestVan -Sea to Sk y!
Jeremy Valerioteand theBCGreensare your best choice fora progressivevoteinWestVan –Sea to Sky.
Af ternarrowlylosingby 60 votes in theprevious elec tion,JeremyValeriote is readytof ight foryou in the BCLegislature. BritishColumbiansare callingfor anew kind of leadership—voteGreen forrealchangeand solutionsthatwork.
Vote BC Greens on October19
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Whistler Blackcomb stays mum on Glacier 8
SKI RESORT HAS YET TO OFFER FIRM TIMELINE FOR OPENING OF ITS NEW STAFF HOUSING BUILDING
BY BRANDON BARRETT
WHISTLER BLACKCOMB’S (WB) top staffer was given two chances to provide elected officials with a specific timeline for its new Glacier 8 staff building at a council meeting this month, and on both occasions, COO Belinda Trembath stayed mum.
Following an Oct. 8 presentation to mayor and council on WB’s upcoming ski season, Councillor Arthur De Jong asked Trembath for any updates on its staff housing situation. “If you’re referring to Glacier 8, that remains an important project for us,” said Trembath. “We will absolutely continue to keep you abreast of our progress there and we are aware there are some technical requirements we need to work through.”
Seemingly wanting more specific details, Mayor Jack Crompton later asked Trembath if Glacier 8 would be in the ground in 2025.
“I think we still need to work through the project with our development partners and we appreciate we’ve got some subdivision work we need to do with council as well,” she replied. “We remain committed to the project, and we’ll keep you posted as to our progress.”
First proposed in 2019, once completed, Glacier 8 will add 240 new staff beds to WB’s stock, a much-needed boost for Whistler’s
largest employer and a housing market always in need of more employee beds.
The largest injection of staff beds Whistler has seen in years—although still only a fraction of WB’s 4,000-plus workforce— preliminary site preparation for Glacier 8 began last October. Back then, WB told Pique it hoped to have the project completed in the fall of 2025. That appears, as of now, to be an ambitious timeline.
The six-storey, 66-unit apartment complex slated for Glacier Lane, between parking lots 6 and 7, will be 100-per-cent employee-restricted
and subject to rental rate stipulations.
When the project was first announced, WB said it housed 31 per cent of its staff internally. With the addition of Glacier 8, the company will house more than a third of its workforce.
MINIMIZING SKIER CONGESTION
At the Oct. 8 council meeting, Coun. Ralph Forsyth asked Trembath how WB was dealing with skier congestion typically noted around the Emerald and mid-chair zones.
“I think we’re always looking at ways to improve the guest experience on our mountains,” she said. “We’ve successfully trialled and have got in place dedicated learning zones for our ski-school participants. We are really looking at creating ways for people to circulate in different ways, and we’ve got exciting news coming before opening day to encourage people to disperse and ski Whistler Blackcomb differently.”
SKI PASSES AVAILABLE ON MOBILE APP
As part of Trembath’s update to council, she confirmed ski passes and lift tickets will be available on mobile in Whistler for the first time this ski season, through Vail Resorts’ My Epic app.
“We did roll-out at the balance of our North American resorts and rolling it out this year at WB,” she noted.
Guests will be able to skip the ticket window after buying their pass or lift ticket online, and then activating and storing it in the app. Upon arrival, they can get scanned, hands-free, from their pocket using Bluetooth technology. Vail Resorts has touted My Epic as a “one-stop app,” offering lift access, real-time resort updates, personalized stats, account information, and more.
Opening day at Whistler Blackcomb is Nov. 22. n
Business LicenceAmendmentBylaw(BusinessLicence Fees)No.2451,2024
TouristAccommodationAmendmentBylawNo.2457,2024
(the“proposed bylaws”)
Purpose:The bylaws willupdate thebusiness licence fees for touristaccommodation properties to increase business licenceequityand restructurethe touristaccommodation fees forshort term rentals.
BylawAdoption: Councilgave theproposed bylawfirst, secondandthird readings on October8,2024. Councilwill consideradoptionoftheproposed bylaw at theRegular CouncilmeetingonOctober22,2024.
To learnmore:A copy oftheproposed bylawis available for review fromOctober11 th to October22nd at:
• Online at theResort MunicipalityofWhistler(RMOW) website at: whistler.ca/Bylaw2451
• MunicipalHall at 4325Blackcomb Way, Whistler,BC ¡ During regularofficehoursof8:00am. to 4:30p.m.,Monday to Friday (statutoryholidays excluded)
How to provideinput: Written commentsmustbe received by 5:00pmonOctober22, 2024, to corporate@whistler.ca,or to theRMOW BylawDepartment4325Blackcomb Way, Whistler,BCV8E0X5.Include“BusinessLicenceand TouristAccommodationBylaw Updates” inthesubjectline, yournameandmailingaddress.
Written comments received by October18,2024,willbeincludedinthe Councilpackage andpublishedonOctober18,2024.Anywritten comments receivedafterOctober18, 2024,butnotlaterthanOctober22,2024, at 5:00p.m.willbedistributed toCouncilina late correspondence package.
Attendthemeeting:Allare welcome to attendthe CouncilmeetingonOctober22,2024, at 5:30p.m.:
In-person: at theFranzWilhelmsenTheatreintheMaury YoungArts Centreat 4335 Blackcomb Way
Online:viadigitalbroadcast available at whistler.ca/counc il
TOP DOWN An overhead view of the proposed site where Whistler Blackcomb’s new
Pilots concerned about poor maintenance at Pemberton’s airport
WHILE REPAIRS ON THE TARMAC AT PEMBERTON REGIONAL AIRPORT STARTED THIS SUMMER, LOCAL PILOTS SAY THE WORK ISN’T FINISHED
BY LIZ MCDONALD
IAN PORTER has been a pilot for more than 40 years and flown in and out of Pemberton Regional Airport (CYPS) for more than 25. It’s a recreational and professional passion he has passed down to his three kids, who are also licensed pilots. Porter owns Fort Langley Air and built an airplane hangar at CYPS.
But after years of little to no maintenance to the tarmac in Pemberton, he’s speaking out, with a goal of shining a light on threats to safety and the importance of maintaining a municipal asset.
“This summer, the grass growing out of cracks in the [tarmac] was two feet high. You literally had to taxi the airplane around twofoot-high weeds growing out of the cracks in the runway,” he said.
“You don’t want to have to adjust your airplane to avoid cracks or weeds. This is a massive safety concern based on the Village of Pemberton’s report.”
PEMBERTON’S AIRPORT
‘RIDDLED’
WITH CRACKS
Pemberton’s cracked airport runway was last repaired in 2016, and this year the Village of Pemberton (VOP) received grant funding from the province for repairs. A total of $121,500 was given by the province, and mayor and council agreed to contribute up to 25 per cent of the costs for the project. Elizabeth Tracy, chief administrative officer for the VOP, said in an email the estimated cost is $130,000.
The repairs started because of the municipality’s own assessment, which indicated the airport is “riddled” with cracks that “present safety hazards.”
A report from project engineer Sachindra Wijayabandara on Dec. 5, 2023, outlined the extent of the problem.
“Pemberton Regional Airport (CYPS)
needs rehabilitation work, with runway resurfacing as a top priority the tarmac’s current condition is riddled with large cracks, some measuring 10 cm wide,” it noted.
“Cracks create an uneven surface and disrupt visual painted markings, which present safety hazards to aircrafts. Leaving cracks unchecked enables moisture to permeate the asphalt, leading to further degradation.”
The report noted the VOP is responsible for “all maintenance and repair work.”
Regulars at the airport have adapted to the conditions, but Porter said someone who isn’t a frequent flyer won’t have the same local knowledge.
The municipal report noted airport
sealing material. These repairs will crack again because of environmental conditions, and a permanent solution, repaving, would run $2.5 million.
After learning from pilots the paused repairs were insufficiently complete, Pique reached out to the VOP a second time to determine what parts of the tarmac were repaired, what remains, and if there is a timeline for the work.
Tracy wrote that since the work was finished over a holiday weekend, staff haven’t reviewed “the completed work and [are] not at liberty to discuss at this time (Oct. 15).”
She went on to say the contractor was directed to focus on runway repairs “over auxiliary areas such as the apron and
“This is a massive safety concern based on the Village of Pemberton’s report.”
- IAN PORTER
users span tenants, commercial operators, tourists and film industry, visiting pilots and emergency personnel who “also rely on this infrastructure being adequately maintained.”
INSUFFICIENT REPAIRS?
The VOP contracted Sealtec for the work, which started and then paused this fall. The work stopped because of “weather conditions and the extent of the repairs,” according to Tracy. By Oct. 13, Pemberton airport users were advised the work was complete.
However, several pilots who were onsite found remaining cracks and grass still growing out of the tarmac in places, and want to know whether there has been a miscommunication between the VOP and pilots about the scope of the repairs.
In June, the VOP told Porter work would see vegetation removal before crack-sealing with asphalt and mastic, an engineered
taxiway,” but the contractor was directed to get “as much done as possible within the allocated budget.
“The scope of work was always variable depending on the extents of the cracks, which were found to be very deep once weeds were removed, and required much more material than anticipated,” she wrote.
When asked for a detailed engineering report, she said the assessment was visual and there was no engineering report.
Aside from safety, Porter wants to know why the VOP doesn’t invest more in maintenance of the asset, and why officials chose to wait months for a grant approval before fixing the problem.
“It might have been out of the village’s pocket versus out of a government grant, but that’s what you have to do for protecting life safety when you own an airport,” Porter said. “The Village of Pemberton made a knowing decision to not spend that money, and risks
my life and other pilots’ lives to defer it until they get a grant from the government. That’s fundamentally wrong.”
WORK NOT REQUIRED BY TRANSPORT CANADA
Porter has filed a report with Transport Canada, the federal department responsible for air transportation regulations.
According to a Transport Canada communications official, all aerodromes— where aircrafts fly in and out of—are required “to maintain their markers and markings, wind-direction indicators, and lighting,” as per Section 302 of the Canadian Aviation Regulations.
Maintenance to tarmacs is not a requirement, but Transport Canada recommends owners create a maintenance program for “components, like tarmac.”
While Pemberton Airport is a registered aerodome, it’s not a certified airport, and isn’t subject to regular inspections by Transport Canada, though it does receive periodic inspections for verifying compliance with regulations.
In her first statement to Pique confirming airport repairs were paused, Tracy said airport safety and reliability is “essential to the Village of Pemberton. We are committed to ensuring that all airport users have access to a safe and dependable environment to operate.”
In terms of ongoing maintenance to prevent further degradation, she said staff will propose options for preventative maintenance to mayor and council.
In response to a question about what budget considerations are made for the airport, Tracy said the VOP’s five-year financial plan balances infrastructure needs with other community priorities.
“We prioritize critical safety issues, asset maintenance, and projects with significant community impact,” she said.
“This process allows Council to allocate funds effectively while managing the tax rate, with input from staff and the public. We also seek external funding opportunities, such as provincial and federal grants, to support longterm capital planning.” n
NATIONAL CELEBRATION Members of the Pemberton Valley Seniors
PHOTO COURTESY OF IRMA WATT
Pemberton Valley Seniors Society grateful for SLRD grant
THE MONEY WILL GO TOWARDS FOOD SECURITY AND TRANSPORTATION, TWO BIG EXPENSES FOR THE SOCIETY
BY LIZ MCDONALD
THE PEMBERTON VALLEY Seniors Society (PVSS) is an essential resource for people 55 and up in the community, with members helping each other out with activities, warm meals and companionship.
To aid them in their role, the SquamishLillooet Regional District (SLRD) and the Village of Pemberton awarded the society a $5,000 grant through the Pemberton and District Initiative Fund Program. Over the next year, they’ll put the money to work providing nutritious meals and transportation for Pemberton’s patriarchs and matriarchs.
President Irma Watt explained the grant will help relieve some financial pressure with increasing food and transportation costs.
“It goes towards our events, mostly for healthy food because the costs have gone up so much, and also for transportation, because we have none,” Watt said.
Pembertonians don’t have regular transit or taxi service, which creates barriers for seniors, whether it’s a trip to the grocery store or travelling to Vancouver for specialist medical care at Lions Gate Hospital.
Society members live as far afield as D’Arcy, a journey that spans about 50 kilometres through the winding Seton Portage Road. To keep community members active in programming, they carpool.
“Because of those distances, [carpooling] makes a big difference for people. Otherwise, they wouldn’t come,” said Christine Timm, secretary-treasurer for the PVSS.
Some of the grant goes towards a stipend for drivers who bring members to special events and regular programming.
One such event PVSS held recently was a Thanksgiving lunch Oct. 10 at Sunstone Golf Club, partially subsidized by the grant. More than 60 people signed up to attend.
“It’s the largest number of people that signed up to go for any event in the history that I can remember—we have about 100 members” Timm said.
Future programming includes a Christmas dinner and a spring outing, where they will go farther afield.
More weekly programming events on their calendar include stitching, painting, events at the Pemberton Men’s Shed, stretching, music and more.
While society officials say they are grateful for the funding, they reiterated seniors in Pemberton need a more effective transit solution to let them stay in the community. Some members have moved elsewhere because the area doesn’t provide essential
“[W]e have recently had some members who had to leave the village because we don’t have the transportation.”
- IRMA WATT
infrastructure which meets their needs.
“We appreciate this funding, because it keeps us socially active, but we have recently had some members who had to leave the village because we don’t have the transportation,” Watt said. “They have no transportation to any specialized medical doctors. I mean, we are lucky that we have Lions Gate, but sometimes when you have no vehicle and no bus system or anything, it doesn’t work too well to get there as often you should.”
Read more at pembertonseniors.com. n
Public Notice
Provision of Permissive Tax Exemption
The Village of Pemberton proposes that Permissive Tax Exemption (Pemberton Childcare Society) Bylaw No. 973, 2024 be brought forward for first, second and third readings at the Regular Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at 9:00am in Council Chambers located at 7400 Prospect Street, Pemberton.
The Village of Pemberton recognizes the significant value of organizations and groups in our community. A Permissive Tax Exemption is a means for Council to support organizations that further Councils objective to enhance the quality of life of its residents while delivering services economically.
The land hereinafter described and the improvements thereon which are set apart and in use for not-for-profit activities, to be exempted form municipal taxation under s. 244 (2) (a) of the Community Charter for the following proposed period:
General enquiries regarding proposed Bylaw to provide for a Permissive Tax Exemption and any financial enquiries related to assessments and taxes should be directed to the Finance Department at accounting@pemberton.ca.
Gwendolyn Kennedy Manager, Corporate and Legislative Services
Society (PVSS) celebrated National Seniors Day, held Oct. 1. The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and the Village of Pemberton recently gave a grant to PVSS, and Russell Mack, SLRD director for Electoral Area C, was on hand for the celebration.
Eby faces tough sell enticing Green voters to NDP
BY ROB SHAW
AF TER TREATING the BC Greens as an afterthought for most of the election, NDP Leader David Eby took the gloves off Sunday, urging Green voters to abandon that party and rally behind his own to stop BC Conservative Leader John Rustad from winning on Oct. 19.
“I think that the values of the people who are thinking about voting Green this election are completely at odds with the vision that John Rustad is promoting,” Eby said at an event in Squamish.
“The only way that we can be certain that we don’t wake up on Monday morning to premier John Rustad is if we work together.”
The move coincides with an online push by NDP surrogates to portray the Greens as flirting with supporting Rustad, undermining the NDP’s CleanBC climate change strategy and failing to look at the bigger political picture (which, ultimately, conveniently, only benefits the NDP).
Still, it will be a tough sell by New Democrats, for a variety of reasons.
Many voters saw Green Leader Sonia Furstenau deliver a solid performance in the televised leaders’ debate, with a reasonable message to a fractured electorate that neither the NDP nor the Conservatives should be given all the power on election day.
Greens also remember all-too-vividly the NDP tearing up the confidence-and-supply agreement in 2020, plunging the province into an early election and heavily targeting the Greens to try and wipe their former allies off the electoral map.
Eby’s latest call to end the Greens came just five days after a leaders’ debate in which he vocally agreed with Furstenau on several occasions.
“This is a generational moment,” Eby said
Jeremy Valeriote in the lead, Conservative Yuri Fulmer in second and the NDP’s Jen Ford a distant third. Valeriote finished within 60 votes of victory in 2020.
Were Greens to actually heed Eby’s call in that riding, they could simply be handing the seat to the Conservatives.
“Throughout his campaign, Eby has focused on telling people not to vote for the BC Conservatives, and now he’s telling people not to vote for the BC Greens,” Furstenau said in a statement.
“What he’s failed to demonstrate is why British Columbians should vote for the BC NDP, effectively squandering the multi-point lead he had for most of this year.”
“Meanwhile, the BC Greens have campaigned on a clear vision of well-being and putting people first. We’ve presented a coherent, informed, thoughtful and fully costed platform.”
Green polling also has Furstenau ahead in Victoria-Beacon Hill, where she is challenging incumbent NDP cabinet minister Grace Lore and Conservative Tim Thielmann.
Expect the NDP to ramp up the rhetoric in the days ahead, to try and turn that riding around.
One early test run on how nasty it could get came from outgoing NDP minister Rob Fleming, who took to social media to post a video of Furstenau in which she calls for voters to consider re-electing independent incumbent MLAs. Most of the independents are displaced BC United MLAs.
“It’s both politically bizarre and risky to heed Sonia’s advice to elect right-wing MLAs that will help climate science denier John Rustad become premier,” posted Fleming.
“Sonia used to decry ‘strategic voting’ but now gets into the mud and calls for an antiNDP vote…selling out her Green candidates!”
You can also expect more from NDP
“The Green Party will not be in a position of power, but rather a quiet, albeit very well meaning, voice in the wilderness.”
- SUE ADAMS
Sunday, before describing Rustad as having “a hateful vision” for the future of the province.
“I think every vote is going to matter in this election,” he added.
“It’s incredibly tight, and I’m asking people to think very carefully about how they would feel if they woke up on Sunday morning to premier John Rustad as he begins to implement his plan to cut and divide our province.”
It is indeed a tight election, according to the polls. But that’s more of a reflection of the failures of the NDP than anyone else.
The Eby administration should look in the mirror, not at the Greens, for being so out-of-touch with public opinion over the last 22 months that it has caused a frustrated public to flirt with electing an untested and controversial BC Conservative party.
The Greens were expecting the NDP turn.
But they didn’t expect Eby to do it Sunday in the riding of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, where internal polling has Green candidate
validators, like Whistler business owner Sue Adams, who joined Eby at his announcement Sunday and unloaded on the Greens.
“The Green Party will not be in a position of power, but rather a quiet, albeit very well meaning, voice in the wilderness,” she said. “Voting Green is actually, if we look at it, kind of a vote for Rustad.”
Eby refused to repeat that line, when pressed on if he shares the position. But he also didn’t denounce it either.
The BC Greens will have to brace themselves. It’s going to be a nasty final few days before the election.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio. rob@robshawnews.com n
LNG: Don’t Be Conned
IN HIS TWILIGHT YEARS, George Carlin, the acerbic post-hippie comedian whose vinyl classic Class Clown and its “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” pretty much defined my adolescence, took a dim view of humanity. “Think of how stupid the average person is,” he’d prod an audience, “and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
The latter referenced America’s postReagan conservatives, perpetually conned
BY LESLIE ANTHONY
via various means of blame-laying, fearmongering and simplistic sloganeering into voting against their own best interests. It was always good for a few laughs—albeit some nervous—as it would be today. That’s because absolutely nothing has changed. In fact, it has only gotten orders of magnitude worse.
So much so, according to an opinion piece in the Oct. 14 Toronto Star , that “A fringe party packed with conspiracy theorists could soon be leading one of Canada’s largest provinces.” Whoa! Actually, Double whoa! because that’s us. (Never mind the headline should have read “another one…” given the precedent-setting RWNJs leading Alberta and Saskatchewan.)
Sadly, it’s no exaggeration. One needn’t dig far to find BC Conservative Leader John Rustad claiming climate policies are a plot
to “reduce the human population,” and the United Nations expects children to eat bugs. Given how conspiracy theories on everything from public health to elections have suddenly normalized lying in politics, such utterances clearly threaten democracy. Rightfully so, these would be naught but liability for a politician from any other party; with today’s conservatives, however, not so much.
In fact, the conservative candidate in this riding, perhaps uncomfortable with such mutterings, expended considerable energy trying to blunt what is clearly a matter of public record from his leader. He knows.
Make no mistake: while it may have consumed some of the cake-left-out-inthe-rain known as BC United (née the conservative-lite coalition deviously labelled “BC Liberals”), the BC Conservative Party is no centre-right alternative. By matching the MAGA-like rhetoric of the federal CPC’s focus on affordability, crime and (misplaced) government culpability for multiple global crises, it is absolutely a far-right party populated by numerous questionable candidates (did they throw out that Islamophobic guy yet?) with 1950s dreams of lumberjacks and coal miners, punch-clocks and lunch pails, a fantasy world of delusion that will see climate emissions soar and key ecological resources like old growth vaporize.
And there’s no delusion the Cons will embrace greater than the scam of LNG. Hell, even part of the progressive vote (yes, you Dippers) has fallen for the fallacious “bridge fuel” narrative. I say fallacious because, though we’ve known for a decade (the information was lied about—er, suppressed— by both industry and governments), a major study released last week conclusively demonstrates how exported LNG produces far worse emissions than—wait for it—demon coal. The research challenges what we’ve
been told ad nauseum—that shipping LNG to eager, climate-conscious global clients is, for environment-minded British Columbians, a conscience-cleansing alternative to allowing those buyers to burn what Charlie Brown finds in his Christmas stocking every year.
Though I won’t get into the weeds (but you can: shorturl.at/o1ys1), here’s the gist: LNG comes largely from shale gas, whose production (via fracking), liquefaction and transportation is, at each stage, energy-intensive (like, megatons of emissions)—as well as an emitter of megatons of methane. Consequently, CO2 from end-use combustion contributes a mere 34 per cent of the total LNG greenhouse gas footprint; upstream/midstream methane emissions are indeed the largest contributor at 38 per cent.
“The idea that coal is worse for the climate is mistaken—LNG has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than any other fuel,” said author Robert Howarth, an environmental scientist at Cornell University. “To think we should be shipping around this gas as a climate solution is just plain wrong. It’s greenwashing from oil and gas companies.”
But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story—the NDP isn’t, and you can bet the Cons won’t either. In fact, if they follow Trump’s blueprint from 2016, as I’ll bet a case of Surveyor IPA on, they’ll double-down in the same way that instantly made the U.S. the world’s largest exporter of methane—er, LNG.
They will also doubtless turn their backs on those making the case for sane, readily adaptable energy plans. Ahead of the election, for instance, the hardworking Pembina Institute launched A Clean, Resilient Future: Recommendations for Advancing British Columbia’s Net-Zero Energy Economy, roadmap for doing so. “With a coherent energy plan that recognizes that climate policy is economic policy, B.C.’s next government will be able to fulfil the
rich promise of the low-carbon future,” said Pembina director Chris Severson-Baker.
The report’s authors, Jessica McIlroy and Betsy Agar, also argue that despite showing climate leadership, B.C. cannot afford to become complacent. “B.C. is not competing against its fellow provinces for climate change accolades,” said McIlroy, “it is competing in a global marketplace for a share of the investment in a net-zero economy.”
For a government that will listen, the report has recommendations in eight major policy areas: create an energy plan aligned with B.C.’s climate-plan resources; support zero-emissions transportation; promote climate-resilient buildings; address embodied carbon (e.g., concrete); grow clean electricity; reduce oil and gas emissions; support clean energy in remote and Indigenous communities; prepare industry and workers for a clean economy.
Certainly, there’s movement afoot elsewhere that makes fallback to an LNG economy look bad for the province’s future.
Last month, the city of Philadelphia, located in a state dominated by fracking, joined a growing chorus of municipal and subnational governments calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (c’mon Whistler!).
An ambitious idea by B.C.-based Stand.earth founder, Tzeporah Berman, the treaty has blossomed into a global phenomenon of 14 countries, 100 sub-national governments, and nearly a million individuals.
So, there’s hope and action out there for those who maybe aren’t as stupid as Carlin posited, and who won’t be conned by proponents of the LNG fantasy. The question for voters is, will you be one of them?
Leslie Anthony is a science/environment writer and author who holds a doctorate in reversing political spin. n
MORAL FIBRE The Woodfibre LNG site near Squamish.
FILE PHOTO BY ANDREW HUGHES
Canadian urban mobility but building a better
mobility is woefully lacking,
better future is still possible
BY BETSY DONALD, QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY, AND SHAUNA BRAIL, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
The Conversation
anadian cities are falling behind globally when it comes to efficiently moving people. Long commute times, high congestion rates and infrastructure that is vulnerable to climate change are symptoms of a mobility crisis.
Mobility is an essential public good, and modern policies aim to move people in a safe, efficient, accessible and non-polluting way. However, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed and worsened existing vulnerabilities in Canada’s urban mobility systems, undermining progress toward these goals.
Our new book, Urban Mobility: How the iPhone, COVID, and Climate Changed Everything, explores how technology, the pandemic and climate change have shaped, and continue to shape, urban mobility, particularly for those with inadequate transportation networks.
POPULATION GROWTH OUTPACING TRANSIT
One of the primary challenges Canadian cities face is that they have grown faster than their sustainable transportation options. While urban populations have expanded, investment in public transportation has not kept pace, resulting in a gap between capacity and potential.
The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted city life in profound ways, and urban life and economies in Canada are still being affected to this day. Remote work became the norm for many, reducing the number of people commuting and causing a significant drop in public transit ridership.
Additionally, the shift to hybrid work has permanently altered how Canadians engage with their cities. People are shopping online more, using public transit less, and central business districts and physical retail spaces are seeing less foot traffic.
Urban economies, which have been designed to rely heavily on the movement and presence of large numbers of people through public transit and local businesses, are still grappling with this new reality. Activity levels, for instance, are down by about 20 per cent from pre-pandemic levels in many downtown spaces still.
Saturday
Whistler e-bike riders pedalled a total of 58,000 kilometres last year—or the equivalent of one Whistler local cycling to and from Vancouver 240 times. File Photo courtesy of Evo
TECH PLATFORMS AND MOBILITY
Digital platform firms like Zoom, Uber, Amazon and Instacart adapted quickly during the pandemic, offering safe work-from-home options, private transportation and online shopping services to people. These platforms disrupted the traditional urban economic model, which relies on transit, physical stores and foot traffic.
Ride-hailing services drew passengers and their fares away from local economies into foreign-owned ride-hailing companies. Transit systems not only depend on the massive built public infrastructure, but also passenger fares and other government funding to maintain the public system over time.
In addition, these tech platform companies come with equity and accessibility concerns. Research on the use of ride-hailing and public transit during the pandemic found that its usage in Toronto was clearly organized along class, neighbourhood and social lines. People identifying as one or more of the following were more likely to continue riding transit during the pandemic: low-income, immigrant, racialized, essential workers and car-less, in large part because other options were not available to them.
Similarly, in Calgary, private technology experiments in electric scooters privileged wealthier neighbourhoods. Electric scooters were used more in wealthier neighbourhoods, and as poverty levels increased at the neighbourhood level, the use of them dropped. The researchers concluded that greater attention needs to be paid to ensuring all communities, regardless of economic status, have access to micro-mobility options.
Canada has a history of importing technological solutions, rather than creating its own. Montréal, however, offers a successful example with its Bixi bike program, the third largest bike share system in North America after New York and Chicago, with 11,000 bikes and almost 900 stations. A non-profit runs the program, Rio Tinto Alcan provides aluminum for the bikes and Cycles Devinci manufactures them in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
Canadian cities need to build innovation opportunities that promote economic development and improve mobility at the same time. Canada’s technology sector is woefully undersupported at present.
CLIMATE CRISIS INTENSIFYING CHALLENGES
The third, and perhaps most pressing challenge facing Canadian cities is the growing climate crisis. Cities are both instigators and victims of climate change. They contribute significantly to
greenhouse gas emissions, but are also heavily impacted by severe weather events, heat waves and other side effects.
These impacts are becoming increasingly concerning with the intensification of wildfires, urban flooding and other extreme weather events.
By the end of the 20th century, most large Canadian cities were heavily investing in strategies to encourage people to use alternatives to cars, such as transit, light rail, biking and walking.
However, shifting priorities, ideologies and budgetary adjustments led to government cutbacks to transit funding and a lack of new transportation innovation. In Ontario, for example, the government continues to push unrealistic road-building ideas at the expense of more active transit options.
This failure to effectively move people around has left an opening for new mobility experiments led by private companies, but some of these programs don’t really integrate well into the Canadian urban mobility ecosystem. Many of these mobility options—such as ridehailing—are also costly and exclusive. Others, like electronic scooters, can lead to e-waste.
BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE
The disruptions caused by technology, the pandemic and climate change are reshaping how people and goods move in cities. To build a better future, Canadian cities must address the interconnected challenges of three transitions: digital, health and environmental.
While all sectors need to invest, strong leadership and policy action from governments at all levels is needed to create a more climate-friendly, economically vibrant and equitable urban mobility future. Governments will need to embrace bold, innovative solutions that address all three of these challenges.
This means policy frameworks that reduce carbon emissions through climate action plans, leveraging political will and funding in efforts to shift away from private automobiles and toward transit, bike lanes and pedestrian pathways, and experimenting with digital mobility services while still prioritizing sustainability.
Betsy Donald is a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University, in Ontario. Shauna Brail is an associate professor at the Institute for Management & Innovation at the University of Toronto. They receive funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
This article originally appeared in The Conversation on Oct. 8. Find the original link here: theconversation.com/canadian-urban-mobility-is-woefully-lacking-but-building-a-better-future-isstill-possible-239679. n
Georgia Astle clinches silver at inaugural women’s Red Bull Rampage
BRANDON
SEMENUK BECOMES FIRST FIVE-TIME RED BULL RAMPAGE CHAMP
BY DAVID SONG
ROBIN GOOMES, Georgia Astle and Casey Brown wrote themselves into the history books on Oct. 10 by reaching the podium at the first women’s edition of Red Bull Rampage in St. George, Utah.
Whistler’s Astle was a last-minute entry, but made the cut as an alternate. She was poised and expedient on her way down course, landing a 12.5-metre drop in between her smooth technical sections. Judges rewarded her with a score of 79.66 points, which translated ultimately into a silver medal.
“It still hasn’t felt fully set-in,” remarked Astle. “It wasn’t just like one run and then all of a sudden [the silver] happened. There was the whole build process, practicing my lines and guinea-pigging stuff. The game plan was just to have fun, and the guys that I chose as my diggers [Evan Wall, Jacob Tooke and Jarrod Anderson] had a blast. The entire time we had music playing, we were laughing and not getting too stressed out.”
Only Goomes (85.00) managed to better Astle’s mark, and she can now call herself the event’s inaugural female champion. The New Zealander was also recognized with the Best Trick Award.
“It’s been such a process, so I’m trying
to take it all in and enjoy it,” said Goomes in a press release. “I’m so stoked for my crew, they’ve gone so hard. If anything I’ve done it for them, the sport, and all the other riders.”
Revelstoke-based veteran Brown wouldn’t be denied either, going home with bronze (77.33) after becoming the first lady to complete a top-to-bottom run in practice. Moreover, she was given the McGazza Spirit Award in honour of late Kiwi mountain biker Kelly McGarry.
IN HISTORY
hoped would be on the podium. She’s a pioneer for ladies’ freeride. She had some very unique features, so I’m just stoked that I could share the podium next to her as a friend and she’s definitely an idol of mine.”
‘A VERY INSANE PROGRESSION CURVE’
Sea to Sky fans may know Astle as a downhill and enduro racer. She’s been frequently
“All of us [women] are ready now ... it’s the right timing for us to be in Rampage.”
- GEORGIA ASTLE
“I’m actually over the moon,” Brown said in a televised interview with Red Bull. “It’s been such a long journey to get here, and to come through this finish corral and be safe and sound? I’m over the moon. Kelly was a dear friend of mine ... so honestly, I’m so overwhelmed with having [my fellow riders] vote for me [to get the McGazza Award].”
Astle had lots of praise for her fellow medallists.
“Robin has had the most insane year ever with the first year of slopestyle for women, and then into Rampage’s first year for women. She is absolutely on fire,” said the 27-yearold. “And Casey is someone that I absolutely
sighted across the Crankworx and Enduro World Series tours over her decade in the sport, and returned to glory in July with her thirdstraight Garbanzo DH triumph. She’s a late bloomer in terms of freeride competition, and that’s been conducive to her development.
“The best thing that’s happened is that my career has been really low-key,” Astle said. “[People viewed me like] a racer who just likes freeriding. For me, the freeride space has always been where I wanted to be, but maybe I had to work a little harder to get there. I’ve been able to grow into it at my own pace.”
Astle experienced her first close brush with competitive women’s freeride at Red
Bull Formation in 2021, digging that venue on behalf of Brown. She competed at Formation the following year.
“Now, all of the girls are building our own lines from scratch, so that’s a very insane progression curve,” said Astle. “Although you can ride the features, there is this whole part that goes unseen when you’re just watching Rampage: it’s eight hard, hard days of being in the sun, building and playing with your mental game. That part was all new to us, and for me, was actually a benefit. I really enjoyed the process of looking at the feature and knowing it front to back before hitting it.
“All of us [women] are ready now ... it’s the right timing for us to be in Rampage. I want that to continue to snowball [until] it’s so normal for a girl to be dreaming to ride Rampage.”
The ladies all but had to start dreaming midway through the contest, as a two-plus hour wind delay had them napping in the start area and trying to keep fresh. Astle responded the same way she faced practice earlier in the week: remain calm and realize that sometimes, you need to change your riding to fit the situation at hand. She certainly proved capable of doing so.
Others who received special recognition include Cami Nogueira with the Toughness Award, Vaea Verbeeck who earned the Trailblazer Award and Goomes for Best Trick. Vinny Armstrong’s crew were given the Digger Award.
SEMENUK SHINES AGAIN
Meanwhile, Brandon Semenuk distinguished himself among 17 elite
TURNING THE (RAM)PAGE The 2024 women’s Red Bull Rampage podium, left to right: Georgia Astle, Robin Goomes and Casey Brown.
PHOTO BY BARTEK WOLINSKI / RED BULL CONTENT POOL
Bob Parsons to be enshrined in Canadian Ski Hall of Fame
PARSONS SERVED AS CHIEF OF COURSE FOR NATIONAL RACES IN WHISTLER FROM 1970 TO 1978
BY DAVID SONG
FORTY-FIVE YEARS after his death, Bob Parsons will be inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame.
Parsons’ name is familiar to almost anyone who grew up skiing in the Sea to Sky area. He was chief of course for each of Whistler’s national-level races between 1970 and 1978, including the 1975 World Cup. He founded the Weasel Workers, a group of volunteers who help ready local courses and still boast hundreds of members to date.
The Bob Parsons Memorial (formerly known as the Back Bowl Downhill) is Whistler’s oldest recurring ski race, having taken place annually since 1980 with the exception of 2021 due to COVID. More than 70 athletes from across British Columbia, Alberta and the United States took part in the 44th edition of the contest this year, with the Bob Parsons Memorial Fund continuing to provide $1,000 bursaries to two racers each season.
Furthermore, Parsons started the “C” class
freeriders to lock down his fifth Red Bull Rampage title: a feat unmatched by any other man in the event’s history.
Southwest Utah’s red rock cliffs were anything but forgiving. Semenuk ate dirt trying a flip whip amidst what could have been a podium-worthy run, then had to face a demoralizing 2.5-hour wind delay alongside the rest of the field. He didn’t miss on his second try, however, landing both the flip whip and a technically-sound tail whip for 92.73 points from the judges.
Polish contender Symon Godziek came close to dethroning Semenuk with a front flip, a memorable double backflip and no shortage of technical brilliance. He had to settle for silver in the end (91.66).
That left Tyler McCaul in bronze medal position. The American veteran eschewed the line he’d used in 2018 and 2019 in favour of a new route that included an approximately 22.5-metre canyon gap. He stomped it on his way to hardware of his own (90.66).
“I’m just stoked to build a cool line, hang out with my friends, and get down to the bottom,” Semenuk said in a press release. “It was a really exciting event to watch. Some of the riding is on such a crazy level. I have good people around me and I’m happy to get down the hill.”
racing program at Mount Seymour in the late 1960s. He and his wife Lee were instrumental in the formation of the Vancouver Ski Team in 1971, which eventually became the BC Ski Team. Parsons also erected the Vancouver Ski Foundation, which through various fundraisers subsidized many athletes and Alpine Canada itself.
The Vancouver Ski Foundation is still operating and financially supports BC Alpine programs, the Whistler Cup International Ski Race and recent local NorAm Cup finals.
“I think it’s been a long time coming,” said Parsons’ daughter Chris Leighton about the Hall of Fame nod. “I put the first application [for my dad] five years ago and I’ve been putting it in every year since. Bob Parsons was a ski racer himself. In those days, there were three events for each competition—jumping, cross-country and giant slalom. His love of skiing and competition carried over into countless volunteer hours.”
Leighton’s younger brother, Jim Parsons, is likewise thrilled. He will travel to
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FREE ACTIVITY WITH RSVP | COMMUNITY DIALOGUE
Do we have a sustainable future?
Join us on Wednesday, October 23 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm at the Whistler Public Library.
In this VitalConversation, we offer up plenty of engaging prompts for small groups to explore themes and data in the 2023 Vital Signs: A Community Check Up. VitalSigns
WHISTLER’S whistlerfoundation.com/vital-signs
ALL-AROUND PROGRESSION
One would be remiss to forget about the others who left Utah with some kind of accolade.
Brendan Fairclough was twice recognized with both the People’s Choice and Trailblazer Awards. Semenuk’s support team of Evan Young and Justin Wyper were granted this year’s Digger Award. The competition’s GoPro Moment went to Kyle Strait, Bienvenido Aguado Alba claimed the Toughness Award, riders voted for Ethan Nell to get the McGazza Spirit Award, and Tom Van Steenbergen earned Best Trick honours with a highamplitude front flip.
“It feels pretty damn awesome to win [Best Trick], I’m super stoked on the front flip,” said Van Steenbergen in a release. “[The front flip] was the plan way in advance and it took a lot of work to get it.”
Meanwhile, Fairclough expressed his bittersweet emotions on social media after placing 11th with a score of 76.00.
Upon learning of his victory, the Whistlerite said in a televised interview: “I wasn’t expecting that. It’s so hard to know. I look at all the other lines. Dudes are riding so good and [their] first runs were insane. Obviously [I had] a great score, but it’s so hard to tell. This event’s insane and I’m just so happy to watch all my friends kill it today.”
“Turns out freeride ain’t free. Just wanted to let you know we appreciate all of your messages, all of the texts and everything,” wrote the British athlete. “We’ve been working so hard the last couple of weeks and more, to do as best we could, working Deaks and Olly to the bone. We’ve had such a sick time. “I did everything I could to get it done, I did what I wanted to do, did what I thought was cool. So yeah I won’t be doing a second run, I just missed one little trick at the bottom which was a flip nac. I don’t want to risk it all again for two more points. Wishing all the other boys and girls a lucky and safe ride and yeah we are out of here.”
Find full results at redbull.com/ca-en/ events/red-bull-rampage. n RAMPAGE FROM PAGE 34
SPORTS THE SCORE
Montreal for the Nov. 15 induction ceremony which will see his father honoured alongside Erik Guay, Michel Daigle, Joanne HewsonRees, Louis Dufour, Mike Delich, Ornulf Johnsen, Kim Kawaguchi, Bob Disbrow, Georgia Manhard, Dale Swanson and Paul Throop in the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
SAFETY FIRST
Growing up in Vancouver during the late 1940s, Bob Parsons and his brother Stan were frequently sighted upon the North Shore Mountains. They competed in a variety of disciplines, including ski jumping, Nordic and downhill skiing.
By 1966, the Parsons family had purchased land in Whistler, built a family cabin and joined the Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC). Leighton was roughly eight years old when she began to cut her teeth as a racer, with Jim quickly following suit— and their dad was virtually omnipresent in their endeavours.
“My brother and I would like to think that Bob did contribute a lot to the safety and well-being of all ski racers in all that he did on the hill,” Leighton said. “He worked countless hours. We had a race in Fernie once, and he was there. We drove up and I remember seeing the hill and … it was just this huge mogul field. Two days later, it was a downhill track.”
Parsons’ summer job wasn’t what you
might expect. As a veteran of the carnival industry, the man travelled to fairs across British Columbia whenever he wasn’t heading to his kids’ ski races. These gigs helped
him pay bills and stay active, which in turn enabled him to foster his true passion: making speed courses ever safer for the young men and women who took them on.
‘HE WAS THE GUY’
Others began to follow Parsons by example, and the Weasel Workers were born. They are named after one particular section on the Dave Murray Downhill course named “The Weasel” that, back in the 1970s, was too steep to drive a snowcat down for grooming purposes.
As a result, Parsons and his fellow parent volunteers would form a line and walk down the track in their ski boots to pack the snow firmly and make sure it was good to go for race day.
“Everyone knew if they wanted a ski race prepared properly, they should call the Weasel Workers to come and help out,” recounted Leighton. “I like to think that Bob [did it first], and then other ski clubs in different locations would name their group whatever they wanted. It kind of started a trend.”
Canada has certainly enjoyed a trend of producing top-flight downhill and super-G racers, from Murray and the Crazy Canucks to Guay and his fellow Canadian Cowboys. Yet they may not have realized success without people like Parsons, who encouraged kids to go fast but nurtured them to do it safely.
“People my age still remember Bob because he was always at the top of the course,” Leighton said. “If your hands were cold, he’d give you his gloves to warm you up before you went down the hill. He was the guy. [Seeing him recognized] makes me very proud.”
More details about the 2024 Canadian Ski Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony can be found at skimuseum.ca/events/event-details. n
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Lillooet October29th 12:00pm– 2:00pm Lillooe t& District RECCentre,930MainS t.
Asthewinter seasoniswithusagain, we’d like to take thisopportunity to remind owners,propertymanagersandmerchantsoftheimportance of keeping walkways, roofs,stairsandlandings adjacent to theirstoresandpropertiesfreeof iceandsnow.Itisessentialthat customersandguestsvisitingourVillage feel safe and comfortableinbeingable to travelfreelyaboutthearea
Youare required to clearsnowandice from walkways, roofs,stairsandlandings adjacent to storesandproperties by10a.m.daily.
ENTHUSIASTS WON’T WANT TO MISS A HALLOWEEN POP-UP AT WHISTLER’S RAVEN
BY LIZ MCDONALD
SOMETHING WICKED this way comes!
Whistler’s Raven Room is hosting a Halloween pop-up bar from Oct. 10 to Nov. 3.
The pop-up came through a partnership with Black Lagoon, a company which specializes in creating “an unforgettable experience with [a] darkly immersive atmosphere and brand-new cocktail menu,” according to a press release by Black Lagoon.
Owners of The Raven Room are merging their appreciation for fanciful decoration and incredible cocktails for the weeks-long takeover.
It’s not the first time they’ve done a pop-up, either. At Christmas last year, they brought a winter wonderland to the cocktail lounge.
Brandi and Luke Woodnutt are co-owners of The Raven Room with Jason and Steph Redmond, and Brandi said the decision to take on a gothic pop-up was a no-brainer, with her passion for holiday creativity extending to
both her home and the lounge.
“I will take anything that allows me to be creative and weird, and Halloween spooky season is also something that I adore,” she said.
Having attended a Black Lagoon pop-up in Seattle last year, Luke knew the immersive experience was right up their darkened alley.
“It was lined up, it was busy. We got in there, and it was absolutely amazing. You’re just immersed in everything that you can
ROOM
vampire victims.
While Black Lagoon does send out some items for macabre décor, Brandi is a stickler for realistic terror and goes to work redecorating whatever she brings into the space.
“I make it look more realistic myself, because if you’ve ever seen a fake dead body, it doesn’t really look anatomically correct,” she said with a laugh.
Hayes and Ramage launched Black Lagoon after experimenting with a spooky
“It was lined up, it was busy. We got in there, and it was absolutely amazing. You’re just immersed in everything that you can think of for Halloween.”
- LUKE WOODNUTT
think of for Halloween,” he said.
The opportunity for sinfully delightful cocktails, designed by Black Lagoon’s Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage, was another draw for him.
Guests can expect specialty libations with names like Nightmare Fuel, Siren’s Song and Witching Hour, with both alcoholic and nonalcoholic options, perfect for health-conscious
pop-up bar in New Orleans. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were brainstorming career directions.
“We were young emo kids and goth kids, and we were commiserating over the closure of the goth clubs in both L.A. and Toronto,” Ramage said.
Knowing the demographic was still going strong, but seeing few options for
sharing their culture and appreciation for avant-garde costumes, Hayes and Ramage decided to turn their one-off pop-up into a yearly Halloween experience.
“We were fresh out of the pandemic, and it went off. We had so many people lining up from all walks of life, from cocktail enthusiasts to goth kids and fashion people who just wanted an excuse to come down in costume,” Ramage explained. “So, it ended up being really successful. From there we [decided to] do this every year and make it bigger.”
While Halloween can come with an unholy number of invitations to all sorts of depraved dens, the weeks-long affair ensures people have flexibility in picking when to drop into the darker dimension.
“You could experience it during any of that period for the three weeks through Halloween,” Brandi said, adding they will also throw a Halloween-specific party.
Once Halloween has come and gone, they’ll finish the celebration off with a party for Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Nov. 3rd is the final day to bask in the gory setting.
While the owners wouldn’t give away the sinister specifics, Brandi said guests can expect devilish details.
“It’s still going to look classy,” she said. “But at the same time, there will be blood dripping from the ceiling.” n
GHOUL ME ONCE Ghoulish overkill is the name of the game for an upcoming Halloween pop-up at The Raven Room.
PHOTO COURTESY OF RACHEL HARRISON COMMUNICATIONS
MEADOW
PARK SPORTS CENTRE SWIM • SKATE • SWEAT • SQUASH
Photo: Sean St. Denis
Whistler Chamber Music Society begins fall season Oct. 27
‘FLUTE AND FRIENDS’ WILL FEATURE THE WORK OF BEETHOVEN, HAYDN AND FARRENC
BY DAVID SONG
HAVE YOU BEEN LONGING for more classical music in town? If so, the Whistler Chamber Music Society (WCMS) has you covered.
The next WCMS offering is titled “Flute and Friends,” and it stars a quintet from West Coast Chamber Music that will make its way up from Vancouver. On the program are three trios: two featuring a combination of flute, cello and piano by Josef Hadyn and Louise Farrenc, and a Ludwig van Beethoven arrangement that swaps out the flute for a violin.
Bringing the music to life are pianists Alan Crane and Holly Duff, flutist Brenda Fedoruk, veteran violinist Angela Cavadas, and Clara Shandler on cello. None have performed in Whistler before.
“It’s wonderful going out to other communities and bringing our music to them,” says Duff. “We’ve taken our concerts to different smaller communities throughout the region over the many years that we’ve been doing this. I always really liked [going on the road] because we get a chance to meet and interact with new people.
“Vancouver is a very big city, and there is a lot of competition for that entertainment dollar. Just in the classical music genre alone, there’s a whole lot of things happening in
the city on any given weekend, whereas in a small place it’s a little more special. It feels wonderful to bring something to a community that maybe wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to see [your act] without driving a long way.”
Crane and Duff are spouses who both earned their bachelor’s degrees at Western University (formerly known as the University of Western Ontario). After discovering their mutual interests, they decided to build a
female composers within the classical world. She was an accomplished French virtuoso pianist who lived during the 19th century’s Romantic period.
“Haydn was such a good-humored composer. Everything he writes is elegant and charming, and you go away with a smile on your face,” remarks Duff. “[As for Farrenc], one of our mandates is to have works by women composers in our season and promote their material, some of which has been lost
“It’s wonderful going out to other communities and bringing our music to them.”
- HOLLY DUFF
platform for themselves and other musicians to gather and grow an audience. Thus in 1993, they founded West Coast Chamber Music.
‘ELEGANT AND CHARMING’
Sea to Sky fans are in for a treat when “Flute and Friends” gets into town.
Most everyone’s heard of Beethoven, but don’t overlook the other two in the showcase.
Crane notes Hadyn was essentially the father of the modern piano trio and one of the first composers to write music in a way that featured equally-prominent parts for keyboards and string instruments.
Farrenc, meanwhile, is one of several highly talented but underrepresented
and shuffled away in history. Louise Farrenc is wonderful, and I think audiences will really like her beautiful work.”
The addition of a flute gives classical music a different timbre (or perceived sound quality) compared to string-and-piano trios. Flute notes carry very well acoustically and sound distinct compared to the lower octaves where cellos and pianos reside. On the other hand, violins and cellos blend harmoniously to offer a more homogenous listening experience.
AN EXPERIENCED LINEUP
Crane and Duff have handpicked a gifted roster for their maiden partnership with the WCMS.
Fedoruk is Principal Flute for the Vancouver Opera and has toured with both the National Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. She’s been involved in numerous musical theatre productions such as Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast and Wicked in addition to her work recording for TV and radio. Duff describes her as “one of the nicest people in the world.”
Shandler is a concert manager for West Coast Chamber Music. For the past two years, the University of British Columbia alum has overseen the group’s Vancouverbased shows in addition to her own varied performing, teaching and musicwriting exploits.
The group’s elder stateswoman is Cavadas. She won First Prize in the CBC Young Artists Competition at 19 years of age before participating in many nationallybroadcast concerts over the years: including opera, ballet, musical theatre, film recording, and folk dance troupes. Today she’s Associate Concertmaster for the Vancouver Opera Orchestra after serving as its Acting Concertmaster for the 2017-18 campaign.
“Angela is one of the busiest violinists in Vancouver and has been for a long time,” says Crane. “She does everything. [My wife and I] taught at the same music school as she did way back when, so she seemed like an obvious person to [recruit] 30 years ago. We’ve just kept on having her.”
“Flute and Friends” takes place Oct. 27 at the Maury Young Arts Centre, with doors opening at 4:30 p.m. Buy tickets at whistlerchambermusic.ca/concert/westcoast-chamber-music. n
BETWEEN FRIENDS Left to right: West Coast Chamber Music performers Angela Cavadas, Alan Crane, Clara Shandler, Holly Duff and Brenda Fedoruk. PHOTO COURTESY OF JANE REID
‘Every genre you can imagine’
TAYLOR JAMES READY TO LIGHT UP ANOTHER APRÈS SEASON
BY DAVID SONG
BEFORE YOU ASK: no, it’s not a coincidence Whistler-based musician Taylor James has a very similar name to a certain Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
James is a French Canadian from North Bay, Ont. She aimed to move out west in 1990 in pursuit of her performing dreams, but folks told her: “you’ll never get hired if you have a French name.” Thus began an endeavour among James’ friends and family to find her a stage moniker.
Perhaps inevitably, she decided to pay tribute to James Taylor—the beloved six-time Grammy Award winner from Boston—by inverting his name and using it as her own.
“I heard James Taylor [as a kid] and it stole my heart,” James recounts. “Essentially he was my teacher, because my whole guitar style changed immensely from learning his songs like ‘Fire and Rain.’ My connection with James Taylor was deep because it was my entrance to a whole different level of guitar playing.”
YouTube and Google did not exist in the Ontarian’s youth, so she spent hours in her bedroom studying music from a cassette deck. Her family couldn’t afford to put her into guitar lessons, but she managed to get by with a great listening ear and no shortage of natural talent.
James has leveraged that talent to build a thriving career. She’s toured across Canada, Europe and the Middle East, while decorated acts like Colin James, Meat Loaf, Jeff Healy, Levon Helm and Ten Years After have chosen her to ride with them at various points in time. She used to run her own YouTube program, “The Taylor James Show,” on which she would interview recognized musicians over glasses of fine wine.
Some Whistlerites might remember James from her many gigs in town over the years, including a consistent presence at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She’s since moved up from Vancouver and now calls the Sea to Sky home.
THE LAST GUITAR
There’s a veritable arsenal of high-end instruments on today’s market, but James insists on sticking with a maple-backed Yamaha from the 1970s.
Why?
“It was the last guitar my dad bought for me,” she explains with the hint of a quiver in her voice. “I get emotional just saying that because he’s passed, but it’s very special and it’s got a lot of bruises. I started playing guitar when I was 10, and I used to bring my guitar to campfires and jams. [That Yamaha] has been through a lot. There used to be an autograph just above the strings by Robert Plant.”
James cut her teeth playing the country content of George Jones, Merle Haggard and Tammy Wynette before Taylor revolutionized
her approach to music. Later in life, she credits Bonnie Raitt for teaching her how to play slide guitar, Etta James for showing her how to sing behind a beat, and Janis Joplin for teaching her “how to leave it all on the floor.”
Performing alongside the likes of Colin James, Healy, Helm and so forth has also been tremendously educational.
“When I’d get the call, I’d be in such awe and feel gratitude that I had the opportunity to stand on the stage,” James remarks. “Some of those shows were interesting because the main acts are very separate from the opening act, so it really ups your game. You have to work harder to be better and represent yourself, so I earned those spots.
“It’s a different level when you’re playing those stages and you have to have your shit together. Pardon my expression, but you can’t just show up unprepared. It really gives you that boost of confidence where you feel like: ‘I get to play on the stage with this amazing artist and I don’t want to let them down.’”
IN THE LOOP
Despite her wealth of experience, James has found Whistler’s après ski scene to be a game-changer.
She now plays for extremely diverse audiences, with baby boomers and Generation Zs filling the same venue. These are the kinds of people who look for a good time after a full day on the slopes. James has felt pressure to live up to the recommendations of local legends such as The Hairfarmers, and as a result she’s been expanding upon her familiar musical menu of blues, roots and rock.
Her looper has been a lifeline. Devices of that ilk are used nowadays by an increasing number of solo artists to simulate a full band experience with drum beats and backing instrumentals.
“People need to hear a good, strong beat along with a great song and a great voice,” opines James. “My repertoire has really grown to be more highly energetic … every genre you can imagine. When I started at Merlin’s, I put a book in front of my stage and said to the audience: just write down any song that you want me to learn. And I couldn’t believe it, but I had probably 10 pages of song requests the first time.”
James’ partner, Preston Steele, is also her partner-in-crime on the music scene. He helps to set up and tear down her shows, sells her merchandise and sometimes even creates it.
“Preston is 150-per-cent committed to helping me in any way that he can,” James expresses. “He’s really creative. He comes up with ideas that I would never come up with as far as how to promote my career. When I learn songs, he’s either giving me applause or saying: ‘maybe you could have done that differently.’”
Catch James back at Merlin’s on Nov. 30 from 3 to 6 p.m. as she helps kick off ski season. n
HOTTUBSALE!!
PIQUE’S GUIDE TO LOCAL EVENTS & NIGHTLIFE
Here’s a quick look at some events happening in Whistler this week and beyond. FIND MORE LOCAL EVENT LISTINGS (and submit your own for free!)
FUNGUS AMONG US
CALM BENEATH CASTLES WHISTLER PREMIERE
An awe-inspiring ski movie that delves into the heart, soul, and mind of skiers driven by an insatiable thirst for adventure and discovery. This epic film explores the essence of finding solace in nature and being one with the mountains. Following the world’s best skiers to breathtaking locations, it captures their quirks, instincts and passion as they prepare and take on the mountain.
> Oct. 18, all ages at 7 p.m. followed by 19+ at 9:30 p.m.
> Maury Young Arts Centre
> Tickets start at $20
CRAFTY SCIENCE CLUB: SPOOKY SLIME TIME
Kids in Grade 3 & 4 are invited to connect, create and have some fun experimenting with silly science. This session features hands-on interactive activities along with some funny stories and games.
> Oct. 18, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
> Whistler Public Library
> Free
FUNGUS AMONG US MUSHROOM FESTIVAL
The Whistler Naturalists present the annual Fungus Among Us Mushroom Festival. This two-day event includes expert-led talks, guided walks, cooking demonstrations, and tastings from mushroom gurus. Find more info at whistlernaturalists.ca.
> Oct. 18 to 19
> Various locations
> Prices vary by event
APRÈS FOR CHANGE
BY
Mark your calendars and get ready to kick off winter with Zero Ceiling. You are invited to join in a night of retro ski vibes, fabulous entertainment, and most importantly, fundraising to support youth facing homelessness. Hosted by Gia Metric, star of Canada’s Drag Race, with entertainment from Whistler’s legendary DJ Foxy Moron. Dust off your best retro après gear and get ready to enjoy a complimentary drink, dinner, and dancing.
> Oct. 19, 7 p.m.
> Dusty’s Bar and Grill
> $105
CHEAT CODE FOR CONFLICT: CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP
Inject drama into your stories with Marty Chan’s cheat code. Students will learn the three essential steps for creating conflict out of any situation. Marty will show kids how to raise the stakes to create an incredible climax as well as identify the seven different types of conflict a protagonist can face. After this session, kids will be able to turn even the flattest first draft into an engaging story that hooks readers from the start to the end.
> Oct. 20, 2 to 3 p.m.
> Whistler Public Library
> Free
WHISTLER WRITERS FEST
The Whistler Writers Festival is an annual fall event celebrating the written word. It’s a chance to connect with the very best Canadian and international authors, attend workshops, readings and speaker panels, and enjoy music and great conversation with other readers and writers. Read more at whistlerwritersfest.com.
> Ends Oct. 20
> Various locations
> Admission will vary
PHOTO
LIZ MCDONALD
Pursuant to Section224(2)ofthe CommunityCharter,the CounciloftheResortMunicipalityofWhistlerwill consider Permissive TaxExemptionAmendmentBylaw(2025)No.2456,2024 foradoption at theRegular Councilmeetingon Tuesday, October22,2024starting at 5:30pm at Maury YoungArts Centre,4335Blackcomb Way, WhistlerBCintheFranzWilhelmsen Theatre
Permissive TaxExemptionAmendmentBylaw(2025)No.2456,2024exemptsthe followinglandand/orimprovementsfrom propertytaxesin2025through2029.Exemptions for2026andsubsequent yearswillbedependentonapproval by Council, andaresubject to change.
Whistler’s original information station
BY ALLYN PRINGLE
IN 1974, a booth appeared on the side of Highway 99 near the base of Whistler Mountain and began providing visitors and passers-by with information about the area. According to some sources, the small structure had once been a ticket booth for the lift company that was moved “under the cover of darkness” as its location had not been officially approved.
At our Speaker Series event in June looking at the origins of the Whistler Resort Association (WRA, now known as Tourism Whistler), Drew Meredith described the “gravel parking lot at Whistler where we built an uninsulated plywood information centre,” located across the highway from the gas station. This booth was operated by the Whistler Mountain District Chamber of Commerce, which was founded in 1966, nine years before the formation of the Resort Municipality of Whistler.
In the early 1970s, the Chamber was involved in a wide variety of activities, from sponsoring the annual Easter Parade, to supporting trailbuilding, to advocating for train station stops in the valley, to presenting Whistler’s “Citizen of the Year” award at its annual dinner/dance (which it continues to do today). The Tourist Booth was a new venture to provide information about accommodation, activities, travel and more. At a Chamber meeting in September 1974, director Jack Bright presented the idea of an area reservation service which could be located with the tourist booth, and during the 1975-76 winter season the Information Centre also gave out information on which hotels and lodgings had bookings available. The Chamber continued to operate the Information Centre from this spot into the 1980s, though its schedule varied depending on the year.
During the summer of 1976, the Information Centre was open on weekends and holidays from 12 to 4 p.m. under the care of Judy Johnston. As of the Labour Day weekend in September, Evelyn Cullen took over running the Centre, which offered rate sheets for the
1976-77 winter, information about the different specials offered by various hotels throughout the week, and a booking service.
At a September meeting, Evelyn reported the Centre had brought in $22,380 in the past year, about three times the cost of its operation, which was supported in part by a grant from the BC Department of Tourism. Despite what would appear to be a small budget today, the Chamber had difficulties funding the Centre on fees from the relatively small business community. In 1977, the Centre received a total of 5,823 phone-call enquiries and spoke with 5,143 walk-in customers.
Over the years, the services and staff of the Information Centre expanded, partly due to programs such as the Canada Works Grant. The Centre continued to offer brochures, as well as local publications such as a Whistler hiking guide produced by Vicki Vogler and Laura McGuffin that was sold at the Centre in 1979 for 75 cents. The building was also used to distribute community news, as in 1984 when a banner reading “It’s a girl” was hung outside to announce the birth of Chamber employee Sonya McCarthy’s daughter, and in 1986 when the Chamber used a similar banner to wish Myrtle Philip a happy 95th birthday.
In 1984, the Chamber purchased an 1836 BC Rail caboose for $1,500 with plans to restore it and connect it to the Information Centre as an expansion. These plans were never completed, however, and the building remained quite small.
It is unclear when exactly the Information Centre was shut down, but the duties and focus of the Chamber changed significantly as the WRA became more established and took over projects such as the marketing of Whistler and distribution of information, though the Chamber of Commerce continues to support and promote businesses and organizations in the area, as it has done since 1966.
The building of the Town Centre also shifted many activities from the Creekside gondola base to the site of Whistler Village. Today, the Whistler Visitor Centre and central bookings are operated by Tourism Whistler and see far more than the 11,000 visitors who had questions in 1977. n
BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND On Oct. 22, 1982, the Whistler Information Sign and Map just about took out the Information Centre when high winds knocked it over.
WHISTLER QUESTION COLLECTION
ASTROLOGY
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): As a young adult, I lived in a shack in the North Carolina woods. I was too indigent to buy a car or bicycle, so I walked everywhere I needed to go. Out of necessity, I discovered the practical power of psychic protection. I envisioned myself being surrounded by an impenetrable violet force field and accompanied by the guardian spirits of a panther, wolf, and bear. This playful mystical practice kept me safe. Though I was regularly approached by growling dogs and drunk thugs in pickup trucks, I was never attacked. Now would be an excellent time for you to do what I did: put strong psychic protection in place. You’re not in physical danger, but now is a good time to start shielding yourself better against people’s manipulative gambits, bad moods, emotional immaturity, and careless violations.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “Dear Rob: I once heard you say that the best method for solving any dilemma is to sit silently, calm my mind, and listen for the ‘still, small voice of the teacher within me.’ I have tried your advice, but I have never detected this voice. What am I doing wrong?
—Deprived Taurus.” Dear Taurus: Here’s how to become available for guidance from the still, small voice of your inner teacher. 1. Go someplace quiet, either in nature or a beloved sanctuary. 2. Shed all your ideas and theories about the nature of your dilemma. 3. Tenderly ask your mind to be empty and serene as you await an intuition. 4. Feel sweet gratitude for each breath as you inhale and exhale. 5. Visualize your inner teacher smiling. 6. Make yourself expectant to receive an insightful blessing.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the parlance of people who love to trek in natural places, a “cobbknocker” refers to a hiker who precedes you and knocks down the spider webs crossing the trail. I would love for you to procure a similar service for all your adventures in the coming weeks, not just hiking. See if you can coax or hire helpers to clear a path for you in everything you do. I want you to be able to concentrate on the essentials and not get bogged down or distracted by trivial obstructions. You need spaciousness and ease.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): When you are at your Cancerian best, you nurture others but don’t smother them with excessive care. You give your gifts without undermining your own interests. You are deeply receptive and sensitive without opening yourself to be abused or wounded. In my astrological estimation, you are currently expressing these qualities with maximum grace and precision. Congratulations on your ever-ripening emotional intelligence! I trust you will be rewarded with grateful favours.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here’s the deal life is offering: You temporarily suspend your drive to possess crystalline certainty, and you agree to love and thrive on ambiguity and paradox. In return, you will be given help in identifying unconscious and hidden factors at work in your destiny. You will be empowered to make confident decisions without needing them to be perfect. And you will learn more about the wise art of feeling appreciative reverence for great mysteries.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I once had a Virgo girlfriend. She was talented, hardworking, meticulous, organized, health-conscious, and resourceful. She also hated it if I neglected to put the jar of honey back in the cupboard immediately after using it. She would get upset if I neglected to remove my shoes as soon as I entered the house. Her fussy perfectionism wasn’t the reason we ultimately broke up, but it did take a toll on me. I bring this to your attention because I hope you will mostly keep fussy perfectionism to yourself in the coming weeks. It’s fine if you want to indulge it while alone and doing your own work, but don’t demand that others be equally fastidious. Providing this leeway now will serve you well in the long run. You can earn slack and generate good will that comes in handy when you least expect it.
ROB BREZSNY
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Your bulboid corpuscles are specialized nerve cells in your skin that can experience intense tactile pleasure—more so than any other nerve cells. They are located in your lips, tongue, and genitals. According to my analysis of your astrological potentials, these ultra-sensitive receptors will be turned on extra high in the coming weeks. So will their metaphysical and metaphorical equivalents. That’s why I predict you will gather in more bliss than you have in a long time. Please give yourself permission to exceed your usual quota.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Once upon a time, you were more hazardous to yourself than you are now. I’m pleased about the progress you have made to treat yourself with greater care and compassion. It hasn’t been easy. You had to learn mysterious secrets about dealing with your inner troublemaker. You had to figure out how to channel its efforts into generating benevolent and healing trouble. There’s still more work to be done, though. Your inner troublemaker isn’t completely redeemed and reformed. But you now have a chance to bring it more fully into its destined role as your ally and helper.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I predict that your past will soon transform. You may discover new details about old events. Stories you have told and told about your history will acquire new meanings. You will be wise to reinterpret certain plot twists you thought you had figured out long ago. There may not be anything as radical as uncovering wild secrets about your true origins—although I wouldn’t discount that possibility. So expect a surprise or two, Sagittarius. But I suspect you will ultimately be pleased to revise your theories about how you came to be the resilient soul you are now.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Of all the astrological signs, Capricorns are least likely to consult horoscopes. There are many skeptical people among your tribe who say, “Astrology is irrational and illogical. It can’t be precise and accurate, so it’s not even real.” My personal research also suggests, however, that a surprising percentage of Capricorns pretend not to be drawn to astrology even though they actually are. They may even hide their interest from others. How do I feel about all this? It doesn’t affect me as I compose your oracles. I love you as much as the other signs, and I always give you my best effort. Now I suggest that in the coming weeks, you do what I do: Give your utmost in every situation, even if some people are resistant to or doubtful of your contributions. Be confident as you offer your excellence.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You are ready to graduate to a higher octave of maturity and wisdom about everything related to love, romance, and sex. It will be instructive to meditate on your previous experiences. So I invite you to ruminate on the following questions. 1. What important lessons have you learned about the kind of togetherness you want? 2. What important lessons have you learned about the kind of togetherness you don’t want? 3. What important lessons have you learned about how to keep yourself emotionally healthy while in an intimate relationship?
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Are you longing to feel safe, cosy, and unperturbable? Are you fantasizing about how perfect life would be if you could seal yourself inside your comfort zone and avoid novelty and change for a while? I hope not, Pisces! By my astrological reckoning, you are due for a phase of experimentation and expansion. You will thrive on the challenges of big riddles and intriguing teases. Please take full advantage of this fun opportunity to hone your intuition and move way beyond random guesswork. For extra credit: Prove the theory that it’s very possible to cultivate and attract good luck.
Homework: Is it time to rest in one area of your life as you work harder in another area? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
In addition to this column, Rob Brezsny creates
In-depth weekly forecasts designed to inspire and uplift you. To buy access, phone 1-888-499-4425. Once you’ve chosen the Block of Time you like, call 1-888-682-8777 to hear Rob’s forecasts. www.freewillastrology.com
Our team of people is what sets us apart from other builders. As we continue to grow as the leader in luxury projects in Whistler, our team needs to expand with us.
We are currently hiring:
Labourers ($20 - $30 hourly)
Carpenters Helpers /Apprentices 1st to 4th year ($25 - $35 hourly)
Experienced Carpenters ($30 - $45 hourly)
Carpenter Foremen ($40 - $50 hourly)
Rates vary based on experience and qualifications. Red seal a bonus but not mandatory. EVR is committed to the long-term retention and skills development of our team. We are passionate about investing in our team’s future.
We offer:
• Top Wages
• Training & Tuition Reimbursement (Need help getting your Red Seal?)
• $500 Annual Tool Allowance
• Extended Health and Dental Benefits for you and your family
• Flexible Schedule - Work Life Balance. (We get it. We love to ski and bike too.)
• Assistance with Work Visa and Permanent Residency (We can help!)
• Positive Work Environment
We promote from within and are looking to strengthen our amazing team. Opportunities for advancement into management positions always exist for the right candidates. Don’t miss out on being able to build with the team that builds the most significant projects in Whistler. Send your resume to info@evrfinehomes.com We look forward to hearing from you!
JOB OPPORTUNITIES AT SSHS
• Community Health Nurse ($90 000 - $100 000)
• Home and Community Care Nurse ($90 000-$110 000)
• Clinical Services Manager ($100 000 - $125 000)
• Workers (Pared Support Men’s Health Lead ($53 000 $60 000)
About Us: SSHS is a non-profit Indigenous Health Organization dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities. Our organization provides culturally appropriate healthcare services, programs, and initiatives to support the holistic health of Indigenous individuals and families.
Resort Municipality of Whistler whistler.ca/careers
wilderness of BC’s central coast. We provide world-class skiing in the winter, and connect our guests with incredible wilderness adventures in the summer. Our enthusiastic team is dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through the highest standards of hospitality. With our central office located in Whistler, our Sales and Reservations team works hard to support the operations and our team out in the field. The Sales and Reservations Coordinator will be responsible for providing guests and travel agents with the highest level of customer service and creating a personalized experience throughout the reservation and pre-trip planning process. Exceptional communication skills, strong organizational skills and effective time management are a must for this position.
• Full time position is 40 hours per week with potential flexibility in scheduling once training is completed to enjoy Whistler’s winter and summer activities.
• Access to extended health benefits. Fun, team-oriented office environment.
• Potential for heli-skiing trips and summer visits to the lodge.
• Reservations: Guest communications, booking schedule management, and Webrez Pro.
• Sales: Responding to Travel Trade inquiries, achieving sales targets, and driving bookings.
• Guest Invoicing: Billing and Flywire invoicing.
• Guest Services: Guest communications, lodge coordination, and post trip-follow-up.
To apply email employment@bellacoolahelisports.com.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
Employee
HYDROVAC
ÚlÍus Community Centre
• Director of Community Programs ($93,475.20 to $101,556 per
• Elders’ Activity Coordinator ( $20.90 to 29.45 per hour)
• Financial Reporting Manager ($59,878 to $74,564 per year)
• Capital Projects Manager ($59,878 to $73,564 per year)
Xet’òlacw Community School
•
•
• Social Worker/ Counsellor( $80,371 to $91,673 per year)
($60,015 to $109,520 per
• Language Resource Worker or Language Teacher ($46,683 to $109,520 per year)
• Food Program Assistant ($17.40 to $20.90 per hour)
HEAVY EQUIPMENT OPERATOR, Squamish – Minimum 5 years or 5,000 hours operating experience on excavator. Full-time, Monday – Friday. $33-$42 per hour.
HEAVY
or 5x8 schedule. Red Seal certified receive $200/month tool allowance. $39.70- $47.90 per
5% premium on hourly wage for Lead Hand position.
CONSTRUCTION LABOURER – Great opportunity to learn on-the-job. Stamina for physically demanding work and perseverance to brave inclement weather required. Previous experience preferred but not required. Training provided. $25-$32 per hour.
SNOWPLOW OPERATOR, Whistler – Valid Class 5 BC Driver’s Licence required. Must be available from November 15 through March 31. On-the-job training provided. Wage depending on experience. $28-35.02 per hour.
Lil’wat Health & Healing + Pqusnalhcw Health Centre
• Early Childhood Educator ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Nurse ($41.42 to $52.81 per hour + $2.15 hourly premium)
• Family Mentor ($38,038 to $53,599 per year)
• Program Manager ($57,330 to $64,610 per year)
Child & Family Services
• Transition House Support Worker ($20.90 to $29.45 per hour)
• Social Worker ($80,371 to $91,673 per year)
Do not move the position or change the typesetting of the headline. The bottom angled keyline should always align with the angled gradient jolt.
Headlines & images can be mixed and matched as needed.
NOTE: “Carve out a new career path” should always be paired with a winter image
If body copy is shorter, copy block can be nudged down to balance out visually in column
COORDINATOR, CONFERENCE SALES
FACILITIES ENGINEER
Full Time, Year Round
Full Time, Year Round
Love a good challenge? Passionate about the place you call home? Tourism Whistler is looking for community-loving, mountainappreciating, environment-respecting people to join our team.
The Facilities Engineer is responsible for the oversight, maintenance, repairs and efficient operations of all main mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, and the overall common areas at the Whistler Conference Centre, Whistler Golf Course and Driving Range.
The Coordinator, Conference Sales assists the Sales Manager(s) in developing and maintaining a strong client base. Using outstanding communication, interpersonal skills, and a high level of enthusiasm and initiative, the Coordinator builds relationships and delivers superior service to our clients.
Sales related duties will be the primary focus for this role, noting that operational aspects of the business and supporting Conference Services during peak periods will be a requirement as needed.
What we offer: nine-day fortnight schedule, an excellent benefits package, a commitment to health and wellness, and a fun and supportive team environment.
The starting salary range for this role is $50,000 - $54,000 annually.
This position requires an individual who possesses a 4th Class Power Engineering Certificate (or is currently enrolled), complimented with five years of related experience gained in a commercial building or hotel. Experience and knowledge of direct digital controls, energy management systems and green initiatives is also important. Previous leadership experience, with knowledge of applicable buildings codes and health and safety practices is an asset.
TO VIEW OUR CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, AND TO APPLY, VISIT US ONLINE AT WHISTLER.COM/CAREERS.
TO VIEW OUR CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, AND TO APPLY, VISIT US ONLINE AT WHISTLER.COM/CAREERS.
Position Title: Jordan’s Principle Administrative Assistant
Location: Mount Currie, BC
Type: Part-time or Full-time, Contract (24-month term, with possibility of extension)
Salary: $52,000 - $55,000 (based on availability and experience), plus benefits
Other Benefits: SSHS offers a competitive benefits and employment package for full-time staff
Position Start Date: As soon as possible
About Us: SSHS is a non-profit Indigenous Health Organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Indigenous communities. Our organization provides culturally appropriate healthcare services, programs, and initiatives to support the holistic health of Indigenous individuals and families.
Position Overview: Jordan’s Principle is a child-first and needs-based principle in Canada to ensure that First Nations children have equitable access to all government funded public services. The initiative ensures that all First Nations children living in Canada can access the products, services, and supports they need, when they need them. The Enhanced Service Coordination Model for Jordan’s Principle in BC features dedicated community-based service coordinators hosted by organizations and First Nations across the province, to support First Nations and Indigenous children to access the full range of existing health, social and education services, as well as to prepare and submit Jordan’s Principle requests to address gaps, delays and disruptions in health social and education supports for First Nations children and youth. The Approved Request Contingency Fund (ARC Fund) is a third-party payments initiative that enables partner organizations to issue payments for approved requests submitted by their Service Coordinator to alleviate the administrative burden and delays. The Jordan’s Principle Administrative Assistant will be responsible for coordinating payments to parents/guardians and service providers on behalf of Indigenous Services Canada (ISC); liaising with Indigenous requestors and ensuring accuracy in funding processes, data collection and reporting. The Administrative Assistant will also provide support on an as needed basis to the Jordan’s Principle Service Coordinator and liaise with ISC representatives in the course of implementing the Enhanced Service Coordination model and ARC Fund Initiative in the BC Region.
The Jordan’s Principle Administrative Assistant position duties and responsibilities would include, but are not limited to:
• Provide administrative support to the Jordan’s Principle Service Coordinator and Service Coordination delivery, and support community building activities as needed.
• Disseminate information to the public and to service providers and community-based professionals to promote Jordan’s Principle and reduce service barriers for Indigenous children in BC.
• Develop strong relationships with diverse stakeholders and partners, including Federal and Provincial government partners, and First Nations health, education, and social sector providers and organizations.
• Coordinate payments for approved requests in accordance with program delivery guidance set out by ISC and organizational policies and procedures set out by SSHS
• Work effectively with ISC, the Jordan’s Principle Enhanced Service Coordination Hub, service providers and communitybased partners and Indigenous families and communities to promote Jordan’s Principle, coordinate services and supports, and support the delivery of Jordan’s Principle Service Coordination.
• Maintain an accurate database of Jordan’s Principle requests and payments and prepare and submit funder reports on an ongoing basis and in consultation with organizational leadership and finance departments as appropriate.
• Provides financial support services and contributes to the development and supports the implementation of administrative payment systems, processes and procedures.
• Assists in maintaining budgets; reviews and processes invoices and enters data using software such as Excel and budget management tools, collects and analyzes financial data and provides reports using databases and financial tracking systems
• Maintain accurate databases and prepare reports and supporting documentation to support financial processes and funding reconciliation using programs and software
Qualifications and Skills:
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Work effectively with First Nations communities and people
• Ability to work independently and in teams
• Demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality, privacy and security of information
• Excellent attention to detail, organizational skills, and time management
• Satisfy requirements for a Criminal Record Check and Vulnerable Sector Check
•
BLACKCOMB CHIMNEY
LTD.
Math is hard
“Math is hard.”
-Mathophobe Barbie
THERE ARE a number of problems related to writing a weekly opinion column in Pique In this case it’s not the problems people most frequently ask me, which are, in order of frequency, the following. “How do you come up with topics to write about?” Simple. I live in an interesting town in an interesting country in very interesting times... globally.
BY G.D. MAXWELL
“Why do you, or more accurately, why Pique let you do this?” I do it because I enjoy it. You’d have to ask them why they let me. It’s a mystery to me as well. Often I imagine they’d rather fill the page with real estate ads, especially weeks when they get a lot of angry phone calls and emails about whatever I’ve written.
“What makes you think your opinion is so damn important?” Nothing. I’m fully aware of what anatomical feature opinions are like. But I have a blank screen to fill each week and, inexplicably, a lot of people read it. Ask them.
“When are you going to retire?” Usually asked with heightened anticipation. Well, all I can say is watch this space. When you see real estate ads two weeks in a row, draw your own conclusions.
But the problem I have with writing this column is, and this is going to sound ridiculous, a certain lack of freedom to express myself in ways I might, under other circumstances, choose. Told you it sounded ridiculous. But stick with me.
One of the things I had to give up when I got this gig was writing letters to the editor. I love, loved, writing them. Letters to the editor are something akin to crank calls or yelling at umpires at ball games. They’re avenues to vent, taunt, poke fun at something that’s been said or left unsaid and share your own opinion.
In the early days, okay, the first 10 years I was doing this, I’d sneak a letter past Bob Barnett every now and then. I’d use an alias, several different ones in fact. But he caught on to me, something about a unique writing style, more likely the fact they were all coming from my personal email address since this was before Google made it easy to have dozens of email addresses.
I had a singular fondness for letters to editors largely because that’s how I came to Bob’s attention in the first place. Doesn’t explain his lack of judgment offering me a column, but you’d have to ask him about that.
Another problem is self-imposed. I’m hesitant to respond to letters other people send in. I have my forum; letters belong to them. Yeah, they not infrequently respond to something I’ve written or they express opinions I’m chafing to refute, but they’re entitled to their opinions as much as I’m entitled to mine. So I almost always let it slide. Almost. Not always.
This week I feel compelled to respond to a letter in last week’s Pique You can probably guess which one. Nothing personal. I don’t know the letter writer. I just question the logic behind the opinion.
Relying on polling data from 338 Canada, the writer calls the election a toss-up, likely minority government. The main problem with polls is they’re fluid. The most recent data from 338 gives the NDP a 73% chance of winning the most seats and a 68% chance of forming a majority government.
The surge likely arises from the Conservative leader’s odd performance in the leader’s debate and the questionable
candidate in this riding a 52% chance of being our next MLA!
For the past seven years we’ve seen the effect of having an MLA in opposition. Even a seasoned politician like Jordan Sturdy admitted it’s difficult to get things done being out of government.
The letter writer suggests people thinking about voting NDP switch their vote to Green since the Green candidate is leading the NDP candidate in the polls. Here’s where the math gets dicey.
If things stay the way they are, we’ll have an MLA sitting in opposition. Given Mr. Fulmer’s track record as a successful
For the past seven years we’ve seen the effect of having an MLA in opposition. Even a seasoned politician like Jordan Sturdy admitted it’s difficult to get things done being out of government.
positions and honesty he’s displayed since then and the release of the party’s education plan that harkens back to the bad ol’ don’task-don’t-tell approach to gender and ethnicity education.
So things are beginning to shape up if you believe the NDP are more aligned with your beliefs than the Conservatives, which the majority of people in this riding are.
But 338 also gives the Conservative
businessman, I’m imagining he’s not going to be particularly happy being powerless.
But even in opposition, he’d have a greater impact than the Green candidate would should he become our MLA. So what is the math? If 100% of the voters in this riding voted Green we’d have 0% representation in Victoria no matter who forms government. Zero. Nada. A voice in the wilderness shouting at clouds.
There is likely to be no king/queen maker role for the Green Party to play, not that they were particularly good at playing it the last time they had the opportunity. The odds favour a majority government.
The same current 338 polls show one riding likely to go Green, Saanich North and the Islands. The party leader, having chosen to run in what has been considered a “safe” NDP riding, Victoria-Beacon Hill, has moved that riding to Green leaning possibility, a fluid maybe, maybe not proposition.
Our own riding is considered a toss-up... with Conservative as a likely outcome.
So the choice, if we don’t want a Conservative MLA, comes down to more people voting Green or more people voting NDP. The letter writer suggests going Green because he’s polling better right now.
If you want a voiceless representation in the next government, that’s the way to go. With luck, he’ll be part of an official party—a minimum of two seats. If the stars align, there’ll be three Green MLAs.
Three times zero is still zero.
I’m not enamoured with the NDP. Better than the alternative by a long shot, but not without baggage. But I’m really not enamoured with the idea of having no useful voice in the next government as opposed to an MLA recruited by the party based on her track record who would be likely to bring significant benefits to our riding.
Fortunately for all of us, that’s the last thing I have to say about tomorrow’s result. If you haven’t voted, think hard about it. If you have, I hope you understood the math. n
