CKNW Editorial
for February 14, 2001

First off ... it didn't take the golden boy of the new parliament, Stephen Owen, long to fall into line. On this show, Stephen criticized the notion that the Ethics Commissioner be appointed by and report to the Prime Minister. Why, he told us, British Columbia is the model for such offices because they are appointed by and report to the legislature and are only elected by that legislature after a special committee has unanimously agreed on the choice.

Stephen went back to Ottawa and said it again. And pointed out that this procedure was promised by the Liberal Red Book of 1993. Well, yesterday he had the chance to vote for a motion that would have done just what he wanted but, surprise! surprise! He did what the Liberal whips told him to do and he voted against it.

I suspect that kindly old Uncle Jean or one of his minions took Steve aside and told him "son, if you want to get along, go along. It's not good business to vote against the boss ... behave yourself and there may just be a little parliamentary secretaryship for you ... who knows, maybe even a junior ministry with the extra money and the Honourable plus all the perks ... there's a good boy now, trot off and do as you're told". And Stephen did what he was told breaking the record set by Hedy Fry in becoming the latest of BC government MPS to become a political whore.

I must preface my remaining remarks by saying that I'm not a basketball fan. I'm not a non fan, you understand ... I don't dislike the game the way I dislike motorcycle or car racing ... which make a lot of noise and smell like hell. It's just that I never played basketball when I was a kid and so I don't relate to it. Some friends of ours have season's tickets, however, about 15 rows up from the center line and Wendy and I did get to see a few games ... and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Grizzlies lost every game we saw but there was always entertainment. What I liked about the games, too, was that you could almost set your watch by them ... in two hours they were over. If only operas would take this leaf from basketball's book I might take one of them in ... but I've boycotted Operas ever since I saw The Marriage of Figaro at the Queenie E and it took well over three hours. For the last hour I was beside myself but I digress. Badly. Back to basketball. The Grizzlies are gone and I think there should be a boycott of their remaining games. Let there not be a person in the place. But the more important question arising out of this is whether or not the Canucks can be all that far behind. I would miss them if the high cost of the American dollar were eventually to drive them away. I don't care about hockey much any more and haven't been to a game for many years but I recognize that this is a hockey town where it clearly isn't a basketball town.

I suppose the underlying question is what Vancouver does best - it regularly declares itself to be a world-class city ... a major league city, if you will. Do we lose that distinction if we don't have at least one major league sports franchise or if we do, they are doomed to perpetual mediocrity like the Minnesota Twins?

I don't really think it matters. People don't come to our city to watch basketball or hockey ... and I don't regard the minimum coverage games involving our teams as very important. I think the problem is us. We've bought into the notion that to be better than Toronto and Montreal - especially the former- we must have the same major league sports. We practice what Allan Fotheringham famously called municipal masturbation. For some reason we must always be in an orgasmic state about how our city is perceived.

I take a different view ... and view is the operative word. When I'm fishing on the beaches on the Sunshine Coast looking towards the east side of Howe Sound I see scenery that it would cost a fortune to see in Switzerland ... and their mountains don't have an ocean attached. I look out my front window in Lions Bay from my, I assure you, modest townhouse and see a view that I don't believe can be matched let alone beaten in the world.

I look at what we can do if we want to. We're a couple of hours in several directions from skiing unbeaten in the world. We have uncluttered waters - in fact, last summer I bought a telescope in Peterhead Scotland - where my great-great grandfather sail for New Zealand early in the 19th century - so I could watch the boats in How Sound. The problem is there are no boats - one can sail or power one's way to blissful solitude within minutes of an available anchorage.

I compare out eating establishments and know that we have culinary opportunities only matched in very few places in the world and, in Canada, only in Montreal.

Every day from May until October I drive over the Lions Gate Bridge and see two, three and sometimes even four cruise ships full of people paying huge bucks to look at what my eyes routinely see.

No, folks, being a major league city has nothing to do with hockey or basketball ... those things only massage egos that haven't considered what Vancouver is really all about.