The Olympics are finally over and Vancouver, Canada is almost back to normal – if you can call living in a big city that. The crowds have thinned down to rush-hour status as the ParaOlympics are now underway.
I should first point out that I voted against bringing the Olympics to British Columbia in the referendum, not because I don’t like the winter games or sports, I watch them every four years on television no matter which country is the host. What I voted against was the cost and how the billions of tax dollars could have been better spent.
It took British Columbians a hell of a long time to pay off the Expo 86 World Fair debt and I didn’t think we should jump into that kind of deficit as quickly as our present provincial government chose to do so. Especially after the Liberals have been selling off our Provincial assets (BC Rail, BC Gas) and still trying to sell BC Hydro. So now comes the headache after the party and the realization of how much did it really cost? I have seen numbers ranging from 2 Billion to as high as 6 Billion dollars. I wonder what my personal share will be?
I also did not think it fair to BC residents living outside Whistler and the lower mainland. It is questionable if they benefited at all, definitely not from any of the construction contracts or the short term tourism, yet they get to share equally in paying off the amount to host such an expensive event.
Then there was the issue of security and the inconvience of rerouting traffic due to closing down major streets like Robson and Georgia or dealing with the checkpoints and security personel within a half mile radius of every event center/facility. Sure it was only two weeks and It was interesting to see people with back-packs getting searched just to board a skytrain but since I served in the military that didn’t bother me at all, in fact, I am sure it deterred any thoughts of terrorism.
But was it all worth it?
It will depend on how fast this debt can be paid off without hurting the standard of life to the middle class and poor. If it takes a couple generations to erase, then definitely ‘NO’ and the money could have been better spent on dealing with this recession/depression and its affect on our corner of the world. Heck, just the interest on the principle debt could have raised a lot of BC citizens up from below the poverty line and helped our seniors live out the rest of their lives under better conditions. Or imagine how clean every hospital in British Columbia could have been – at the least, Hospital Acquired Infections would have been reduced dramatically. Oh well, there is so much a couple billion could do for a province…
One thing for sure is that the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic brand are making a profit from every one of their summer and winter events, leaving the hosting nations with the mess to clean up, like a evening party guest that leaves in the wee hours to head to the next celebration. I wonder how much profit they made?
Universal Studios = Back to the Future/Jurassic Park/etc.