Canada — seeing ourselves as others see us

I’ve made it something of a tradition, come Canada Day, to write about being a Canadian. I’ve written about all the neat stuff we’ve invented, all the Canadians who are or ever were famous, about our ever-so polite ways, and about the Canadian view of the world.

So we can agree on the fact that Canadians came up with any idea that was ever worth a damn (like duct tape, for example), that Pamela Anderson would have made a great Governor General, that we hold doors open for other people, and that we don’t go to war just because Americans say we should.

Oh.... Canada eh.

When our security agents frisk people at the airport, they do it politely — no unnecessary groping, just a light pat-down. In meetings, we build consensus, carefully, rather than getting loud and proud (we say things like, “let’s not drink from the fire hose” and “let’s not boil the ocean,” rather than “you’re totally out to lunch” and “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!).

This is a good start to understanding what being Canadian is all about. But sometimes it’s good to take a look at ourselves as others see us.

There is, for example, that small business of the Vancouver riots, which utterly shocked the rest of the world because everyone outside of Canada had grown up believing Canadians are polite no matter what.

It even surprised Prof. Paul “PZ” Myers, the American university guy who was in town this spring to tell Canadians who believe in God they’re stupid. (Instead of calling him stupid back, Canadian theists politely argued the point.)

Following the riots, Myers was moved to blog that “Canadians aren’t all nice and polite, except the godless ones.”

Mind you, Myers thought Vancouver fans (or, “hooligans” if you prefer) were rioting because the Canucks won the Stanley Cup. He can be forgiven for thinking a Canadian-based team would never actually lose at hockey, but his error is typical of the lack of attention Americans pay to what’s going on in Canada.

American film maker Michael Moore has always liked Canada, mostly because we have a health care system and gun control. At least, we had gun control until we went and re-elected Stephen Harper, and maybe our health-care system isn’t what it used to be either.

Moore says American media will “only tell you about Canadians if they have some connection to Justin Bieber.” Of course, U.S. media never mention that the Biebz is Canadian.

Former U.S. president George W. Bush also liked us, I think mainly because Canadians didn’t make fun of him the way Americans did. More accurately, we didn’t laugh out loud.

“I want to thank all the Canadians who came out today to wave to me — with all five fingers!” he said during one of his visits to Ottawa.

If you notice a preponderance of American sources for this analysis, it might be because we in Canada tend to define ourselves according to American standards — that is, whatever America is, Canada isn’t.

Nothing makes us madder than being mistaken for an American. But really, we’d feel better about ourselves if Americans acknowledged our existence a little more often.

It’s important not only what Americans think of us, but that they think of us at all. So when they’re surprised we’d have a riot when a Canadian team made up of Canadians and Europeans loses to an American team made up of Canadians and Europeans, it’s better than being ignored.

But being ignored by the most powerful country in the world isn’t so bad. The less people know about this place, the easier it is to keep it for ourselves.

Cowboy poet Mike Puhallo loved Western heritage

“They’re gonna heart attack them ponies,” Mike Puhallo said as he watched the greenhorns roaring around the grounds on their rented mounts.

It was the first time I’d ever met Mike — it was at one of the Kamloops Cattle Drives, the year it started from Hat Creek and wound its way above Kamloops Lake before coming into town a week later.

I think that was in 1995, and we were sitting in the shade under an awning watching the city folks enjoy playing cowboy.

Mike died last Friday after a long struggle with cancer. I knew him casually over the years, sometimes in connection with those Cattle Drives, sometimes with the annual Cowboy Festival he had so much to do with.

There will be a lot of stories told this week by folks who knew Mike.

He had a passion for Western culture, and could never figure out why Kamloops was hesitant to celebrate its cowboy origins. When I was in the mayor’s office, he wrote a letter strongly criticizing the Tournament Capital program.

Kamloops should focus on Western heritage, not on sport, he figured. The letter bothered me, and I let him know, because though I agree we should celebrate our heritage I’ve always believed a city can be more than one thing.

But Mike believed civic government didn’t do enough to promote the Western theme.

He and I shared another common interest — the infamous McLean Gang outlaws and their equally infamous father Donald. The elder McLean — who was my great-great-grandfather — worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company during the early 1800s. After his death in the Chilcotin War his sons formed a gang, killed the local police constable and were hanged in 1879.

Mike loved that story and wrote about the family quite often, as I did.

We didn’t share a love of cowboy poetry, however. In fact, it drives me a little nuts. But Mike was a cowboy poet’s poet. He used it to reflect that Western heritage he loved so much, to tell stories about history and about a special way of life.

I would come across him at fall fairs where he’d entertain, or when he had a new book of poems to publish.

I and my family live where we do because of Mike Puhallo. He was in my office at City Hall one day pitching his vision for a Western theme town when he mentioned that the old McLean homestead at Black Pines was probably going to come up for sale.

The home, a log and clapboard two-story farm house, was built by my great-grandparents in the early 1890s. I knew the house well, for my mom had spent several years of her childhood there.

Sure enough, it came up for sale and Syd and I bought it, becoming Mike’s neighbours in the process.

During the ensuing years, he’d take one of his horses for a ride from “downtown” Black Pines through our property and stop for a chat at the house. After the area got cross-fenced I’d pass him on Westsyde Road as he rode along.

A few years ago, we were doing a feature about him for Currents magazine, and shot a magnificent photo of Mike loping one of his horses through a snow-covered field.

That picture epitomizes so much about Mike Puhallo — it somehow captures what Western heritage and cowboy culture meant to him.

A little like one of those cowboy poems of his, without the words.

Nobody’s perfect, even Bylaws guys

Just have to share some fan mail with, thanks to “One of Your Kamloops Bylaws Officers,” who responded to the entry on the Bylaws van that soared through an intersection against the lights on Victoria Street the other day. Here it is, unedited:

“Wow Mel, You sure have a bean up your bum about bylaw officers. You are like a vulture in a tree just waiting for Bylaws to error. What’s wrong, has it been too long for you? I don’t know how you sleep at night knowing that The Bylaws Dept. hasn’t done something where it ticks off “Perfect Mel” Then just like that, you’ve got one. Life is good again for you. Mel catches a Bylaws vehicle go through a amber light, or was it red ? Or maybe you just threw red in there to stir the pot. It’s hard to tell with you as your job is to sell newspapers. Anyhow, you see several drivers per day running amber and yes, even the red ones. This is bad. Hey look Mel, I agree with you on something! You’ve got to write about the Bylaw Officer not stopped for the amber though. Or did you say it was red, I’m still unsure. Ahhh but I’ts good to be you. Perfect Mel, is going to sell a few more papers today and the bold headlines will read, Mr. Bylaws guy, that was a crosswalk! Its ok, most of your Kamloops Bylaws Officers feel the same way about you Mel. Keep selling those papers. But wait!! I have a great Idea you can run with for your next edition. Kamloops Bylaws Officer Runs Amber Light Because They Had Abby the Dog in the Van and Didn’t Want to Slam on the Brakes… This would sell papers Mel.”

To be perfectly clear, the Bylaws van ignored a yellow light, then a red light — which changed before he got to the crosswalk — and went through not one but two crosswalks on the city’s main downtown street. But, hey, nobody’s perfect.

Why is public always the last to know?

Letting the public in on what’s going to be done with our tax money, what’s going to be done to our environment, and what’s going to be done with our cityscape seems to be a lost art these days.

Put another way, the public is last in line.

Thursday, the Interior Health Authority and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District sat down to talk about a new master plan for Royal Inland Hospital.

It was all hush hush, behind closed doors. Legally, planning matters can be discussed in secret, though there’s usually no good reason. Eventually, the public will be let in on it.

It’s a strange thing, this practice of politicians and bureaucrats figuring out what they’re going to do with our money, in the privacy of their meeting rooms.

Not surprising coming from the IHA, the most anal organization extant when it comes to message control. It could give Stephen Harper a run for his money on that count.

But the IHA isn’t alone. Before City Hall released anything comprehensive on the Lorne Street parkade, staff were making the rounds of business groups to get them onside.

And long before last week’s public meeting on the behemoth Ajax mine plan, company officials were quietly talking with business organizations and politicians.

There are advantages, from the proponent’s point of view, to this strategy of lining up ducks before the hoi polloi are let in on the secret.

It’s so much nicer to stand in front of a public meeting, or to issue a press release, knowing that you’re not going to get pushback from community leaders.

Maybe IHA has learned from past mistakes, especially after it moved administration of Royal Inland to Kelowna without telling anybody, prompting Mayor Peter Milobar’s famous utterance of the B word.
Municipal politicians get cranky over such surprises, and one can’t blame them. But there’s a difference between a proper head’s up to local authorities and giving them advance briefings on what should be public information, all the while strategically pledging them to silence.

The only way this new culture can be stopped is if business groups and local politicians say no, we will not agree to a secret meeting unless it specifically comes within necessary in-camera guidelines. If you want to talk about public policy, tell the public about it.

At the moment, there’s nobody in local public office willing to stand up and be counted on that score — it’s so much more comfortable going with the flow.

Hey, Mr. Bylaws guy, that was a crosswalk

The 100 residents who signed a petition asking for a crosswalk at First Avenue and Battle Street are, no doubt, disappointed that City council isn’t in favour of the idea.

But councilors make some good points with respect to First Avenue, which is on a steep hill with good sight lines.

While crosswalks can be a valuable safety aid for pedestrians, they’re no guarantee. Many people have been injured or killed on Kamloops crosswalks.

Shibuya, Tokyo. Now that's a serious crosswalk.

In some countries, pedestrians purposely avoid crosswalks because they’re more dangerous than jaywalking. Here in the Tournament Capital it isn’t quite that bad, but it’s not great.

I watched in fascination just last week as a City of Kamloops bylaws van, no less, ignored a yellow light, then ignored the red light that followed, and drove through the crosswalk at the corner of Victoria Street and Fourth Avenue. The driver must have been in a hurry to get to the parking spot in front of the Plaza Hotel, because that’s where he pulled over.

If a City bylaws officer in a marked vehicle doesn’t give a crap about crosswalks and red lights, we’ve got a problem.

And if red traffic lights aren’t enough to stop a driver at a crosswalk, what good is a flashing yellow light going to do?

Those are the ones installed at quite a number of crosswalks around the city. They’re supposed to draw the driver’s attention to the fact there’s a pedestrian in the crosswalk and you’d better come to a stop.

But many pedestrians don’t even bother pushing the button that activates the light that is designed to keep them safe when they cross. On Westsyde Road, for example, people young and old either jaywalk or use the crosswalks without activating the flashers.

The lights were a City council compromise after residents got up in arms over a plan to narrow the road and slow down the traffic. Hundreds turned out to a public meeting in 2006 to protest, and council ditched the safety plan.

Why pedestrians feel so invulnerable as dozens of one-tonne vehicles speed towards them is something I haven’t yet figured out. Why drivers don’t bother paying attention to pedestrians is equally as mystifying, but the results are deadly.

Westsyde Road has seen its share of tragedies, but Tranquille Road, Fortune Drive, and others have been the scene of fatalities as well. One of the most terrible happened at the crosswalk at Tranquille Road and Popp Street in 2004 when a driver ran a red light, killing two teens.

An American study showed that crosswalks actually increase the danger to pedestrians on high-volume multi-lane roads. It identified as one of the most dangerous situations the “multiple-threat crash.”

We see it here every day. That’s when a motorist in one lane stops at a crosswalk for a pedestrian, and a motorist in the neighboring lane blows on through. The poor pedestrian doesn’t have a chance.

All kinds of things have been tried to make crosswalks safer: countdown timers, recorded messages telling the pedestrian when it’s safe, stop lines painted further away from the crosswalk, brighter lights that illuminate the whole crosswalk area, lights imbedded in the pavement, bigger signs.

Some of it helps, but people still get hit.

We could, I suppose, count our blessings. In Tokyo, there’s a five-lane-wide crosswalk. That’s the crosswalk, not the street. Up to 2,500 pedestrians cross it at a single light change.

We can paint crosswalks all over town and light them up like Christmas trees, but nothing will make them safer than smart driving and defensive walking.

Another marmot fatality hits close to home

There was a fatality on Westsyde Road last night. It was the fifth one in the past week.

I discovered it when I got home. The marmot population is taking a kicking this year. There it was, another of this year’s brood. That makes four pups and one adult.

Despite the fact I have no love of marmots in general, and sometimes joke that traffic is the best form of population control going, I feel sorry for the individuals when I find them. Rather than watch as trucks and cars gradually grind them into the pavement, I stop and move them off the road.

Last night's fatality on Westsyde Road.

Syd and I are worried that last night’s victim was one of “ours” — one of the family of six that inhabits “Marmot Rock,” a four-foot high piece of rock that sits beside our driveway. We’ll be counting heads as we drive by to see who’s accounted for and who’s not.

A Daily News editorial recently written by another member of our editorial board called marmots “vermin,” and offered no sympathy to these pesky rodents. I agreed with the sentiment. The holes from their dens are everywhere in our hay field, creating a bumpy ride on the tractor, and a real danger to our horses. But rather than try to poison them or smoke them out, I’ve stuck fence posts in all the holes — about 120 of them — to solve the problem.

I can avoid them on the tractor, and the horses avoid them when they’re grazing.

I think there’s an explanation for this. We tend to feel less sympathetic for groups than we do for individuals. When we meet a person face to face, for example, we’re much less ready to condemn based on his or her background, ethnicity, or religion.

I guess it’s the same for marmots.

Who really owns our so-called public art?

If you buy new wallpaper for your living room, how long do you have to leave it there?

The obvious answer is, as long as you want. When it gets a little worn, or you just don’t like it any more, you can peel it off or cover it up.

But what if that wallpaper is on a public wall, like the back of the Memorial Arena? Well, then, you’re into a new kettle of fish.

Now we’re talking bureaucracy, and consultation, and artistic integrity. When the taxpayers buy a piece of public art, they don’t really own it. They’re sort of leasing it.

Last November I wrote about the eyesore graffiti mural on the arena, noting that it’s 10 years old and looking bad — and it didn’t look that good when it was new.

The mural could be painted over or replaced with a war-veterans theme appropriate for the building. There’s funding available without using tax money, there’s moral support from veterans, and the man who coordinated the artists who worked on the graffiti mural agrees its time has come.

Not so fast. According to City CAO Randy Diehl, with whom I discussed the matter some time back, there’s “no traction” for doing anything about that ugly mural.

Removing public art without the artist’s permission “is not an insignificant public policy issue,” says Diehl.

“I do feel that it is wrong to cover up ‘public art’ without the permission of the artist, simply because it is old, no longer the flavour of the month or because we don’t like it.”

In other words, the artist has complete control over what is essentially a paint job, forever. If a community commissions a piece of art, it better be sure it likes it, because it’s not going away.

I suppose removing the mural might be viewed by some as a form of vandalism, which, considering that most graffiti is created as intentional vandalism, is a bit ironic.

Vandalism of public art has been around as long as public art itself. Somebody lopped off the Sphinx’s nose. What if he’d succeeded in getting rid of the whole thing?

If we wouldn’t allow a stranger to deface a piece of public art under stealth of night, why would we be OK with government doing it?

The short answer is that government, on our behalf, owns it.

Artists are sensitive types, we all know. They regard themselves as the interpreters of truth, and if anyone fools with that interpretation the whole universe could be thrown out of whack.

Barb Berger, the City’s arts and community development manager, concurs with Diehl about the sensitivity of fooling with what artists render. In fact, the arts commission is about to tackle that very issue as part of a reworking of its arts policy.

“There needs to be some policy around public art,” she says. “At what point do you say, it’s had its life?”

For example, if a metal statue is rusted out and falling apart like an old beater (like, say, that coyote thing up at TRU in about 30 years), does the artist still have a right to “protect” it from intervention?

Even then, it doesn’t answer the question of who can decide what happens to art if, as Diehl puts it, it simply falls out of favour. When I buy something — including art — I’d like to think I can do what I want with it.

Bottom line might belong to Diehl when he says, “Who needs the fight between the artists types and their medium?”

In other words, so-called public art doesn’t really belong to the public at all.

Ajax mining company a daunting adversary

Kamloops is on the brink of the biggest environmental war this community has ever seen. When — which is more likely than if — it breaks out, it will ally the cutoffs-and-sandals enviros with homeowners and everyday activists against the Big Corporation.

The “enemy” is the KGHM Ajax copper-and-gold mine planned for the backyard of Aberdeen, and it is no small adversary.

After years of research and months of lobbying local politicians and business groups, the corporation took its message to the public this week at an open house and forum.

There were about 400 people in the room — the same number as the long-term jobs that would be created at the mining operation. There were clorplast statements about benefits and consultation, but the ones people gathered around were the maps and aerial photos that illustrated the massiveness of the project, along with its huge tailings pond and waste dumps.

The scale is impressive; to many, it’s frightening. It will come within a couple of kilometres of upper Aberdeen, and a lot closer to some rural property owners.

Such an endeavor doesn’t come without noise, pollution and other environmental impacts.

Last year, the enviros used marches, placards, letters to the editor, rallies and histrionics to drive out another project they didn’t like — a cogeneration plant that would have been built by the Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp.

ACC president Kim Sigurdson fled town after months of being demonized and finally confronted by a raging crowd at a public meeting.

But there’s a big difference between a guy who had some blueprints and a couple of government grants, and an environmental permit, and a multimillion-dollar outfit such as KGHM.

Sigurdson is from Winnipeg, and he lives there today, still looking for a community to accept his technology. He runs his business out of his basement.

KGHM has been around for 45 years and is one of the largest producers of gold and silver in the world, trading on the London and Warsaw Stock Exchanges. It employs 18,000 people. Thirty-two per cent of it is owned by the Polish government.

It’s in an expansion mode. And it has been through all this before. When somebody stands up at a public meeting and questions whether there’s really a demand for more copper mines, it’s not exactly going to send this company scurrying for the bushes.

KGHM knows all the questions, and it has answers. It has a public-relations strategy and the people to carry it out.

Sigurdson refused to hire PR help, or even to engage the local public about his project until it was too late. KGHM is ahead of the game.

Still, it’s not a done deal. The mine has legislative hoops to go through. Community support, or at least acquiescence, is important.

City council will have to weigh 1,000 short-term and 400 long-term jobs, along with a potential taxation windfall, against the vision of what it wants Kamloops to be.

The temptation to cash in on the lolly from this mine will have to be balanced against the costs of industrialization.

The city’s business organizations will have to weigh their premise that jobs and growth are always good with the overall good of their community.

There will be a drastic alteration to the rolling grasslands and forest south of our city if this mine becomes a reality. A coalition of environmentalists and average citizens — with or without business leaders and City Hall — could prove a formidable guerilla force.

But KGHM is no ACC, and it isn’t going to quietly leave town just because not everyone wants it here.

FOI docs show parkade Plan B was a Hail Mary pass

Back in the first week of May, when City council was getting publicly flogged over the parkade-in-the-park issue, a harried City director of engineering and development services sent a last-minute email to Mayor Peter Milobar.

The time was 12:11 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3 — a little more than an hour before City council was scheduled to meet to vote on the contentious project.

“Based upon your inquiry on whether the top floor of the parkade could be removed and it still be economical I offer the following comments based upon a quick look from Stantec,” the message (a copy of which was sent to administrator Randy Diehl) began.

Dave Trawin then outlined, based on specific questions from the mayor, the number of stalls possible under a two-storey scenario (355), revised estimated cost ($7,275,000) and cost per stall ($20,500, or $33,200 per “new stall”).

Revenues from hourly and event parking, plus a street parking increase of 25 cents an hour would yield an annual surplus of about $23,000 per year, Trawin wrote.

He then outlined the heights of the structure in two storeys, and painted a rough picture of what it would look like.

Armed with that information, Milobar went into the meeting and proposed his two-storey scenario, one that saved the project as most councilors jumped at the compromise.

Trawin’s quick-and-rough report to Milobar, obtained Wednesday by The Daily News as part of an application under Freedom of Information and Privacy legislation, confirms that the mayor’s Plan B was cobbled together just in time, and that there was little if any discussion — at least on the details — among members of council before the meeting.

It came after a flurry of activity during the week or so leading up to that crucial decision, including councillors firing email questions at staff about details of the parkade plan.

In the background was local developer Casey VanDongen, trying to get a private-public partnership on the table before the council vote was taken. (Possible locations were redacted from the documents provided to The Daily News.) He was busy exchanging emails with Milobar, Trawin and City real-estate manager Dave Freeman.

VanDongen, the present of Tri City Contracting, was trying to get a meeting with the City a few days before May 3. At one point, Trawin wrote VanDongen, “I am swamped writing council reports my assistant will help set up a meeting with the mayor.”

On the Friday before the council meeting, VanDongen wrote, “I find myself in a bit of a vacuum as to how to proceed….”

There’s no indication from the correspondence whether a meeting ever took place, but the general response from City staff was that it was too late to put the proposal to council before the meeting, and that injecting a P3 into the mix could only be done only via a competition among any interested developers if council should turn down the Lorne Street site.

VanDongen, it should be clear, had no objection to an open call for proposals

It’s no secret fuses were growing short between Milobar and Coun. Denis Walsh leading up to May 3. In one email, Walsh asks, “What is going on in our City.” The rest of the email is blacked out, but he concludes, “I really hope this week is done, because this is far too much to digest in 48 hours in our little city.”

Milobar responds at one point, with copies to other councillors, “I’m obviously frustrated and tired of the non-stop innuendo that I and staff are trying to hide things from you or that we are trying to mislead you.”

Yes means no in HST referendum

 

‘We’ll sell you two kinds of red herring,

Dark brown, and ball-bearing.

But yes, we have no bananas

We have no bananas today.’

— 1922 Broadway song

Are you going to vote Yes in order to say no to the HST? Or No to say yes?

Let’s be clear — and the ballot is in the mail — yes means no and no means yes in this referendum.

It's in the mail.

One of the more significant challenges facing the Fight HST side of the vote is confusion over wording of the ballot, which is: “Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) and reinstating the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) in conjunction with the GST (Goods and Services Tax)? (Yes/No).”

The question itself is clear enough, but voting Yes against something is counter-intuitive. It’s a little like the old Frank Silver/Irving Cohn song, “Yes! We Have No Bananas.”

Mind you, it cuts both ways. HST supporters might be equally confused.

An Angus Reid survey released last weekend says close to 20 per cent believe that if the Yes side wins, the HST will stay in place, at 10 per cent. A third think if No wins, it will stay at 12 per cent.

Among Christy Clark, Adrian Dix and Bill Vander Zalm, Vander Zalm is the most trusted.

Over all, though, a lot more people support the HST than they did a year ago — 44 per cent now compared to only 18 per cent.

The Reid survey report believes confusion over the meaning of the referendum question “could definitely affect the final outcome.”

The anti-HST group is fighting with lawn signs that say, “Yes — extinguish the HST,” while the pro side is using a mass media campaign with a “Vote No to higher taxes” message. It’s a reference to the Liberals’ promise to reduce the tax over time if it survives the referendum, but leaves the impression it’s all about saving consumers money.

I received my HST Referendum Voters Guide in the mailbox a few days ago. In it, the government claims the HST is “better for jobs and the economy.” And a pro-HST statement says the tax will create 24,400 jobs over what the PST/GST would create.

It goes on to say the HST “protects” seniors and low-income families via a rebate.

The anti-HST Yes side, though, declares that ditching the tax and reverting to the GST/PST “will save British Columbians hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.”

It points out that under the HST consumers pay more on restaurant food, cable TV, phone service, haircuts and so on. It “kills jobs and hurts the economy.”

Besides which, it’s bad for democracy.

Who does one believe? The Smart Tax Alliance, a coalition primarily of businesses, concluded on Friday that the latest employment numbers prove the HST is working — B.C. gained 5,200 jobs in May. “The HST is helping B.C. recover from the recession and build a stronger economy.”

But then, there was the original claim from economist Jack Mintz that the HST would create 113,000 jobs, an estimate that has since been significantly downsized.

There’s no evidence, of course, that the HST is responsible for new jobs at all, whichever numbers you use, but most businesses support the tax.

Consumers were, in turn, supposed to benefit through lower prices passed on by those whose products we buy. What I’d like to see, before I mail in my vote, is some evidence that this has actually happened.