Vancouver Isn’t So Awesome

From the website VancouverIsAwesome.com comes a story that shows that it sure ain’t that awesome any longer:

I really didn’t want to be a grump in my first column of the new year.
But after receiving 1,086 mostly redacted pages on Dec. 23, 2021 from the City of Vancouver that never answered the question I posed in December 2020, I’m confident I’ve earned the right to be a wee bit prickly in today’s entry.

The question: Can you tell me how much the city paid to buy the Balmoral and Regent hotels from the Sahota family?

The answer in December 2020: No, we can’t.

I laugh at Canadians who sincerely believe that there is little to no corruption in their country.

22 Replies to “Vancouver Isn’t So Awesome”

    1. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. In 2000 I was part of the legislative precinct project. We were replacing all the MACs in the Legislature with PCs. Moe had the biggest office I saw, and everyone in there (and there were a lot) had the last name Sahota.

  1. Off topic so if it’s scrubbed I’d understand. But where in the world is Minister of Education for Ontario, Stephen Lecce
    If he’s in Florida, Ontario voters want and have a right to know.

  2. Taxpayers have become slaves that are used to generate wealth for the elites.

    Doubt that I’ll ever receive any reparations

  3. Vancouver is a shit- hole with nice scenery. It’s a traffic jam all the time … between the homeless hordes, the Whiney Indians seeking largesse and the large number of mindless leftists who protest all things all the time … not to mention the horrendous cost of living …. It’s hardly a fair trade-off to not have to shovel snow in a saner place.

    And Vancouver island is run by Karens.

    How is it that the worst of humanity always gets to occupy the most lovely places on the planet.

    1. It appears that Vancouver hasn’t changed much since I was a grad student at UBC more than 40 years ago.

    2. I recall, decades ago, boarding the Fulford ferry to Swartz Bay – a number of ‘Save This or That Forest’ activists were onboard – each the lone occupant of an oil burning beater, and all of them toting cardboard protest signs with wooden handles (oh, the irony).

      And this was on a ‘working day’ – (an observation that was apparently inapplicable).

    3. “How is it that the worst of humanity always gets to occupy the most lovely places on the planet.”

      Very true, but not just “the most lovely places”, instead always the most lovely places made ready for them. They don’t cut trees and plow fields to make a town into a city. Hard working Conservatives with values do that. The Liberal left eventually move in as squatters and then overtake the lovely places bit by bit and then proceed to destroy them.

  4. “I laugh at Canadians who sincerely believe that there is little to no corruption in their country.”
    Canadians, by and large, are stupid sheep, easily led by Judas goats.
    Prove me wrong.

    1. That Greg is a statement that will stand the test of time. All my fairly long life it has been as you say.

      1. In the sixties, Pierre Berton wrote a column criticizing the “Vancouver is the most beautiful city in Canada” meme by pointing out that the setting is beautiful but the city has done nothing with it.

        The first sentence of the column was “The first thing anyone from Vancouver will tell you is that he comes from Vancouver, the most beautiful city in Canada”.

        Thirty years later, in a small press game book written by an author from Vancouver, the section on Vancouver’s superhero team began with “Vancouver is the most beautiful city in Canada”.

        There’s something in the water.

        1. Vancouver is geographically beautiful, but the city itself is a Globalist shithole.
          Like all Globalist cities run by Globalist Mayors, Globalist Premiers and Globalist Corporate Media the place is a defacto dictatorship and just as corrupt.
          High density out of control development, foriegn buyers of real estate, high immigration that is unwanted and un-needed.
          Bike lanes no one asked for, English cultural obliteration, the indianization of the Province… the list is endless.
          Globalism and political corruption have destroyed Vancouver and the Province of BC
          People that I grew up with are now aware of the disastrous policies of the corrupt politicians and their corrupt courts, but the red pill is too late to save the city.
          Who knows who owns the city anymore… the politicans are owned by foreign interests, and have been owned for decades.
          BC has political culture of corruption that is only rivaled by other corrupt jurisdictions like Querbak or Morontario.

  5. Isn’t this part of a project to create low-income housing? It doesn’t matter what it cost, affordable housing costs more than anyone can afford.

  6. Look at western politics in general, and world politics for that matter: Elected officials often retire millions of dollars richer than they were when elected.
    Democracy is a failed idea, thinking that someone with a 5 figure salary is somehow immune to 7 figure bribery, kickbacks, etc.
    We were better off under real kings and queens, heck, Caligula’s subjects enjoyed more freedom than we do.

    1. So the government leased it to a private consortium for twice what they paid to build it, without any certainty as to what the return will be and because it’s now worth 10 times that, it’s a “bad deal” on the basis of hindsight and that government are excellent at prognostication?

      as to the claim that it’s was worth $9 billion at the time of sale, well it was worth $3.1 billion, because that’s what someone was willing to pay for it on the terms offered

    2. Actually the story says it cost 1.3B to build so it wasn’t worth 9B.
      My house is estimated to be worth about 300G. Doesn’t mean it’s worth 7x more than that. It’s worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
      Only the Liberal/NDP media care about the 407. If people didn’t want to pay the toll they wouldn’t use it. I did once and the $22 was the best investment I ever made related to having to go to, or through, the GTA.
      BTW I despise everything about Toronto.

    1. The corruption in Alberta under premiers Lougheed and Getty was legendary and constant. Friends of the government did very well.

    2. *
      FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES

      “Founded in 2001, a year after former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s death at 80
      of prostate cancer, the Trudeau Foundation got a nice little boost in 2002 when
      the Liberals of Prime Minister Jean Chretien bequeathed it $125 million.”

      NOTA BENE: Out of your apathetic pockets, Canadian Taxpayers.

      *

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