What Backroom Deal Got us the Olympics?

So Premier Gordon Campbell may have cut a deal with former city councillor Jim Green to gain his support for Vancouver’s 2010 bid, a recent interview with a Huffpo writer and Mr. Green reveals. That's politics, some would say. But was it a good deal? Was it enough?
by Chris Shaw
Almost six years ago, on the day Vancouver won its Olympic bid, Jim Green was on the stage at GM Place, celebrating a win he hoped would benefit the city’s poorest. That morning,, Green was in tears, storming around in fits of exuberance and delight.

“Jim stretched both arms overhead, his fingers flashing a victory sign, and he paced back and forth across the stage with tears streaming down his face,” city councillor Anne Roberts said in an interview last week.

Jim Green, long considered a formidable East Vancouver dealmaker who lost a bid for mayor, actively campaigned for the ‘Yes’ side before the 2003 citywide plebiscite. He may also have been a crucial factor in the favourable outcome of that vote. It is hard to overestimate the role Green played in Vancouver’s Olympic saga.

I have now confirmed a long-standing rumour that Green’s support for the Olympic bid hinged on promises from two important Campbells: Gordon, the Premier and Larry, the mayor at the time. Green said this week that both the Premier and the former Vancouver mayor courted his support for the Games in return for 200 social housing units in the Woodward’s development and other guarantees for low-income communities. [see Megan Stewart’s interviews with Green and Campbell, coming on Friday and Saturday.]

Chicago freelance journalist Tom Tresser, an outspoken member of No Games Chicago, met Green at a Chicago restaurant earlier this month. Tresser writes for the Huffington Post and interviewed Green in the Chicago Fairmont Hotel. Green spoke extensively about his background in Vancouver city politics, his role in the founding of the Olympic “watchdog” group, Impact of Olympics on Communities Coalition (IOCC), and why he supported of Vancouver’s bid.

“[Green] was relaxed and comfortable and spoke freely and with enthusiasm.”

When Tresser asked Green why he eventually promoted the bid, Green replied, "The mayor called me into his office and said the Premier phoned me. He doesn't want you to oppose the Olympics in the referendum [plebiscite], okay? This is what we need: Woodward’s, 200 units of social housing, this and that. We went over and had a press conference. He (Gordon Campbell) handed us the deed and we paid $5 million, about one fifth the cost...and 200 units of social housing, and in downtown Vancouver that's a lot of money.

“So that was what I needed to support the Olympics and I did. And we won (the plebiscite) by 67 per cent."

Green said he had previously confirmed the rumour many believed to be true. In an interview with Observer reporter Megan Stewart, Green said he had gone on the record many times already about accepting the offer from the province and the city. He was proud of his decision. “I’ve seen at least 30 publications that have something to that effect. I have said this publically tonnes of times,” he said.

In 2003 Green told Allen Garr of the Vancouver Courier there wasn’t “anything wrong with (the) interpretation” that his negative stance toward the Games was a deliberate attempt to leverage Victoria for concessions.

That’s politics, Green seemed to be saying: a game of negotiation and compromise.

Anne Roberts, then a Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) councillor, said she remembers Green’s conversion to the Olympic cause. “Though I've often found Jim's stories over-inflate his own importance, in this case I think the Premier (and probably Ken Dobell (a city and provincial government lobbyist and former Vancouver deputy mayor) thought it was important to get Jim onside and were willing to negotiate something with him,” she wrote me in an email:

“Larry (Campbell) was on side from the beginning (with RAV, with the Olympics) but the province needed Jim because to the public, to the rest of Vancouver, Jim is the leader of the Downtown Eastside. My memory is that Jim made quite clear that he had negotiated a deal when he announced his support for the Olympics. I can't remember the details of what he said to us in caucus, but I'm sure he said that he had ‘got Woodward's.’

“I'm sure he indicated that he thought that the deal was good enough that all of us in the caucus should come out in support of the O,” she wrote.

Ellen Woodsworth, a current COPE city councillor who also served from 2002 to 2005 said confidential sources told her that Green could have gained far more.

“I heard from a reliable source that Jim asked for 200 units but that they were expecting him to ask for much more so were happy to only have to give 200,” she said.

“It was less than what I wanted, but it was still the best I could do,” said Green, who said he remains critical of the Olympics and now works as a consultant for Millennium, the developer for the Athlete’s Village project.

Larry Campbell, now a Liberal senator, said the city’s purchase of the building had of nothing to do with Green’s support of the Games.

“There was no quid-pro-quo between Jim Green and I on this,” he said.

“I don’t think that was ever really part of the deal. Maybe it was in Jim’s mind. We bought Woodward’s long before we got into the Olympics—long before we went to plebiscite or anything else. The Premier and I, I don’t know the exact timing, it was very close to when I was elected that him and I spoke.” Campbell and the COPE caucus were elected on a landslide in November 2002.

“If the city got Woodward’s as a project, Jim Green would be the lead politician on it. There was no question about that. Whether or not he was for or against the Olympics didn’t mean the least to me. Nobody knew more about that site, nobody knew more about what had gone on and nobody was better prepared to talk to the community than Jim Green.”

Premier Gordon Campbell would not comment for this story, despite my attempts to get a statement from him through his office.

In his wide-ranging interview, Tresser also touched on Green’s role as the city’s main consultant to the troubled Athletes’ Village project. In the interview, Green’s comments on a range of issues appear to be at odds with the facts, including a statement claiming COPE won all the council seats in the 2002 municipal election. In fact, two elected councillors, Peter Ladner and Sam Sullivan, were elected to represent the NPA on council, paving the way for Sullivan to become mayor of the city a few years later. Ladner ran for mayor but lost to Vision’s Gregor Robertson in 2008. Green repeatedly appeared to confuse Bid Corp, the organization promoting the bid to the IOCC with VANOC, the latter only coming into existence after Vancouver won the bid. He also mistakenly referred to the plebiscite as a referendum. Green also seemed to be unclear how many units are in the Athletes’ Village and repeatedly commented that the city will own 250 units of a total of 900. The correct number of units in the Village is not 900 but 1,100 units. The city’s current plan for the Woodward’s development includes 75 family and 125 individual social housing units.

Green said he is happy with his decision to support the bid and was pleased when the plebiscite passed. He leveraged the interests of low-income communities and protected their interests, he believes.

“It was worth it,” he said.

But was it? Taxpayers, low-income residents, the homeless, environmentalists, and people like me who had a variety of reasons to oppose the Olympic circus will be asking this question for years to come.

Tom Tresser contributed to this story.