Political Junkie

Mayor Gregor Robertson walked up to the podium, took out his iphone and told the gathered media, “Say cheese.” He snapped a photo of the audience and said, “We are all media.” And with that he welcomed the non-accredited media to the W2 Media Centre.

Typically the accredited media have a comparatively luxurious centre to work in and broadcast the Olympic Games from, the non-accredited media often have nowhere other than coffee shops from which to work. Non-accredited media are the bloggers, twitterers, and citizen journalists who often do their work for little or no monetary reward. Now, the W2 is a broadcast centre for the non-accredited media to gather in Vancouver. Not so coincidentally, the W2 Media Centre opened at 112 W Hastings mere days before the Olympic Games opened in Vancouver.

The W2 Media Centre is the first time that social media has been officially welcomed into an Olympic host city.

How to bring the same amount of energy and resources that went into the Olympics to the problem of solving homelessness in Vancouver? That was the subject of a panel last night at the First United Church on Hastings.  And although the mayor showed up, missing were many of the key public officials who could be pivotal in making this happen:  Premier Gordon Campbell, for instance. 

The key point, one observer said, was the initiative and how it fit in with precisely what various community groups have been saying for years. The next important point was that the mayor of the city hosting the Games and one of the strongest opponents of the Olympics were both there to support the initiative. But the fact that lots of local politicos  were not there and why... NDP to position themselves for future campaigns, Libs to duck the issue....may have been the most important fact of all.

The previous BC Chamber of Commerce breakfast with a Cabinet Minister featured the Honourable Kevin Falcon, Minister of Health Services. He arrived to the breakfast meeting late and while approaching the podium exclaimed about the amount of traffic coming downtown. I thought that was pretty amusing since he was BC’s Minister of Transportation. Would this month’s guest Cabinet Minister, the always sombre looking George Abbott, Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation have any witty or memorable comments? Let’s just say he did not disappoint.

But before we get to Abbott’s talk, a little backgrounder on the purpose of this event. It is a networking opportunity for current and future members of the BC Chamber of Commerce. As such, the idea is to go into the room, and meet and greet people to expand your network of business contacts. And the first person I met was Victor Godin.

Today I attended Michelle Lang’s funeral. And what a heart wrenching event it was. I felt overwhelming sadness as I walked into the Italian Cultural Centre Hall. On the screens placed around the hall  a slideshow of images of Michelle was playing. Michelle’s smile could light up a room.

I cannot imagine witnessing anything more painful than the sight of Michelle’s father, standing with tears streaming down his face, looking down at a coffin draped in a Canadian flag. Inside that coffin is his daughter, not yet 35 years of age. His daughter, Michelle Lang was a reporter with the Calgary Herald newspaper. She was killed in Afghanistan when the military vehicle she was riding in hit an improvised explosive device…a roadside bomb. Michelle and the four Canadian soldiers in the vehicle with her were all killed.