In 2003, I voted for the Olympics.  Even though most (if not all) Olympics games organized since WWII have been to the benefit of the rich and privileged in any society, I hoped these games would not be too much for the well-being but would also be for the average people.  My hopes were not too high, but just enough to vote yes.  Five years later, I bitterly regret it.

Probably because the city had a good mayor then, I hope he and the city council (controlled by the left-wing COPE) would be a good counter-balance to the right-wing liberal provincial government.  However, as you know, mayor Larry Campbell didn’t seek a second mandate, and despite coming close, his protégé wasn’t elected.  The new mayor had no vision for the city and turned out to be blindly pro-business.

Olympics games require a lot of projects and infrastructures development, and the key decisions regarding these investments are done between 5 to 3 years before the actual Olympics games. That, for Vancouver, is between 2005 to 2007.  Just the right time to have pro-business right-wing administrations controlling the city, the province and even the federal government (from 2006)!

Consequences: almost all developments in infrastructures in the greater Vancouver benefited private enterprises: new bridges, more roads, new convention centre, etc. The only project that would be useful to everyone was the rapid transit RAV line.  But even that was done in private partnership and with overflowing costs.

Thinking about it, five years later, my hope for balanced Olympics where roads are expanded in conjunction with public transport projects, where real estate development includes good quality affordable housing projects are quite dead. It is too late now for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics: they will benefit only the rich and powerful.  But hope is not all lost, now is time to prepare the after Olympics!

Frédéric Van Caenegem