Re: Region’s 2022 Games bid find-tuned, still alive (News, Sept. 6)
David Black’s opinion piece reads like a “hot” investment tip. Everyone’s a winner; fairy tales come true.
In a world of cutthroat competition and zero-sum game strategies, there are few winners.
“World-class” champions are those who grab the benefits. “Losers” are the majority left behind wondering why they haven’t inherited the earth promised by billionaires, bankers and showmen willing to back the right horse.
While B.C.’s new government decided not to underwrite the Commonwealth Games (costs to taxpayers greatly outweighing the promised “legacy” facilities left behind), Mr. Black still flogs this dead horse.
Other cities in former colonies of the British Empire, have dropped out of the race, realizing they couldn’t finance a coliseum for 21st-century gladiators.
To suggest that Victoria should cash in on this “one-time chance” smacks of profiteering from the public purse. In B.C., 59 per cent of residents live paycheque to paycheque, more than anywhere else in Canada. In this city, province, and country, we can’t put a roof over everyone’s head. We neither need nor can afford this sports spectacle.
Does anyone recall who picked up the tab for the failed Olympic Village in Vancouver? A city still unaffordable to its residents?
Victoria Adams
Victoria