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Pique N Your Interest

If I were mayor…

I had a blast last Sunday watching some of our mayoral candidates battle it out, verbally maiming one another for the amusement of the crowd. The polite Canadian in me was appalled, but the Roman citizen buried deep in my collective memory was back in the Colosseum, cheering on the gladiators to finish each other off.

Some of the candidates stayed above the fray, and looked better for it in my opinion. In an election where a lot of voters have the perception that council was ineffective because its members couldn’t work together, maybe the decision by some candidates to get into each other’s faces wasn’t the brightest.

I’m a political guy. I read papers, I read columns, I have my own set of values, and as a result I have strong opinions on just about everything. I’d call myself a liberal, although I’m with Chris Rock on this one – I’m liberal about some things and I’m conservative about others. I won’t get into specifics and risk getting into the kind of heavy, polarizing arguments that are ruining dinner conversations across the continent these days.

I always wonder if I would make a good mayor. I’m a horrible public speaker, forget names, can be socially awkward, and would have a lot of uncomfortable questions to answer if my opponents looked deep enough into my past. Worst of all, my opinions have been known to change – and while this might seem to be the mark of any reasonable person, it’s death for any politician. You get labeled a "flip-flopper" so fast your flip-flops fly off.

But a guy can wonder.

If I were mayor… I think I would rip up the grass at the Whistler Golf Course driving range and replace it with that new, realistic looking artificial turf. When winter rolls around, we could roll it up, exposing an outdoor skating rink and hockey rink, complete with an in-ground cooling system. It would be open every night in the winter with lights, live music, ice carvers, fire dancers, performances by figure skaters, and cheap hot chocolate for everyone. Personally I think this is something we need to attract families and bring the community closer together.

If I were mayor… I would also revisit the idea of making Whistler Golf Course an executive nine hole course, using part of the land for a mix of staff housing and park space.

If I were mayor… I would spearhead an effort to get a Junior A team into the Paralympic arena. Sure, our full-time population may be too small to sustain a team, but with tickets going for $5 to $10 per game the tourists would love it, and the beer concession would clean up. If we can find beds every year for the bulk of our 12,000 employees, we can surely find, or build, a little extra room for 25 players and coaches.

If I were mayor… I would tell the province to keep its financial tools and fast track the approval of a small but world-class casino for the Upper Village, with the RMOW and First Nations as part owners. You read that correctly. Imagine offering guests the ability to ski all day, eat dinner at a world class restaurant, play a little blackjack and go dancing all evening. I don’t personally gamble all that much but I can see how a casino would add some badly needed excitement to the resort. I admit there are some social concerns, but this isn’t Reno or even Richmond – the only low-income people here are staff, and we can’t afford to gamble. The ones who think they can are already playing poker a couple times a week, which the community gets no benefit from.

The profits from the casino could go towards the Paralympic arena, an airport, schools, parks, community services, sustainability initiatives, public transportation, recreation, buying land outside of municipal boundaries so we can protect it, buying bed units back from developers for employee housing, building senior and staff housing, lowering taxes, marketing the resort, and, of course, treating the handful of locals that get addicted to gambling.

If I were mayor… I would work day and night to drive the bad commercial landlords out of town, and work to create a fair deal for small businesses and unique stores, as well as stores locals need.

If I were mayor… I’d try to create a resort-wide minimum wage to slow down the high rate of employee turnover. Happy, well-paid, long-term residents don’t get in fistfights with our guests at the taxi loop or kick the windows out of bus shelters.

If I were mayor… I would get rid of pay parking, but make it clear that there are fines for staying past the time limit in certain areas. It works for Marketplace, it can work for Main Street.

If I were mayor… I would get an outdoor amphitheatre built as soon as possible, and create a summer Shakespeare festival and concert series to attract guests and tourists.

If I were mayor… I would have town hall every month or so where people can voice their concerns and make suggestions about almost anything. Open house meetings on specific issues are usually held well past the time when members of the community can make meaningful suggestions.

I’m not mayor, and have no plans to be. Given the short list of my ideas above, that’s probably a good thing.

But if I WAS running, would you vote for me?