Opinion

Trying to balance the resort and the community (resort fit for a king, but for the average Brit?) By all accounts the recent visit to Vancouver and Whistler of Prince Charles and his sons was an unqualified success.

Land-use issues, also known as development, have been the source of a lot of consternation in Whistler in the 1990s. For years now people have grown increasingly frustrated with the pace and scope of development, but have had little recourse.

Whistler is evolving — not always progressing — but constantly changing, and its citizens are becoming a little wiser after each development or proposed development comes forward.

Whistler has to take a serious look in the mirror. In the constant tug-of-war between community needs and individual rights, it has not been a stellar week for the community.

With the Nagano Olympics coming to an end last weekend, and Tourism Vancouver officials returning from Japan full of optimism about a Vancouver/Whistler bid for the 2010 Games, it’s starting to look like 1960 again.

With the hiring of Rick Staehli as general manager of the housing corporation and the public hearing scheduled for the 19 Mile Creek employee housing proposal, Whistler could be at a turning point in its perpetual housing debate. It’s about time.

It’s difficult to measure the level of hypocrisy in the International Olympic Committee’s (original) decision to strip Ross Rebagliati of his gold medal, but it certainly exceeds 17.8 nanograms.

They’re talking about us... That former UBC president David Strangway has been considering a private university in Whistler has been an open secret for some time.

It’s getting awfully difficult to differentiate Glen Clark and his NDP government from any of the Social Credit governments the current premier used to attack for lack of ethics.

We probably have to go back to the 1950s, before the first talk of bringing the Olympics to this valley, for the last time Whistler wasn’t staring straight into the headlights of some imminent, significant changes.