As [Protect our Winters Canada board chair] Mike Douglas so succinctly stated: "It doesn't matter if we're perfect here in Whistler. If no one around us is taking action and being affected by what we're doing, then it's all for nothing." ("Where is the money?", Pique, Nov. 14, )
He also indicated that Whistler is uniquely positioned as a wealthy, global community to actually assert some influence on a global scale.
The greatest influence Whistler can have is politically, wielding its outsized influence beyond the city limits.
Indeed, the Resort Municipality of Whistler has already made a stab at this with its well-publicized letters to the oil patch. No need to dwell on that—after all, everyone makes mistakes, but there is also no need to run away from that unique opportunity and obligation either just because the first effort didn't play out so well.
Especially when—something that seemed to have slipped past Alberta's attention last year—the biggest employer and most iconic cultural beacon in the valley, (Vail Resorts) funded the Trump Republicans into power, and asserts that it will do it again—and not a single Whistler elected official will say boo about it (Powder Magazine reported that Vail Resorts Political Action Committee sent thousands of dollars to the campaigns of stalwart climate change deniers). Despite the fact it would cost nothing in the municipal budget!
The cost that no one is willing to take is not in dollars. Pointing fingers way over at the oil patch seemed cost-free, which is exactly why they did it. Pointing out the elephant hogging the centre of your very own room is something else altogether. That is a budget item unlikely to pass the moral courage test.
Bruce Kay // Powell River
