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As of last Sunday, Feb. 12, Vancouver and Whistler were officially four years away from hosting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
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As of last Sunday, Feb. 12, Vancouver and Whistler were officially four years away from hosting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. There was a small, intimate ceremony at the Olympic Information Centre to mark the occasion, which barely hinted at the strain that VANOC and our local governments must be under these days.

A lot has to come together in the next four years (or less, if you include mandatory test events), and it’s coming together slowly.

Making things worse, at the beginning of the month it was announced that the estimated cost of building Olympic venues had increased by an estimated $110 million, or almost 25 per cent since 2002. If VANOC had not already found $85 million in capital savings, the costs would have increased by a total $195 million or 41 per cent in three years. Blame China’s sudden lust for steel and concrete if you will, or an excess of budgetary optimism on the part of VANOC, but that’s the reality of the construction market we’re dealing with.

It’s a huge burden, one that will have to be shared by federal and provincial governments (through your tax dollars), VANOC’s corporate partners and the Games themselves, but it’s not insurmountable. Put into perspective, the $580 million price tag is on par with the estimated 455 million euros the Italians spent to build and upgrade their host venues – and which doesn’t include 255 million euros for the construction of three athletes villages.

Since the costs of upgrading Highway 99 are technically not Olympic-related, the 2010 Games almost appear cheap by comparison.

But if you need to compare, consider that the Liberal Party’s failed gun registration program has cost us about a billion dollars so far, and the extra $110 million for facilities is only slightly more than the $80 million Gomery Inquiry is expected to cost us in order to investigate a $100 million federal sponsorship scandal.

See, it really helps to put things into perspective sometimes! Compared to the day—to-day operations of our governments, the 2010 Games are a model of fiscal restraint.

If anything, I think these Torino Games are taking the pressure off of VANOC and the host communities. Whistler’s downhill course is in far better shape today than the one at Borgata, Italy that took out three female skiers last weekend – including Canada’s Allison Forsyth. Our sliding centre will also hopefully be safer, without the double corners that caused so many horrendous crashes in the luge on Monday.

And the opening ceremonies in Turin – how can we not top that strange and disjointed display, even if our ceremonies are indoors at B.C. Place?

I know the Italians love their sports cars and are justifiably proud of Ferrari, but why was an F1 car burning rubber donuts into the stage 50 feet away from athletes that are going to need their lungs the next two weeks?

Italy is also regarded as a country of culture and refinement. So why was Yoko Ono, who has lived in the U.S. for most of her life (but didn’t quite sound like it) on stage to do her prayer for peace? And who let British singer Peter Gabriel torture John Lennon’s Imagine – he sounded like Leonard Cohen coming down from a sugar rush.

Sure, we got some classical opera from Pavarotti (looking like The Count from Sesame Street behind his dyed black eyebrows) but the techno-ballet and dancing trees were a little too out there for the average sports fan.

The athletes walk-in was fun (go Bermuda!) but why did they have to walk in to a medley of cheesy 70’s and 80’s pop tunes, mostly by American artists – was there nothing more Italian or cultural available? Mongolia marched out to ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles, while Iran – who just elected a hardliner who has vowed to destroy Israel, marched out to ‘Funkytown’ by Lipps Inc.

I thought the Canadian team looked overdressed in their clunky new outfits by Hbc, although I have to say that the fur hat is finally starting to grow on me. It was about 14 degrees Celsius in Vancouver during the opening ceremonies, so Hbc should probably be thinking about team shorts and t-shirts for 2010 unless we want our medal hopefuls to collapse from heat stroke and dehydration.

Before Friday, if someone said Canada could top Torino when it comes to the opening ceremonies, I would have called them crazy – how do you top the nation of the Roman Empire, of the Renaissance, of fashion, of theatre, of art and of science, of invention and exploration? Italy’s contributions to history and culture are literally beyond measure.

Now, I’m not so sure we need to take a back seat. Italy had over 3,000 years of civilization to draw on, but went with flaming motorcycles. One joke going around is that the people who design the opening ceremonies need to be tested for drugs instead of the athletes – the one joke that isn’t about quail hunting with Vice President Dick Chaney, that is.

VANOC has four years to come up with something more meaningful and memorable, which will be tough considering our own history goes back just 139 years this Canada Day. First Nations will play a role as well, but it’s not like we’ve done a lot for them in those 139 years that we can be proud of.

I’m sure we’ll succeed. But right now our focus should be on brick and mortar, and getting the facilities we need in the ground before India and China drive up the price of construction materials to a new height. The longer we take, the more the Games are going to cost.