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Pique

The wish list

This column was supposed to be occupied by an entertaining (I thought) poem I wrote where the spirit of Rabbit pays the town a visit, gets mistaken for Santa Claus, and takes us all to task for forgetting the true spirit of skiing. Maybe I’ll run it next year — it just didn’t feel appropriate considering the gravity of our situation.

While the accident on the Excalibur Gondola could have been much worse in terms of injuries and access, it clearly couldn’t have been worse in terms of timing. The eyes of the world, already turned to Whistler as an Olympic host, were focused here like laser beams for the launch of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. Media from around the world that were here to report on the start of a unique experience found themselves covering the Excalibur accident four days later.

Four ski days. That’s all it took for Whistler to go from its highest highs to its lowest lows. Now everywhere I go, loyal Whistlerites are wondering how it can possibly get any worse.

Set against a backdrop of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a painfully low snowpack and a wide range of other impediments ranging from passport regulations to fluctuating exchange rates and gas prices, this has been a catastrophic end to a trying year. That’s why I have just one wish this year, and that’s for it to start snowing. Now.

Snow will bring people, it will lift our collective spirits, and it will make all of our other troubles seem a little more distant. It will give us breathing room, some time to collect ourselves before the Games arrive in 2010.

But if the snow doesn’t come as thick or as plentiful as we need, we still can’t give up. Instead of despairing we’ll need to redouble our efforts, and use this crisis to make ourselves stronger and better than before.

This is Spirit of Christmas-type stuff, the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes, Scrooge waking up on Christmas morning and rushing over to Bob Cratchit’s with a turkey, the Peanuts gang rallying around Charlie Brown’s broken tree. This is the last five minutes of Home Alone , when Macauley Culkin’s elderly neighbour reunites with his estranged son, or Christmas Vacation when Clark W. Griswold’s boss admits he was wrong to send his employees jam instead of bonuses.

The only difference is that this particular Christmas can’t end at midnight on December 25. We have to find a way to keep the spirit going through the season, though the summer, through next winter and the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics. Make no mistake that we are fighting for our resort’s survival here, for our jobs, our friends, our local businesses, our homes.

How do we fight? We fight by shopping locally, buying from our local businesses to help them get through what was already shaping up to be a tough season. Even if it’s just a new pair of ski socks or a sandwich from the place you usually only buy coffee, every little bit helps.

We fight by donating to the food bank, and ensuring our lower income residents can survive a season where they may be working a little less because we’ll need them when things pick up again. We fight by inviting friends to dinner that are having a hard time, sharing what we have. We fight by inviting our friends and families here this year to ski.

If you’re one of the landlords who has been trying to charge $1,000 for a room these past few months, you fight by being a little less greedy and by signing leases that will last through the 2010 Games.

If you’re a commercial landlord, you fight by working with your tenants to set a lower rate that’s temporary and reasonable, if that’s what it takes to keep them in business until the turnaround. The last thing we need is papered over storefronts when the Five Ring Circus pulls into town.

Most importantly, we fight by going above and beyond this winter when it comes to our guests. We lose the cynicism and bitterness, and embrace every guest so warmly that they go home with suntans. We stay positive, we make jokes, we treat people with respect, we add value where we can, and we thank people for coming.

We need to acknowledge our faults, create new attractions, and embrace the regional market we’ve overlooked for so long in pursuit of richer customers — and not just this season when bookings are soft, but from now on.

As Councillor Ralph Forsyth pointed out in my Spirit Course, Whistler has never won a service award. Think about that. This resort, which has won every single other award in the ski industry, praising everything from the terrain on our mountains to the quality of the après skiing experience, has never won an award for simple customer service. This has to be our year.

A thick blanket of snow is a good thing to wish for, and will go a long way towards solving our immediate problems, but it’s still only part of the equation. You’re the other part.

Happy Holidays everyone, and all the best.