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The mayor says...

Reflections and perspectives at the end of a difficult year
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People been talking smack about the mayor. It may have something to do with the asphalt plant. And the community forest. And the Olympics. And higher taxes. And the waste water treatment facility. And the way the wind bends my neighbour's trees and obstructs my view of the mountains...

Oh, Ken, frequently blamed for the perceived failings of the entire municipality, sometimes for decisions made before he even served on council. That's the politician's fortune, however, and in a small town it can be even worse. People avoid him in the streets, which is awkward given the size of the town. There are only so many hockey rinks and grocery stores a man can visit. There's simply no way to hide from the stare-downs and sideways glances that are now a part of his reality.

He hasn't always handled the criticism gracefully and he's the first to admit that he's defensive.

"To be a good politician, you have to be non-judgmental and not defensive," he says, holding out his fist, opening and closing it like the mouth of a Venus fly trap, only instead of insects it seems to be catching articulated thoughts. "I think those are two very good qualities that I wish I was better at. I think I'm getting less judgmental and I remember on occasion not to be as defensive." He laughs.

He's driving the family Volkswagen Golf from Whistler to downtown Vancouver on a Thursday, for a TV interview with Fanny Kiefer on Shaw's Studio 4. He seems tense, gripping the steering wheel with both hands or gesticulating wildly as he speaks. He doesn't seem like the type of man to relax too easily and the deep wrinkles around his eyes suggest a lot of squinting and brow furrowing. It's no wonder. Given the year he's had with the Olympics, the criticism surrounding the asphalt plant and everything in between, a little pre-interview tension probably seems a remarkably light load to bear.

"It's a smaller town and it's so hyper-critical," he says. "It's sort of that - well, there are a bunch of different euphemisms. 'Life in a fishbowl.' The intense criticism that comes (with this job), you can never do anything right. It's just degrees of wrong. I'm talking politics in general but it's on steroids in Whistler."

That criticism seemed to reach a fever pitch in the weeks leading up to the deeply divisive asphalt plant rezoning bylaw application - the issue that has perhaps scarred Melamed's reputation deeper than any other. At the council question and answer periods leading up to that vote, frustrated community members stood up at the podium to lay their accusations of council misdeeds and municipal secrecy in question form. Melamed was not pleased to be dealing with such accusations. He would clench his jaw. He would rub his brow. Many of the questions were variations of previous questions from other people, and as he took a few deep breaths, it seemed as though this would be the moment, after 15 years in politics, that Ken Melamed would finally flip his lid, run over to the podium and pop the questioner in the nose.

But he didn't. Instead, he'd take another deep breath and answer the questions with as much rationale and grace as a man could possibly offer under the circumstances.

"It is never easy to remain calm when somebody is accusing you of being dishonest or trying to trick them, or not caring about them," he says. "None of those things are true about me. I'm not dishonest, I'm not trying to hide anything, I absolutely, fundamentally care. I've been the strongest advocate for clean air and I continue to be. So to be accused of not caring for their health, to be accused of lying, to be accused of trying to trick them, and worse - and then somebody stands up and confronts you on that in public, you really need to take a deep breath and refrain."

To intentionally alienate an entire community for the sake of one's self-interest, in a town as critical and contained as Whistler, would be the work of a crazy person. Ken Melamed is not a crazy person. He's a pragmatic environmentalist who has no idea what "Justin Beaver" is due to a limited tolerance for B.S. He may seem unfriendly and unapproachable at times but he is a sane man nonetheless, and one who thinks about and cares deeply how his decisions affect the community.

"His integrity and honesty is unwavering. He's the same person I knew 20 years ago, and that's not easy in political life," says Arthur DeJong, Whistler Blackcomb's environmental guru, and one of Melamed's "great allies" over the years.

It was former mayor Hugh O'Reilly - elected in 1996, the same year Melamed was first elected to council - who brought the sustainability vision forward, but DeJong says it was "Kenny who was the heart and soul of that vision" through Whistler2020.

"He's been the enabler, the implementer," DeJong says.

This hasn't been to the chagrin of everyone in the community. As president of AWARE and later as a councillor, Melamed earned a reputation as an aggressive environmentalist and a NIMBY, garnering the nickname "Dr. No." He made a good number of enemies over the years as AWARE attempted to balance the rapid development of Whistler with a sensitivity to the environment. He was elected to council largely on his environmental credentials, and later as the "green mayor." But now, as his vision has moved away from strict environmentalism and more toward a broader sustainability framework - away from the "green mayor" to the "sustainability mayor" as he says - his old supporters are accusing him of cozying up to developers and of being corrupted by the power of being mayor.

"Let's just say I've expanded the number of people who have found reasons to disagree with my actions and values," he says.

"People can easily come to that conclusion, that I've become corrupted because I've had to make decisions that do not agree with the ideology. The fact is, it's a process. You can't just go to the ideological conclusion. It's not available as an option. It's something that you have to work towards on a progressive basis."

The Cheakamus Community Forest, he says, is a perfect example. The RMOW agreed to take on the CCF, in partnership with the Squamish and Lil'wat nations - with certain conditions, not all of which they agreed with completely - in order to limit the amount of old growth forest logged in the Whistler area.

"You have to do it in order to get to the next stage, which is to evolve the community forest approach and forestry to an evermore ecologically responsible model, but that does not exist as an option today," he says. "You can have this all or nothing approach and wait for potential change to happen through that approach, or you can take the approach that I have taken, which is working through the system in a progressive way, building relationship and trust.

"We're pushing envelopes in a portion of the resort tourism industry, that is that niche that is responding to this new call to action (toward environmental stewardship practices)," he says with such conviction that there's no doubt he's said these same words many times before: around the dinner table with friends; to various reporters over the years; to other politicians over a glass of port in some hotel bar.

"There's a growing awareness about it, and we've had enough speakers come to Whistler to assure us that this is the future. Those resorts that are paying attention to this new sensitivity at a consumer level are going to be the ones that come out the front - and by the way, it's the right thing to do."

• • •

 

The mayor is a modest man. He rides the bus most days, sitting alongside some of the people who criticize him the most. He never finished university and he doesn't make a lot of money. Many of the old friends he knew in the Whistler of yore have moved on to successful careers as lawyers, engineers, artists and so on.

Comparatively he's been on the ski patrol for 30 years and still patrols once a week during the winter season. He's driven by nothing more than the pursuit of a "fair and just society," a concept he brings up no less than five times in three hours.

It's becoming increasingly clear to the mayor that this "fair and just society" means a whole new approach to the economy and to sustainability, and it's a task that he's certain Whistler is destined to lead.

"I think sustainability is the new ethos to replace capitalism," he says. "I don't mean that capitalism should be replaced by more socialistic mindset or ethos, but capitalism is demonstrating it's a failed economic model. We are on the path of global unsustainability. We have to be very careful about how we paint this picture, but the current capitalist model has got us to where we are today. It's now the predominating economic model and all the indicators are that it's not viable into the future."

He says that as we ravish the world's natural capital we run the risk of "cannibalizing ourselves, essentially, on a global scale." For Ken, it's not about socialism or capitalism and the left and right wings don't matter. We need to move toward sustainability as a new social paradigm, one that draws from the entire political spectrum, creating a synthesis of the best ideas of both ends to reach a pragmatic and viable approach to sustaining human life on this planet.

"The beauty of the sustainability framework that we have adopted through the Natural Step is that it's non-prescriptive. It doesn't say that there's one political ideal or one belief set. It's scientific. Is shows you where the boundaries are and within them you can make decisions. Within that, be as creative as you want. Choose whatever cultural ideal you want, choose whatever political system you want, it doesn't matter.

"This is what we can be optimistic about," he continues. He's excited now, waiving his Venus thought-trap wildly around the cab of the vehicle, thoughts as fluid as the river rolling on beside us.

"Human creativity is boundless. We can bloody well do whatever we set our minds to. We just need to accept a certain amount of rules. Now some people would like to imagine that there are no rules but I think that would be tremendously naïve. It's like saying there's no law of relativity, or gravity doesn't exist. They do. You can't mess with those, so here are the boundaries, let's be as creative as we want within that."

• • •

 

The mayor's hunched over a low coffee table in Studio 4 in downtown Vancouver, answering a questionnaire before his interview.

"These are hard questions," he says, responding to questions like "three things he would change if money weren't an option" (purchase Whistler Blackcomb for the community; bring train service back to the Sea to Sky region; ending world poverty) and "your ultimate dream job" (folk singer). He taps his pen against the glass top of the coffee table, then rubs with his thumb the mark the pen has made on the glass. Thinking. Thinking. A vein has made an appearance above his left temple. He sneaks a peak at his Timex wristwatch. He's concentrating through a squint and the creases around his eyes are more pronounced than usual. Thinking. Thinking.

He looks up and asks, "Who played Duddy Kravitz, in that movie?"

"What's Duddy Kravitz?"

"It's a character. In a movie."

"What's the question?"

"Who would play you in a movie version of your life?" He turns back to the page, tapping his pen as I look it up.

"Richard Dreyfuss," I say finally.

"Richard Dreyfuss," he says and marks it down.

Twenty minutes later, he's discussing with Fanny Kiefer Whistler's short road to build-out, the success of the athletes' village, and so on. Kiefer's done her homework and when she asks him about the asphalt plant, one can see the mayor as a completely different person, right there on the television. He's no longer the tense and defensive politician from council Q & A periods, but a friendly soul with a charming awkwardness, looking more relaxed with every passing minute.

The Mayor says:

On Whistler residents:

"We have a lot of people who come from lifestyles with very high expectations, and therefore as soon as they drop below that, whether the expectation is a return on investment, or the quality of service or clean bathrooms, short lift lines, everything is 'I'm used to getting this level of service, so anything below that is an invitation to criticize.'"

 

On failure:

"In life, you learn best when you fall. In skiing, mountain biking, it's part of the learning process. Every time you make a mistake, that's a learning experience. The points in life where you have to work through the biggest conflicts are often the biggest teaching experiences. That's an important part of this aspect. Rather than place blame... we need to use these challenges not as opportunities for blame but opportunities to learn and grow together. Unfortunately, a lot of people are stuck in blame."

 

On complaints that Cheakamus Crossing residents were tricked:

"I feel there was nothing misleading in that disclosure statement. You don't have to go past 'There is an operating asphalt plant.' That says it all right there... If, when you were buying that home, you had concerns about air quality, and you read in that item, 'There is an operating asphalt plant and gravel quarry,' red flag goes up, go talk to your real estate agent and you ask, 'What does this mean? How could that possibly affect me?' Instead of coming back after you've put down your first and second deposit and going, 'You tricked me.' I don't buy that. I don't buy that for a minute."

 

On Tourism:

"How do we define success in the new context of global unsustainability? It's especially dynamic in Whistler because we're one of the causes of social and global (un)sustainability. Our economic model is inherently unsustainable. It's about excess and consumption, irrespective of the constraints of the planet. I really think we're on this path, we're pushing around the edges as much as possible because again there's this political, economic, social reality that we don't exist in a bubble. We're part of an industry and we have to be very sensitive to where we're going as an industry and where the consumers place their values and choose to spend their money."

 

On his critics:

"For fear of being criticized people don't take a position. For fear of being responsible for their decisions, people don't get engaged in society. That's the difference between irrational activists who are throwing stones all the time, trying to break down what we're doing, and what we're doing. It's very easy to take an extreme, irrational, unjustified approach. I accept that that's often a necessary part of change. However, it doesn't have to be vindictive or personal."

 

 



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