How about those Canucks, eh?
I'm sure many of you tuned in last Saturday morning to watch the monumental battle in Boston.
Yep, great game.
But what do hockey-playing millionaires have to do with civic affairs, you so rightly ask.
Thanks for the question.
Well_ uh_ before you think that it's the narcoleptic days of early January in the news biz and this still-in-holiday-mode scribe is short on fodder for copy, consider Geoff Plant.
Yes, the former attorney general and-if you recall the days of the Sam Sullivan administration-former Project Civil City Commissioner.
Plant was the guy Sullivan and company hired to tackle drug addiction, homelessness and aggressive panhandling.
Way back in December 2007, I sat down with Plant and asked him whether he has influence with provincial and federal governments in getting money to address the three issues.
For some inexplicable reason, the questioning set him off. It was as if he was on the receiving end of a Brad Marchand cheap shot. Here's the replay:
"What?" he said incredulously to my question. "You think I sit in an office with a [cabinet] minister and the light goes on? Or he jumps across the table and says all his life he's been waiting for someone like me to come in the office and do this? Give your head a shake, that's not how the world works. But I can tell you I've been in those offices."
Have your visits made a difference?
"Who knows?"
Then why visit?
"Because I want to make a difference."
But you just said you don't know if you've made a difference.
"Well, I don't want to take credit for anything I shouldn't take credit for. Frankly, I truly really don't care about this whole discussion. It fills me with a sense of, 'Can we please talk about something else like the Vancouver Canucks?'"
Yes, we can.
Or, actually you can, Mr. Plant.
And that's exactly what he did in his first post of the year on his new blog, which he has appropriately dubbed, "The Plant Rant." Plant's rant was on the topic of B.C. Hydro and its decision to cut costs by selling half of its share in a suite it uses at Rogers Arena to entertain clients at Canucks games.
"In my opinion, while this particular decision may have been exactly the right one for B.C. Hydro at this point in its business cycle, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a business that is a Crown corporation spending money on a suite at the Rogers Arena," Plant wrote.
"I suspect I may be in a minority on this one. But hey, what's the point of writing a blog if you can't say something controversial once in awhile?"
Added Plant: "After all, it's the expensive game tickets and suites at Rogers Arena -so many of which are paid for by businesses large and small-that help make the Vancouver Canucks a viable enterprise. And I bet you generally don't complain about the fact that, thanks to your support of our local NHL franchise, Roberto Luongo earned more in this first week of January than the premier of our province will in a whole year?"
He shoots, he scores.
mhowell@vancourier.com
Twitter: @Howellings
