newman@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Ron Newman) (08/08/86)
I visited both Expo 86 and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival last month, and came away with the distinct impression that at least some of the people in Vancouver don't want Expo and wish it would go away. It was obvious that the Folk Music crowd and the residents of the Italian neighborhood around Commercial Drive dislike Expo. What I couldn't tell was how widespread that sentiment was. Would you (andrews@ubc-cs) or anyone else at UBC care to guess what percent of Vancouver is really anti-Expo? I don't care for the U.S. Republican party but I wouldn't characterize it as "a political party which has absolutely no political philosophy except to get re-elected and keep out the socialists", which is how you characterize BC's Social Credit party. Does it really have "no philosophy"--or just a philosophy that we both disagree with? Where does the name Social Credit come from--something to do with national banking policy? /Ron Newman, MIT
jimr@hcrvx2.UUCP (Jim Robinson) (08/14/86)
In article <975@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU> newman@athena.mit.edu (Ron Newman) writes: >I visited both Expo 86 and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival last month, >and came away with the distinct impression that at least some of the >people in Vancouver don't want Expo and wish it would go away. > >It was obvious that the Folk Music crowd and the residents of the >Italian neighborhood around Commercial Drive dislike Expo. What I >couldn't tell was how widespread that sentiment was. Would you >(andrews@ubc-cs) or anyone else at UBC care to guess what percent >of Vancouver is really anti-Expo? At the risk of making sweeping generalizations I'd guess that a significant percentage of the people at the Folk Music Festival are of a leftish persuasion. Since left-leaning BCers, for the most part, do not like the Socreds (and thus by extension, EXPO) it should come as no surprise that Mr. Newman experienced an anti-EXPO sentiment at said festival. Thus, obtaining a reliable reading re the overall popularity of EXPO at the festival was probably about as likely as getting one from the local Chamber of Commerce. J.B. Robinson
kitchel@iuvax.UUCP (08/20/86)
In July, I was lucky enough to visit Vancouver and EXPO. On the whole it was a well run and interesting "World's Fair". The main problem for fair-goers is the large number of people also trying to see it. This meant that to see all the major attractions would take several days. As for general BC support for EXPO, it is my impression that it was more than the left-wingers who are mad at EXPO, because it is the creature of the Socreds and Mr. Bennett. When I was there, the newspapers were reporting a province wide disappointment with EXPO. The Socreds apparently promised a "big shot in the arm" to BC tourism and an economic payoff to all. However, the reality then was that tourism was down on the mainland outside Vancouver. Vancouver Island visits were up only slightly and that was far below estimates. The payoff for EXPO was not being shared outside Vancouver. (Possibly by now this has turned around.) [BEGIN ASIDE: a question for BCers or Canadians: what in the world does a flashing green light mean at an intersection??? DNE EDISA] GO BC LIONS!!! Sid Kitchel Indiana University CSNET: kitchel@indiana USMAIL: 101 Lindley Hall Computer Science Dept. Bloomington, IN 47405 USA