SaleNotSale
999YearsVille
In the wake of the news that CN Rail has decided to let go of a stretch of track that once ran BC Rail trains before they it was leased to CN by Gordon Campbell, and currently runs the rolling hotels of the super-fine Rocky Mountain Railtours, we take you back to a post from the ancient times, otherwise known as 2010.
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In recent posts we have established that two of British Columbia's private Railway Tycoons, David McLean of CN Rail and Peter Armstrong of Rocky Mountaineer Railtours each gave, either personally, or through their companies, at least $250,000, each, to the BC Liberal Party of Mr. Gordon Campbell since the latter became leader way, way, way back in 1993.
And, on the flipside, both private Rail Tycoons have done very well, indeed, in the wake of Gordon Campbell promise-busting dismantling of a very public Railway soon after he became the Premier of British Columbia in 2001.
Specifically, with the destruction of a 90 year-old statute that required BC Rail to run a public passenger service, followed shortly thereafter by the tainted/not tainted/sale/not sale of BC Rail to CN Rail, Mess'rs McLean and Armstrong ultimately came up aces by any and all financial measures one could choose to use and/or trumpet.
But here is something that most folks, even those who have been paying attention (including, initially, myself) may have missed.
Which is the fact that when Mr. Armstrong's Rocky Mountaineer/Great Canadian Tours private passenger business started rolling down the formerly public BC Rail tracks it was NOT Gordon Campbell's hand-picked 'executives' of the doomed Crown Corporation that Mr. Armstrong ultimately had to negotiate with to get the deal done.
Instead, it was David McLean and CN Rail:*
...In September 2004, Canadian National Railway Co. announced (Peter Armstrong's) Great Canadian had been selected to operate tourist trains on its newly-acquired British Columbia Rail routes...
Which is somewhat ironic, given Mess'rs McLean's and Armstrong's willingness to bankroll the efforts of Mr. Campbell from the very beginning, don't you think?
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We're back in the present now...The bolded bit, above, is from a November 2004 post from the late great PublicEye Online whose proprietor was the now academician Sean Holman...There is a whole lot more info on 'historical' Railgate players there for those of you who are interested...
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8 comments:
In my book, there should have been a criminal investigation of Campbell and the BC Rail deal, but there wasn't and then came Christy Clark which made Campbell and the Bird look good.
The NDP, always the cowards, refused to investigate the deal as they were and still are embroiled in their own railway embarrassments.
The legacy of the Campbell years have left us the "Hurtlands" and Rustad's Maple MAGA Conservatives. Now, with CN literally pulling up tracks, there will be far more hurt for the Hurtlands.
Here is the issue as i see it. We are now in a changed world and our tourism (weak as it is) is no longer dependent on US visitors in their RV's. If we seek European tourists, we need railways because the Europeans will use them because railways are not just about travel it is a social occasion to discover a country, as I found out on my past travels across the pond.
BC Rail would be a massive international attraction and here is the deal, expensive "Hotel Trains" do not attract much tourist as the costs are just too high. Then there is the "Blue Train" or the "Orient Express" "hotel Trains" that have far more draw.
Tourist trains are far more important than one thinks as in India the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), also known as the "Toy Train," is a UNESCO World Heritage Site is a massive international tourist attraction, so much so the Indian government keeps it in operation due to the revenue it generates.
Real rail enthusiasts want the real deal a regular passenger train and not a hugely expensive tourist train, but with the Rocky Mountaineer, Armstrong has created a railway monopoly.
Government has drunk far too much of their tourist bath water to understand the "Beautiful BC is no longer a tourist draw and we need iconic tourist attractions, not tourist traps. The Eby government is blind to this, as they social engineer and "tower" themselves out of existence.
For the cost of the Fifa games, we could establish a true international tourist attraction via a Vancouver to Prince George/Rupert passenger rail service, that will last for generations and not a few "moments". A true international tourist attraction.
EE--
Indeed.
For the cost of the FIFA games we could do a whole lot of good stuff...
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Golly gosh.
BC Mary has risen from the dead!
TB
TB--
I've been thinking of writing up a bit of 'Railgate Retrospective' which has had me to revisit a bunch of Mary's posts (which are all still there by the way - I can't recall which of her Anon-O-Mice were given the keys to the site but I thank them!)
Here is one of my favourite early Mary posts about local corpMedia apathy on the story...
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Nice to see BC Rail remembered. I apprenticed there. BC lost big time when the criminal Campbell “leased it”.
Thank yo.u for the information. Never thought campbell was in it to "serve" the people or province just to raise his "profile" and bank account. Yes, when I saw the post did think of B.C. Mary and others who wrote on the subject and are no longer with us.
Campbell and , later, Clark , were nothing but real estate pimps.
Their actions are still causing chaos to this day.
It was Campbell that encouraged rich Chinese and Hong Kong buyers to the Vancouver market that caused so much inflation.
TB
The "Eye" has been around BC's rail scene for some time and knows the players for the E&N and Rail for the Valley folks. (Historical note: The "Eye's" great uncle R.T. Elliott was the lawyer for the CPR with the E&N deal and made a cool million at the time)
In BC, railways are treated as personal playthings by the premiers of the day.
WAC Bennett - the PGE/BC Rail
Mini Bennett - extending the BC-Rail - SkyTrain
Van der Zalm - BC Hydro Railway
G. Clark - SkyTrain
Campbell - BC Rail
Horgan - SkyTrain
Eby - SkyTrain
Each one a story of dubious dealings, under the table agreements (and worse), and a complicit media.
For almost three decades, Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight, who was the only reporter in BC doing any investigating reporting on SkyTrain.
Go figure.
if you think Rafe Mair was fired from CKNW because he didn't get the right sprinkles in his morning coffee, think again. He was using the resources of CKNW's mighty news department to research Campbell, Armstrong, the CN, and many other notable BC Liberals. As well during this research unsavoury dealings with Bombardier/SNC Lavalin came to light.
Campbell had made sure 'NW gave Mair the chop and he lingered at Pattisons radio station for two more years with no staff, except a producer, meaning no investigative reporting.
No one, except a very few people know that the CBC did an explosive in-depth report on the Expo Line in the late 80's and the real reason it was built, that just before it aired, then Prime Minister Mulroney got wind of it and had it shredded and the reporters dispersed and/or black listed.
BC Mary came at the right time, at the beginning of the internet and she could not be so easily "sushed".
is it not interesting that the NDP has flipped flopped twice from building with light rail to building with the much more expensive proprietary trains, that no (one wanted internationally) that operate on the Expo Line for both the now called millennium Line and the Langley extension, even though both times, international experts warned them not two and in the end both projects are costing the BC taxpayer dearly and much more so in the future.
Oh there is a lot more, but BC's mainstream media does not investigate, nor does it report on the many stories about BC railways.
With those who know, slowly aging out and joining the last train to the cemetery gates, BC largest ongoing politcal scandal(s) remain ignored and unreported and soon forgotten.
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