This Great Country of Ours…Vancouver, June 2010

As soon as the House of Commons rose for the summer (at almost 9 pm on a Thursday night, squeezing all the last-minute votes in), I went to Vancouver to participate in one of several regional “Canada 150” regional policy conferences, which happened to be part of the 2010 biennial LPCBC Conference. The regional sessions followed on the very successful “Canada 150” policy conference in Montreal. The Vancouver session was terrific, great discussions with great people, and it’s always nice to spend a bit of time in Vancouver. I used to come on business a fair bit, and I always managed to get at least one run per visit around the Seawall which goes completely around the stunning Stanley Park. Unfortunately, the last couple of times I’ve been out, I haven’t managed to “remember” to bring my shorts and running shoes...... I will confess, however, to playing a bit of hooky during one afternoon to see the exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery called "The Modern Woman, Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and other Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris”. I mean, how could I NOT go to see that? There is so much to say about any visit to Vancouver, but this was a short one. One anecdote though, particularly poignant after (i) an early morning policy session dealing with many of the difficult, significant issues facing too many women in Vancouver; and (ii) the art exhibit called “The Modern Woman”......I was walking past the boats in the inner harbour, big cruisers and sailboats (as a sailor, I confess to a weakness for looking at boats), and I saw one with the name, plastered in a very visible, prominent “look at me” spot (not, as usual, just on the transom)---“Fish and Chicks”. Sigh.......