Last year I was talking to a fellow friend of mine who was applying for different universities. When I asked him: “How come you are only considering UBC and SFU?” he responded: “I want to be here for the Olympics!”
After The Canadian Olympic Association was able to overcome South Korea and Austria on July 2, 2003 and officially announce Vancouver as the host of 2010 Winter Olympic, several critics supported or opposed this action. The supporters mentioned the social and economical benefits of the Olympics. Aside from all the excitements that the Olympics generate among the Vancouver residence, it would also peruse the British Colombia’s government to consider a certain budget for updating the city and its transportation system. Indeed, few weeks before the Olympics opening ceremony, there are obvious changes within our community. The new Canada Line which connecting Richmond to Vancouver is an example of one of these rapid changes. Moreover, the supporters argued that the Olympic Games would increase job opportunities for a short period and it would also have considerable economical benefits.
On the other hand, the oppositions argued about the high cost of such event. Meanwhile, Canada is struggling with the economical crisis, only one billion dollars is being spent on the security of the Olympics. Thus the oppositions questioned the reasons behind such a costly event. They proposed that other ways of spending billions of dollars could have been on major programs for creating jobs or solving old but fundamental issues such as homelessness in Vancouver. Lastly, Vancouver will be hosting one of the biggest sport events of the year regardless of all the supports and opposes. Although the only hope remaining is that in the long term the government would use the economical profit of the Olympics to solve fundamental issues such as homelessness, the doubts remaining is whether a government that previously did not plan a major program to solve such problem, would do that now? Only time can answer this question.
F.N. Image from: http://www.wmo.int/pages/publications/meteoworld/archive/april09/images/vancouver-olympics-2010-language-test-online.jpg