This summer, Ogden Point will be welcoming their 3 millionth cruise ship passenger. To celebrate the milestone, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority and Tourism Victoria have partnered to create a one of a kind experience for the lucky passenger.
The lucky passenger, and up to three of their guests will be whisked off to a waiting limousine and presented with (complimentary) options of things to do in Greater Victoria.  The winner will choose how they want to spend their special day.
Tourism Victoria is collecting complimentary access to your tourism related business. Please contact Kelsi Woodward, Communications Coordinator if you are interested in contributing to this experience.

This summer, Ogden Point will be welcoming their 3 millionth cruise ship passenger. To celebrate the milestone, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority and Tourism Victoria have partnered to create a one of a kind experience for the lucky passenger.
The lucky passenger, and up to three of their guests will be whisked off to a waiting limousine and presented with (complimentary) options of things to do in Greater Victoria.  The winner will choose how they want to spend their special day.
Tourism Victoria is collecting complimentary access to your tourism related business. Please contact Kelsi Woodward, Communications Coordinator if you are interested in contributing to this experience.

Carnival Cruise Lines has confirmed the Carnival Splendor is being diverted from its ports of call in Mexico and will begin sailing north from its home port in Long Beach, Los Angeles, making stops in San Francisco, Victoria, and Seattle. The Carnival Splendor will make its first stop at Victoria’s Ogden Point today at noon. Carnival Cruise Lines has secured 8 consecutive Wednesday berthing spots at Ogden Point, from May 6th to June 24th, 2009.
 
Its arrival today coincides with the arrival of the Royal Caribbean International’s Mariner of the Seas, which has now secured 13 Wednesday berthing spots at Ogden Point from May 6th to July 29th, 2009. This means a total of 21 additional calls, unless the ships decide to return to their original itinerary, bringing the total scheduled cruise ship visits to 235 for 2009.
 
RCI Mariner of the Seas:                     Carnival Splendor:
 Gross Tonnage: 138,000                           Gross Tonnage: 113,300 tons
 Length: 1020′                                                  Length: 952 feet’
 Passenger Decks: 15                                     Passenger Decks: 13
 Passenger Capacity: 3,114                         Passenger Capacity: 3,006
 Total crew: 1,185                                           Total crew: 1,150 
 
The 2009 Ogden Point cruise ship schedule is available at www.victoriaharbour.org.

Vancouver is the city I’d rather live in. Even though I have visited countless times I have never actually lived here. The physical beauty of the city stimulates me in a way that my hometown of Toronto never will. There are no vistas in Canada quite like the kind you have in this West Coast paradise.

I don’t necessarily want to get into a Toronto versus Vancouver blog. I know Toronto surpasses Vancouver in some ways, and vice-versa. But I do know people from Toronto who simply do not “get” what the big deal is about Vancouver. I know because I have visited Van-City with several Torontonians. But when you grow up in the freezing, dry climate of Calgary a yearly visit to Vancouver is like descending into some kind of tropical paradise.

Here is a list of the best places I went to on my last visit to Vancouver.

1. Stanley Park Bike Ride

Lion's Gate Bridge

Normally I walk on the sea wall around Stanley Park. My wife (a Torontonian) hates this. She thinks it gets boring halfway through. So this time we rented bikes on the corner of Denman and Robson. The ride around the park is much quicker this way and this time she had a blast and didn’t want to stop riding even when we made it to English Bay Beach on the other side of the park.

The view of the Lion’s Gate Bridge always astounds me.  The bridge reminds me of the movie Rumble in the Bronx with Jackie Chan. Vancouver stood in for the Bronx even though it looks absolutely nothing like it. We stopped to have fish ‘n chips at Second Beach, a tradition in my family. They are not necessarily the best fish ‘n chips in the city but you can’t beat the view.

My wife loved it so much we kept going on a scenic bike ride around the entire city that even took us through East Hastings street (Yikes!), which looks like it was just bombed. They are still working on the bike path. That is the part they need to fix.

2. English Bay Beach Sunset

English Bay Sunset

One of my favourite places in the world, hands down, is English Bay Beach – particularly during sunset. Although the water is too cold to really enjoy swimming, the area is really active and the sunset slowly drops behind the scattered cargo ships in the distance. The sun casts a golden glow on the nearby buildings. At times it is hard to believe you are in the middle of a bustling metropolis.

3. Marble Slab Creamery

Marble Slab Creamery

My wife and I became addicted to the ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery on Denman St. near English Bay Beach. Apparently this is an American company and the gimmick is that you choose your ice cream and then you order what you want mixed with it – let’s say raspberries or a chocolate bar. Then the worker behind the counter mixes it together on a chilled marble slab. Also the milk shakes are excellent. Right now I want the chocolate shake again just writing about.

4. Go Fish

Go Fish

Nearby Granville Island Market, right on a dock on False Creek, is a fish ‘n chips stand with a huge line-up. Go early because they close at about 6:00. We just narrowly missed the cut off and then witnessed several upset people realize they had come too late and were not going to be allowed to have the fish their tummies had been dreaming about. Ha ha! Losers!

If Fish n’ Chips is too fattening for your diet they also have salmon. My wife declared this the best fish ‘n chips she has ever eaten. I wasn’t crazy about the cole slaw, but then cole slaw always seems to be hit and miss no matter where you go. There are very few seats so we all sat on a grassy hill. Slightly awkward but I think that is part of the charm.

5. Day Trip to Victoria

Victoria Ferry

One day we took a whirlwind trip to Victoria. If you are going to rent a car then plan ahead in the high season, because I just assumed I could walk into any rental car place and they would have endless amounts of cars. Nope.

We arrived at the ferry dock at five to ten and we came in just under the wire for the ten o clock ferry. We hadn’t eaten breakfast so we went to the buffet which isn’t bad. They even have some Dim Sum dumplings. I love riding on a ferry for some reason.

In Victoria we parked near the American Ferry terminal and we walked on Ogden Point which is a sea wall going out into the water and I believe the southern most part of B.C. Then we drove along the scenic coast drive. There are lots of places to pull over and we even took a brief nap at one pull off. We drove all the way to Saanich and then back.

Back in Victoria we walked around the harbor towards the Empress hotel. I was concerned about when the last ferry was going to leave so we went to the information centre and asked someone who worked there who rolled his eyes and had a pissed off look which to me said “Goddamn idiots. I get asked this stupid question every five minutes!” Hey asshole, guess what? Your job is to answer stupid tourist questions.

We went to Earls for lunch. My family has turned against Earls but we had a pretty quick decent meal there. The mostly blonde waitresses look like they were hired by a heterosexual male who is having a mid-life crisis.

We made it to the 8:00 ferry despite never really understanding the ferry schedule from the confusing pamphlet that jerk gave us. But it was an amazing sunset.

6. The New Canada Line

The New Canada Line

Normally I wouldn’t tell people to get on a subway. But this new subway opened while we were there. The first day, when it was free, there was a massive line of people going around several blocks near the train station. People were very excited. The most important thing about it is that it goes from downtown to the airport, so you can avoid expensive cab rides. Right now it seems to work on an honour system since no one seems to check if you have a ticket. Let’s see how long that lasts! The cars look old fashioned on the outside but inside they are very clean. Not a lot of seats though.

Here is what you should skip in Vancouver:

1. Big Bus Tour

This tour, which is a hop-on hop-off bus tour, is really crappy for a few different reasons. Reason number one is that they do not have a live commentary. You have to listen to a silly pre-recorded tape with terrible over-acting. “I cannot STAND this creek! This FALSE CREEK! Wait a minute. Perhaps that’s what we should call it!”

You end up spending too much time downtown and not enough time in the most interesting places like English Bay or Stanley Park, which they seem to breeze through right at the end. Better to get on a bike.

2. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Chinese Garden (pay portion)

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Chinese Cultural Garden

This is a wonderful garden in Chinatown. It’s free. But there is another part, which is smaller and less interesting that for some reason costs ten dollars. Skip it and go to the free one. I still don’t understand why it is set up this way.

3. White Rock

White Rock

I wanted to go to a beach and my brother insisted this was the beach we should go to. When we got there the tide was in and there really wasn’t any beach to sit on. And what was there was full of dead jellyfish. There was a long pier which seemed to have a lot of police walking on it. The water was also full of jelly fish. At the end of the beach there is a rock that is white. Then we went home. Go to Second Beach in Stanley park instead, or Jericho which we didn’t get to see.

Other than those three duds we had a great time. I don’t have time here to talk about everything that is great about Vancouver like Grouse Mountain or the Aquarium. I’ll save that for the next trip. In terms of accomodation we stayed at the Times Square Suites at Denman and Robson. It was a large and spacious, and kind of like having your own apartment. The shower was like a dribble though. But since we had sunny weather all week I was glad to skip the Vancouver showers.

BC ELECTION REFERENDUM 2009

Pollen blasts ‘corrupt political process’

by Gregory Hartnell, CCC President

The auditorium at my old high school was not quite packed, but there were so many people at the meeting at Victoria High School tonight that many participants parked their cars on the running track of the adjacent field.

I went over after stopping off at Our Place to check out the scene there first.  Two big buses were parked in front of the homeless peoples’ home on Pandora Avenue, one of them emblazoned with NDP leader Carole James’ face.

Inside, the place was packed with an expectant crowd and what looked like a dozen tv cameras.  I noticed that the candidates were already up on the stage, ready to speak and answer questions.  I saw Saul Anderson whom I remember from the last election.

I approached the anarchist cab driver, shook his hand, and told him “I am seriously considering voting for you.”  He smiled, and was friendly.  ”I’ll give you a call for an interview,” I said as I headed over to the Vic. High meeting.

Back at my old alma mater, I sat near the back of the auditorium, right in front of former Victoria Councillor Alastair Craighead and Ray Zimmerman, a well-known conservationist.  Later, Mrs. Martin Segger (wife of former Victoria City Councillor Martin Segger) sat next to me. The Vic. High meeting was chaired by Terry Milne, a former Social Credit candidate, if my memory serves me well, and a vociferous opponent of the planned sewage treatment mandated by the BC Liberals and the Harperites.

Mr. Pollen was sitting alone behind a long table set up on stage.  There were about 8 or 9 chairs set up behind this table, but Mr. Pollen was the only one sitting on one of them.  It looked odd.

Mr. Milne started on the wrong foot by introducing a young Olympian rower who was probably unknown to most greyheads in the audience, which made up the majority.  This young man made a somewhat self-indulgent speech which seemed more about his own sports history than the issue at hand.  He encouraged us to pay close attention, but didn’t really address the marina itself.  I was confused as to why this young man was even invited to speak, as he made so little sense.

 Then Mr. Milne introduced former Mayor David Turner, a New Democratic Party stalwart, who proclaimed that the Victoria International Marina (VIM) was not in the public interest.  He said that governments were designed to protect the public interest, and that all three levels of government should oppose this plan as it is not in the public interest.  Then he seemed to disappear for the rest of the evening and did not join Mr. Pollen behind the table.

Next up was the great man himself, looking frail, but distinguished, even in a bright yellow t-shirt with a slogan against the VIM emblazoned on the front.  In a voice that was barely audible, he quickly listed a number of reasons why he was opposed to the project, but seemed most appalled by the pathetic public process to date, which he called ‘political corruption.’

After Mr. Pollen’s brief remarks came Dianne Carr, representing the Victoria West Neighbourhood Association, who read a letter from NDP Menber of Parliament Denise Savoie, who could not attend the meeting as she was in Ottawa.  Savoie’s letter was long on self-congratulation, and left this writer wondering why she would want to brag about an ‘in camera‘ meeting she organized at City Hall last week, a meeting to which neither the public nor the developers were invited.  

She hoped that the Federal Government would follow through on a promised open public meeting.  She says she is opposed to the project, but at the same time it seems that she is just going through the motions, effectively just trying to stall what might be inevitable.  Instead of saying anything critical about the silence of what Mr. Pollen calls the ‘mute Council,’ she seemed happy to know that the federal, provincial and City bureaucrats are all now supposedly better informed about the proper process after her secret meeting with her old friend Dean Fortin, present Mayor of the City of Victoria.  Frankly, there is always something not quite real about the way Denise Savoie expresses herself. Her language is always very carefully parsed.

Then came a real surprise.  Former Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, a Liberal as far as anyone can tell, expressed his opposition to the placement of the VIM at this particular site.  This earned him a round of applause.  He gave some history of the site from the eighties when the Songhees development first started, and later emphasized that he is not opposed to ‘luxury yachts’ (as he called them) per se.  He said nothing at all about the City losing a lawsuit over the same site some years ago, and at the same time suggested that the current timidity of the Council had something to do with that history.  He gave the impression City Hall bureaucrats are more informed on this history than the present Council, which is apparently receiving legal advice to basically be quiet until the province makes a move.  Frankly, it was strange, but gratifying, to see him sitting next to Mr. Pollen, who has been one of his fiercest critics over the new arena.

 Dr. Keith Martin, now a federal Liberal, was next.  He mentioned the basic medical service idea from the Hippocratic oath of ‘do no harm.’  He said that he opposed the VIM plan because it will harm the City of Victoria and its Inner Harbour.  He said that it was inevitable that there will be a fatality at some point if the project goes through, mentioned that the Inner Harbour is very busy already, is the only harbour-airport in the country, and cited the astounding number of plane and helicopter trips in and out of it every year.  He encouraged people to write to Federal Minister John Baird.  Mr. Pollen thinks that Federal Minister Gary Lunn is the man to approach.  There is apparently some confusion as to strategy among the members of the newly-formed Victoria Harbour Defence Alliance.

Next came Maurine Karagianis, an NDP Esquimalt City Councillor for nine years, who is seeking election now for that socialist party in that neck of the woods.  She seemed very well versed on this issue, citing a letter from a former BC Liberal minister (John Hagen, now deceased)  that she said indicated clearly that the provincial BC Liberals support the VIM project and have done so for a number of years.  She said that candidates in the present election should be asked by their constituents whether they support the idea of the ’selling of the Victoria Inner Harbour.’  She was the last person to fill a seat beside Dr. Keith Martin, Alan Lowe and Peter Pollen.  The rest of the chairs on stage were left empty, which again I found looked strange, as if they had been anticipating other big shots who didn’t show up.

Questions from the floor followed.  Only one person spoke in favour of the proposed VIM.  That was Jane King, who identified herself as a person who lives on her sailboat.  She said that when John Travolta brought his luxury yacht to Victoria, they spent a lot of money fixing the thing up, even employing a friend of hers to varnish the woodwork.  She basically cajoled the audience with a kind of cheer-leader rhetoric, ‘Come on, Victoria, get with the international business that this will bring to our city.’  She was booed, which did not impress me, but I must say that it took courage on her part to face that hostile Vic High crowd.  

One heavy-set middle-aged woman painted a completely horrific picture of the type of people she thought would be likely to own these luxury yachts.  She said that she had partied with some questionable characters on such yachts when she was younger in Florida (this must have been 35 – 40 years ago, judging by her age).  

She suggested basically that they were mostly likely to be drug dealers, gun runners and other such bad actors that we ‘would not really want to meet at midnight.’  It was right after that lady’s remarks that both Mr. Lowe and Mrs. Karagianis emphasized that they were not opposed to berthing luxury yachts on this island completely, only not at that particular site.  Mrs. Karagiannis mentioned Ogden Point as a more suitable site.

Only one member of the present Victoria City Council had the temerity to address the audience, although two were there (Chris Coleman did not speak).  Councillor John Luton got up to the mic to say that the Victoria City Council had received a nice letter from a provincial bureaucrat, and that the Council were concerned about legal matters, and therefor could not do much more at this time.  Mr. Pollen dismissed Mr. Luton’s assertions as ‘nonsense,’ saying that he was never subject to a lawsuit the whole time he was in the Mayor’s seat, and basically he condemned again ‘this mute Council.’

Before I left, I got in line to ask a question.  I posed it to Mr. Pollen.  I introduced myself as representing the CCC, said that I very much appreciated Mr. Pollen’s efforts to get the meeting organized, and that I had the highest regard for him, and commended the other dignitaries who were sitting next to him for supporting him.  I said that although I was opposed, like most in the audience, to this particular project, I noted that two people that have recently written about this matter to the CCC BLOG were not there tonight, Denise Savoie and Lachlan MacLean, one of the developers.

I told the audience that Mr. MacLean was quite upset at not being invited to either the Savoie-Fortin ‘in camera‘ meeting at City Hall last week, nor to this one.  I posed the question to Mr. Pollen: had the developers been invited, but he deferred to the M. C . Mr. Milne, who informed us that this was basically a meeting for people who were ‘concerned and opposed’ to the VIM.  Mr. MacLean would have been free like the rest of the public to attend, but the committee didn’t feel it needed to send them direct invitations.  He mentioned that the developers had already had a meeting of their own, and that the opponents had not been inivited to that.  I found that petty-minded answer insufficient, and silently lamented the stubborn pride of humankind.  

Just as I was leaving, the last speaker was good old Betty Gibbens, who commended Mayor Pollen for his current work which she says is in the same tradition as his work on the harbour when they were both members of the now-defunct Victoria Harbour Enhancement Society, designed to frustrate the building of three 35-storey towers below Bastion Square.  That group was co-founded by my late father Peter George Hartnell, and used to hold its meetings at the Queen Victoria Inn, as it was then known, and owned by our family.

Memories of those days came flooding back and I decided to leave with them.

CCC

For two Times Colonist articles on these two public meetings on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, please refer to the comments section below for links.

CCC

Saturday March 29, 2008. After Race Rocks, the Ogden Point Dive Centre boat headed off to nearby Swordfish Island. Our surface interval was only 37 minutes, but the dives were only about half an hour each and not that deep (this one to 62 feet) so we were not pushing any limits. In the Caribbean, a dive of the same depth with the same tank would last about twice as long, so the extra equipment, cold water and cold weather really took a toll on our air consumption.

We were told there was a tunnel at a depth of less than 10 feet that led to the other side of the island, which was the best dive. A short swim took us close to that point, where we submerged and sure enough there was a beautifully decorated (by white anemones mostly) tunnel perhaps 20 feet long leading to the other side. We spent about 25 minutes exploring the other side, which was covered in Sea Stars and Anemones, with Greenlings swimming about, before returning back through the tunnel. One of the guys found an Octopus in its lair which it had protected with a pile rocks.

I was glad we were able to find the tunnel again. The entrance was difficult to distinguish amongst all the underwater life. As the tunnel was so shallow I dispensed with the safety stop and surfaced exactly 30  minutes after going in, exiting the chilly 7C water for even more chilly 5C air. The great disappointment of the day was that my camera battery, due to a combination of age and low temperature, didn’t last long into the dive, and I only took 2 fuzzy pictures which aren’t worth posting before it gave up. I have a second battery now (they are a complete ripoff, at about $50 apiece, as they probably cost 50 cents to make over in China) that does much better.

The Dive Centre had convenient fresh water showers, etc. to clean off the equipment. I took it back to the hotel and hung the dry suit up in the shower. The maid told us she was scared of it.

March 29, 2008 was not a warm day, with a high of only 5 degrees Celsius. It was also overcast. I had arranged with Ogden Point Dive Centre for a two-tank dive on both the Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, and headed over there early. Too early, as a matter of fact, as the place was a bit late in opening. I waited around for 20 minutes or so before the owner showed up, being joined by others in the same predicament.

The wait did give some time to inspect the Ogden Point Breakwater, a well known shore dive. Next time I’m there I’m definitely going to try it, although I’ll need to find myself a buddy.  It is 800 metres long with depths to 35 metres (about 115 feet).

The Ogden Point Breakwater

Once we were in, I set about getting weight (I tried 30 pounds, 6 pounds more than my fresh water weight) and tanks. The dives would be neither particularly deep nor long so Nitrox wasn’t considered. I rarely use Nitrox for single tank dives, although I find it useful occasionally. The next problem I had to deal with was somehow my computer (an Apeks Quantum) had set itself to metric. The guy behind the counter pulled the manual from the Internet and I figured out the right sequence to set it back to Imperial (hold buttons A and B down for 5 seconds while in DIVE mode).

There were 4 divers I think. The boat was trailered right in the parking lot and we got in, then were driven very slowly about half a kilometre to the launching ramp. That was a first for me, but it made sense logistically as we were ready to go as soon as the pickup truck was parked. It was a reasonably long boat ride to Race Rocks, as we were the better part of the way into US waters, heading south from Victoria to Washington State.

Last Canadian Outpost with Washington State in the Background

We were in the water at 9:30, which was slightly warmer than the air at 7C (33F). I had my trilaminate dry suit with various fleece things underneath, thick gloves and a hood. The big difference from cold water diving I’d done in the Lake of Ontario was the lack of thermocline. At least here you feel fairly warm on descent and on the safety stop, but there’s no relief in the ocean in winter.

I hadn’t really know what to expect on the dive, and was pleasantly suprised with the abundance of life on the bottom. There were fish, for sure, but the scallops, star fish, and anemones were amazingly plentiful.

A White Plumose Anemone

With the cold water, a moderate current, thick gloves and a dry suit, taking pictures wasn’t that easy, and many of them were taken with the subject partially out of the frame. Fortunately some of them turned out pretty well, although this Scallop was just barely in there.

Scallops look really funny when they’re swimming – opening and closing to propel themselves along in an ungainly fashion.

Starfish surrounded by Sea Urchins

There were all kinds of Starfish on the bottom. I’d like to get more information on identifying the various types and their habits. I wonder if they eat the Sea Urchins.

I thought this anemone was quite beautiful.

On our safety stop, we were surrounded by Kelp. Our bottom time was a mere 35 minutes, even though we didn’t get deeper than 53 feet. The extra weight and equipment, but especially the cold, increases the rate of breathing quite a lot. It takes practice to get used to it, and this being my first dive in 4 months I was a bit rusty.

This lovely couple came all the way from London, England…not just for their engagement photo session (ha!) but also because they will be wed here in Victoria in just over a week! Lucky me, I get to be there to witness and document the love

We didn’t have much in the way of sun, but come rain or shine, being by the ocean really is a wonderful thing. Alison and Chris were also so bright and cheery and were down for anything so they definitely made my job very easy!

Alison & Chris – I had a fab time with you both earlier this week and I cannot wait to see you both on your wedding day!!