Ziptrek Ecotours

Gordon Campbell hangs from a wire

It was Gordon Campbell as British Columbians have never seen him.

To launch the zip line ride above downtown Robson Square, the B.C. premier was strapped in four storeys up and rode 170 metres across the downtown core like a feisty sock pulled along a clothesline.

Mr. Campbell and former Olympian Charmaine Crooks were the first to take a ride on the line, which will be available to the public for free once the Winter Olympics begin on Feb. 12th.

Was he nervous before? In an unrelated media appearance before his go, he deadpanned: “They needed someone to take the first ride of the zip line and figured who better to sacrifice than the premier.”

But up in the air, the Liberal premier was as bullish about the ride as he has been about other aspect of the games.

“Go Canada go,” Mr. Campbell whooped at one point during the ride, observed by dozens of reporters, one of his two sons, staff, officials and bystanders from the streets and square below.

The ride, which spans the B.C. Supreme Court Building, bustling Robson Street and ends at a tower beside the Art Gallery of Vancouver, went without a hitch.

One German TV reporter, perhaps confusing his Canadian political terminology, was among the first to officially ask the premier how it went.

“How was the feeling, prime minister, when you were flying like a Thunderbird through the city?”

“Thank you for that,” the premier quipped, presumably referring to the accidental status elevation.

He said the worst part was stepping off the tower at one step of the ride – a motion that launched him. “You may not have noticed this, but I was trying to do a somersault backwards and I didn't quite make it.”

Mr. Campbell said he had not had a practice run. “The only practice I've had is stepping off the ledge of other proverbial cliffs,” he said.

During the brief ride, he said he enjoyed the view for the sight of all the symbols that include a 2,000 square metre Canadian flag wrapped around the nearby 12-storey Hotel Georgia.

“The big Canadian flag is going to be a symbol of what we're excited about around these Olympics,” he said.

On another subject, the premier said he will be pleased to welcome Prime Minister Stephen Harper next Thursday when Mr. Harper delivers his first-ever speech to a provincial legislature, thanking British Columbians for their work on the games.

Mr. Harper this week accepted a formal invitation from the speaker of the B.C. legislature. Both the governing Liberals and opposition NDP must pass a motion to provide the prime minister with leave to speak, but the leaders of the two parties have said that will be a formality.

“I appreciate the fact that he's coming. It's great that he's coming,” Mr. Campbell told reporters.

Asked about the issue of the prime minister speaking to the B.C. legislature while Parliament is controversially prorogued, Mr. Campbell said he is busy enough dealing with B.C. affairs, but noted a throne speech will be presented Tuesday in the legislature before Mr. Harper's Thursday speech. Then the house will adjourn for the Olympics.

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Ian Bailey. "Gordon Campbell hangs from a wire" The Globe and Mail
Available: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gordon-campbell-hangs-from-a-wire/article1458125/