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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/526329
vAncouver Sun july 2015 BCBusiness 137 that people in the rest of the province were seeing sprinkled in the big city. "And it would make it easier for people who came to Expo to also visit the Interior," says Smith. "As it happened, though, it made it easier for people from the interior to get to Expo." But the impact on the province was significant and lasting, he says, adding that Bennett was, very consciously, using these major projects to help build the province out of the recession. The other quirky story from that period was the pressure that the dutiful Bennett put on an equally dutiful entrepreneur and "interim" Expo boss, Jim Pattison. Bennett had pressed Pattison into service in 1981, selling him on a "day-a-week" commitment, just to get the fair off the ground. By 1983 that had morphed into full-time work, and having fulfilled his initial two-year commitment, Pattison resigned. The 86-year-old multi- billionaire remembers what happened next. "The pre- mier called and asked if we could have dinner. So we went out on my boat, just the two of us, sitting on the back deck with the sun on the horizon, and he said, 'Jimmy, I'd like you to stay on.' And I said, 'No! I've got a company to run. I can't do it.' And he said, 'Jimmy, the province has been good to you, hasn't it?' And I said yes, and he said, 'If people like you won't help me, who do I turn to?' So I said, 'OK, you're right.' And I promised him two more years." In the end, Pattison stayed for the duration—and delivered a stunning success. Opening on May 2, 1986, with a visit from Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, the fair turned into a party that lasted all summer. Pattison and company had budgeted for a total attendance of 14 million, but the fair drew 22 million visitors—all wandering through a town that was alive with buskers and bicycle rickshaws and other revellers from around the world. Whatever had happened to the early '80s recession, by 1986 it was nowhere in sight. The rest of the story is now faded but happy history. Although the property sale to Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing was con- troversial, the transformation of False Creek and the subse- quent redevelopment of Marathon Realty's Coal Harbour lands have remade Vancouver. And the reputation the city secured in 1986 was almost certainly a factor in later winning the Olympic bid for 2010. The attention, the investment and the development energy that Bennett initiated forever changed the face of a city where the man himself never lived. Gordon Campbell—who, as mayor of Vancouver, oversaw the redevelopment of the Expo property and, as premier from 2001 to 2011, was instrumental in supporting and building the infra- structure for the 2010 Olympics—had a similar reputation to his predecessor: even on his best days, he was respected more than loved. Looking back, Campbell calls Bennett "the best mayor Vancouver never had," praising him not just for his performance but also his humility. "The people who are most inclined to take the credit are often the people who deserve it the least," he says. "The Vancouver that people know today wouldn't be if not for Bill Bennett's vision, his tenacity and his commitment." W alk past the roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown today and you get only a brief, romanticized sense of what Vancouver was only a short time ago. Instead of lumber mills and barrel factories, False Creek is now famous for glittering condo towers, expansive public spaces and a sweeping seawall that connects almost 30 kilometres of accessible urban waterfront— a feature unmatched anywhere in the world. Others deserve credit for the nature of this development, but the man who prepared the canvas, who linked in some of the infrastructural pieces to make Vancouver and B.C. func- tion more efficiently, retired to Kelowna— presumably with no thought to seizing a prominent penthouse from which to oversee his handiwork and pronounce on his record. Some will attribute this as an unhappy but inevitable result of the circumstance in which he, his brother Russell and their friend Herb Doman wound up paying $1 million to the BC Securities Commission to resolve an insider trading case, the details of which will always stain Bennett's record. But Bill Bennett the public servant was never really that guy. As former Vancouver Sun columnist Marjorie Nichols wrote in her book Mark My Words, "Bill Bennett did not profit personally one iota from his time in office." Unlike the politicians who might wrinkle their nose at cheese of the wrong temperature, Bennett had no pretensions, says Nichols: "After he came to power in 1975, he kept [for- mer premier Dave] Barrett's car, a 1973 gold-coloured Chevrolet, and he kept using it right to the end when he stepped out in 1986." This being British Colum- bia—the land of the partisan snarl—there are also those on the left who believe that Bennett earned the enmity that he carried into retirement. "Bill Bennett used the economic downturn as an excuse to institute a very right wing agenda," says Bill Tieleman, the NDP and labour-affiliated consultant and columnist. "He did things that 40 to 50 per cent of the BenneTT had pressed paTTi- son inTo serviCe in 1981, selling him on a "day-a- weeK" CommiT- menT, jusT To geT The fair off The ground. By 1983 ThaT had morphed inTo full-Time worK, and having fulfilled his iniTial Two-year CommiTmenT, paTTison resigned