Pandas for the PM, elephant for the Premier

Prime Minister Stephen Harper received two giant pandas as a gift from the People's Republic of China on March 25 in Toronto. Female Er Shun and male Da Mao will make Canada their home for the next decade.

Meanwhile, Premier Christy Clark is expected to receive an Indian elephant on behalf of British Columbians as a gift for hosting the inaugural, April 4-6 Times of India Film Awards in Vancouver. 

TOIFA trophy unveiling on Jan. 22 in Vancouver.

TOIFA has been dogged by controversy since the Jan. 22 announcement because of the $11 million taxpayer subsidy and the timing, just five weeks before the provincial election. Tickets are still available. Many tickets.

Tourism Vancouver is having fun with TOIFA.

The special mammal cargo from the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary was sent as a gift of the Government of India, aboard the freighter Prabhu Daya, with a veterinarian and a trainer. The Singapore-flagged bulk carrier arrived in Port Metro Vancouver last week from Mumbai and the pachyderm was delivered under cover of night to a secret barn at the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove (Fort Langley-Aldergrove's MLA is Deputy Premier Rich Coleman).

The two-tonne female elephant named Murkha was chosen because it was born Feb. 26, 2011, the day Clark won her party's leadership contest. Murkha is expected to be featured in the "Jai Ho" grand finale number of the gala awards at B.C. Place Stadium; a loading bay at the stadium has been outfitted as Murkha's "dressing room." The Times of India Film Awards' trophy features a black elephant holding a film reel in its trunk. 

Spokeswoman Avril Tromper said a photo opportunity, featuring Clark and Coleman riding Murkha the Elephant, is expected to happen just before noon on April 1.

Time ticking for Nine O'Clock Gun

The end is nigh for the Nine O'Clock Gun in Vancouver's Stanley Park.


The most famous sound of the city, heard around the region every night, is to be immediately replaced. A staff report to the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation cites the cannon's connotations of war and violence, along with increasing maintenance costs.

Vancouver's Nine O'Clock Gun (Xenyx at en.wikipedia)

It recommends the Vision Vancouver-majority board approve an open-microphone and long-range acoustic device be used instead to transmit a different live or recorded sound nightly for five seconds or less.


"Just as B.C. Place Stadium can change the colour of its exterior lights on a nightly basis, the sound heard around Metro Vancouver at 9 p.m. every evening can and should be different," the staff report said. "This will further enhance the city and region's character and offer new creative and promotional opportunities to the arts and cultural community."


A list of potential sounds includes a Buddhist temple gong, Vancouver Canucks' goal fanfare, Bryan Adams' guitar riff, Sarah McLachlan warble, Nardwuar the Human Serviette's "Doot-doola-doot-do," an excerpt from a Southsiders' chant, the lion roar sound effect from B.C. Lions' games, the Hastings Racecourse bugle fanfare, a dog whistle, ahooga horn and whoopee cushion.


The project would come at no cost to taxpayers, because one sound every month would be sold to a corporation. The report offered the Intel chime or Nokia ring tone as examples of such commercial sounds that would put money into city coffers for operation of the microphone and LRAD and area landscaping.


The staff report proposes selling the cannon to the highest bidder on the e-Bay auction website, but recommends against using Craigslist.


The gun is said to be a naval type, 12-pound muzzle-loader that was cast in 1816 by H&C King in the London, England borough of Woolwich during the reign of King George III. It was brought to Vancouver around 1894 and fired for the first time here on Oct. 5, 1898 to aid marine navigators. In 1969, University of B.C. Engineers briefly kidnapped the Nine O'Clock Gun. In 2008 they painted it red. It was restored for the city's 1986 centennial. The sound of the blast has carried as far away as Mission.


The pavilion, designed by architect Gregory Henriquez, will remain and house both the microphone and LRAD.


The city's noon-time O Canada horns at Canada Place will remain as-is. Those were originally installed at the B.C. Electric Building, but are now the custody of a federal Crown corporation.


A news conference is planned for beside the Nine O'Clock Gun at Hallelujah Point in Stanley Park just before noon on April 1st.

Green Gregor to balance budget with bike tolls?

Vancouver city hall's latest bid to balance the budget is a plan to toll cyclists on downtown bike lanes.

A document obtained by QMI shows that sensors were embedded in the pavement along Dunsmuir and Hornby streets and the Burrard Bridge. A sole-source contract was awarded to Cubic Technologies, the San Diego company behind
TransLink's 2013 Compass card and fare gates, to sell the mandatory transponders to cyclists.

Cyclists will be required to pay $5 to affix the transponder to their bikes. They will be charged 25 cents per city block and be billed monthly by Verrus, which also handles mobile phone parking meter payments for the city.

A press conference is planned for noon April 1.