The Whitehorse host society shepherding the 2008 Junior World Weightlifting Championship faced a tough decision.
Withdraw its offer to host the event or continue negotiations with the federation.
There was much at stake.
Coming in an Olympic year, the championships would have lavished international attention on Whitehorse.
The local economy would have seen a few benefits, especially the restaurants and hotels.
The sport, at which locals have excelled, would have received a needed boost.
Not to mention that organizers have already spent two years planning the event.
Despite all this, the society walked away.
That couldn’t have been easy.
The right decisions often aren’t.
But with the international federation changing the rules on the fly, the host society didn’t have much choice.
The federation insisted on the right to pull out of Whitehorse on a month’s notice. That’s ridiculous.
And it wanted arbitration of such a decision held in Switzerland, which tips the scales against the locals.
And it wanted the society to absorb a reduction in the per-participant cost, which it demanded dropped to $100 from $140 per day.
Apparently, the local society had the money to do this.
But, there is a line.
The society started to realize that the world of international sport is a deep, dark place.
There were clearly forces at work that were beyond the territory’s ability to deal with.
Faced with that, despite the benefits, the organizers walked away.
It was undoubtedly a hard decision.
But it was the right one. (RM)
RETAIL SHENANIGANS
Loonie tunes
Canadian retailers are, apparently, preparing to pass along our high-dollar savings to consumers.
It’s going to take a while — about six months, apparently.
Why?
As of June, the loonie cracked 94 cents US.
That’s within six cents of parity.
So why, for example, are Canadians currently still being charged $42 for a book published in October that retails for $35 in Canada?
That’s a 17 per cent discrepancy.
The loonie has been steadily gaining on the greenback since before October ‘06.
So what gives?
Sure, the Canadian dollar cracked a psychological barrier when its value overtook the US currency in September.
But it has been rising consistently for a year and those savings have not been passed on to consumers.
Funnily enough, Canadian exporters are already feeling the pinch of our higher dollar.
So, it is beyond time that retail prices began to reflect the strength of our dollar. (RM).