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Cascadia: The New Frontier

Peter Severinson

| February 3, 2010

Image by: BCBusiness

How the 2010 Winter Games may help turn a decades-old dream for Cascadia into reality.

Ever since Vancouver won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, there has been a strong effort to market the event as “Canada’s Games.” It’s only natural, of course: the federal government wants to use the Olympics to enhance our national identity, and VANOC wants to gain a national scope to raise the commercial value of Olympic sponsorships.

But still, when international visitors get their first glimpses of Vancouver as they pass the stunning Haida and Coast Salish art at YVR’s international terminal, when they catch their first whiff of ocean air outside the arrivals doors, when the SkyTrain crests that first ridge on the trip downtown, revealing the dramatic cut of the North Shore mountains, is it really Canada our guests will see?

The centre of Canada, after all – not just geographically but also in terms of culture, commerce, industry and politics – is far from here. Vancouver has much more in common, on all those fronts, with our neighbours in Seattle and Portland than we do with our counterparts in Calgary and Montreal. And there’s little doubt that, as far as the Olympics is concerned, Seattle has much more to gain than Saskatoon – or even Kelowna.

That is why there’s an equally strong effort, on the part of many people in the Pacific northwest, to claim these 2010 Games as their own and to use the 16-day event as a springboard for advancing what has, to this point, been a rather abstract notion of cross-border regional unity. That notion is called Cascadia.

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Really, the future is an

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2010-03-11 21:43.

Really, the future is an important part of our culture? Then why is British Columbia trapped in a time warp of 150 years of colonial confusion? Not very Cascadian if you ask me. But then again, that goes hand in hand with the laissez-faire attitude of Cascadia and amplified by a name that doesnt even attempt to unite us. These imperial names, ceremonies, policies, icons and symbols are very antithetical to the West Coast Cascadian autonomous thought and individualism. It's time for the people of this province and region (of Canada) to start looking ahead to a new collective identity and topple the Colonialisms (with only ourselves to blame) that subverts everything out here from racial diversity (dont even try to argue that BC is as diverse and multi-cultural as Ontario and Quebec), the true power of the our Nature in artistic terms, to saying British Columbia without feeling confused as to why in the 21st century its not instead called, "Canadian Columbia." Are we Canadian or are we British. We better make up our minds because the "hommage to the past" shtick is like oil in water to the spirit of modernity lingering under Double Decker Union-Jacked Bus touristic surface. We need an identity that will unite us and that which can stand the test of time. This is a very complex region, home to complex people. People move to California to be Californians. People don't move to BC because they want to define themselves as "British" Columbians. We're at critical mass folks, and we need a name and identity that can stimulate and be respectful of new immigrants and the rapidly changing zeitgeist of modern Canada, and Cascadia. But most of all, to show that we have respect ourselves. This is the closest thing I've found an active forum on this issue: http://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/bc-needs-a-name-change-t368717.html