VANCOUVER HAS THREE YEARS TO CLEAN UP

WHISTLER, B.C. - The date is Feb. 12, 2010, where for 16 days this
little town two hours north of Vancouver will be the centre of world
television and don't you think we're proud - and a little nervous.

The Winter Olympics poobahs knew what they were doing.

The two biggest ski mountains in North America right outside your
ski-in, ski-out condo, a mile of vertical drop for skiers, 8,200
acres, 200 named runs, breathtaking views and, as one ski writer put
it, "more bowls than Conrad Black's china service."

Best of all: no traffic jams. To have traffic jams, you have to have
cars. Thanks to the genius of some stubborn mountain guys here some 25
years ago who designed the town, you can't see a single car at Whistler.

They're all banished far away on vast parking lots that are out of
sight. The result is that you have a walkable village that could have
been plucked out of an Austrian or Swiss retreat in the Alps.

There's nothing like it on this continent. Grouped around village
squares, walk from your restaurant to your jeweler to your pub to your
bank to your restaurant to your restaurant with the ski lift within
sight past the last pub.

On any stroll you can spot the Japanese - spiffiest ski togs of all.
Drifting by are the French accents - in the restaurants especially,
naturally: the Germans, the unmistakable Brits, some Chinese. They're
all checking out the joint.

At the top of the Whistler run there is the usual food stop for the
hungry mob seeking burgers and beer. But this is different.
Christine's has pristine white tablecloths, silver cutlery and (hello
there, Conrad) china tea cups.

A European couple at the next table, amazed, say there is nothing like
this even in St. Moritz - all the classy restaurants are down below at
the foot of the mountain.

There's only one fly in the ointment. The smart local boys, Intrawest,
who own the Whistler-Blackcomb complex also own Mont Tremblant outside
Montreal and have made so much moola by mixing condo development into
their plans that New York money came sniffing.

Something aptly named Pirate Capital quietly acquired 18 per cent of
Intrawest in the last year. The local lads grew nervous and have
announced their plans to be purchased by Fortress Investment Group, a
firm based in New York - with some $23 billion of institutional funds
in their portfolio.

So now little Whistler village where you can't see the cars will be
bossed by some chaps in Manhattan who have had no connection or
experience with ski resorts - and have probably never seen snow.

Hold onto your poles.