FORGET SAFE DRUG SITES, THINK OLYMPICS

The speech Frank Sartor, the gung-ho mayor of Sydney, Australia, gave last
week at the Hyatt Regency was a barn-burner.

Sartor spoke of how Sydney, which in the early 1990s was a depressed,
nine-to-five city, piggy-backed on the 2000 Summer Olympics to become a
vibrant, 24-hour-a-day metropolis.

And the Lower Mainland suits, gathered for a lunch organized by the Greater
Vancouver Community Leadership Summit, lapped it up.

They clearly warmed to the Sydney mayor's dry wit, strong leadership vision
and useful tips for Vancouver-Whistler to snag the 2010 Winter Olympics.

But, the first question put to the Sydney mayor was not about our own
exciting winter games bid -- or even about how Vancouver could shed its "no
fun" city image.

It was from Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen. And it was about Sartor's
experience with "safe injection sites" for drug addicts -- an issue which
seemed curiously out of context.

Now, we can all sympathize with the plight of those who, through all the
usual human failings, have fallen into life's gutter, aka the Downtown
Eastside.

We can even agree that they should be given a helping hand.

But, many of us long-suffering taxpayers balk at the prospect of Owen and
the gang using any more of our hard-earned cash to cater to their cravings
- -- by acting as their drug supplier and their Santa Claus rolled into one.

Why would any sane person consider "safe injection sites" when free needles
and other free programs in this benighted neighbourhood have worked so
poorly? They've only made matters worse.

And why is the treatment of drug addicts almost an addiction for Owen, who
was elected to provide leadership, not simply for highly subsidized
junkies, but for all Vancouver residents.

In the words of Vancouver entertainment manager and CFOX radio talk show
host Bruce Allen: "It's a disgrace and it's not getting any better."

The colourful Allen, who represents such singing celebs as Brian Adams and
Anne Murray, claims that the bland Owen has his civic priorities all mixed up.

"The public isn't concerned about safe injection sites," Allen told me
yesterday. "All they want is the stuff cleaned up."

Like Owen, the 56-year-old Allen hails from Vancouver's tony West Side.
Unlike Owen, he hasn't metamorphosed into a silk-stocking socialist. And
his rock promoter's heart clearly doesn't bleed for those with needle
fixations.

After all, he has a close-up view of their publicly-financed drug dealings
from his office at Carrall and Hastings, at the centre of the combat zone.
And unlike Owen, Allen is not a man who could be accused of lacking in
personality.

Which is why he would make a splendid candidate if Vancouver decided ever
to vote in a municipal leader with some pizzazz.

"I would definitely be a populist mayor," says Allen.

Owen appears appalled at the prospect, suggesting that B.C. needs colourful
political leaders like it needs a hole in the head.

But, has a succession of dull mayors over the past couple of decades really
served our tourist city well? All it's done, in my view, is sap the city of
its sizzle.

It's time to elect Allen or draft Sartor. And let's leave Owen to become
Mayor of the Downtown Eastside.