Comments on: Vancouver Aquarium has an Orwellian moment

By: steve

steve — Sun, 14 May 2006 07:33:43 +0000

Hi Nathan. Please feel free to point out where I slag off the Canadian dollar, or Canada. I think you’re confusing the poster with the commenters, but I could be wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Canada is a great place. Vancouver is a great place. The aquarium was a lot of fun. The aquarium was a tourist trap. I didn’t have a problem with this. I didn’t have a problem with the photo booth. I had a problem with being kept behind at the photo booth because we didn’t want our picture taken (if we’re not going to buy it what’s the point) whilst people went ahead.

I never travelled to Canada to make my UK currency go further. I travelled to Canada because I’d never been, was going to a conference there and needed a holiday. We went to Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Niagara and had a great time everywhere we went meeting some great people along the way. Is it so hard to believe that someone might want to visit Canada because it’s an interesting place to go?

You contradict yourself in your own comments “Yes they would have liked to sell you a photo. But no it wouldn’t have been used for commercial gain.” – Err, isn’t selling it to me commercial gain?

“It’s a business. The $2 would have gone to animal welfare organizations.” Sorry, I don’t believe that the $35 and profits from money spent in the shop wouldn’t have gone to animal welfare projects and that the whole of the $2 would have gone there. That’s just nuts. I’ve worked with and in charities before and believe me when I say they do make a profit, they have to because ultimately without it they cease to exist, and not all of your money goes towards aiding people.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 14 May 2006 01:07:50 +0000

It’s called tourism, sir. People go to far off distant lands to spend their money, and see some things they havent seen before. Sometimes you get suckered into buying city based tshirts such as the ever so popular “I heart NY” or a tiny figurine of “the worlds largest…”. My point, don’t gripe about someone at a tourist destination trying to attempt to sell you a tourist style item. They are just doing their job and trying to make ends meet themselves, so perhaps one day they will be able to go somewhere else away from their job to enjoy a little bit more that life has to offer. It truly is silly how you published this photo with your attitude an all about people publishing images without permission. If you know anything about copyright laws, organizations in canada can not publish photos for any commercial reason whether for profit or not, without the expressed consent of the subject. With that in consideration, yes, they would have liked to sell you a photo. But no it wouldn’t have been used for commercial gain as you so assume, so don’t flatter yourself. If it was, you would probably have a nice lawsuit on your hands, as potentially the Vancouver Aquarium definitely does against you. Did those people in the background deny the aquarium photographers as well? Well…you definitely screwed them didn’t you? Feel proud? And slagging the Canadian dollar? Are you for real? You travel to Canada to, I assume, make your UK currency go a little further, and you slag Canada? You, sir, are out of line in more ways than one. A two dollar donation…..? Your 35 went to overhead. Wages, animal food, electricity, phones, that sort of thing. Its a business. The $2 would have gone to animal welfare organizations. Ones that help wild or domestic animals such as my mothers dog which may die by the end of the summer if he does not get a $2000 operation, which she can not afford. Thanks for the help!

By: steve

steve — Mon, 08 May 2006 07:44:25 +0000

I don’t see it as Canadian baiting to be perfectly honest. It was a specific isolated incident involving a small group of Canadians (versus the population as a whole). On the whole I thought Vancouver was a fantastic city and that Canada is a great country. Quite frankly the Canadian Dollar (the real monopoly money is down south where they print it freely without worrying about how much they’re printing due to the oil and currency pegging) deserves to overtake its American counterpart given the USD’s slide under the current administration.

By: isabel

isabel — Mon, 08 May 2006 05:59:29 +0000

Canadian baiting: they *always* go for it.

By: Fell

Fell — Sun, 07 May 2006 23:23:32 +0000

Good post. However, as I have to play my patriotic part, the Canadian dollar is worth > 90Â¢ USD. It has been set to continue rising this year, and several analysts are calling for the loonie to reach parity with its U.S. counterpart by 2007.

The loonie’s been flying in large part because the U.S. economy has been struggling to get off the ground. Washington is facing budget and trade deficits that have never been higher. In 2005, the U.S. bought $723.6 billion more in foreign goods and services than it sold, registering yet another record annual trade deficit.