Dan Rogers Turned Down Free Olympic Tickets

Sunday, February 07, 2010 06:18 AM

Prince George, B.C. - Prince George Mayor Dan Rogers just said ,”no” when offered a pair of tickets to an Olympic men’s hockey game along with accommodations in Vancouver.

According to the Globe and Mail, Rogers was one of several larger city mayors who were offered the tickets by the BC Lotto Corporation and turned them down.

Sharon Gaetz of Chilliwack said you need to stay on a straight line and not bend the rules. Scott Manjak of Cranbrook, John Ruttan of Nanaimo and Dianne Watts of Surrey also took a pass on the free tickets.

Mayor Peter Milobar of Kamloops is going, along with his wife, compliments of the BC Lotto Corp. Peter Fassbender of Langley, Wayne Lippert of Vernon and Derek Corrigan of Burnaby also accepted the offer.

3 million dollars in taxpayer funded tickets are being offered up. The province purchased $1 million dollars worth of tickets, and the City Of Vancouver bought $377,000.

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Posted on Sunday, February 07, 2010 06:18 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: whitewater on February 7 2010 7:14 AM

Glad to see our mayor owns a TV and knows he can watch the game with beer in hand.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on February 7 2010 7:26 AM

Good for Rodgers,it is the right thing to do...but what I would really like to know is who IS taking free tickets?
You can bet somebody will be keeping score on who has their hand out.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on February 7 2010 7:58 AM

Odd that they didn't just set up a system where certain politicians and V.I.P's are on list that gets them in free?(bring your I.D.)
This ticket thing is causing a lot of problems.
A simple list would have been better.
(sorry bigshot,you are not on the list..buy your own ticket!)
There would have also been nothing for them to scalp!
I don't really give a damn who goes to what,as long as my tax dollars are not paying for them!
Campbell should be held accountable for the one million in tax dollars he spent, just to give to his chosen few and that IS what he will do.
I have a feeling we are going to see some very nasty business with these tickets floating around!

Posted by: acrider54 on February 7 2010 8:14 AM

BC Liberals at their best

Posted by: acrider54 on February 7 2010 8:14 AM

Good for Dan

Posted by: Palopu on February 7 2010 8:44 AM

Lets not jump to a lot of conclusions.

Firstly. The Question asked by the Globe and Mail to Rodgers, and other Mayors was
**Will you use the Olympic tickets offered to you by the BCLC** His answer along with 4 other Mayors was No.

So what happens to the tickets????

Secondly. The fact that the Mayor is not using these tickets does not mean he is not going to the Olympics. Is he going, and who else at City Hall is going. Who is paying for the tickets, and how long will they be gone. If the Mayor goes will be be paid for every day he is away, or will it be part of his holidays.

Kinsley and his cronies managed to get to Turin and China on the Citys expenses, are we to beleive that the same wont happen with Vancouver???

Posted by: whelen on February 7 2010 8:45 AM

Is BC Lotories so out of touch to offer mayors of this province the tool for political suicide. Areality check is order for that management team!

Posted by: wantsfun on February 7 2010 8:46 AM

I believe it would be some of the Gamblers Dollars not Taxpayers, other than the Province purchased tickets, and is all monies that should go straight to Education and Health and let the Big Wigs Buy there Own Tickets..

Posted by: dan on February 7 2010 8:50 AM

He should have taken them, and then donated them to a charity or something.

Although the Olympic Committee probably doesn't allow charity raffles or anything that doesn't result in their direct profit.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on February 7 2010 9:02 AM

All good questions Palopu!
Good luck getting someone to answer them!

Posted by: Eagleone on February 7 2010 10:05 AM

Rather than set tickets aside for the host community VANOC charged full rate to the tax payer for the tickets and so the money is a transfer from the province to their pockets... fascism elelments.

Good to see Dan turned the tickets down.

A lot of questions need to be raised about the BC Lotteries Corp as well... they cut funding to charities this year... the sole purpose of their being IMO... and now they have money to buy politicians off for the Olympic events?

Posted by: Retired on February 7 2010 10:07 AM

If we cant find out if the Mayor went on our dime then we are in big trouble.
Cheers

Posted by: Andyfreeze on February 7 2010 10:30 AM

Also a valid point about B.C. Lotteries Eagleone.
What the hell are they doing buying tickets after cutting any amount of funding??
Mind you...they are also a "crown corporation"...aka B.C. government in disguise.

Posted by: acopolympics on February 7 2010 10:41 AM

"Is BC Lotories so out of touch to offer mayors of this province the tool for political suicide." ...
Do you really think the voters will remember this in 3 or 4 years? In PG anyways.

Posted by: RUEZ on February 7 2010 11:33 AM

According to an article in the Province. A mayor from the Lower Mainland who was offered tickets and refused them also said it would be illegal for any mayor to accept them. If this is the case I hope they prosecute all politicians who accepted these gifts.

Posted by: saywhat on February 7 2010 12:10 PM

I just hope there is a camera set to look at the area where the seats are that match up to these tickets.It would be a real shame if the taxpayers paid for a whole section of seats that didn't even get used.Now that will be a waste of tax dollars.

Posted by: verballabel on February 7 2010 12:19 PM

What about the Aussies getting in trouble for hanging their mascot flag out of the athletes village..?! It should be taken down and replaced by either Coke or RBC.

Posted by: billposer on February 7 2010 12:39 PM

The alleged justification for giving free tickets to politicians is so that they can schmooze with foreign VIPs and bring in business for BC. I seriously doubt that this is a good way to bring in business. I'd be okay with giving the Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Arts free tickets, but what are the odds of most MLAs or mayors doing anything useful at the Olympics? Nor do I see how it is useful to do this as an advertisement for BC Lotto: what kind of foreign business are they looking for?

Posted by: Oldun on February 7 2010 1:21 PM

The government has just cut lottery grants to seniors and PACs. It's now all coming clear. They are more interested in free tickets for their cronies than they are in seniors and children. I wouldn't expect any thing different from Gordo. i wonder if Bell, Rustad and Bond got free tickets. Only for business reasons of course.

Posted by: dow7500 on February 7 2010 1:51 PM

Although I don't agree with the lottery corp even buying tickets, I don't think it is out of line for municiple mayors to attend these games. The Olympics are in our back yard for likely the only time in our history. Expecting our elected officials to watch it on TV may play well in the politics of envy, but we would look pretty foolish on a global stage. It's tough for many to stomach this event given the cost and the global government revenue collapse, but it's here and happening. Lets not deepen the rift in front of the world.

Posted by: Honestjoe on February 7 2010 5:09 PM

Good for Dan Rogers. Isn't it time to get a lot of these people off the taxpayer's payroll! How about MLA Shirley Bond? She seems to show up for every photo op but not much else. She definitely does not answer her emails. Pat Bell does try hard to represent us and does keep in touch with the voters of B.C.

Posted by: billposer on February 7 2010 5:18 PM

If mayors want to attend and can make an argument for doing so on city funds that won't get them in trouble with their constituents, okay. But I don't understand the argument for them attending at the expense of the provincial government. Is the argument that in other countries they do so we will look silly?

Posted by: Mr. PG on February 7 2010 5:52 PM

Idiot!

Posted by: opinionated on February 7 2010 6:04 PM

Can we all just give credit where credit is due. Our mayor has ethics, pure and simple.

Posted by: Palopu on February 7 2010 8:33 PM

Its not ethics when in fact it may be in contravention of the law. Its more like common sense.

Posted by: Mr. PG on February 7 2010 9:13 PM

Dan Rogers has displayed the symptoms of a rookie politician.

A politically astute mayor, would have accpted the tickets and then donated them to a deserving charity. To snub the Provincial governemnt is not a wise move. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that Prince George did not get the Provincial grants that they recently applied for.

DUMB MOVE DAN!

Posted by: dow7500 on February 7 2010 9:35 PM

billposer, my argument is that this is one of the highest profile international events on the planet and its in our province. Having our elected officials attend is not only appropriate but expected. Time to grow up on this issue and act like we belong on the world stage.

Posted by: pgmatt on February 7 2010 9:40 PM

I would have taken them and went. Its Olympic mens hockey who cares about taking some flack about it. I will not vote for Dan now.

Posted by: Harbinger on February 7 2010 10:14 PM

As he should. This is a small town. He wouldn't want this to add on to the fact he will be a one term guy.

Posted by: Harbinger on February 7 2010 10:17 PM

When I fill in my provincial income tax box this April, I will surely look for the cost of these tickets for Dan.

Posted by: Charlie B on February 8 2010 9:26 AM

Do we not elect a Mayor to represent our city. THe only reason I can see that Dan Rogers turned down the tickets is purely Political and he thinks he will get votes from the anti Olympic side. In actual fact what he is doing is showing lack of leadership. There is a chance by attending he could make a contact with heads of corporations and could promote PG as a place to consider for investments. By not attending you can be assured other cities will have a better chance. If you think there is never business conducted at events like this you are very wrong.

Posted by: schoolmom on February 8 2010 10:09 AM

As he should turn them down!! Good on you Dan. Shame on this government wasting 1 million in tax payers dollars. That's 1 million that would be much better spent keeping our schools open or put into health care. It's not that our province doesn't have the money for these things its just that it is allocated to the wrong things. There are obviously priorities screwed up somewhere in government.

Posted by: acopolympics on February 8 2010 10:57 AM

Well if Olympic waste bothers you, they have now installed a multimillion dollar weather forecasting system for the Olympics which they have which they call "nowcasting" instead of "forecasting". The idea being they can now tell what the weather is doing in a specific area of the venue instanly rather than have to predict it. Seems to me they could have done the same thing using people with wind speed indicators, thermometers and radios at virtually no cost to the taxpayers. But as with everything at these games, if they aren't super hitech and cost tons of money they are a waste of time. Imagine....nowcasting...seems to me you can do the same just looking out your windows.

Posted by: acopolympics on February 8 2010 11:00 AM

Just to add to that last post...that is part of the great infrastructure that will remain long after the Olympics are gone. Thats good, except it is useless for anywhere other than the Whistler area and I would hazard a guess it really has no useful or practical application now or in the future.

Posted by: greta on February 8 2010 6:17 PM

So Dan Rogers didn't accept the tickets and then donate them to a charity - give me a break - he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't and I don't even like him.................get over it!