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No great expectations: a baker’s dozen of fanciful predictions for 2018

Fearless predictions, at this time of year, usually prove to be groundless predictions. I prefer fanciful predictions: more idealistic and baggage-free, less likely to be fulfilled, and therefore unencumbered by evidence or expectations.
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Fearless predictions, at this time of year, usually prove to be groundless predictions.

I prefer fanciful predictions: more idealistic and baggage-free, less likely to be fulfilled, and therefore unencumbered by evidence or expectations.

This baker’s dozen comprise my hopes beyond hopes for 2018.

1) I would hope that one government, any government, would determine that openness is not a vulnerability but a virtue – that one of the reasons governments are not trusted is that they do not respect people by sharing information about how and why decisions are reached. At a federal, provincial and municipal level, there is so much room for growth and so much stubbornness about it. At every turn, it seems, some smarty pants devises a new strategy to withhold, delay, destroy or confound.

2) I would wish that we have a spin-free, coherent discussion on whether we truly need proportional representation in the province, to understand how it will elect additional MLAs, how they will aid interests and how we make sure they are based in the communities they will serve. We are changing the course of our politics in a mad rush to appease a political alliance that, ironically, would more than likely mean no NDP majority government ever and no substantial Green representation once people find more germane options for their votes.

3) I would want all four of our major sports franchises to make the playoffs. The community enlivens when regular victories are in the air. We forget about the Canadians; they’re perennial contenders or champions. The Lions are a couple of good bounces away from a new two-decade playoff streak. The Whitecaps are a player or two from contention, as long as Toronto FC loses a player or two. And as long as the Canucks can replicate Brock Boeser a dozen or so times, they’re right back in it.

4) I would like BC Liberal leadership candidates to stop saying the party didn’t listen. Remember, you’re saying this to your supporters – they were supposed to be listening, too. You’re not making them happy.

5) I would prefer our media to cover less and uncover more. A contributing factor to decline is undifferentiated coverage largely available free. The more you can stand apart – and stand up – the better your chances in the turmoil of evolving media business models that have little light at the end of the tunnel. We need to recognize that a press conference is not an event of journalism but one of fairly-well-paid stenography.

6) I have a true yearning for a CBC The National with fewer anchors than reporters on a given evening.

7) I desire a day of reckoning for the illegal cannabis dispensaries making tens of millions of dollars in our city and lifting their middle fingers to the feeble municipal bylaws, at least before we legalize and legitimize the better players among them to make far less but operate far more safely.

8) I would want us to contemplate a world – well, a city – in which snow is first cleared from walking paths.

9) I wish to see the new city logo, now that it is enmeshed in an intergalactic committee consultation and creation process.

10) I would like to stop feeling badly for the residents of other cities when I travel, in that they do not have North America’s best airport eight years running. Certainly that must wear on them.

11) I hope in my heart – I would even pray – that Donald Trump forgets his Twitter password and loses his TV remote locked on Fox News. What a wonderful world that would be.

12) I would love it if people under an umbrella would not also walk under awnings.

13) I would be so happy if we could all wake up one day in the sudden realization and revelation of what is a blockchain, how Bitcoin is created and valued, and how we might now feel safe in getting in on the ground floor of an ICO.

Kirk LaPointe is editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver Media Group and vice-president of Glacier Media.