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Alberta Train on wrong track

Every now and then, politicians or business owners try to influence journalists with an all-expenses-paid junket or an expensive gift.
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Every now and then, politicians or business owners try to influence journalists with an all-expenses-paid junket or an expensive gift.

When a media representative enters into such an unethical bargain, it is with the obvious but generally unstated assumption that he or she will spin news coverage about the donor’s organization in a positive way.

It’s a sleazy arrangement, but unfortunately it happens.

In North America, it is most blatant in the field of automotive journalism and movie star interviews. Ironically, it is most often practised by the big media players — who ought to know better and be able to cover their own expenses — though the little guys get into the act every now and then.

The latest example of this is this province’s Alberta Train at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Alberta government spent $8.5 million over the past three years on the train and Alberta House in downtown Vancouver — promoting investment and tourism.

The total bill for Alberta’s Olympic festivities is said to be about $14 million; however, so far at least, the Conservatives haven’t revealed exactly how much it cost to rent the train.

The government booked the Rocky Mountaineer for runs between Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., between Feb. 12 and 28, even though it says it doesn’t have the money to hire as many nurses as it would like. Media representatives rode for free, although some business people had to pay for the trip.

Media members who rode the train were each given an eight-GB iPod Touch (valued at $200). The government has tried to downplay that questionable freebee by explaining the iPod was simply part of a media kit.

Depending on the time of day they rode the train, journalists had access to an open bar or had to make do with non-alcoholic champagne mixed with orange juice.

Food on the train included every thing from a breakfast of Mountain Pass Pancakes, with a side of boar bacon and maple syrup and an aperitif, to Braised Elk on a Ciabatta Bun for dinner.

“It sends Alberta taxpayers the wrong message,” says Alberta Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald. “How can we tell Albertans to tighten their belts when it’s party time for the government and its friends in B.C.?”

MacDonald is right, especially when one considers that Alberta recently tabled a budget with a $4.7-billion deficit.

No one from the Red Deer Advocate rode the train, but in the interests of full disclosure, staff from some other newspapers in the Black Press chain did. One of those newspapers gushed that the trip aboard the Alberta Train was “a gold medal ride.”

Not surprisingly, reports written by journalists accepting the iPods and the six-hour round trip from North Vancouver to Whistler are unanimous in their glowing endorsement of the Alberta government.

You can read the reports by typing “Alberta Train” into the Internet’s Google search engine, but good luck finding any criticism of the fiasco written by a person who accepted the free train trip (which is valued at approximately $500).

Alberta Tourism Minister Cindy Ady claims the Alberta Train promotion will boost visits to this province, but it’s hard to see how when people riding on the train were not looking out the window at Alberta, but rather supernatural British Columbia.

It’s not much wonder that 10 Alberta cabinet ministers took in the Olympic celebrations out on the West Coast. It was a taxpayer-funded party disguised as a tourism promotion.

“(Tourism Minister) Cindy Ady has made some very bold predictions that we will certainly get our value for money here,” observes Scott Hennig, the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “We’re ‘building the brand,’ we’re ‘waving the flag.’ All this talk is never, ever, ever backed up with tangible numbers and benefits and results.”

It’s time for both journalists and politicians to get off the gravy train.

Both groups had fun at the Olympics and soon Alberta taxpayers will get the bill.

Lee Giles is an Advocate editor.