Photos: RBC GranFondo Whistler bike ride kicks off in Vancouver

by Stephen Hui on September 11th, 2010 at 2:23 PM

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This morning (September 11), the inaugural RBC GranFondo Whistler mass bike ride and race began in downtown Vancouver.

Thousands of cyclists queued up on West Georgia Street ahead of the 120-kilometre ride's start just before 7 a.m.

B.C. premier Gordon Campbell was on hand to mark the occasion and received cheerful waves from many cyclists—many of them calling him "Gordo"—as they passed the start line.

However, as they rode by, two cyclists let the Liberal premier know they weren't pleased with his government's imposition of the harmonized sales tax on bicycles.

"I paid HST on this bike," one told Campbell.

"Thanks for the HST on my bike," another said.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.

Comments

11 Comments

Carl D

Sep 12, 2010 at 9:49am

Why the $%k are there pictures of Gordon Campbell? Way to ruin a great bunch of cycling pictures. The guy's a loser. Nice to see so many bikes in the city!!

Mauro G

Sep 12, 2010 at 2:34pm

The only reason that this paper would include anything to do with Gordo is when it's negative, and that's what happened, and deservedly so. He has a lot of nerve and must be a narcissist if he thinks that a group of people who now have to pay increased taxes on their way of life care if he appeared at such an awesome event.
Thanks to TOIT for organizing this, and to all the volunteers who made the day go so smoothly!

Haywood Jablowme

Sep 12, 2010 at 9:15pm

i feel bad for all those saps that wore the jackets, the weather was fab.

Must sucked having to lug that 120km.

I just wore my Jersey.

ps - Too much time on Campbell (arrg!)- more pictures of cyclists wouldve been more appropriate.

Albert

Sep 12, 2010 at 11:01pm

Hold on a second.. weren't bikes being taxed the same rate before the HST? 12% Gst/Pst.

I'm not a fan of the HST however the cyclists that yelled out "I paid HST on my bike" are kind of foolish, aren't they? Ill-informed whiners annoy me.

Thanks

rob_

Sep 13, 2010 at 11:07am

@Albert

no, bikes were PST exempt

Ross

Sep 13, 2010 at 11:08am

Albert, bikes were exempt from PST and only paid 5% tax. So much for ill informed whinners.

Happy taxpayer

Sep 13, 2010 at 1:57pm

I for one am glad that we ended the unfair subsidy given to the cycling-industrial complex over these years, in the form of their one-off sales tax break. It's discriminatory, and a burden on those of us who choose to live sustainably and WALK to our destinations, the way nature intended. Just say no to the Big Cycling companies people.

Fitz

Sep 13, 2010 at 2:23pm

I gave Gordo my salutations when I biked by :"Thanks for the HST on my bike". I am suprised that so few others did not join in. He was praising the biking community while sticking them with a new tax.

By the way Albert, looks like you are the uninformer whiner...there was no PST on bikes.

BikerCK

Sep 13, 2010 at 2:29pm

Because walking requires more calories to go the same distance as riding a bike, and groceries were PST free, not to mention most of it (food) is shipped from somewhere else, one could conceivably argue that walkers also received a form of tax break on their transportation choice, and further, that it is not necessarily a 'greener' form of transportation than a bicycle.