Whistler has lost its mojo, says Drew Meredith. And until people stop with all the whining and moaning — the pointing of fingers and the apportioning of blame — we’ll never get back on track. “We’ve got to get lean and mean again,” says the former Whistler mayor. “Especially in light of our current economy. We can’t afford to indulge our petty differences anymore. We’ve got to rally around the Whistler flag and get on with the job.”
And if we don’t? “That’s just too scary a notion to contemplate,” he says.
A pro-business, no-nonsense kind of a guy, Meredith has never shied away from contentious issues. And what he sees right now worries him deeply. “We live in one of the most attractive places on the planet,” says the man who led the community out of the devastating recession of 1981-85. “Tourists come to Whistler from all over to experience our lifestyle. Yet we keep telling them what a lousy life we lead here. Things are too expensive, accommodations are scarce and our young people are leaving the town in droves.” He smiles (but it’s not a happy smile). “Is that really the message that what we want to communicate to the rest of the world? Of course it isn’t. But that message is still happening… and it’s having a huge impact on the way we’re perceived today.”
Given the fractious tenor of the current municipal elections, Meredith’s argument is hard to dismiss. “We’ve lost perspective on our priorities as a resort community,” says the long time realtor. “We’ve allowed our success to let us deviate from our primary process. We’ve let our service levels slip, the village needs a good clean-up and we’re missing all those pumped-up, good looking kids who used to come to Whistler to live their dreams. Yet nobody is taking responsibility. There is a real leadership void in this valley right now...”
So what’s the solution? Stop the whining, he says. Drop the self-interest. Instead focus on the opportunities ahead! “We’ve got the biggest show on earth coming here in little more than a year,” he explains. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to ramp up our business; to celebrate what makes us special and unique. Don’t forget, we still have a great product. We still live in a beautiful place. We’ve just gotten complacent about our assets…”
Meredith certainly knows what he’s talking about. In fact, this is almost déjà vu for the veteran poll. Two and a half decades ago, the then-thirtysomething businessman took over the helm of a battered Whistler town council struggling to stay alive. “The early 1980s were awful,” says Meredith. “Bloody awful. There was no momentum. It just wasn’t happening. Blackcomb wasn’t moving. Whistler wasn’t moving. And the local real estate market was going down the toilet fast…”
It’s not like Meredith had been standing on the sidelines watching. “I’d been actively involved in both the chamber of commerce and Tourism Whistler,” he says. “But I finally just got pissed off. I hit the wall.” He laughs. “The council of the day was focused more on building sidewalks in Alpine Meadows than completing the task of building a destination resort. Whistler badly needed to address the big picture. So I foolishly decided to throw my hat in the ring…”
Foolish or not, Meredith won the 1986 mayoralty race handily. Then he set about making things happen. “One of the first things I did as mayor,” he explains, “was to make sure I had the support of the local business community. And that was huge. When I went to Victoria to make a pitch for the town, I knew that the premier would pick up the phone and talk to his business buddies at Whistler to see whether I was for real or not. Knowing that I had their full support really made a difference in our discussions…”
And he wasn’t afraid to use new and creative methods to get his points across. Consider one of Meredith’s big wins in Victoria. “We put this multimedia presentation together — it was called Whistler Inc: A Case Study of an Exceptional Enterprise — in order to convince the provincial government to allow us to impose a special resort-wide tax.”
The presentation was a huge success, says the former mayor. For the first time ever, Whistler Resort was portrayed in the film as a seamless business entity. It didn’t matter whether you ran a hotel, owned a restaurant or provided uphill transportation to tourists: everybody in Whistler Inc was presented as a member of the same team. “Our message was simple,” says Meredith. “It was impossible to develop the resort’s amenities based on the existing municipal tax regime. If Victoria was really serious about helping us establish a world-class destination resort in Whistler, we needed more money.”
Seduced by the Whistler Inc concept, the government bought the argument. In 1986, it legislated a new two-percent hotel sales tax for Whistler that ultimately paved the way for its future growth. “It’s one of the accomplishments I’m most proud of,” says Meredith. “That tax now generates millions of dollars annually for the community…”
Not bad for a guy who first came to Whistler to hang out for a season with buddies before embarking on a career in law. Vancouver born and raised, Drew Meredith had absolutely no intention of settling down in any permanent way in the mountains. “I’d gone straight from high school to university,” he recounts. “And by my third year at UBC I realized I needed a break. That was all it was going to be though — a year off to ski and play and then back to the grindstone…”
It was 1971. Whistler was still very much on the edge of the world. But for young, keen skiers, it was the place to be. “My first impression? Wow! What a place. It was a mecca for 21 year olds. Sure, it was rough around the edges. But that also added to its cachet.”
In those days, there was no such thing as a full-time job in Whistler. “It was very much a seasonal thing,” explains Meredith. “You either worked for the mountain (for no money) or you found a job in construction.” He laughs. “I decided early on that working for the mountain wasn’t for me.”
Another chuckle. “Nobody moved to Whistler back then to start a career,” he says. “You stayed there for a year, then you moved on…”
But something about the young mountain community had definitely touched the Vancouverite’s imagination. “I fell in love with the place,” he admits. “After that first season, I moved back to town as planned and finished my degree, but as soon as that was done I returned to Whistler as fast as I could.”
So what was it that attracted him so much? “It was the small-town nature of Whistler back then — the social connections you developed — the feeling of being a big fish in a small pond.” He pauses. “You know in those days you could totally re-invent yourself. You could become just about anybody you wanted to be here.”
From his first job as a dishwasher at the Christiana Inn, Meredith soon progressed to working on road construction for the Highways Department. “I even got my blasting ticket,” he says, “which was very practical at Whistler, given that everything had to be built on granite…”
Working on a road crew was fine for the short term, but Meredith soon realized he wanted more. “I wrote my real estate exam on the beach in Mexico,” he says. And laughs. “It wasn’t like I’d always dreamed of being a realtor or anything. In those days, I thought that was the sleaziest profession in the world.”
And now? “I soon realized there are bad apples in every business,” he says, with tongue only slightly in cheek. “I also realized we’re a necessary force. People don’t really understand it, but the local real estate community has always defined the leading edge of the business. Heck, we invented the condominium hotel concept right here in Whistler…”
The late 1970s was a time of great energy at Whistler. “We were the Aspen of the North,” explains Meredith. “Great skiing. Huge vertical. The pedestrian village concept — the destination resort dream — it was phenomenal. But it all was also really high risk…”
Whistlerites sometimes forget how nasty things got when the bottom fell out of the economy in 1981. Meredith is not one of them. “We were all totally invested in this dream,” he says. “It was a near untenable situation.” Another pause. “But we had to make it work.”
There are clearly lessons from that time that could be applied to today’s troubled waters. “We fell into a similar trap to the one we’re in now,” he explains. “We started believing our own press! We got smug. And the only way we got out of it was by re-inventing ourselves. Everyone had to put their differences aside and work as a team. It’s funny that way — it took a severe crisis for us to finally get our act together…”
So any suggestions for the incoming council? Words of wisdom from a respected elder? “Focus on our strengths,” he says. “Take the high road and keep Whistler’s core story front-and-centre.” He smiles. “You know, this recession could be the best thing for us. We’re all going to take a hit. There’s no question about that. But maybe it will make us all reflect on what a special place this is. And what a great community we have.”
