Sir Richard Branson started his whirlwind visit to Vancouver with an apology.
The last time the founder of the Virgin empire was in this city, the British press had had a two-day bitchfest of all that was wrong with the Vancouver Olympics before he had time to help set Brits straight.
He thought Vancouver did a fantastic job hosting the world's athletes and says that with the 2012 Summer Games looming in London, "the Canadian press has the right to give us a bad time."
At the British Consulate's "Britain is Great" breakfast at the Fairmont Pacific Rim on Thursday morning, he said "Canadians and Brits are like brothers and sisters. We somehow get on better" than many other nationalities.
Of course, his hope is that many Vancouverites fly to London to watch the games on his airline. Here in Vancouver to launch Virgin Atlantic Airway's first flight into YVR from London Heathrow, Sir Richard, dressed with casual elegance in jeans, white dress shirt and dark blazer, made his audience laugh when he described the failure of one of his "companies", Virgin Brides. "After a few weeks we realized there weren't any."
WE interviewed him as he left the ballroom on his way to YVR where he'll host a press conference at 2:30. Asked why he wanted to invest in this city, he said "I love Vancouver. It's got everything going for it water, striking scenery, the people."
On Friday he'll be the featured guest speaker at a Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon and then join forces with Vancouver actor Cory Monteith at Project Limelight's East of Main Café at 2:30 to "shine the spotlight on a charitable announcement" to help Vancouver's homeless and at-risk youth.
The breakfast was a light-hearted celebration of how great Britain is. Although a string quartet played in the lobby beforehand, inside the ballroom it was all Beatles, Rolling Stones and Adele. Students from Harbour Dance did a flashmob, dressed as all the iconic symbols of Britain, from Buckingham Palace guards to rock stars.
Canadian Olympian Ashleigh McIvor was there. Slightly limping two days after knee surgery, she helped British Consular General Alex Budden with some door prizes (including a free flight to London on Virgin Air) and spoke briefly of her hope to represent Canada at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Asked about the British press's treatment of Vancouver during the Olympics, the very diplomatic (and funny) Consular General said that while he'd never want to stop freedom of the press, he was pleased that there was a backlash in Britain about the negative coverage. When it comes to this summer, "the Olympic Games are a wonderful opportunity for people who want to be negative to be negative" but the vast majority will be highly excited about such a wonderful occasion to showcase the city's greatness.
