March 20^th

Took a cab up to North Vancouver to visit with Leonard George the hereditary and elected Chief of the Burrard tribe. Leonard is the son of Chief Dan George of film fame, and he looks just like him. He arrived a few minutes late for our meeting which took place at the development offices that were next door to a golf driving range. Our meeting was short, to the point. I presented to him two ideas. One was the First Nations Chamber of Commerce and the other was our event in Greenwich England in July 2000. He said he would present the ideas to the family and he would get back to me. It was a short meeting, and I called a cab and went back to Vancouve4r to have a meeting with Kelly White. I went to her home, where she said we would meet, and she was not there. I went out to a local restaurant and took the sun waiting for Kelly to either return, pick up her messages and meet me and ….. During my wait at the restaurant, I overheard a woman talking with one of her "clients, Shawna, and it sounded like she might be interested in our course next week. I introduced myself and gave her a flyer which she said she would take and show around her offices indicating they were always looking for new program materials. I had lunch, and waited for short of two hours before I decided to go back to the Conference for the closing presentations. First I went to the bus station to co-ordinate my times for making my connections back to Gabriola. Back at the conference I arrived just in time for a Town Hall session led by Jan Olaf of Norway. He is a leading speaker in the world on sustainability, although I am not clear on his overall credentials. There were four speakers at the front, including Jonathan Plaut (an educator consultant) , John Elkington of SustainAbility, a woman Dorothy from a chemical company and Jan. Plaut talked as if technology would save everything, and my nose turned left. I spoke next, and managed to keep my comments below ten minutes. I commented on the fact that we were selling old technologies that we do not work, and we know they do not, to countries that really need new ideas, and they were not coming clear enough from the technology sector. I mentioned that our governments are run by "nincompoops" who insist that we poop in our water and then drink it. There seemed to consensus in the room that my observations were true. Plaut and I played back and forth, and for the rest of the meeting he seemed to address his comments to me. I went to him after the session and he suggested that perhaps we might exchange presentations. I do one at his college ( I do not remember which one) and he come and do one for me. I accepted his suggestion and we exchanged cards.

I left the meeting and as there were a few moments left in the conference, I went down to the floor and did a quick run through. I met an old associate Wayne Nelles who used to be more of an activist with the Turtle Island Trust, and is now Program Director, International Internships & Training at the Sustainable Development Research Institute of the University of British Columbia. We did a quick catch up, but I am not certain he was interested in our project. Busy with his own. Hopefully my follow up will get his attention. I also had short conversations with a number of corporations on getting their corporation involved in the Challenge, including Ballard Power systems, the new technology for batteries and electric buses etc. After running into a few more people, I hurried off to catch the sky train to catch my bus to catch the boat to catch the cab to catch the boat to catch the cab and be back on Gabriola. Done. Almost uneventful arriving at 11 PM finding the house empty. Terry Lynn and Brandon had gone off for a few days I guess, so I did my laundry and went to bed.