There’s been a good deal of media coverage about the Occupy Wall Street movement but, so far, relatively little about its Canadian roots.
Last July the Vancouver-based magazine AdBusters ran a poster that read:
OCCUPYWALLSTREET
September 17th. Bring tent.
www.occupywallst.org
Now that simple poster appears to be snowballing into a genuine social movement. Demonstrations modeled in Occupy Wall Street are occurring or being planned everywhere including, paradoxically, Vancouver.
This isn’t the first time that normally staid Vancouver has been the origin of an international protest movement. Remember Greenpeace.
In fact, AdBusters headquarters near Granville Island in Vancouver is just a few blocks from where some of the original meetings were held that led to the formation of Greenpeace in the early 1970s.
Maybe it’s something in the water. Or maybe it’s the rain. Or maybe it’s a combination of factors, but Vancouver and, in fact, all of British Columbia seems to deserve our reputation as the California of Canada.
AdBusters and Occupy Wall Street appear to have hit on an issue that resonates with many people, just as Greenpeace did with its early anti-nuclear weapons and anti-whaling campaigns.
Where Occupy Wall Street will lead is still unclear.
There also have been some interesting comparisons made between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movement in the United States.
Both are made up of ordinary people who are profoundly unhappy with the status quo. The Occupy Wall Street supporters tend to feel the banks and big corporations are to blame, while those with the Tea Party don’t like big government.
Unlikely as it might sound, possibly there could be a meeting of the minds and a true populist campaign develop.
Stranger things have happened. And it all started in Vancouver.