From sleepy town to world-class city: Expo's Vancouver legacy 30 years later

In the eyes of many, Expo 86 was the event that made Vancouver a world-class city.

Some others will tell youit devastated the Downtown Eastside.

Either way itremains one of the biggest events in British Columbia's history.

RobBordonremembers it well.

He was 18-years-old, just out of high school and spent the summer working at one of Expo's manysouvenirkiosks.

"The T-shirtthat comes to mind is the classic Miami Vice style Expo 86 T-shirt.That was a big seller," saidBordon.

I can't believe it's the same place.- Rob Bordon, former Expo 86 worker

Thirty years later, Bordonnow teaches high school in Vancouver and drives bythe old Expo site almostevery day.

"I honestly can't believe it's the same place," Borden said. "I mean, I parked a few blocks away at some of the those warehouses there, for free parking. I was still able to find parking down there and I could walk to work. I look at it now and I can't believe it's the same place."

Industrial wasteland

The world exposition was built on a railyard and barren industrial wasteland.

For a century before,the 70-hectaresiteon False Creek'snorth shorehousedlumber mills and factories like Sweeney Cooperage.

At one point, the cooperage was the largest barrel manufacturer in the British Empire.

In the early'70s, the Canadian Pacific Railway entertainedplans to build residential towers on the property but nothingmaterialized.

By the end of the decade the land was deserted.

"I recall it was industrial land," said historian Jean Barman.

It was sort of a no place land.- Jean Barman, Vancouver historian

"It was something you drove-by but you usually didn't drivebybecause it didn't take you anywhere,"Barman said.

Metro Vancouver's population hovered at 1.17million in those days.

According to Statistics Canada,English was the number one language spoken by 942,370 of those people.

Just over 75,000 spoke Chinese and a mere 20,000 spoke Punjabi.

It was a very different Vancouver.

'Sleepy town'

"It was a pretty sleepy town and, fairly parochial," said retired public relations professionalGailFlitton, whowas Expo's media relations director.

Flitton recalls that a survey was done in the early '80s to gauge international awareness of Vancouver and British Columbia.

"In California, you know practically our closest neighbour, and it was something like 12 per cent," she said.

"They didn't even know where we were, that we were a sizeable cosmopolitan city. By the time Expo was over, they surveyed again and it was well up in the 80s," saidFlitton.

Initially, Premier Bill Bennett's Social Credit government gave the OKfor an eventto be called Transpo86.

But that $78 milliontransportation show quickly morphed into a billion dollar world's fair and the name was changed to Expo 86.

Local business tycoon Jim Pattison was appointed CEO and eventually became president of the fair for a nominal salary of $1 a year.

Construction ofExpo got underwayin March1983 whenQueen Elizabeth starteda concrete mixer on the future site of the Canada Pavilion and invitedthe world to visitVancouver.

"We were in a recession and you know the thought of spending millions of dollars on a fair offended quite a few people as these things do," said Flitton.

Opposition to Expo 86

Jim Green was among those who wereoffended.

Green, who died in 2012,was a community activist and non-profit housing developer who helped unite the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown.

In the months before Expo, the communitiesprotested theevictionof lowincome residents from residential hotels and roominghouses, whichwere being upgraded for an anticipatedtourist trade.

Years later, on the fair's 25thanniversary, Green said this about Expo 86:"From the point-of-view of the Downtown Eastside, it was awful, the worst thing that ever happened to this community."

But back in 1986, after more thanthree yearsof building and preparing, the fair was ready to open.

There were 54 pavilions sponsored bydifferentnations andcorporations, 70 restaurants and 25,000 full-time jobs for six months.

Expo visitors

Prince Charles and Princess Diana were among the first visitors.

1986: a royal opening for Expo 86

38 years ago

Duration 4:44

B.C. kicks off the Expo in royal fashion, with the Prince and Princess of Wales in attendance.

"We opened May 2ndand it poured rain. Itwas just miserable," said Flitton laughing.

The triumphant albeitsoggyopening was only the beginning.

When the sun finally came out, it shoneall summer long.

The fair's original projection of visitswas 13.7 million.

On July 25, 1986, when Shirley Carscadden and her late husband Tom walked through the gates, Expo hit the 10-million visitors mark.

"We didn't know what in the world was happening," Carscadden said. "The reporters were around and, that was kind of a shock. The bugles were going and reporters were saying, 'who are you, what's your name?' "said Carscadden.

The Langley couple received a season's pass to the fair, although they had already bought their own, plus a seven day Caribbean cruise,a helicopter tour of Vancouver, lunchat The Prow restaurant under the five sails at Canada Place and a bag full of souvenirs.

Thebest part, Carscadden said,was "after that day we were able to enter any of the pavilions by the back door, without having to wait in line a big plus!"

During the next 10 weeks,thecrowds grew exponentially.

By the time Expo closedonOctober 13, 1986, ithad recorded 22,111,578 visits.

The masses loved every bit of itthe remote-controlled mascot Expo Ernie, the roller coaster aptly named The Scream Machine, the nightly fireworks and so much more.

Bon appetit at Expo 86

38 years ago

Duration 4:06

Three hundred chefs. Six restaurants. Forty-two food carts. Millions of empty stomachs. Executive chef Emil Stauber has a mighty culinary mission to complete.

After the fair, the vacant Expo site was sold for $145 millionto Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest developer.

"There is no question that sale was a particular moment when we took a very pro-active attitude towards making that connection to the Pacific Rim investment market," said Gordon Price, director of The City Program at SFU.

"There was a conflict within the provincial cabinet as to whether the site would be sold off in an international competition or whether it would be subdivided and sold off to local developers. If that had happened we would have had a very different history," he said.

Expo's legacy

How much Vancouver has changed since Expo is easy to measure with simply a look at the forest of high-risesalong False Creek.

Three decades ago none of them werethere.

Expo alsoleft a legacy ofinfrastructure projects that were with the fair in mind builtsooner orbigger.

"The most significant legacy that we got fromthe fair was the SkyTrainline.And, that was the best technology, automated cars," said Price.

The most significant legacy that we got fromthe fair was theSkyTrainline.- Gordon Price, director of The City Program at SFU

The list of Expolegaciesis long, including the Alex Fraser Bridge, BC Place, theCambie Bridge, Canada Place Trade andConvention Centre, theCoquihalla Highway andScience World.

Expo's total price-tag was $1.5 billion.

The cost was shared by the B.C. government,the federal governmentand corporate participants.

A $311-million deficit was covered by Lotto 6/49 revenues.

Most people remember Expo fondly and say it was Vancouver's coming of age.

Still others whoopposed it 30 years ago remain critical of its legacy.

But everyone agrees thefair was a pivotal event that changed how the world looked at Vancouver and, how Vancouver looked at itself.

From the archives: Expo 86 in Vancouver

8 years ago

Duration 2:18

Watch the closing ceremony