The other day, the Daily Gumboot‘s Managing Editor, Kurt Heinrich, told me a story about mistaken identity. As it turns out, a representative – perhaps “Correspondent” is too strong a word – from Quadra Island’s community website, The Gumboot, got into the press room for the announcement about the new Village development by, allegedly, inferring that he wrote for the Daily Gumboot (one of the PR reps for the project knows about the blog because it’s superawesome).
I don’t know all the details, but kidnapping, heckling, being locked in a closet, protesting, and a true West Coast mentality are all parts of the story.
Just to set the record strait, here are three similarities and three differences between Quadra Island’s online community, The Gumboot, and this blog, the Daily Gumboot.
The Gumboot vs. The Daily Gumboot
Three Similarities
- The Word “Gumboot” – it’s right there in the web address; pay close attention, though, because our site has the word “Daily” in front of it.
- Both “sites” are on “The Internet” and have amazing logos – true story; I especially like the “on-fire” nature of the Quadra Island logo. This being said, I will argue that this blog’s logo – designed by up-and-comer Dylan Bremner, is just a bit sexier.
- People-and-Planet-First Mentality – like the Daily Gumboot, the Gumboot is a collaborative and vibrant online community (unlike the Daily Gumboot, the Gumboot focuses on Quadra Island, a community that demonstrates its vision for high, happy and healthy people living together in an environment that is as beautiful as it is sustainable). Both online spaces recognize that people are part of the natural environment and need to work together to make it better.
Three Differences
- Ongoing Positivity - according to a source, the representative from The Gumboot was a little, um, opposite of positive during a press event at the then-titled Olympic Village.
Here at the Daily Gumboot, we believe that media is already too full of negativity, criticism, fear, and Glen Beck; positively working together is how we’ll make a difference. Also, Kurt’s only locked me in a closet once. - John and Kurt are not hippies – we’re not saying that everyone from The Gumboot are hippies, or that there is anything wrong with hippies – or that there is anything wrong with hippies – we’re just saying that Kurt and I did not create this enterprise with hippie-principles (love, ponchos, organic milk, disorganization, patchouli, etc.) in mind. This blog was founded on the principles of neoliberalism, heirloom tomato seeds, health promotion, shipping, Latin American Quebecois, and pirates.
- In-person community-building – our team here at the Daily Gumboot works mostly on the Internets, whereas the Gumboot’s team clearly makes a really positive impact in person, on the ground and at press conferences. Going from online-to-in-person is something our team of world-changers is looking to improve upon.
Hopefully this sets straight the record and clarifies any confusion. Remember, Vancouver Developers, Publicists, The Media, and Hosts/Hostesses of Parties: Gumboots should have “Daily” in front of them if they are to be truly awesome!
It may not exactly be “The House that Pain built“, but then the Olympic Village in Whistler is also not likely to appear as the last track on a Killing Joke-album. (And “The House that Pain built” of course is still MacKinnon Residence in Bishop’s University, Lennoxville, QC, but that’s a different story altogether). Still, Whistler has German athletes complaining, as German newspaper „Die Zeit“ reported yesterday. 
I still remember when my wife was first exposed to Canadian architecture in 2005 (talking about individual houses, now). It was up in Belvedere in Lennoxville, where a couple of friends of mine back from the old Bishop’s days were living in one of those little houses (the white one with the green windowframes to be exact). Involuntarily, as we pulled up the driveway, my lovely wife Silke alluded to Star Wars: “They live in that thing? They’re braver than I thought…”