LAST FRIDAY, we discussed the beauty that is the Amtrak Cascades train to Vancouver, B.C.

Vancouver itself is also still beautiful. But it's not exactly running with what old Hamilton Watch ads used to call "Railroad Accuracy."

I'd been intrigued enough to go there by the headlines back in late August: "Clark Calls It Quits." Turns out my northern namesake, Glen Clark, was being forced to resign as B.C.'s Premier.

It came after RCMP investigators found documents showing he'd been arranging for sweetheart deals to well-connected pals who wanted a casino license. It was one of a series of influence-peddling and corporate-welfare scandals that had befallen many B.C. politicians in the past. One such prior scandal had led to the demise of the Social Credit Party, which had run the B.C. government with an iron hand for most of the '70s and '80s.

Mr. Clark's party leadership appointed a new premier, who announced immediately he wouldn't run for the post in the next election; which means the province will have had at least seven premiers in a 10-year span.

Without going too far into the wacky realm of Canadian politics, let's just note that it's a Parlaimentary system. The party that elects the most legislators picks the chief executive, who has nearly full reign over the government for five years (but can call an early election if the opinion polls look promising). Political parties can be national or regional, and can come and go in a single election cycle.

Currently there's only one dominant national party, the Liberals of national Prime Minister Jean Chretien (who, like the Democrats south of the border and the Labour party in Britain, have become a lot less liberal lately).

In B.C., provincial politics is divided between the Euro-Socialistic New Democrats (which Mr. Clark led until his forced resignation) and a pro-corporate Liberal Party branch (heavily backed by right-wing publisher Conrad Black's daily papers). As long as voters keep electing NDP governments, Black's papers will keep sniffing for any potential scandal and the Mounties (ostensibly an apolitical organization but ultimately answering to the federal Liberals) will keep getting called in to investigate the papers' allegations.

Now you know just a little of why commentators regularly call B.C. politics "a blood sport."

Of course, premiers like Mr. Clark might have a little stronger hold on power if the local economy were doing well. It's not.

The Asian recession and the Canadian dollar's pitiful exchange rate have depressed the import-export trade, one of B.C.'s economic stalwarts. Another big sector, timber and other resource-based businesses, has struggled under the manipulative hands of global financiers (the big logging firm Macmillan Bloedel just agreed to sell out to Weyerhaeuser).

Canada's #2 department-store chain, Eaton's, is folding. (Vancouver's only home-owned department store, Woodward's, folded a few years ago; its downtown building's still vacant.) The country's #2 air carrier, Canadian Airlines, may disappear in a merger deal currently being worked out. Vancouver's most venerable bookstore chain, Duthie's, just closed nine of its ten branches.

Things are even scarier in the downtown East End, the only true "bad area" in all of Canada. A Green River-like serial killer's been stalking the neighborhood's addicts, streetwalkers, and down-and-outers in recent years; taking lives and causing some British Columbians to start questioning their land's quiet, harm-free reputation.

TOMORROW: The rest of this story: What's still great about Vancouver.

PITCH IN: This time, I'm looking for cultural artifacts today's young adults never knew (i.e., dial phones, non-inline skates, and three-network TV). Make your nominations at our MISC. Talk discussion boards.

ELSEWHERE:

• As I keep telling you: Life is complexity. Deal with it. (Found by Lemonyellow)....
• Just like you used to hear about in the gas-shortage '70s, here comes a new alleged miracle power source. Now all we need is hints of a government/oil-company drive to suppress it....
• "Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place loses the pizza place and becomes Two Guys and A Girl. The pizza place reportedly asked too high a price in negotiations...."