King Toope

Vancouver Magazine has produced what it calls The Vanmag Power List 2008. There doesn’t seem to be any real criteria, but I’m supposing the list is meant to designate the top 50 most powerful individuals in Vancouver. Coming in at #40 is none other than our President and Vice-Chancellor, Stephen Toope. I found his description to be quite interesting:

UBC, 100 this year, is the belle of today’s development ball. Market-housing construction yields ceaseless infusions into its dowry (funding all that research that’s meant to be the point of the exercise). The 7,000 housing units coming onstream will boost the population of the Point Grey isthmus to almost 20,000 in the next decade—an enticing tax base as the university contemplates joining the city of Vancouver. Builders aren’t the only suitors courting King Toope; this summer, a loose-screw student and some B-list thieves showed that campus security needs some tightening, presumably a priority with Thunderbird Stadium hosting its share of Olympics hoopla.

Position last year New
Last book read? Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
2008 low point? A UBC budget cut
Worst mistake? Eating 16 cinnamon rolls at one sitting
Six words for your tombstone? “He did his best.” (I know that’s only four!)