I grew up in Vancouver, born six minutes from where we are filming – at St. Paul’s hospital. That was 56 years ago. I didn’t fully appreciate where we live, but as I’ve grown older and traveled the world, more and more I see how Vancouver is so well positioned from a lifestyle perspective. When I first walked around Stanley Park as a kid I didn’t fully appreciate it. But now you walk around it and it’s a legacy for Vancouver.

My first connection to water was I’d say when I caught my first fish. This was when I was 5 or 6 years old, about 50 years ago. I was under the Lion’s Gate Bridge with my dad and I had a stick with a fishing line tied to it and a hook. I think you could see the fish I was gonna fish, just the little rock fish. But I have a very strong memory of that event and that galvanized my connection with the lakes, the streams, the rivers, the ocean through my love for fishing. I fish as much as I can, if I could I’d fish every day.

Selfishly, I think water is worth protecting because I love to fish and I don’t want to see my fishing resource ever hurt. I think we’ve seen the abuse of rivers and what it does and how it affects the whole ecosystem. And eventually that affects all of us. What I hope to do and can do is limited. I like to think that when I’m out in the wilderness flying around in my helicopter I get a first hand view of the river systems in our region and when I see anything that concerns me I will not hesitate to bring it to the attention of the appropriate people. As far as what we try to do from an industry perspective, again we’re limited. We’re thrilled to be supporting this event tonight. Our commitment and our support is a testament to why we do what we’re doing tonight.