EIA: humiliation by association

The new Edmonton International Airport addition is impressive, especially as you leave in the morning for the US.

Returning at night, however, is an exercise in humiliation by association.

You are forced to walk a long corridor beside which an endless series of vertical red light bars flash, supposedly in synch with bad music. I'm a public art fan. But this is not art. If the lights flashed to ABBA instead, it would at least be a  memorabilia kind of experience.

Then you arrive at Canada Customs, where all the officers are dressed in black and grossly bulked out with bulletproof vests. They look like ads for steroids. This is strange, given the fact that since everyone they process has already gone through full security, there is zero chance of them ever seeing a gun or a knife. Their impression is one of wilful intimidation. Contrast this image with the US customs people, who wear shirts and no bulletproof vests, and who actually smile at you.

Next you arrive at a baggage carousel bedecked with lame, lame, lame silver mannequins of generic Oilers' torsos, or maybe at the other carousel with lame, lame, lame Eskimo mannequins.

For heavens sake, this city is so much more than two sports teams and bad taste in art. You should see the public art in the airports in Houston and Tampa. It's beautiful, often fun, sometimes even kinky. Those airports are SO much classier!

Bottom line: we spent nearly a billion dollars on a spanking new airport expansion, and we still both look and act like we're still a bush league, regional city with zero flair.