The Globe and Mail was heavier than usual this morning. A year-end review of federal government policy? A five-page feature on Alberta’s dirty oil? No such luck. Instead, two 28-page issues of the Western Investor: one focused on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, the other on the prairie provinces.

The lead story in the B.C. issue reads:

“RESIDENTIAL OUTLOOK 2011
Experts say everything is going to be all right.”

Everything is going to be all right.

Why does that sound familiar?

Over the past couple of years the City of Vancouver has approved a number of text-based public art works, the best-known being Ken Lum’s EAST VAN cruciform at the north-west corner of Clark and Great Northern Way. Another, commissioned by real estate agent and art collector Bob Rennie, runs along the south face of his downtown eastside bat cave: Martin Creed’s “Everything is going to be alright.”

So who’s right? The Western Investor (“all right”) or Martin Creed (“alright”)?

My favorite piece of public text hovers at the north end of the Cambie Street Bridge, lit up in bright white letters: VISION CRITICAL. Recently I went looking for its author and found it to be the name of a market research company. Their motto? “Technology Inspired, Research Driven." Following that: "We help you see trendsetting customers for what they are: a wealth of winning strategy waiting to be tapped.”

Tapped.