The Point Grey moose

 

What is a moose doing on top of the most expensive house in B.C.?

Walk along the pricey Point Grey waterfront in the mid-winter twilight, when the sparkle of lights in mansion windows starts contrasting deliciously with the purple-blue haze of the ocean and mountains behind, and if you look up, you may find yourself staring at a moose.

Or at least the figure of a moose. Larger than life-size, outlined in lights, it stands alone on the flat rooftop of the most expensive house in B.C. ($66.8 million this year, down from $78.8 million in 2018), saying … who knows what?

The house belongs to local billionaire Chip Wilson, co-founder of Lululemon, who is known as something of a jokester. But I could find no online explanation for why he chose a lonely moose as the sole (publicly visible) holiday decoration on his 16,000-square-foot house. It’s almost the opposite of how another B.C. billionaire, Jim Pattison, once approached holiday decor, setting his British Properties’ home ablaze with multi-coloured lights that drew visitors from around the Lower Mainland.

Ebullient Pattison versus elegant-eccentric Wilson? Who knows what messages billionaires are sending through their choices of holiday decor? But whatever the moose is meant to represent, when I came across it unexpectedly on a solitary Covid walk stolen between winter downpours, it seemed splendid.

 On the priciest house on some of the city’s priciest waterfront, a creature evoking Canada’s wilderness stood there, posing solemnly against the sea.