New V.I.A. contributor, Rachel Fox, caught up with CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi not long ago at CBC and asked him what he thinks is awesome about Vancouver!

Also Jian/Vancouver/CBC related, he’s the host of this year’s Canada Reads debate that launched yesterday on CBC Radio One. Essentially, they pit authors and books against each other as notables from across the nation argue why their favourites should win. In this year’s title fight, debated by an all female panel, Vancouver has two prominent authors’ books highlighted: Douglas Coupland’s classic Generation X is sitting next to Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony, which is one of my absolute favourite books written by a Vancouverite, ever. I’m backing Wayson!