As we approach the dawn of the New Year it's time to take stock of where we've been and to set a course for 2010 -- a year that will set the eyes of the world on Vancouver.

It seems to me that 2009 has been the most eventful year in the history of CTV British Columbia.

The year began with preparations for our one-year Olympic countdown in February. Soon after we began planning for a week of shows dedicated to one of the biggest musical events of the year: The Juno Awards.

Two days after the Junos were broadcast on CTV March 29, the provincial election campaign began. We had crews traversing the province for a month covering both the Liberal and NDP campaigns. In addition, Mi-Jung Lee hosted in-depth "reality checks" on everything from minimum wage policy to B.C.'s carbon tax to plans by independent power producers for controversial run of river projects.

I was extremely proud of our daily election coverage but we really hit it out of the park the night of May 12 when British Columbians went to the polls. On election night we delivered a four-hour live broadcast anchored by Bill Good and Pamela Martin with many "home runs" for our audiences. We had the first and best riding results both on screen and online, as well as the best analysis of demographic trends. CTV was the first TV station in B.C. to call an historic third term victory for Gordon Campbell's Liberals.

Even though the night was a tremendous broadcasting success for our newsroom, it was a failure for democracy in our province. Only 50 per cent of eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot, the lowest turnout in B.C. history. The popular vote percentages hardly moved from 2005 numbers.

These figures reflect a troubling apathy in a province that has always been known for its passionate and volatile politics.

The cynicism about electoral politics deepened a few months later when the governing Liberals brought in the wildly unpopular Harmonized Sales Tax, a tax never mentioned in the election campaign. The anger over what many citizens saw as deception continues to ripple through the province and is undoubtedly one of the biggest stories of the year.

The summer of 2009 brought a plague of devastating forest fires once again to Kelowna and Lillooet in the B.C. Interior. We moved our newscasts to the Okanagan for several days as residents once again showed their mettle in beating back the fires and pulling together to support the thousands of evacuees.

On a personal note, one of the saddest events of our year occurred in August when we lost a cherished colleague in the line of duty. National cameraman Hugh Haugland, 44, died in a helicopter crash while covering the aftermath of a tornado in Mont Laurier, Quebec. Hugh's death was a terrible loss to his loved ones and our CTV family, and served as a potent reminder of the risks our field crews take every day to bring the story home to you, our audiences.

In September we delivered exclusive coverage of the Dalai Lama's arrival for the Vancouver Peace Summit. Thousands of you heard his powerful messages of universal compassion at the international summit and the CTV-sponsored WE youth conference.

In October we worked with our National colleagues to deliver the most comprehensive coverage in the market of the arrival of Canada's Olympic torch. We watched as the Four Host First Nations brought the flame in a miner's lantern across Victoria's Inner Harbour to a moving ceremony on the grounds of the BC legislature. We cheered with thousands of you as the skies lit up over our capital that night as the torch began its Vancouver Island journey.

As our crews travelled up Island the first weekend of November we saw the emotion the flame evoked in residents and audiences. It was then that our Olympic season began in earnest.

Throughout the fall, as we continued our 0lympic planning, we were also undergoing the biggest technological change since we launched as VTV in 1997: the conversion of our station to high definition (HD). In TV terms this is a revolution. We converted our field cameras, editing systems, studio and control room from SD tape to HD digital video and thus profoundly changed the way we do business and the way our broadcasts look to you.

When we launched the first HD newscast in Western Canada on November 23 you gave us the resounding "thumbs up." We believe we now have the sharpest and best looking newscast in the market. If the feedback we've had is any indication, many of you agree!

But in all of this, we understand HD is only the medium -- not the message. We at CTV British Columbia know that what attracts audiences and keeps them watching is the depth of our journalism, the quality and craft of our pictures and storytelling, and the trust you place in our anchors and reporters.

As we head into 2010, our pledge to you is that we will be working for you every step of the way as the games approach and beyond. Our mission in 2010 is to not only be the Olympic broadcaster, but the home of everything you need to know about living, working, commuting and celebrating in an Olympic city. And when the Games are finished we will continue working for you on coverage of Olympic legacies -- both positive and negative.

We know that long after the party is over we will still confront major challenges in BC: the decline of our resource towns, homelessness, real estate that young families cannot afford, gang violence, the highest child poverty rate in Canada and the lowest minimum wage. Those are our challenges as citizens and as broadcasters. We will do our best to bring those stories home.

As I said, it's been quite a year for all of us. The eyes of the world will be on us over the next few months. Let's show off our supernaturally beautiful province and enjoy the party -- but not forget those on the outside looking in.

I wish you and yours all the very best in the New Year from all of us at CTV British Columbia. Stay safe and warm and please, keep watching!

Margo Harper