THE CULTURAL nationalists in this country are always bleating about how free trade with the U.S. will destroy us. They think there will be no more cakes and ale if the alms they get from Ottawa cease, or if U.S. fridges turn out to be cheaper than Ontario’s. Pierre Berton is high on the list of worricrs, just as if free trade would wipe out his positon on Front Page Challenge, a show he was born on several decades ago. David Suzuki is also on parade, as are hundreds of supplicants sub- sidized by the Canada Council for their indifferent artistic achieve- ments. Bill Bissett springs to mind _in that connection, he being the “genius who wrote a poem called **A Warm Place to Shit.” noyed, indeed, that he has threat- cned to sue. Stockland claims that since 1979, when the Liberals dropped $131,793 in his lap for “sales and marketing assistance,"’ Jittle old Mel has collected $1.8 million in federal grants. Our voluntary support for his endeavors has grown mightily over the years. Between 1983 and 1986, stated Stockland, Hurtig got about Ailthough the great gaggle of Canada -culture-vultures never ceases to prate about the dangers of this country posed by free _ trade, they never have a word to say about immigration.’’ “One ¢ oft the chief crusaders on _the anti-free trade front is Mel ‘Hurtig, the Edmonton publisher. Mel is the chap who put out the Canadian Encyclopedia, and although } have nothing against encyclopedias ] would be happier if they could be produced without the Hurtigs having to use my dough in the process. The Edmonton Sun's Ottawa columnist, Peter Stockland, has annoyed him by quoting figures “dug up by Athabasca MP Jack Shields with regard to how the feds- thave made Hurtig’s dreams come ie publisher i is'soan- — Funds given for park [FUNDS. TOTALLING $150,000 Shave’ been approved by the Greater”: Vancouver Regional District Board... ‘or improvements at four regional | atks, including the North Shore” S: Capilano River Park. : Work has already started on ost of the projects... . At. Capilano River . the west side of the river that were destroyed by. flooding, to construct a maintenance: building and’ to . wpgrade the washrooms at Cleve-- land Dam to accommodate the STANDARD AND 2% 2% MILK $1.10 STANDARD — $1.10 CHOCOLATE $1.49 GOATS MILK $1.76 aS Regional “ "Park, $70,000 has been allocated. ‘to re-establish links in the trails on $950,000 from the communications ministry for sales and marketing assistance, plus $200,000 for research and development of a children's encyclopedia, and $33,939 for “company analysis.’ The full list of federal gifts would only make you dizzy, so 'll pass over them. But Stockland says, '“The best part is that in 1984 Mel sold 10,000 copies of his Ca- nadian Encyclopedia to the Secre- tary of State.” if that is so, it would seem that Hurtig sold the books to Ottawa, which had subsidized them in the first place, There have been other perks, handicapped. * “At Belcarra Regional Park, near . Port , Moody, $45,000 has . been allotted to build a park seawall to protect the shoreline by the picnic area on Indian Arm and to com- plete the Sasamat Lake Trail Loop with a floating boardwalk... “At Kanaka’ Creek, in’ Maple Ridge, $20,000 is for bridge repairs and new toilets at Cliff Falls. At Derby Reach, Langley Township, an additional $15,000 is allocated for completion of the erosion contro! program. CEREAL CREAM 1/2t $1.10 CEREAL CREAM 1L BUTTER MILK (Bottle Deposit 50 ¢) $1.67 $1.10 apparently. In 1980 the Trudeau government paid him $1,200 to give two lectures to top bureaucrats on Western alicnation. (How come they never asked me? | would have done it for nothing). Following the fuss between Hur- tig and the Edmonton Sun, Western Report magazine has stepped into the arena with a large spread on the affair. ft states that what Hurtig has ceccived from the feds ain't the half of it. “The Alberta government ... may have been even more generous. Hurtig Publishers had received at least $4.6 million from the provincial treasury over the years, mainly as grants from the Department of Culture and Multiculturalism.” One of the things that may have offended Hurtig about the Sun column, reported the magazine ar- chly, ‘‘was the inference that his free trade views stem simply ftom crass self-interest.”” Really? Who could ever think that? An incongruity strikes me in all this. Although the great gaggle of Canada culture-vultures never ceases to prate about the dangers of this country posed by free trade, they never have a word to say about immigration, The alien hordes pour in from all over, and the Bertons & Co. worry only about the CHC and old buildings. On another part of the front, we have union people like Bob White of the Autoworkers and Shirley Carr of the CLC nattering about how ‘twe have prevailed as a unique culture.’’ They want our uniqueness to continue (with On- tario industry soaking the West blind, of course) but they too never say anything about how our culture will soon be a bastard Chinese-East Indian-Caribbean- Latin America culture. | wish 1 were clever and could figure them out. @ 9 - Sunday, March 20, 1988 - North Shore News AYN), ROSS EN NNER AN Core in and simply write your name & phone number on the back of your’ quest cheque and you ¢an win too eorrected EDUCATION MINISTER Tony Brummet has announced that a computer error was made in the processing of marks for the January provincial examinations, resulting in some students being mailed incorrect marks. The corrected marks are already in the mail and, in general, will be higher than before. 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