INSIGHTS _ Gordon out to lunch on media coverage “IT DEMONSTRATES once again,’” fumes Gordon Gib- son, ‘‘how badly we are served by a press cager to act as an amplifier to any idea that comes along, as long as it stirs things up.”’ In his Financial Post column last week the former North Van MLA and former B.C. Liberal leader was lashing out savagely at the media for ‘‘bleating’* about the VIA Rail cuts. They should have congratulated the government, he declared, for reducing the deficit by abolishing the world-famous ‘*Canadian”’ along with 2,700 jobs. The media need to ‘‘do some honest research,"’ he added. In case you were out to lunch, Gordon, the media have done quite a bit of honest research on VIA Rail which you won't find in Transport Minister Benoit Bouchard’s press releases. Like examining the myth that the vast majority of cross-Canada travellers nowadays fly. Statistics Canada’s last available figures give the total of 1986 air passengers be- tween 12 major Canadian cities as under 6.7 million. In the same vear VIA carried 6.3 million. Without the media Canadians would never hear from their gov- ernment about the exciting railway technologies being developed elsewhere — like Japan's 200-mph bullet trains; the super-train cor- ridor being completed across France from the Channel to the Mediterranean; tiie speeded-up New York-Washington Amtrak trains, now stealing business from the formerly dominant jet service. While Europe and Japan busy themselves with improving train travel, the present government of Canada, which was built by a railway, is busy eliminating it! It’s the media, not Ottawa, which provides Canadians with data showing that the movement of goods and people by rail is the most economical and least GORDON GIBSON ... served by press."’ polluting means of transportation using fossil fuets. And it’s the media which noted that VIA services were slashed in half to save Ottawa a mere $58 million a year over five years —~ only a tiny fraction of the annual hundreds of millions squandered by the Mulroneyites to buy the votes of special interest groups that ought to fund themselves. A gov- ernment with any sense of national purpose would have pruned these self-serving luxuries far ahead of VIA Rail. For the country that owes its birth to 3,000 miles of steel, the chopping of Sir John A.’s original trans-Canada passenger link after 105 years is akin to Margaret Thatcher selling the Magna Carta “badly of VIA! to balance Britain's budget. Such was the gut reaction of Canadians from coast to coast, whose in- stinets told them that Ottawa's priorities must have been badly screwed up. If you want proof of how right those instincts were — and are — Gordon, the media have it in hard facts and figures. That's why they, too, “‘bleated!"” ake POSTSCRIPTS: The 50 retired seniors of the Kiwanis Club of Capilano haven't lost the Midas Touch when it comes to fundrais- ing. Over Christmas they collected $3,180 for good causes by selling Christmas cakes, nuts and enter- tainment books. Now they‘re gear- ing up for their next big money- spinner — the annual seniors’ bonspicl, Feb. 14-16 at Hollyburn Country Club, open to all men over 60 and with a top prize of $220. Details from Lloyd Goodings, 922-2296 or Ray Swift, 985-0089 ... Surrey expatriates who graduated from Queen Elizabeth Senior Secondary any (ime from 1940 onward are invited to its 50- year reunion May 18-19 — call 588-0226 for info ... And Rusty Rustemeyer of Veterans of Safety laternational warns always to refer to that emergency number we'll soon be getting as ‘‘nine-one-one.’ Can you believe there have been cases in the States where callers, told that the number was *‘nine- eleven,” failed to get through because they couldn't find an eleven on their dial! we WRIGHT OR WRONG: Never hesitate to admit you’re wrong. What you're really saying is that you're smarter today than you were yesterday. Photo submitted NEW RECYCLING DIRECTORY — displayed here by Welcome Wagon area manager Rochelle Van Essen — is now delivered by Wel- come Wagon hostesses to all new residents. It lists North and West Van recycling services, and can be obtained by calling the GVRD, 432-6339. CANT UNDERSTAND WHERE THEY GOT THE IDEA FOR AL THOSE BRUTAL ATROCTIIES...... Rust risk se} HOUGH they are out of sight, Residential Un- derground Storage Tanks (RUSTs), as_ il- lustrated by the recent oi! spill in West Van- couver, should not be out of mind. The incident also underlined the need for better municipal coordination of RUST spill response. Oil was spilled from the tank after it was punctured by a backhoe clearing land on a private West Van- couver lot. “¢ af ; Seeping oil fouled soil and nearby creeks and dit- y Z pep MED 3 ines ches. Approximately 200 gallons of fuel oi! was even- j tuatly recovered by municipal crews. But initial confusion over which municipal, provin- cial or federal body had jursidiction over the spill’s clean up slowed response time. The clean-up was eventually mobilized by North Shore Health, and serious environmental damage was averted. But, without some clearly laid out chain of com- mand to adhere to, we might not be so jucky when the next RUST spill occurs. ° Studies by Environment Canada documented in past News stories have indicated that the fuel contained in abandoned and deteriorating RUSTs poses a serious threat to the Lower Mainland environment, especially on the North Shore with its many creeks and other en- vironmentally sensitive waterways and its high per- centage of RUSTs. Development and demolition will continue to unearth more and more RUSTs. Action now by focal governments will go a long way to minimizing the future cost RUSTs will exact from our environment. 7 Te ip ispattoc 16 VOICE OF MONTH AND WEST VaNCOUYEN 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Peter Speck Managing Editor Barrett Fisher Associate Editor .Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualtied under Schedule 111, Paragraph It! of the Excise Tax Act, +s published each Wednesday, Faday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Ciass Mart Regstration Number 3885 Subscriptions North and West Vancouver. $25 per year 59,170 (average, Wednesday Maing tates avaiable on tequest Submissions are Frida & Sunda } welcome but we cannot accept responsepuity tor y ¥ y unsobcited matesial inciuding manuscupts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed _ envelone Publisher SuNDAT smronesae 1139 Lonsdale Avenue. 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