“mewspaper,
-Campbell’s. resignation as Tory party leader

_ STAND NAKED OUTSIDE THE
LEGISLATURE AND SING O CANADA
BACKWARDS, ACCORNPANIED BY THE
JUNE TAYLOR DANCERS...

[TAG-TEAM WRESTLE A 500 lb.
FHOMICIDAL WOWERINE. WAILE

NEXT. FIND 1.000 VOTERS WHLUNG |
TO SET THER HAR ON FIRE, BY
USING Two SICKS

FINALLY, FIND 50 PEOPLE
WHO WILL SWEAR ALLEGIANCE
T WE BC. NOP

BE A CATCH
SOMEWHERE !

NEWS VIEWPOINT

Political opportunists

HE RECENT changing of the .Tory
guard - underscores _what’s wrong

with Canadian politics, circa 1993.
Relegated to page six of the Globe &
Mail, Canada’s self-preclaimed ‘national.
‘the. news story. about Kim =

_¥ead more: like: an’ account of a retiring
CEQ than a leader of acouniry.” -,,

But. then: again, . so did ‘Campbell,
first. woman ‘prime. minister in Canada’s -

126: year history.

SOWhe: ‘former Tory leader's reasons for
tepping down, : as-quoted in’ the. Globe’s

story: ‘are complex. and:.I-do not. wish to

discuss ‘them i in detail here:”’ ;

Rair-enoughs © : "
> But: what of her _passionate “commit: |

‘nent’ to. Canadians ‘and ‘to Canada,” a

‘statement spouted repeatedly - from

“the

barbecue soapboxes this past summer.

Clearly, the Tories had to jettison her to
rebuild (read: refinance) their crumbled
house. But that doesn’t preclude Campbell
from continuing her commitment.

However, politics ’90s-style does.

As regular working stiffs disgustedly.
digest the weekly accounts of the -plum -
postings. picked by former. federal’ leaders,:
it is clear that the job of prime minister, or
any high-profile government job, has |
become more a.career move than a post.
-held by those with a life-long desire to”
lead. |

the public’s trust‘of politicians continues

to evaporate as the first. move of most-

. defeated politicians is no longer to clean,
out their offices, but to add another line to
their resumes.

pe OF THE DAY

Culture creaied through song and tradition

Dear Editor:

Each year after the Christmas
concert I feel :more ‘disturbed.
Each year I find there is. less

tradition and therefore less mean-°

ing contained in the performance.

- People need to be able to iden-
tify with a culture. Culture is

- created in part by song and tradi-

= tion.

1 ask a simple. question: “What
is wrong. with singing Christmas
. carols at a Christmas concert?”’

“: They are not offensive. to other

, _cultures or'te other faiths,, They ¢

mean-

“are probably,
ingless.
However, by removing them, we

at worst

deprive the people for whom they
do have. meaning. We have
nothing to replace them with.

In our efforts to be good hosts
to new Canadians we are depriv-
ing the same new Canadians of
exposure to the existing Canadian
culture.

If | went to India, Japan or
China, I would be disappointed

and concerned (as well as incred-

ulous!) if they threatened the in-
tegrity of their culture because of
the mistaken notion that [ needed
them to do so.

if the reason for not singing
Christmas carols is that there are
not. enough Christians in the
community to justify it, then 1

would suggest that
Christians and agnostics still enjoy
hearing those old carols year’ after
year.

as children in itself has given them
meaning.

There is comfort in continuity.
What songs will the children of
today's concert want their own
children to learn in 25 years?

While welcoming new. Cana-

dians, and adapting to change, let’

us claim what traditions we have. .
Let us continue to sing and

listen to Christmas. carols at our

children’s Christmas concerts.

Rosalind McKeown

North Vancouver

many non-

The fact of having heard them ,

Publisher

Managing Editor . .
Associate Editor. :...
‘Sales & Marketing Director ..Linda Stewart
-Comptroiler .Doug Foot

North Shore News, toundea in 1969 as an
independent sunurban newspaper and qualified
, under Schedule 111, Paragraph IMI of the Excise
Tax Act, 1s published each Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and
distributed to evety door on the Norin Shore.
Canada Post Canadian Publications Mai Sales
Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates
available on request. Submissions are welcome but
we cannot accesl responsibility for unsolicited
material including manuscripts and pictures which
should be accompanied by a slamped, addressed
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Newsroom

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ories Is

ay

e too late

THERE ARE few indignities to mateh being fired from an
unpaid job. So spare a little Christmas charity fer ex-Tory

leader Kim Campbell. ,
And right away forget about her
winding up as ‘ta mere footnote in
history.’’
You don’t lead the 126-year-ald
party of Sir John A. to a virtually
total meltdown simply to become
a footnote. Kim will be
remembered, even if mostly, alas,
for the wrong reasons. :
Granted that she, like all of us,
has her faults. But no one indi-
vidual could singlehandedly have
reduced the proud Progressive
Conservative Party from a 154-
seat parliamentary majority toa
two-member pimple on the body
politic — net even after a lifetime
spent plotting such a cataclysm.
No, the PCs self-destructed.
Indeed, there are grounds for
suspecting that Kim herself may _
have been the victim of a complex
plot-gone-wrong by the party’s

Centra! Canada power base, where |

she had few, if any, friends.

If the centralists figured that
Mulroney had alrearly made a
1993 Tory victory impossible and

KIM CAMPBELL...
rapport missing.

a season in opposition inevitable,
did they decide to concentrate in
the election on killing any chance
of the upstart from B.C. becom- ,
ing a future western prime
minister?

Was that why none of the
Mulroney cabinet’s senior
heavyweights, mostly from Central
Canada, would even run up for
the leadership — thus leaving
B.C.’s Campbell to fight it out
with Quebec’s Jean Charest?

If such was the game plan by
the Tory backroom boys, it

‘ misfired disastrously. Even after

ensuring that the blame for defeat
would fall on Campbell, they

.could never have dreamed of the

PCs emerging as anything less
than the strong official opposition
to Chretien’s Liberals — which a
few Reformers and Bloc
Quebecois members might even
reduce to a minority government.

After which, the Tories would: .
have four years in which to junk
Kim, as they had earlier disposed
of Joe Clark. So what went
wrong?

Basically, the backroom boys
were fooled by Campbell’s sum-
mer honeymoon with the elector-
ate after becoming the first
woman prime minister and the
first from B.C.

She was a fresh, highly inter-

esting figure. She performed well

whe states AP NTR ar reed he

HITHER AND YON

on the international stage in.
Tokyo.

Maybe, mused:the voters, she -~ ”
MIGHT be quite different from
her hated predecessor.: This lulled
the Tory handlers and spin:doc-
tors — who, like the Hapsburgs,
had learned nothing and forgotten
nothing during the-Mulroney years
—- into running-a blinkered cam- ...
- paign sharply at odds with Kim’s
-independent and often unpredic-

. table’ personality. -

: Roaming the country; in the -
’ campaign bus, she often seemed |.
éerily cut off.from'the activities of.
campaign chairman John Tory,”.. ”

pollster Alan Grege and the other. ai
, ‘pros’? back in Ottawa: .

- She stumbled badly. at the. start

ue ‘bybeing overly honest about '

- long-term unemployment. She got
no backroom help in dealing with.”
‘lethal questions about the deficit.
The TV ads mocking Chretien’s”
facial paralysis, dreamed up.
» behind he her back, finally finished:
er. =|
The voters decided that, dif-
ferent though Kim might be, her.

backroom "party was still that of Mulroney —

which was enough'to kill both of
them. h
Yet for all her human gaffes,’ ,
she WAS a breath of fresh air on
the political scene, as voters had
earlier sensed. [f campaign HQ...
had serviced her with a little more ’
diligence and sensitivity, she might
well have saved the party from | -
terminal collapse. . .
Now embarking on new career
adventures, she’s at least taught
the Tories a valuable lesson about
boneheaded establishment arro- =.
gance. Unfortunately for them, ~~
the lesson probably comes too
ate.

a ‘ tf we “
SCRATCHPAD: Watch for the
Carot Ships arriving Sunday, Dec.
19, about 7:30 p.m. off Ambleside
Park for their shoreline cruise to
Dundarave and Point Atkinson.
.». Earlier on Sunday, at 10:30
a.m, you can enjoy music from
Handel’s Messiah at St. David's”
United Church, Upper Levels and
Taylor Way. ... Remember the
birds this Christmas with the
year-long gift of a hand-made
bird feeder, $15, from 6th St.
Agnes Wolf Cubs — call 988-0311
to order. ... Meanwhile, wish
many happy returns of tomorrow, '
Dec. 18, to West Van’s John
Grubbe and Dick Thorne. ... And
more of the same that day to their
Mayor Mark Sager.

te wala n sR RANE tala =