| ‘Dou

7

on the

t other hand

’ REMEMBER LITTLE old
‘ fat Dave? That was the ami-
able and witty Dave Barrett’s
_.way of describing himself.
And now he has written a
book on his life and times.
‘It’s not a bad read, either.

His wit and amiability were
deceptive, however. He was and is a
dedicated socialist who.dreams
about Wall Street wiles. His book
reeks with contempt for free enter-
prise. : ,
. ‘Esaw a lot of Barrett when I cov-
ered the legislature for the CBC's
nightly Seven O'Clock Show in the

».1960s. :
.:.Valso contributed to making him
> well known. He was a social worker
and was fired by Socred Attorney
“General Robert Bonner for sticking
his nose into politics, those being
~~ the days when government employ-
“ees weren't supposed to do such
“things. °
’ Dave was a natural as the put-
‘upon underdog. Good TV.
. / Here's another confession. When
he won the 1972 election I did a
“*. broadcast saying Good Riddance to
Old Wacky, W.A.C. Bennett.
_. Don’t hold it against me.
Nobody's perfect. But by the time
.” Dave was ditched, three years later,
_)1 thought that Wacky had been won-
~derful, And in fact, his 20 years in
government were B.C.’s greatest.
": ~The Barrett rise to power is fasci-
- nating. Poor boy from East

Vancouver makes it to the top,

Whether it was Barrett's inten-
tion to show how B.C. was tricked
into Big Government and political
correctness | don’t know, But that’s
what his book does.

He writes, sarcastically, ef how
Wacky bad “run the provinee out of
his hip pocket.” meaning he was
careful with the public’s money,

Civil servants could not even
make out-of-province phane calls
without permission from a deputy
minister, When rain leaked into the
legislature, plastic sheets funnelled
the water into buckets.

Those were the days, They were
the days. too, when people could
take most of their pay home with
them instead of giving it to the likes
of Dave and his good works.

Government prospered. Dave set
the example by giving himself a
salary of $52,006 a year (a lot of
money then). [t was more than dou-
ble what Wacky got and more thun
Trudeau was getting as prime minis-
ter, MLAs joined the happy throng
and government workers got wage
increases of up to 50%,

Barrett excuses that by saying
that whereas the legislature under
Bennett sat for only three months a
year, he had it in session for most of
the year. But people just didn't
understand that. ;

In short, he was a socialist ina
hurry-and created a state steamroller.
In the 39 months he was driving it.
367 bills were passed.

He also appointed a failed social-
ist candidate, Kathleen Rulf. as head
of the Human Rights Commission.
Men and women promptly became
“persons” and an onslaught on

_REAL human rights began. ! called

her Miss Honeythunder.
By then I was writing for the
Vancouver Sun and had become dis-

‘illusioned with Dave and his works.
He, of course, would say that J was

in the grip of the capitalists. But 1

could recognize a threat to liberty. f

when I saw one.

‘Did his regime do any good at
all? Of course. Nobody is a// bad.
Hey! Didn't it give us the Royal

“Hudson? It also protected farmland.

PEERS Nos e C.A.
- CHARTERED ACCOUNTING FIRM

‘PERSONAL TAX ¢ ACCOUNTING
’ SMALL BUSINESS PLANNING
“ CORPORATE TAXATION
FINANCIAL PLANNING
COMPUTER INSTALLATION

Ste. A. 7060 Waltham Ave. « Burnaby, B.C. ° V5} 4V5
‘432-9066 © Fax 432-7612

I live on the North Shore and will travel to you at no charge.

DRAPERIES BY S. LAURSEN

ir ye

-& SON

|;CUSTOM
DRAPERIES, |
TRACKS AND
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iy yx SS
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‘CUSTOM

Labour $8.50 per
; panel unlined,
$9.50 lined.
BEDSPREADS
‘At low, low prices.

‘For FREE Estimates "
‘call 987-2966.
{Ask about Seniors’ Discounts) ;

. Serving the North Shore for 24 years

But it did its best to ruin the tnining
industry, gave us rent controls that
discriminited against landlords and
discouraged building, and much else
of that sort.

In New York. Barron's Weekly
culled B.C. the Chile of the North.

There are some notable omis-
sions in the book. He says nothing
about his role in the Waffle move-
ment, the fur-left group in the NDP
that was denounced by David
Lewis, the national leader.

Similarly, there is no mention of
the $80,000 pay-off from
“Bingogate” that was given to Bob
Williams when he stood down in
East Vancouver in order to let
Barrett get back into the legislature.

Barrett was published by
Douglas & Mcintyre.

I recommend it. Let it be a fes-
son to you.

g1362 MARINE DRIVE 980-9115. *-

Wednesday, November 29, 1995 — North Shore News ~ 7

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