6 - Wednesday, March 26, 1986 - North Shore News —| News Viewpoint - The greater good asoline prices in the U.S. dropped to a little over 36 cents (Canadian) per litre last week, In Canada they still average well over 50 cents. With world oil prices down to $14 per barrel and the OPEC nations unable to reverse the slump, our own policymakers, however well intentioned, are obviously ripping off Canadian motorists. The ‘‘justification’? has been well publicized. For the Alberta-based oil industry $14-a-barrel oil is ruinous. Until the price of crude recovers, Canadian oil ex- ploration and processing will dwindle, with a moun- ting loss of jobs both in the industry itself and in sup- poriing industries. A continuing high pumpstand price can help ternporarily to soften the blow and postpone a renewed Alberta recession. The reverse of the coin is that lower gasoline prices would otherwise be excellent news for the national economy, since the price of almost everything we con- sume is sei, in part, by the cost of the gasoline or diesel used in its transportation. Reduced fuel costs can therefore. mean lower prices all round. That leaves the consumer with more discretionary dollars to spend, — thus boasting trade and creating jobs. We suggest the greater good of the greater number should prevail. Today, that means dropping Canadian gasoline prices to around the U.S. level, even at cost to _ Alberta. The latter’s turn will come again when, as is inevitable, world prices eventually rise once mere. Meanwhile, the immediate beneiits to the economy as a whole would likely far outweigh temporary oil patch losses. Good Government’’. Its pro- moters, however, make no bones about their aim — -to carry on from where the former West Van Electors Association left off when it mercifully died on the vine last - year. As you may recall, the WVEA (active membership never more than about 200). played a con- troversial role in West Van maunicipal elections for well over a decade. Starting out with the laudable goal of encouraging good people to run for municipal office, it wound up trying to brainwash voters into believing that its own nominees, just one per vacant seat, were the only candidates worth electing. Which is fine, of course, pro- vided you nail your flag to the mast as a bona fide political party like the NPA, COPE or TEAM across the Inlet. But the WVEA — in West Van the only game of its kind — always vigorously denied having any political taint. Like father, it was just that the WVEA claimed to ‘‘know best’’! Citizens for Good Government opened for business last week with CFGG kne a letter to some 350 Tiddlycove residents signed by Robert Wyckham, a former alderman way back. Mr. Wyckham knows quite a SUNDAY | WRONESEAY - ERIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, 6.C. V7M 2H4 56,893 (average, Wednesday Fnday & Sunday) VANIER WELCOMES THE WORLD! community. has been without an organization dedicated to the bet- terment of local government.”’ The CFGG objectives, it says, are to: ‘1, Encourage qualified people to seek municipal office in West Vancouver; "2. Assist candidates to present Noel Wright lot about good government, he be- ing also the pollster who conducts the periodic West Van Citizens Survey. On the past three occa- sions, the quiz has found well over 90 per cent of West Van residents “satisfied” or ‘‘very satisfied’’ with their council’s performance. The letter invites recipients to become founding CFGG members at $15 a head. ‘Since the demise of the West Vancouver Electors Association,’? it begins, ‘‘our LETTER OF THE DAY Chiropractors rate hospital privileges Dear Editor: With reference to your article “Chiropractors Protest Hospital Exclusion’’, I would like to add a few comments. ‘Gillian Hobbs’ (President of Physiotherapy Association of B.C.) statement that chiropractors “fix people quickly’’ but Jack the “educational component of care’’ is only half true. Chiropractors do, in fact, ‘‘fix quickly’? and | think this ability only proves their pro- fessionalism and efficiency — after all, patients like to recover from their condition as soon as possible. ‘ However, | disagree-with her that chiropractors do not educate their patients on care. Your average chi- ropractor would tell you what is wrong and explain what he is do- ing to relieve you of your condi- tion. He is knowledgeable in the topics of nutrition and preven- tative care, in addition to their ability to diagnose and perform e focus ® their platforms and abilities to the voters; “3, Stimulate interest and par- ticipation in municipal politics."’ Mr. Wyckham goes on to point out that West Van adopts the biennial election system this falt — meaning the mayor’s chair plus ail council and school board seats will be up for grabs at the same time. Revenue from founding members, he says, will be used to send a brochure to al! West Van manipulative techniques. As for the “‘disasters’’ Hobb says she hears about chiropractors (which shatters her confidence in the profession), let’s not forget about the increasing number of malpractice suits against medical doctors. If the members of the health care profession choose to exclude chiropractors on the basis of isolated incidences of “disasters’’, then it would be discriminating and hypocritical as medical doctors have their fair Display Advertising 960-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 News‘oom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Debi DIN IS CNS Publisher: Editor-in-Chiet Managing Editor Advartising Director . Peter Speck Noel Wright Nancy Weatherley Linda Stewart aval had under Ce nerbule 1 Punagiaph tt at tr tess Ltd aid d ¢tiburadt ‘0 every dou on ova AZ im near Mashing tates OGG LT Ge tA Ee G MA URCTEES, Entire contents ‘¢ 1986 Nosth Shore Free Press Ltd. Ail © nights reserved. a epee ade jw where to stop? ATTEMPTING, PHOENIX-LIKE, to rise again from the ashes is a recently defunct West Vancouver political group with a chequered history. The new name is ‘Citizens for households. And he promises a founding meeting in April to elect officers and set policy. The letter’s motheri:o0d pro- gram echoes almost word for word that of the old WVEA, not to mention the identical election-time jobs already done by tocal chambers of commerce and neighborhood ratepayer groups. But where (if anywhere) do you go - from here? Finding worthy citizens to run for office, sponsoring all-candidate meetings. and generally whipping: up public interest are noble aims. But if a mere couple of hundred or so of West Van’s 24,000 eligible voters are then tempted to use their financial clout — via brochures, posters and other publicity — to support only a handful of the total candidates, noble aims become naked partisan politics. {t then behooves the other 23,800 voters to take a long, hard look at the members — and especially the selection board — of the tiny corporal’s guard which presumes, in the holy name of motherhood, to tell the rest of , West Van how to mark its ballots. Once the voters got wise to THAT, the WVEA’s days were numbered. Hopefully, Mr. Wyckham and his CFGG pals will be smarter — by knowing where to stop. share of ‘‘disasters’’. With more than 10 million peo- ple visiting their chiropractors every year in North America, one can hardly say that they are insig- nificant in our health care system. They are also not the ‘‘quacks’’ some members of the health care profession think they are (when they do not acknowledge chiropractic treatment). Stories we hear about the ‘'disasters’’ of chi- ropractors should not prevent us from visiting them since the same i HISTORY LESSON A BUSY DATE jin North American history books, March 26 was the day the U.S. constitution was adopted in Gouth Carolina in 1776; Massachusets. banned the slave trade in 1783; Congress pass- ed the Naturalization Act in 1790, requiring a two-year residency for U.S. citizenship; and the Republic of Mexico: was proclaimed at Monterey in 1825, Overseas, on March 26, 1925, Field Marshal was elected presi- dent of Germany — at the same time as the Italian government burned 100 million lira on a public bonfire, in Rome, in a campaign to reduce the circulation of paper money. On this day, too, in 197] Bangladesh celebrated its in- dependence. March 26 was also the birthday of poet Robert Frost (1874) and playwright Tennessee Williams (1914). And it’s the anniversary of the death of composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1827) and actress Sarah Bernhardt (1923), stories-we hear about medical doc- tors do not prevent us from seeing medical doctors. Chiropractors should therefore be allowed to practice in hospitals (or wherever their patients need them) as they are just as important to the health care system as medi- cal doctors, physiotherapists, and nutritionists. Lee Stetson North Vancouver