NOTHER piece of local work- ing history is set to be perma- nently sidelined because of government myopia. :Harlier this year we learned that the 1940s vintage Burrard Inlet ferry currently housing the Seven Seas restaurant at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue has been ordered removed by North Vancouver City. Its value as a working link to our past apparently counts for naught. Next up for the scrapheap: the “steam engine with royal lineage that ‘has’ been hauling tourists up and ‘down B.C.’s: scenic Howe Sound vs since the 1970s. ., Engine 2860, better known as the “Royal Hudson, is languishing beneath tarps on a BC Rail siding awaiting repairs; that are becoming evermore unlikely. “mailioei VIEW POINT: ison hope BC Rail, the Crown corporation that operates the Royal Hudson ser- vice, is weighing the costs and bene- fits of resurrecting the engine that once pulled British royalty across — Canada and continues to draw tourists and steam train buffs to British Columbia. To the bottom-line number. crunchers at BC Rail and, ultimately, in the provincial government, the dollars of that investment outweigh its accounting sense. ‘But if they looked for a moment beyond the immediate numbers they would see not only the multiple spin- offs in local and provincial tourist trade dollars that are generated from running North America’s last regu- Jarly scheduled steam train service, they'd perhaps see a little of the magic the past has to offer the present. Stuff Xmas stockings with Anonymous taxi driver to the rescue Ou It: condominium building I had a spontaneous combus- tion fir Aug. 21 on the balcony of one of the owner's apart- The driver ofa cab arked on Lonsdale saw the smoke and d 9-1-1. The fire department responded immediately and thé fire was out in about an hour. The actual fire was contained balcony with just water damage elsewhere. é tried to find out who. this Good Samaritan was but to no. avail;: We’ phoned the’ cab companies on athe North Shore hi Have, to date, received no “ building is, eae to normal, we ¢ want to ‘Ring a idly has ahi an as without his call 10 9°) could have been seriously. damaged. ¢ do not have aname Patino he but we triist you will know how very ere we: « the word. His ve FOR that last-minute stocking- stuffer here's a festive shot of homegrown self- reliance and pio- neering spirit. - Lord knows - Canadians could use both by the bushel. The shot comes cour- ‘tesy of Gordon Gibson. Bull of The Woods chronicles his life, his times and his calloused- . hand philosophies. It’s an invigorating “read on a hast of levels. ‘At ground level it’s an adv ertisement for - horse sense over horse manure — a treatise _ ~~ that inspires faith in self and the value of hard work — two other Canadian charac-. . teristics now missing in action. ..Gibson’s book is not new. - It was originally published in hardback - approximately 20 years ago when the Bull ” "himself was still alive. ~ Maybe not rampaging at full gallop as: in previous years, but alive nonetheless, and - Gordon Gibson alive gave real meaning to on of living was fearless and full thrortle..” It obviously struck a chord Y cn _ Canadians back then: The orig inal hard. ‘back sold 50,000 copies. : --So why the release'so distant funi the original of an updated pai Gordon Gibson Jr., whe has writen a “warm and insightful foreword to the new . paperback ‘edition of his father’s book, says » publisher Scott McIntyre decided the times - : were right for the re-release : ‘sL.While it has been enjoyed prin | prin incipally by ~ older generations; Gibson said ‘the * has more to say to young people ‘Avho: shessnreeseneesacesneraansssosenscocoscesocaes wear a THAT sata TA SST LEN EAVES N YOUR STOCKING, need a case example of what sheer determi- nation can do ., Heroic resurrections, perhaps, Well, rip-roaring resur- rections, for sure. . Be forewarned, however: Buil of the Woods is not for the politically correct faint of heart. 4 alty language and gritty . ‘frontier philosophies and actions abound. ‘Thank God for that. ~ Imagine, for example, © someone today crowing, about felling a 10-foot- fiameter cedar tree or harpooniny a whale? He’d have a Greenpeacer chained to his door and be hauled before a Human © Rights tribunal within the hour. But unlike the soft-headed drivel mer- ‘chants behind aforementioned actions, . |” Gibson was someone who would have : been worth knowing. : : He was a Grade 6 dropout whose ~ teachers said would never amount to any- * thing’ But Gibson and his brothers Clarke, Jack and Earson personified West Coast - - do-it-yourself initiative and pioneering - ‘resourcefulness, ‘They carved a living from Vancouver Island’s wild West Coast, har- vesting its rich resources of timber and fish, : breaking rules, taking risks, defying those . “of lesser character every step of the way. ’ They. built lumber mills up and down. the coast and a layed their indefatigable work ethic and family enérgy into airlines, | : canneries, whaling stations and ferry ser- vices, Gibson later ran for public office. He represented North Vancouver in the .°.:-'. provincial legislature from 1958 to 1 66 and blew the whistle oni the timber licens- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include your SSS SS SOI “minister to jail. His was a life dedicated to figh 1 for’: * the conimon good and common sense of. the litle guy and against the arrogance of : authorities, experts, bureaucracies and other like-minded dimwits who don't.’ “have the ability to run'a wheelbarrow. -. around a corner without a map. The Bull offers frontier remedies to assorted social ills throughoiit his book. But those same ills continue to bedevil the Jand, primarily because the experts, bureau- crats and meddlers are still in control. On the native issue, for example, ':: Gibson, who had spent his life working alongside natives in the wilderness, advised - the federal government that its Policy. of. ~ providing everything for native instead of cultivating their self- sufficien was destructive and demeaning. As to the drug problem, Gibson; ious times during his life a prodigious drinker, believed i it would largely be sol “by bringing in such deterrents as the’ Jotine for the parasites who peddle heroit: and cocaine on the streets. A few public, beheadings would clean up the streets quickly.” . Anyone who has spent any time work: ing for a living on the edges of the wilde ess will appreciate Gibson’s gall and brass “/ which decreed that “hard work, ambition: ‘and nerve” were more than a match’ ‘> brains and ability. -His home truths are tonic in a land now. . given over to soft comforts and welfai « poisons.’ Gordon Gibson’s character: we “n't fit in today’s Canada. ‘This vast land has become 1 too small < — Bull of the Woods is 7 Douglas o Melntyre It Birr: $19, — tmtrenshaw@home www. nsiiews.com