Chilcotin’s costliest ANAHIM LAKE — Being convinced that it’s in the new industries such as computers and fax modems that the _finest lunatics and geniuses congregate, Our Man Stanley travelled to Anahim Lake in early October to talk to new- wave mushroom people. Tsunami Ltd., a Vancouver Island: company, had a crew of pickers in the nearby hills, gathering Pine Mushrooms which Canadians can’t afford any more but which have a ready market in Japan where housewives pay up to $1,000 a kilo for them. (Not many buy by the kilo and ’ McDonaid’s Toyko does not use them to make mushroom burgers.) Tsunarai president Ron Miller - was packing Pine Mushrooms in crates fora plane’ waiting nearby on the Anahim airstrip. There are ‘five grades of Pines, No. 1s being - unopened buttons and No. 5s those which are fully opened and curled up like cowboy hats. i No. Is ‘were commanding $400 7 ‘Canadian ¢ a pound at the Tokyo “auction'a week ago,” said Mr. Miller. A -_ He did not know the final price. to Japanese f families at the retail level, but it must have come close ‘to the $1,000-per-kilo mark, : At that time Tsunami Ltd. was ; paying the pickers here $175 a ‘peund for No} Is. ‘ .. They were buying from both : their own. crew. of pickers, mostly ~ Indian, who travel with them and _ live in tent camps in the bush, and _ from local people who pick the -" mushrooms freelance, -: Tsunami uses’ planes, trucks, “ bush vehicles and a multitude of . Other costly equipment inv travel- -ling the West Coast. : . “> According to season, they buy “ chanterelles, morels, botetus and -pines. A critically important piece ~- of equipment is Mr. Miller's fax, which tells him each day’ S holesale. auction prices abroad: “The Japanese give us 24 hours’ : grace,” he said./““When a high rice plunges, they will still buy ‘from us at the old pri e for one | ‘more day.’”.*.: Mushroom prices go up and down like.a bride’s nightie... Our Man Stanley saw the list for the day of his interview writ- Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES ten on a cardboard box cover ‘beside the packing crates: No. | — $60 a pound; No, 2 — $60; No. 3 —- $15; No. 4— $10 and the No. 5 cowboy hats — $5. At the low point, this season’s prices were $8, $5, $3, $2 and $1. High and low, they add up to many millions of dollars for in- dustry people and pickers and this year were officially recognized in B.C. as an agricultural crop. Pickers have an uneasy rela- tionship with the forest industry, forests being where almost all the mushrooms are found. ‘We are pests to them,”’ said Mr. Miller. ‘“We often have trou- ble getting up-to-date maps from ‘the Forestry or from the com- panies.’’ He exhibited little fear of the . province’s largest industry. “‘When they cut a tree they have to wait 80 years for another to grow. We take a crop every one of those 80 years, excepting of course the years it doesn’t rain.” His troupe of pickers, camps, planes and trucks starts in April -or May in Yukon and may end the season as far south as California © in November. They were in Anahim in Oc- tober because the pine mushrooms do best after a few frosts, al- though there are a multitude of other factors that cause them to bloom or not. Like most new-wave people, Mr. Miller was gratifyingly en- thusiastic and stuffed to the gills with odd facts. **No calories,’’ he pointed out. “*Just Flower and fruit. Flavor is all you eat.” If you add butter and get fat, don’t blame the mushroom. Our Man Stanley learned that mycology is an infant among sciences and there are many more questions than answers, Except for the well-known domestics, mushrooms are almost impossible to grow in plantations, although the Japanese are trying frantically. He also learned that our poisonous Brain mushroom con- tains a chemical used in rocket fuel. A single mushroom of any of the multitude of species can | release enough spores to populate the planet. Mushroom spore has been found in the stratosphere by people investigating the ozone hole. “There is even a theory that mushrooms are not of this earth,’’ says 27-year-old James Kern of North Vancouver, another member of the company. Because the spore can withstand cold and airlessness for so long, it has been suggested that spores which originated on planets of other solar systems rode into Earth on meteors. Think of that if you’re going to try.one of the hallucinogenic types.. The largest known single living organism on Earth is an under- ground mushroom mycelium in Washington state, measuring sev- eral kilometres across and weighing maybe as much as downtown Manhattan. © “And they feed upon death,”’ intoned Mr. Miller as Our Man Stanley left with his head and his notebook filled with mysteries. Local Reform MPs off to Ottawa THE NORTH “Shore’s two newly elected. Reform. MPs. will be- at- -tending . their, ‘first caucus meeting “on Nov; 6 and 7. Reform party MPs’ from 2 across Canada - will attend the caucus ‘meeting in Calgary prior to flying to Ottawa on Nov. 8. . “The- main purpose of the meeting is to assign responsibilities within the group and to give final approval’ to a set of. rules and guidelines for caucus,’’ said North Vancouver MP Ted White. '’ “We want to. ensure that Reform MPs can maintain a dif- ferent. approach to that of tradi- tional MPs by involving the constituency much more than ever LOOKING AT BUILDING? 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Developed bo the Site Gara —e : ERY stato snvacuiseate * 1938-0755 Motkatiog hy PuULLeor Ted White, M.P. P.O: Box 1388 1124 Lonsdale North Vancouver: V7M 2H1 Telephone: 980-5300 THANK YOU AND ... The final vote for Reform in Neh Vancouver was around 20,200. That w: 40% of the total, and a winning margin, of approximately 4,300 votes. My sincere thanks go out to each and every one of you who donated your time and money, and who gave your vote to make this win possible. 1 will do my utmost to make you proud that you chose me to represent North Vancouver in Ottawa. WHAT COMES NEXT? During the next few days | will be attending the first Caucus Meeting of Reform MPs in Calgary and on Tuesday we will all be in Ottawa for orientation, assignment. of office space and swearing in ceremonies. This is a time of much activity behind the scenes as the work is done to set up the structure of the new Government of Canada. THE LOCAL OFFICE One of my biggest concerns at the moment is to find suitable space for a -local office. In true Reform tradition, | am going to ask for your input because the office will be your link with me and with Ottawa. My feeling is that there should be plenty of parking, close to pub- lic cransport, with easy access for che elderly and for wheelchairs. It could be retail in style, or a suite at ground level in a high rise residential block. I'm keep- ing an open mind. Please remember that { will be spending your money to pay the rent so let's choose something that does not cost too much. Unfortunately | don't think that we can afford space in a mall even though such space is high profile and meets the basic requirements. Call our answering machine on 980-5300 and leave me your suggestions and recommendations. FOR THE RECORD Much was done by-a segment of the media during the election campaign _ to label me as a racist and white supremist. Here is the true story which has never, to my knowledge, been print- ed or broadcast despite my attempts to get it on the record. * In 1983 1 was involved with the “Western Canada Concept for a short time. A'Victoria lawyer, Doug Christie, who to this day | have never met or talked to, was the Leader of the Party. In 1985, two years after the WCC,.Doug Christie defended an Alberta school teacher, Keegstra, who had claimed that the hotocaust didsnot exist. Apparently some of the media felt that this was suffi- cient evidence to make me a racist, so if any of you know a lawyer who has defended a murderer, watch out. You are fd obviously a murderer toa!!s i: Incidentatty, » a Toronto newspaper Bf revealed in the last days of the campaign that Mr. Ernst Zundel, another person defended by Doug Christie, was a mem- ber of the Liberal Party and had,run for leadership against Pierre Trudeau Such skeletons in the closet! Are all Liberals racists and white supremists? y It is important to me that each and every one of you as voters feel comfort- able approaching me should you need to talk with your MP. I make no distinction by race or religious belief, and it matters not how you voted in the clection, My job is to represent North Vancouver vot- _ers and | wane you to be and feel involved in the process. This column was paid for by my North Vancouver Riding Association but ! hope to budget for a regular position in the North Shore News in the near future.