NEWS VIEWPOINT

Debatable debate

FRECT responses from the three

provincial party leaders to direct

questions were predictably few in
Tuesday night’s debate televised on CBC.

But the spectacle will surely have con-
vinced many voters to move from
undecided to decided camps.

The debate’s big tuser: NDP leader Mike
Harcourt, who was the trio’s most def
side-stepper ard shetoric spinner.

Harcourt spoke repeatedly about getting
to the issues aud having open and honest
goverameni, but just as repeatedly spoke
in generviities and dodged attempts to test
his ow openness on questions.

He failed most to respond effectively to
the repeated challenges from Premier Rita
Johnston to “give us the numbers, Mike’’

on how much the NDP’s 48-point election
platform would cost B.C.  tsxpayers.
Jehnston’s figures put the cost at $15.3
billion ever five years; Harcourt provided
no alternative estimate.

And while Rita Johnston wus equally
evasive on the question of the Sccred gov-
ernmeat’s $1.3 billion deficit and exhibited
a relentless abrasive style, she was never as
much on the defensive as Harcourt.

The debate’s big winner: Liberal leader
Gordon Wilson, who, with the least to
lose, spoke with a refreshing clarity and
directness.

He was also given ampic opportunity to
point to live examples of 2e divisiveness
and polarization to which the warring
Socreds and NDP have reduced 3.C. poli-

cs.

LETTER OF THE DAY

Brian Swarbrick’s

‘second hand’

Opinions are a disappointment

express so strongly nis contempt

Dear Editor:

“Second opinion’ is a good
name for a column. It raises ex-
-pectations. This is where we
should find some original ideas,
new insights into old problems, a
spot of in-depth probing, maybe a
prescription for change. Unfortu-
nately, it turned out to be a
disappointment.

_ Brian Swarbrick (‘‘Unionism a
suspect activity in the 1990s,”
Sept. 15) had no new insights, in
fact nothing at ail to tell us about

* the strike of the Public Service Al-
liance of Canada that we had not
already heard many times.

. Peter Speck
-- Timothy Renshaw
. Noel Wright

Pubiisher .

Managing Editor ._
Associate Editor..
Advertising Director... Linda Stewart
Comptroller .............Daoug Foot

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an
independent suburban newspaper and qualified
under Schedule 111, Paragraph iil of the Excise
Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and
distributed to every door on the North Shore.
Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885.
Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per
year. Mailing rates available on request.
Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept
responsibility for unsolicited material including
manuscripts and pictures which should be
accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope.

All. we learned was that Mr.
Swarbrick hates unions and can-
not stand strikes. The piece was
filled with old cliches about
unions hoiding the country to
ransom, robbing the farmers by
holding up grain and_ taking
money from the pockets of fellow
workers (never once mentioning
that fellow workers and other citi-
zens gave the striking PSAC their
generous support). Not one of the
interesting and unusual features
connected with this labor dispute
was mentioned.

I find it surprising and some-
what disturbing that in ‘‘Second
Opinion’ the writer feels free to

Display Advertising 980-0511
Real Estate Advertising 985-6982
Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax
Newsroom 985-2131

FEE VORCE OF NORTH AMO WEET AMCOUVER

Ley

es ar)
1139 Lonsdale Avenue,

North Vancouver, B.C.
V7M 2H4

Distribution
Subscriptions

Administration

for and hostility toward the PSAC
(possibly aspiring to replace a
retiring Doug Coilins?). This ex-
pressed attitude makes one
pessimistic about the future for
conciliatory intervention in labor
disputes.

Mr. Swarbrick suggests that
strikers should “tighten their belts
for a year or two,” setting us all
an example. Considering these
workers have already done exactly
that, f wonder how many years of
belt-tightening he has in mind?
Enid Pine
West Vancouver

986-1337
986-1337
985-3227
985-2131

MEMBER

SR".

5
SDA DIVISION

North Shore
managed

61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday)

Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved.

time has come

EVERYWHERE except Ontario, privatization of govern-
ment-run industries is on the move. The first 15% of
Petro-Canada shares —- stage one of its transfer to the
private sector — are now on the block.

The sale is going ahead despite
news that Petro-Canada lost an
estimated $52 million in the first
quarter of this year. The loss is
being blamed on the drop in oil
prices after the end of the Persian
Gulf War, Experts say the loss
should not dampen investor en-
thusiasm when the stocks go on
the market. Other vil companies,
they note, showed similar losses
for the same period.

Another hurdle facing Petro-
Can is the fear many investors

By David Somerville
Contributing Writer

wants to acquire the bulk of
Algoma Central Railway’s land,
its equipment and the right io buy
the company’s remaining assets

’ after 1993. If the deal goes

through it would be the first na-
tionalization by the socialist gov-
ernment.

—Privatization is slowly cat-
ching on at the municipal level, at

Noel Wright on vacation

may harbor about buying into a
crown corporation not noted for
its efficiency. To allay these ap-
prehensions, Petro-Can boosters
point out that the company has
streamlined its operation and
reduced the number of senior of-
ficers started out in the private
sector and will have no problem
easing back into the marketplace.

Finally, the last bit of Petro-
Can news is that the government
has announced that U.S. and
European buyers will be guazan-
teed 20% of Petro-Canada's first
public offering. The government is
hoping a strong international de-
mand for the shaves will lend
credibility to the oil company.

Meanwhile, the recently-
privatized De Havilland is in the
news again. It seems that Euro-
pean investors interested in buying
De Havilland from Boeing (who
bought it froin the Canadian gov-
ernment in 1986) want about $500
million in tax dollars poured into
the company over the next 10
years.

The potential French and Iealian
buyers say they need the aid if De
Havilland is to compete world-
wide. So far the government has
ruled out any special aid.

—It is widely rumoured that the
NDP government, miffed with the
appointment of a non-NDP presi-
dent to head Ontario Hydro,
plans to legally strip the president

of his powers and hand them toa —

longtime NDPer who will act as
the crown corporation's CEO.
The NDP wants to ensure that
Ontario Hydro promotes the gov-
ernment’s costly social agenda.

—lIn a related story, the anti-
privatization socialist government
of Ontario is handing out
$225,000 to a private environmen-
talist group so that it can push for
the privatization of Ontario
Hydro. Try and figure that one
out! The group in question,
Energy Probe, says privatizing the
utility company would help to
conserve Ontario's energy. The
NDP government has already said
it would oppose any such
privatization. So why give them
the money?

—In the one-step-backward cat-
egory, the Ontario NDP govern-
ment is toying with the idea of

nationalizing a railway in northern
Ontario.

According to the Globe and
Mail, the Ontario government

least when it comes to garbage. In
Ontario, cities like Mississauga,

Brampton, Kitchener and Ottawa
coatract out the collection of gar-
bage. Also, more than half of the
municipalities in British Columbia
have private garbage collection.

—Sadly, privatization now has
its first martyr. Detlev Karsten
Rohwedder, who had the difficult
task of overseeing the privatiza-
tion of fermer East.German com-
panics, was assassinated this spr-
ing by communist redicals. Police. .
have not discounted the possibility.
that one-time members of the
now-defunct East German secret
police were involved ia the
murder. .

—The British are about to in-
troduce some free market reforms
to their state-run Nadional Health ~
Service. In what is being cailed the
biggest shake-up in forty years, *
health authorities there will be
able to start buying health care
from competing providers. Also,
hospitals will be permitted to
become self-govertiing and in
charge of their own affairs. ©

—The idea of privatization is
slowly seeping into the Soviet _
Union. A recent story in The’
Economist describes how a group
of Soviet workers banded together.
to purchase their factory. They set
themselves up an elected share-
holder’s council which meets to
make important decisions.

. “We want to bring our people -
towards the idea of property, to © -
feel themselves owners of our -_
plant and to take responsibility
for its results,’* says Alexander
Mironov, the plant’s number-one
man. Since the worker takeover
the company has increased output
and more than tripled its profit.

The California-based Reason.
Foundation says that the US Fed-
eral Government plans to put a
heavy emphasis on increasing the
rele of the private sector in fi-
nancing, building and operating
highways and bridges. It also
plans to use ‘‘congestion pricing’”’
im areas with pollution problems.

The scheme will see a greater
reliance on toll roads, which
would charge people higher prices
during rush hour.

David Somerville is president of
the National Citizens Coalition, a
39,000-member Toronto-based
lobby group campaigning ‘‘for
more freedom through less gov-
ernment. ”?
CET a