INSIGHTS Time to set up in business : as Canada Inc. | WHILE THE entire ex-Communisi wo+fd scrambles to set up free market systems, a one-time toy media apostle of the same is now preaching greater government involvement rend dy BS Peete ltl tieet ef, ‘ Mee eS NEWS VIEWPOINT District follies ORTH VANCOUVER District Nees meetings are providing good theatre but precious little good government of late. The most recent episode of District Peyton Place had one alderman calling another alderman the vulgar term for an anal orifice. The exchange of insults resulted in a temporary halt to district proceedings and ultimately the full adjournment of Monday night's council meeting. It would be a classic episode of street- level politics played out for the enjoyment of all in attendance were it not for the full agenda of unfinished business feft on council’s plate in the wake of the meeting’s cancellation. Bowing to the volleys of insults were such important district issues as the devel- opment of the Windridge Centre project near Berkley Road and Mount Seymour Parkway. Because of council’s new com- mittee system of conducting district business, full council meetings are held every two weeks rather than every week, making the abbreviation of Monday night’s meeting even more lamentable. Nobody expects local municipal council members to exchange embraces during council meetings, but most people expect that their municipality’s business will be conducted during those meetings. Unfortunately for the taxpayers _ of North Vancouver District, municipal business is taking a backseat to council vendetias and other questionable theatrics. ‘LETTER OF THE DAY Get on with West Van rec centre Dear Editor: I hope all West Vancouver resi- dents realize our loss as we watch the Eagle Harbour Community Centre — as we know it — close its doors. It must be acknowledged though, that the sense of com- munity and spirit generated by this facility is, in part, attributable to its accessible location. The new Publisher... .. Managing Editor . Associate Editor... Advertising Director . Comptroller... . distributed to every Subscriptions North and ear. Mailing rates . Peter Speck . . Timothy Renshaw .Noel Wright Linda Stewart Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and i door on the Nosth Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. fest Vancouver, $25 per available on request. ubmissions are welcome bu! we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. site for a permanent community or recreation centre must be chosen with equal respect for the unique topographical features of West Vancouver: an Upper Levels Highway which physically divides north from south; 1,200 ft. of elevation and temperature change which divides those near the top — equipped for winter conditions — from those near the bottom who need not be; and transit Display Advertising 980-0511 Reat Estate Advertising 985-6982 Newsroom 985-2131 THE WORCE OF NORTH AND WERT VANCOUVER north shore’ Sunoat setonenon Teeny 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 eS == — Distribution Subscriptions Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Administration << Loy routes which are primarily east-. west in orientation. In order to make the facility most accessible to all, it must ini- tially serve the lower level com- munities and later, future upper levels communities. If the -Caulfeild site is ideal, then let’s get on with it! Carole Arnston West Vancouver 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 MEMBER SN" North Shore managed ey y SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. in the economy. What’s happening? “* Ff there’s anything good to be said about this recession, it is that Engtish Canada is being forced to re-evaluate the mindless laissez- faire theology of Ronald That- cherism,”’ says former Financial Post editor John Godfrey — now vice-president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Ottawa, he told the Montreal Chamber of Commerce earlier this month, is still obsessed with the “‘savage”’ capitalism backed by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and former U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher — the model that lets the marketplace alone shape the economy and is responsible for the recession drag- ging on because it ignores the need for central planning by gov- ernment. “Central planning?’’ Good grief, wasn’t that exactly what brought the Soviet Union crashing down? Isn’t Ontario heading for the same fate under its NDP commissars? Has the man never heard of the disaster area to which socialism reduced New Zealand? All true, of course. But it emerges that Godfrey’s version of central planning is a cat of quite a different breed. Our one hope of competing successfully with world economic giants is to develop ‘‘a group competitive economy ... the con- cept of a national team of gov- ernment, business and labor work- ing together, he argues. In short, government involvement NOT as a dictatorial dead-hand regulator but as a team leader and coach. He cited the extraordinary achievement of Canada’s war in- dustries under C.D. Howe and other ‘‘dollar-a-year’’ heads of private industry. A more recent example of beneficial government involvement, he said, is ‘*Quebec Inc.’? — North America’s only “group competitive economy.” For good measure he could have added Japan and Germany, where the government-business- labor team approach — especially in research and development, ’ worker training and industrial relations — outstrips anything known in North America. As we've learned to our cost. Maybe it’s overly optimistic to envisage Canada changing course overnight — given the snarling “‘we-and-they”’ relationships so Noel Wright é : » HITHER AND YON common here between govern- ment, business and the all-power- ful unions. Or have we simply been marching for too long to the wrong drummer? Whatever ... ‘‘the country would do well to develop a unique ‘Canada Inc.’ based on our own model rather than somebody else’s,'’ Godfrey insists. To the million and a half jobless, the welfare legions and the closed down employers it may sound like an idea whose moment has arrived. DATELINES: Bargain-hunters’ Saturday tomorrow, March 28, starting for North Vancouverites at the spring Thrift Sale being held by the Kiwanis Towers Social Club from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 170 West 2nd St. ... Tiddlycovians can begin with the 9 a.m. to 12 noon Rummage Sale at West Van Presbyterian Church, 29th and Marine ... Then everyone can top off the treasure hunt by meeting at the Legion Branch 60 Rum- mage Sale in the Legion Hall on 18th Street, West Van, which runs from 1] a.m. to 3 p.m. ... And tomorrow, too, wish many happy returns to North Van birthday boy Dave Elphick. . eee WRIGHT OR WRONG: A friend is someone who goes right on Sik- ing you no matter how successful either of you become. NEWS photo Cindy G 50,000 food and beverage cans are recycled into a 108 Ib. hunk of pure tin — demonstrated here at last week's Globe 92 Enviro Trade Fair by Rick Mussenden of International Paper industries, a North Van recycling firm.