page 14 - Jume 22, 1977 - North Shore News. Vancouver’s Stanley Burke—who has earned nationwide distinction as a broadcaster, award-winmer journalist, author, adventurer and crusader—has his own highly creative vision of Canada’s future. This week he wrote about it in the folowing open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau. We feel that many of our readers may share his thoughts - EDITOR. Dear Prime Minister: I wonder if you can find time to consider a few thoughts on Canada Day, 1977? _ It’s just 10 short years since the Centennial Flame was lit but how the mood of the country has changed! Then,we thought we were building a modei nation. To- day, we are told that we face a crisis of survival. But have things really changed that much? We are still the same people. — We still live in the most magnificent country in the world. _ QOur wealth, in comparison with an impoverished world, is even greater, and yet we quarrel and say we fight for survival. oo Do we really? Or is it rather Ottawa which is threatened? Isn’t it true that our major problems—unemployment, inflation, energy, etc.-—are essentially these faced all over the world? Further, isn’t it true that others would consider our problems to be mere inconveniences and that many would accept them as ‘‘blessings’’? Isn’t it true_ that the cultural strains We face in Quebec, and in relations with native people, are little different from those faced by many people elsewhere? And isn’t it true that in some places these situations are being successfully handled? Consider Britain, for ex- ample, which is rapidly decentralizing to meet the needs of its minorities; where even the Channel Islanders and the Shetland Islanders have separatist movements and are winning greater contro! over their own affairs. Is this wrong? If you were the Prime Minister in Whitehall, would you refer to Scottish nationalists as ‘the enemy’’ and say that compromise is impossible? I ‘Isn’t it time.to admit that our venerable system no longer works satisfactorily and that, even if Quebec did not exist, would have to be overhauled? - Isn’t it time to recognize that Ottawa is not Canada; that the real Canada lives in thousands of towns and. neighborhoods from Skide- The technical means exist to create such a nation. All that is lacking is will. One final question, Prime Minister: How do you res- pond to the suggestion that your government has become ‘too much concerned with matters of the Head and too ‘little with those of the Heart; and that you, yourself, are strategists and social engin- eers for whom ordinary people are little more than raw material for the mach-' ine? I have never, for example, heard the word ‘“‘kindness’’ pronounced in all the debate over our future. What kind of nation, then, are we building? But do you not agree, Sif, that in spite of our short- “decent people who ‘are privileged to live in the finest country in the world? Should we not, then, put quarrels and ambitions aside to build a finer future? - Respectfully yours, Stanley Burke- - Britain, Canada Day, July1 too much surrounded by _ . | re ron ternary think not. gate to Quidi Vidi and that a our real task is to make them the best places in the world in which -to live? All else, surely, is housekeeping. Similarly, France is —de- centralizing and, if you were President, I suggest that you might be commenting on the ability of French govern- menis ai adapiing to new circumstances while main- taining the essential unity of y qualified technicians, many with over 25 yrs. experience. eGENERAL MECHANICAL COLLISION REPAIRS eAUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS eBAKE OVEN PAINTING eALIGNMENT & BALANCING AIR CONDITIONING I suggest, sir, that Cana-’ dians of all cultures, and all the country. In the past 110 ‘egions, would respond to a years, white we havehad one call to create something form of government, the which might be called a __f6 ~ Nation of Neighborhoods; a aie have angie ands nation which would vary its commune. To the anglo- form to meet local needs; : which would give maximum. phone world, this has seem- Watch : entt.. ed chaotic yet today France is decision-making irene more united and self-con- i€S to local people; and whic fident than either Canada or Would recognize that our and perhaps the problems have become too United States. complex to be left to experts. Bi BS eS a [free consultation] CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SINCE 1959 “ALL WORK FULLY GUARANTEED” ty Ba Yea isi NORTH SHORE'S LARGEST INDEPEN- DENT REPAIRER 174 PE for appointments — phi fas era See eto ROA NA aCe In fact, when one looks at. the rest of the world, isn’t-it strange that we are so fearful of political change? After all, in 110 years, most govern- ments have undergone at least one fundamental change and, today, they continue to evolve. Switzer- land, after demonstrations and bombings, recently ad- ded. a new Francophone canton. Yugoslavia, which already consists of six republics, is°further decen- tralizing. Czechoslovakia divided into two associated states.. Finland underwent fundamental change to solve a minority problem. _ In Canada, aren’t we, then, over-reacting to a situation which, elsewhere would be considered fairly normal? Worse still, are our leaders playing politics with our future? Canada Week Quiz Answers 1. June 18, 1812. 2. Kingston. 3. Alexander Mackenzie. 4, Alert on Ellesmere Island, 518 miles south of the Pole, which is also the world's most northerly settlement. {t's Iin- habited by 200 servicemen and six Eskimos. 5. Halifax and Kingston, 1855. 6. Three -- Province of Canada; Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; after 1867, there were four -- Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 7. Quebec, with an area of 523, 860 square miles. 8. Motropolitan Toronto, with a population of 2.8 million. 9. Cralgatlachie, B.C. in 1885. 10. Queen Victoria. 11. At the time of Confedora- tlon, the British were concerned that Sir John A. Macdonald's suggestion to call the Infant nation the Kingdom of Canada would upset the antl-royalist Americans, The name “‘Dominion'' was Inspired by a line from Psatm 72: ‘‘He shall, have dominion also from sea to sea,..."" 12. It was first nlayed by British soldiers on the ice of the St. Lawrence River during the 1760 siege of Quebec City. 13. Newfoundland in 1949. 14. In 1752, with the first issue of the Halifax Gazette. 15. London, Dec, 4-24, 1866. England from 16. Saskatchewan, where far- mers belileve two-dollar bills - bring bad fuck. The Bank of Canada doesn't issue those bills to the province, and Issues very few to the West In general. 17. The British North America Act. 18. Joey Smallwood, former Premier of Newfoundland. 19. A total of 36; 23 attended the first conforence in Charlotte- town, Sept. 1, 1864; 33 were at the Quebec Conference, Oct. 10-29, 1964: and 16 attended the London, England conference Dec. 4, 1866. 20, Brantford, Ontario by Aloxandoer Graham Bell. ‘davannsounusosecuiiensnteb teeabchibtaie einen. Salsas eintiadeihad taaimncibcOnnieiananbatala elinaaemineapn menial niaanienagtiniei Dtnipeiaiai ta iiiniaia lian aaiaiaia sia in nilaleaiiaaesietsaniananaNenianieibiath