} Page 6, April 18, 1979 - North Shore News 4 form | in the "When you get into a fight with the kid across the street, how much comfort and support, can" | you €xpect from your dad? The answer —-if your | dad’s business depends upon the goodwill of the kid-acrass-the street’s family — is none. That . ' . ‘seems to.be-the sole (and ‘fairly. obvious) lesson to emerge from the verbal punch-up over the Easter weekend between B.C. Tory leader Vic Stephens and North Van-Burnaby’s federal Tory ¢ candidate 7 Chuck Cook. At a news conference last Thursday Mr. Stephens made headlines by charging . that Premier Bill Bennett’s — “Social Credit Party had “blackmailed” Joe Clark's federal: Tories into with-- drawing all backing from Stephen’s B.C. Tories in their: fight to cause ‘Mr. Bennett headaches at the May 10 provincial election. Mr. ‘Stephens was still smarting from the public . snub administered to--him -¢arlier ‘In the. month at Kamloops by Mr. Clark — to whom he went for moral aid and encouragement, only to be told politely to get lost. “But the main thrust of his accusations last Thursday ' was directed at Mr. Clark’s Mr. Stephens. North Van-Burnaby car didate. Mr. Cook, said Stephens, had actually written him a letter confirming that the ‘federal Tories could have “nothing to do, during the _current election campaigns, with their B.C. brethren. “Socred blackmail!” cried “NO DEAL” On Easter Monday - morning, Mr. Cook called his own news conference to set the record straight. He denied making any deal with the B.C. Socreds ~~~ and said it would be up to the { people to decide whether or not he was “blackmailed”. He also admitted frankly that Conservative Party advisers had told him not to become involved with the provincial Tories — it would _ only serve to offend people ‘and cause him to lose support in his federal campaign. He suggested that B.C. voters were lacking in political realism if they were not aware that this kind of thing went on all the time. And, because his letter to Mr. Stephens had been ‘marked personal and Confidential”, he implied that the B.C. Tory leader would be something less than a gentleman if he .. released the text of it. | Hours later, at yet a third news conference, Mr. Stephens. responded by — declaring that. he had no regrets over the publicity given to his charges of a non- _ aggression pact between the federal Tories and the. provincial Socreds. He also commended Mr./ Cook for acknowledging /that his (Stephens’) info: the matter was urate and true. - OUT OF PROPORTION Mr. Cook,” hadn't of course, specifically acknowledged the existence ~ of a Tory-Socred _ deal, tion on - * vee Simited.- though hevhada't. ‘done 1 much may. bel to refute it either. But his -.army, but, they're. fighting most useful statement for the |. guidance of BY.’ _ gS -only‘accurate desctiption of © the whole affair. In the -first ’ didates_to ‘give practical aid. ‘to their provincial party’s ' ¢andidates are strictly As Mr. Cook pointed out, ’ his own first duty is to get elected), ‘to--Canada’s ent and that’s a full » time job in itself. Until'May 22 it simply doesn’t leave any ‘spare hours over for guest appearances and the like on - Mr. Stephen’s campaign “ platforms. And exactly the same, in reverse, applies to - Mr... Stephens —- who must concentrate 24 hours -a-day on winning some Tory seats in the B L. legislature. The troops in each case g.to the same enemies. ‘different. on s tens\of separate battlefields—with thousands of .honést-to- time the biggest enemy for. g voters was actually. the short sentence with which he opened his news conierenee —— Lo = WEIGHT! He said he wanted to| clarify “a situation that has | been blown completely out | of proportion” - “Completely out © reopen is indeed the odness. -free’