6 — Sunday, Nov. 29, 1992 — North Shore News ABOUT QUALITY EDUCATION... | OUR FUuTERE!? INSIGHTS |On vox pop and how Safeway stole my honor! A COUPLE of close-to-home items this weekend — beginning with North Van District Coun. Ernie Crist — fired as acting mayor by his fellow councillors for attack- ‘REWS VIEWPOINT Taxing times F YOU are feeling 2 touch sensitive in the tummy these days, perhaps it is the result of the tax mallet striking ever harder at your midsection. Recent figures released by the invaluable Ferxser Institute in its annual consumer tax ings; showed that the average Canadian farmity will earn $53,535 by the end of this yeur. That’s the good news. The bad news is that about 44% of these earnings wil! be siphoned off in direct and hidden tuxes. Further bad news from the Fraser Institute figures shows that the combined federal, provincial and municipal tax bill of the average Canadian family has risen by $2,622 since the Tories came to power in Canada in 1984. Canada’s debilitating federal debt now stands at about $423 billion, and the coun- try’s $35 billion deficit this year is over $3 billion higher than the Tories forecast. Federal Finance Minister Don Mazankowski is scheduled to announce on Wednesday measures to cut the federal deficit. To be at all meaningfui, those cuts must be significent, and they should start in Ot- tawa, the federal capital of bureaucracy and boondoggie. The federal Cabinet, for instance, is currently the largest in the world with 39 ministers. By comparison, cabinets in Bri- tain and the United States have 22 and 14 members, respectively. So swing the spending axe, Mr. Mazankowski, but swing it at the heads nearest the public trough, and swing with feeling. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “What they have doue here is the . weapon of the weak. It's a frog squeaking from the swamp.”" North Vancouver District Coun. Ernie Crist, on council’s decision to remove him as acting mayor. “That’s right, it’s shared; it’s mutual.” : North Vancouver District Mayor Murray Dykeman, swapp- ing non-confidence gibes with Coun. Ernie Crist after Crist was removed as acting mayor. “He’d open the door thinking there was somebody there, and they’d beat him over the head with a bat.”" Bruce Johnstone of Alpine Ap- pliance Installations, on what life in Bulgaria was }xe for an Alpine employee recently deported from Canada back to Bulgaria. “Ia West Vanceuver, are we building houses or are we building fortresses?"’ British Properties and Area Homeowners Association Presi- dent Jim MacCasthy, on the monster house issue. “I think you would get some op- position to almost any develop- ment, whether it was a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet or a dry- cheaning store."’ Roger Gibson, on opposition to his proposal for a neighborhood pub at 1765 Capilano Rd. in North Vancouver District. Publisher .....Petes Speck Managing Editor .. . Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor Noel Wright Sates & Marketing Director. Linda Stewart Comptrotier . -Doug Foot North Shorea News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph tll of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Nerth Shore Free Press Lic. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mat! 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 manuscnpis and pictures which should he accompanied by a stamped, add‘essed envelope Newsroom V7M 2H4 Display Ad-srtising Reat Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 985-6222 Distribution $86-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2121 980-0514 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesoay. Findlay & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. ing their land sales policy. Ernie has long slammed coun- ci?’s habit of flogging chunks of the district’s big land inventory to pay for road-patching and other day-to-day expenses. Puts council in bed with developers and tempts it to fet them run hog-wild in return for fast bucks, he argues. Off with his head, shrieked his colleagues. You can’t say such dreadful things when in the mayor’s chair, even if only tem- porarily. Why not, asks Ernie. ‘‘The people have elected me and I’m speaking the truth. Whether I’m mayor or acting mayor or not ... that’s how I see it and that’s how I call it. There are no apologies.’’ He has a point when he talks about ‘'the people.’ Three of his fellow council members are in their first term, still damp behind the ears. Murray Dykemzn himself is a flustered first-term mayor. Meanwhile, Ernie has forgotten just how many times he has been re-elected since the 1970s — pre- sumably for saying and doing what the voters (who aren't stupid) want said and done. So was it just Ernie who threw his peers into their tizzy? Or the sound of vox pop? MONEY isn’t all those new bank card gizmos at supermarket checkouts take from you. They can gobble up your good name and faster. In West Van Safeway last week I tendered my bank card as usual, punching in all the data on the DANIEL IZZARD... a ‘don't miss"' show. Noe Wei HITHER AND YON mini-computer with the umbilical cord — amount of bill? OK; cur- rent account? OK; PIN number? OK. Mini-computer gurgted for five seconds, then spat out “VOID.”’ “Try again,” said the checkout clerk. ‘*Ah, ha — overdrawn?’ said the face of the Disapproving Lady heading the six customers lined up behind me. J tried again. More gurgling. A seccad “VOID.” “Try your savings acoount?"" suggested the clerk helpfully. ‘‘He LOOKS like a rubber-cheque ar- tist,’ said Disapproving Lady’s face. “No, plenty in my current — it must be the machine,”’ I mumbl- ed. ** Why don’ they call the police? It's obviously a stolen card," said Disapproving Lady’s face. Luckily, I had just enough to pay cash. Red-faced, 1 rushed over to the bank and fed ITS machine my card. Out spewed $106 without even a hiccup. Back to the store, hoping somehow to save my honor. But Disappreving Lady was gone — doubtless panting to share with all and sundry her graphic description of the would-be thief caught red-handed by the wonders of technology. For pity’s sake, Safeway, get your new toys from hell fixed! WRAP-UP: Italy, England, Ireland and Mexico inspired Daniel Izzard’s wide-ranging brush — with its mastery of light and atmosphere — during his 1992 travels. The results can be seen in the latest exhibition by West Van’s internationally renowned impressionist painter, on for a few more days at Har- rison Galleries, Park Royal. To connoisseurs of worid-class art this anaual show is a very definite “don’t miss.”’ ... Congratsto . Dave Patrick on Issue No. 1 of The Horseshoe Bay Villager, is spunky, interesting and admirably produced quarterly newsletter on Bay people and events. ... And many happy returns of Tuesday, Dec. 1, to West Van Kiwanian Ron ingraham. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Amid great joy promise ncething to any- one. Amid great anger answer nobody’s letters. (Chinese proverb — what else!) EE