6 ~ Wednesday, November 13, 1985 - North Shore News Editorial Page “ News Viewpoint a lf it works... aturday’s council elections in North Van City and West Van have one thing in common. All the incumbent aldermen are seeking a further term and face an equal number of outside challengers. In theCity five of the latter belong to the recently formed Community Electors Associstion — a pro-NDP group which charges the present council with lacking vision, energy and the will to communicate. The sixth seat is being sought by lawyer Elko Kroon, a former City alderman working for a comeback. In West Van the battle centres around personalities rather than ideologies. But the message from the three private citizens running for council echoes that of North Van’s CEA: they claim they can govern betier than the incumbents. Since none of the challengers except Mr. Kroon have any track record in Socal government, voters must assess that claim for what they think it’s worth, The newcomers might indeed govern better than the incumbents. They also might govern worse. In neither municipality this year are there hot issues of concern to the whole. community. * Some measure of how the public rates City. ‘council. was the return of. Mayor Loucks for a fifth term by acclamation - —_ -and a recent survey “In tambents: ‘deserve to share ‘the credit due in | lew blood, if combined with genuine ability, can be healthy for the body politic. Conversely, - he wise old rute’ says “if it works, don’t fix it”. . s the choice on Saturday in the City and: “maximum number. of voters resolve to spare five minutes: to. cast their. ballot. a September. couldn’t find‘a.job..But it: : doesn’t. mean more people out, of work, : “Says ; Labor Minister Sear It’s just. that. 22,000 , ‘Display Advertising: ..” 980-0541 Classified Advertising : : OBB: 6222 sanhauen, vets — fc a aeeraeters: : spttaavencen tet | ’ 986-1337" 986-1337 ublisher, Peter Speck ¢ : eneral Manager Roger McAfee “ : Operations Manager Berni Hilliard "Advertising Olrector é Advertising Administrator Linda Stewart: : Mike Goodsell Circulation Director Editor-In-Chief oa > Bill McGown Noel Wright ’” ‘Photography Manager. Production Director a Terry. Pelets - Chris Johnson . : Chassltid Manager = | : Val Stephenson North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent.suburban ao newspaper and qualified under Schedule lil, Part 1I!, Paragraph 11! of Ihe ?, Excise: Tax Ast, 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. Entire contents * © 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver, $25. per year, Mailing rates available on request. No responsibility accepted for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, _. addressed envelope. Member of the B.C. Press Councit 56,245 {average, Wednesday . Friday & Sunday) SR" 5 "> THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE SDA en Reagan ‘and: Soviet . Mikhail - argue (and ..disagree on) : issues .that:“could ‘determine the. future. -of- planet. ‘Earth THE PEACE INDUSTRY -- PART 2 ago, as'our media group boarded the flight home, .. There'll. be masses. more barbed. wire ‘everywhere around that lovely city. by now. Plus some 3,500 troops and police, patrols on Lake Geneva, as well as under the water and in the sky above, and ‘ground-to-air missiles i in position. Such ‘is the cost to the peace-loving “Swiss of "hosting: the November’ 19-20 meeting between the world’s & * two most powerful men. Finally face.to face there for a couple of days, Ronald boss Gorbachev will itself. By. that time the. world? Ss ‘ media will have analyzed the issues and probable outcome of the summit from: top to bottom, left to right, upside ’. down and every which way. But it’s possible, that many ‘of ‘the editorials and com- -mentaries may miss one of the more hopeful aspects of “the situation that struck your ‘faithful scribe during his rée- -‘cent: tour of Geneva’ s peace ‘factories. First, however, the main ‘problem facing tne summit — President Reagan's ‘‘Star Wars’’ project. The Russians don’t buy the argument that ‘‘Star Wars’? would be purely a défensive shield for the U.S: against a Soviet attack. They maintain that it could also be used to destroy earth targets, enabling the U.S. to launch a first strike agaist the Soviet Union. This, despite the fact that the latter is believed to be. developing its own nation- wide missile defence system. “Star Wars’’, say the Russians, is a fundamentally new global weapon and thus breaches the 1972 An- ti-Ballistic Missile Treaty be- tween the superpowers. Not so, say the Americans. All * Swiss soldiers were busy erecting high barbed wire . ‘barricades. we presently. plan is to DEVELOP the system — we wouldn’t make it operational without adequate: warning. Meanwhile,’ the.. Russians have proposed a 50 per. cent bilateral reduction.in ALL nuclear weapons, plus a test ban. The technical details involve disadvantages for the U.S. which might con- ceivably be negotiated. But, in any cdsé, the price Noel Wright demanded is the killing of “Star Wars’? — which Mr. Reagan rejects outright. That broad picture is un- likely to change in the next six days. It will be the focal point of the arms bargaining expected to dominate the summit, despite a U.S. bid: to include human rights in Soviet satellites on the agen- da. _; The enormous media hype surrounding the summit tends to obscure the fact that the meeting of. the to be only a brief highlight © focus © INTERNATIONAL ENCLAVE overlooking Lake Geneva, where the Reagan-Gorbachev summit takes place next_week. - Centre, the Palais des Nations, home of the UN in Geneva and of the former League of Nations. two . leaders may, in fact, prove. “table early ‘this: year. ‘between delegates, Hope beyond the Summit? | AT GENEVA AIRPORT two and a half weeks in an ongoing story. The REAL .work...in Geneva goes on month after month ‘in: successive rounds - of. the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) between. full-time U.S. and Soviet negotiators. Barring @ "walkout. .by one. or both leaders at. the summit, START will hopefully con- tinue long after: Ronnie and Mikhail fly home next Wed- nesday. “START began in June . 1982. The Russians withdrew in December. 1983 in ‘protest against ‘‘‘Star © Wars’’. ‘but returned ‘to. the bargaining “The dignified horse trading since then provides the main basis on which the summit is tak- ing place. ..- Meeting: “with ‘Ambassador -Warren:;Zimmerman, number two to the head of the. U.S. delegation, Am-‘ bassador. Max Kampelman, and with.. Viktor. Karpov, principal : Soviet: ‘negotiator, one is more:than a little .sur- prised by’ how’ gentlemanly the whole process seems. . The opposing. - delegations meet week ‘by week ‘with highly formalized ‘ritual in the U:S. arms ‘control building.,and conduct their bargaining on_ the‘ endless fine-print details of arms reduction in accordance with a diplomatic version of the Queensbury Rules. . The two sides also have regular social contact outside the formal sessions:. lunches recep- tions, dinners in restaurants or in. delegates’ homes. Geneva has no Iron Curtain. Make no mistake, these U.S. and Soviet gentlemen are tough bargainers. They're also professionals on the subject of peace and its price tag. « Ultimately, that’s what they’re’ talking about all the time — whether in the conference room, over cocktails or at dinner. So long as they keep on talking, one feels the planet might be a lot safer in THEIR hands than in those of their masters — the Poli- ticians.