Glib assurances

In spite of all the assurances that any
possible eventuality is completely under
control, the controversy surrounding North
Vancouver's chemical industry just keeps
fueling itself.

Reassurances to Seymour residents of
infallible communications between industry
and the District fire department were put in
perspective five days after they were given
when three railcars containing a totai of
almost 50,000 gallons of toxic and in-
flammable ethylene dichloride were derailed
in Lynn Creek yard.

. District firemen weren't called because the
derailment was technically in North Van City
by a few feet. And the City weren't called as
CN didn’t consider the situation serious.

City firemen attended some 41/2 hours later
when a firefighter heard about the derailment
while listening to the radio news.

And talk of plant safety records gained new
relevance Friday after five men were
hospitalized when hydrochloric acid being fed
from Hooker Chemicals leaked from ERCO
chemicals when a shutoff valve malfunc-
tioned.

ERCO plant manager Bill Keir commented
. that in light of the fact that the gassed men
were in a neighboring lumber yard he con-
sidered ERCO's safety record unblemished as
no one was injured on the plant grounds.

North Shore residents are entitled to more
than just glib assurances from people who
play games with words.

By ROGER. W. WORTH

Most political pundits in
Canada believe Manitoba's
Lloyd Axeworthy received a
second-rate federal cabinet
post, considering he is one of
only two Liberals elected
from Western Canada.

That’s not the case.
Axeworthy has been handed
the task of dealing with what
is potentially the most ex-
plosive political situation in
the country.

As Minister of Manpower
and Immigration, he is the
federal minister responsible
for training the tens of
thousands of skilled trades
people Canada will require
during the next decade as
the country gets set to spend
$200 billion on major
projects.

And a severe shortage of
skilled labor already exists.

Surveys conducted by the
55,000 member Canadian
Federation of Independent
Business indicate finding
qualified workers’ for

relatively high-paying jobs is
among the top problems
faced by small and medium-
sized enterprises. And the
situation is just as bad for
bigger business.

So a crash program to
upgrade skills, particularly
among the unemployed, will
undoutedly be a priority for
the new minister.

The delicate political
problem that is likely to
develop, though, is

somewhat different.

If Axeworthy strikes out in
efforts to provide enough
skilled trades people, he may
be forced to allow more
immigration or permit
qualified people to work in
the country on a temporary
basis, returning home when
the job is completed.

Such a move would be
political dynamite, par-
ticularly if Canada’s high
unemployment persists.

In short, Axeworthy has
been handed one of the
toughest jobs in the new
cabinet, dealing with issues

that affect the future of the
country, and the place of
Canadian workers in their
own land.

| AMERICANUS ECONOMUS |
COMMONLY CALLED THE YANKEE DOG, THIS |

Roger Worth is Director,
Public Affairs, Canadian
Federation of Independent
Business.

RARE BREED, WHEN SICK , WAGS ITS TAIL |
| SHAKING LOOSE ALL THE HAIR. Lessno |

Into the eye of the hurricane

That's politics

After a few years of experimenting with
press freedom and public expression the

Losing an election — especially if you won the
previous one only just over half a year earlier — 1s
normally no occasion for mirth and jollity. As the
new session of Parliament opens, the deposed
members of Joe Clark’s short-lived government
and their followers will doubtless be wearing
suitably grim and serious expressions. But is it
possible, just beneath the surface, that they're

leaders of China have decided that it just
won't work. Come June, freedom will once
more be a forbidden word in China and
dangerous thoughts will no longer be allowed
to contradict the official party line. The
leaders in Peking discovered that freedom
gives rise to free thinking and in a creative
environment no official party line can
survive for long. It’s sad that any ruling
oligarchy can have the power to revoke and
invoke freedom for an entire people, but
then, that’s politics.

“sunday

news

north shore

news

NEWS
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chortling quietly over their good fortune?
Or, if they aren't, that they should be?

To continue the questions
for a moment, have the
Liberals, for the first time in
this century, blown it? In
their headlong surge behind
the NDP last December 13 to
defeat Mr. Clark’s govern-
ment, did they at long last

make a fatal mistake in
timing?

These are not idle or
frivolous questions. to

everything there is a season.
And the season Canada is
now entering bodes ill, alas,
for any government in
Ottawa.

Histoncally, the Liberals
know a lot about the seasons
pohtical and economic.
They have hitherto shown an
uncanny instinct’ for
choosing the right ones.

The Liberal Party has
ruled Canada for 58 of this
century's 80 years, and the
Conservatives for a mere 22
years Up to the seventies
the Liberal years coincided,
by and large. with penods of
national growth and
prosperity — for which
theyre entitied to claim
appropnmate credit, regar-
diess of cxactly how the
growth and prosperity came
about

LOUSY TIMING

By contrast, the Conserva
tives’ Gming has been lousy
They have shown a perverse
genius for carrying the can
during the country’s lean and
troublesome years. “Tory
times are hard times ”

The Tomes were on the
hot seat from 19t! to 1921,
the penod of the First World

War and its tricky aftermath.
The next time round they
landed on an even hotter
seat — the height of the
Depression between 1930
and 1935. Even their return,
22 years later under
Diefenbaker, was promptly
clouded by the recession of
the later 1950s.

Last May, after a further
16 years mm the wilderness,
the Tones were back once
for a

more bref seven-
month stint — faced im-
mediately with dire

economic problems of every
kind, though obviously not
of their own making.

The list of those problems,
which show every sign of
worsening before they get
better, 1s becoming almost
tedious to repeat: high in-
flation, high unemployment,
soaring energy prices, low
growth, a sagging Canadian
dollar, a chronic balance-of-
payments headache and a
horrendous budget deficit
expected to reach at least
$13) tilbon in the
year

current

PROBLEMS MULTIPLY

The extent to which Pierre
Trudeau and his” Liberal
governments over the I11-
year penod from 1968 to
1979 were responsible for
the problems may be a
matter for debate. In certain
cases at least part of the
blame can be laid on world
developments beyond
Canada’s control But it's
equally obvious that the
Liberals were unable to find

any lastings solutions.

Noel Wright

despite having had plenty of
time to seek them and a firm
parliamentary majority.

Even in the short eight
weeks since the return of
Mr. Trudeau with many of
his recycled 1968-79
colleagues the problems
have been multiplying at an
alarming clip.

The country has been
without an effective govern:
ment for nearly a year and
without a budget for almost
18 months As a_ result,
there's a massive backlog of

legislative and admini
strative business crying
aloud for immediate at
tenlion

Meanwhile, interest rates
are going through the roof --
threatening disaster for tens
of thousands) of

small
businesses and private
homeowners. the dollar 1s
drooping sail) lower, in
flation, unemployment,

deficits. energy and all the
other troubles to which the
Grits temporarily bade
farewell on May 22, 1979
arc looming larger than ever

In addition. the Quebec
referendum issuc is) now
approaching boiling point,

with recent indications that
Rene Levesque and his
separatists may, for the
moment, be the front
runners. Rumblings of
discontent from the anti-
Liberal West and _ the
possibility of a head-on con-
stitutional confrontation
with Saudi Alberta over oil
prices round out the agenda.

WHY THE HURRY?

Considering that the
Trudeau Liberals failed —
whether nobly or ignobly —
to find any effective escape
from these dilemmas during
their leisurely 11 years in
office, one wonders why on
earth they were in such a
hurry to come back to a
familiar mess that had grown

even messier in_ the
meantime.
Was it because seven

months in opposition had
suddenly, in a blinding flash,
revealed all the answers that
had eluded them for more
than a decade? Or had it
simply something to do with
the appetite created by what
Henry Kissinger called “the
uluumate aphrodisiac” —
power.

Whatever the explanation,
the Liberals’ headlong rush
lo regain power at all costs,
courtesy of Quebec and
Ontario, could prove a
serious strategic miscalcula-
tion If ever there was a
season, politically speaking.
to retire to the safety of the
opposition benches and
watch the Other Party wreck
itself on the shoals ahead, 1t
looks uncomfortably like
being the carly 1980s.

In the event, it's the Tories
who have wound up on the
safe opposition benches and
the Gmts who now find
themselves sailing into the
eye of the hurricane

Maybe. at long last, Lady
Luck has decided to smile
for a season on the battered
heirs of Sir John A Mac-
donald