FINALLY! WEVE GOT
SOME RESTRICTIONS ON
“TN. VIGLENGE.

NEWS VIEWPOINT

eal relations |

THOUGHT-provoking speech by
psychologist Dr. Gordon Neufeld at
-. a recent meeting sponsored ‘by the
: Capilano Community Services ‘Society
sparked sonie thinking about core issues
‘that’ all adults musi honestly consider if we
‘are. to understand just how we have lost
-Many.of our children to-violence and inal-
: adjustment. i
. Nature .abhors a. vacuum. Too many
.. parents have relinquished their job’ as posi-
“tive and active adult role. models for their

o children. They’ ve dropped the ball and:

look: to others. — the daycare workers, the
” teachers, the police, the courts — to pick it
up.

Kids ‘naturally. turn 16 their seers and
tend to elevate the most frustrated amongst
them ‘as leaders... i

For some, children have simply become

ips

items on the wish-list of things to attain as
we keep score of success.

Children are maintained physically, but
the moral boundaries are left undefined.
Worse still, lax parents are conditioning
them to become passive consumers. Dead-
ening video fills the void.

Neufeld calls the detachment, this lack of
contact and closeness, emotionafly and
psychologically with mom and dad,
thwarted proximity.

Frustration is at the core of the seem-
ingly senseless violence we are seeing more
of in our communities.

Society is breaking down at its most
fundamental level — the family.

We must work at having reai relation-

ships with our children if we are to turn
things around.

“TeTvER OF THE DAY
Be war y of the quick-fix solutions

, ‘Dear Editor:

* In choosing school trustees, we
need: to be wary of quick-fix
‘ solutions for complicated prob-
lems.

It’s easy to say what’s wrong
with the Year 2000 initiative. The
better candidates will also identify
its positive features.

It’s easy to discuss. the 3 Rs.

. The better candidates will also be”
-aware of the teamworsx and self- |

discipline that are developed in
performing arts:and aihletics pro-
grams. .

Publisher . .
Managing Editor
Associate Editor
Sales & fAarketing Director
Comptrolier

....Peter Speck

. .Timothy Renshaw

Noel Wright

Linda Stewart
Doug Foot -

te 8 easy to complain about the
teacizers’ union. The better can-
didates will accept the reality of
collective bargaining and present
specific ideas on how the rela-
tionship can be improved.

It’s easy to identify programs
that need more funding. The bet-
ter .candidates will also suggest
where the funding will come from.

It’s easy to spend two evenings
a week attending meetings. The
better candidates will also build a
personal relationship with the
schools. '

Display Advertising 980-0511
Real Estate Advertising 985-6382
Classified Advertising 986-6222
Newsroom 985-2131

Fax.

Distribution
Suoscriptions 986-1337 oe This newspaper

Administration 985-2131 B

In sum, we need school trust-

-ees- who are well-informed about a

broad range of education issues.
Candidates who have lots of
easy answers and pet peeves will
not provide effective leadership.
Take the time to find out who
deserves your vote. Use your vote
to send a message that you care
about the quality of education in
your district. That’s a message

Victoria needs to hear.

Len Henriksson
North Vancouver

986-1337

985-3227 contains

feat tecycled libre

ic

iy r for

easy
the

Sy Bh. Ss Bt wy

voter.

IF i had s a dollar for every time I’ve been asked the same
question about our local elections in the past three weeks,
Dorothy and i would be off to Victoria for a bonus

weekend at the Empress.

The repeated question: “Whom
should ] vote for? There are so
many names and most of them
I’ve never heard of.”’

Small wonder. In total the three
North Shore municipalities have a
record 53 ‘‘outsiders’’ vying for
just nine council and school board
vacancies, with incumbents seek-
ing re-election to the remaining 23
mayoral, council and school board
slots.

While the ‘‘outsiders’’ in all
three cases include a sprinkling of
familiar names — eg., former
school board chairman Don Beil
in North Van District, former ed-
itor Ralph Hall in North Van City
and Bill Soprovich of Chamber of
Commerce and Coho Festival
renown in West Van — four out
of five of them are largely
unknown to the voters.

And unlike federal and provin-
cial candidates, they have no po-
litical parties to bring them votes,
regardless of name or fame.

A ward system, as noted in this
space on Sunday, would make
their task — and that of the voters
— much easier. Any given ward
ballot would have considerably
fewer names. For the same
amount of money, candidate
publicity could be much more
concentrated.

In many cases candidates would
be neighborhood residents, known
personally to ward voters.

Since their mandate would be to
protect and promote ward inter-
ests, their platforms would be
more specific. And this closer.
candidate-voter interaction would
inevitabiy be reflected in a much
healthier turnout on election day.

In the past,:wards have often
had a bad press in North America,

thanks to the characters who ma- _

nipulated them. But today, infi-
nitely more sophisticated voters
and far tighter election laws pro-
vide more than adequate safe-
guards against abuses. And
ultimately, a ward system may be
the ONLY way to ensure greater
voter involvement.

Until then, dear questioners,
I'm afraid the only answer to your
confusion lies in personal effort
that many North Shore voters
seem to have shirked in the past
— like reading carefully all can-
didate brochures, attending all-
candidate meetings (including this
week’s on Shaw Cable TV) and
poring over the detailed North
Shore News coverage of issues and

HITHER AND YON

individual candidates in the fast
two weeks..

if you can catch up with it all.
by Saturday; you should feel no"
qualms about dropping by the

polling station. You'll get a nice
wan feeling from making in-
formed decisions and doing your
civic duty,

Equally.important, you’li help’
boost those miserable 20% to 30%
turnout figures of former.years —-
into something more worthy.of an ©.
educated and concerned :
démocracy.

SCRATCHPAD: Congrats to re-
cent Argyle grad Nina Reiniger —
now at SFU — on being awarded

a four-year Canada Scholarship in.’
Science and Engineering wortha . |

-cool $10,000. ..: On display until '
-Nov. 28 at West Van Library are?

monoprints of landscapes, still life
and flowers by local artist Peggy
Tupper. ... Why procrastinate? *
Deborah Shannon explains |
reasons, consequences and how.to
get back on track at 10:30 a.m. to -
noon Saturday, Nov. 20, atthe .
Silk Purse, 1570 Argyle, West Van.
— call 926-3266 to pre-register.

... And many happy returns of
tomorrow, Nov. 18, to Mount
Seymour Lion Les Mynott.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Nothing

‘is so comforting as stumbling on a

little logic to support your pre-.-
judices. :

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an
independent suburban newspaper and qualified
under Schedule 111, Paragraph fll of the Excise
Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday by North Shore. Free Press Ltd. and
distributed to every door on the North Shore.
Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales -
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available on request. Submissions are welcome but
we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited
, Material including manuscripis and pictures which
i should. be accompanied by a stampeo, self-
"addressed envelope.

Teed VOICE OF ORTH ANC WERT WAIEOUVES

SUNDAY + WEONEEDAY © ¢MIOAY

1139 Lonsdale Avenue,
North Vancouver, B.C. ——
V7M 2H4 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)

Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Alt rights reserved.

ew shinto Tony Peters

NAMES, NAMES everywhere - ‘four out of five unknown to most .
voters - as candidates struggle for recognition. —