Teen spi

IGHTEEN. Old enough to
vote but not old cnough te
legally drink.

Ironically, it’s likely that more
teens will have a drink at some point
next week than exercise their democ-
ratic right to cast a ballot sisce statis-
tics show that Canadians in the 18-24
age range are the least likely to vote.

Given the Liberals have cut $5 bil-
lion from post-secondary spending
arid most university students are star-
ing at debt foads that will average
$25,000, you could be forgiven for
' supposing. that the young will be
stuffing the ballot box this time.
Unfortunately, it won’t happen.

But that’s not to say some of the
young are not politically savvy.

The North Shore is doubly blessed
to have two articulate candidates in
Sam Schechter, 19, and. Laurence

you sSeatel it

“tt was a complete animal show.”

North Vancouver. resident Leanne Martin, on what
neighbours view . as anti-social behaviour late at_ night
behind the Marine Drive A&W. (From a Nov, 12 News

story.) -, : 4,

aga

“If yo ju 1 think you're too small t to be effective, you’ve

never been i in bed with a mosquito.”

North Vancouver ‘Action Party candidate, Diana Jewell -
Says everyone can make a difference-in polities--(Erom the :

‘Same Nov, 12 News ory), :
O00:

4] would say that some people ‘come to. terms with
their ideological edifice Guickec. than others'— and I

was one of them.” °

3. North Vancouver PC candidate Laurence Putnam, 18,
reaching political maturity. at a young age. (From a Non

37 News story.) ue
rare ‘QoQ:

2: “Pve been following politics since I was seven. I was

’ politically astute even at that age.”

jorth Vancouver NDP candidate Sam Schechter, 19, on
vn ‘early political involvement. (From the same Nov. 17

“Bry n “Johns,” on the. ‘post-pro- a
ion p ‘ocess: (From a Nov, 7 This Week story) Boe

ogg

“I'm smoking the same stuff as you ‘on: this i issue.”..
3 Reform: Party’ incumbent’ Ted White agreeing with. :
Marijuana. Party candidate Tanya Audain on the need for
fess .government-funded day: care. (From a Nov. 19 News

)

Mach Stare News oid in 19692 an ndapendent
stiburtan aewspaper and quatified under Schedule *

1 Paragraph 111 of the Exeise Tax Act. s published

“ each’ Wednesday, Friday - and Suncay by Lower

: Maintand Publishing Group Inc.. a division of Southam i

o Publications, a CanWest Company, and distributed, wo-

"every door an the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian

«Publications Mail. Sales Product Agreement No.
9087238. Mailing rales available on requést. Entive |

tents © 2000 Lower Mainland Publishing Group

. @ division of Southam Publications, a CanWest

Company: Ail rights reserved. Average circulation | for

rit

Putnam, 18, running for office.

Schechter is running for the New
Democratic Party in North
Vancouver, while Putnam is the
Progressive Conservative candidate.

Schechter ran a unity campaign
during the Quebec referendum in
1995 and last year ran for North
Vancouver District council, where he
handled himself well during all-can-
didate debates. He rejects the notion
of his age as an issue, saying it should
be no more relevant than gender or
religion.

Putnam rejects the “youth” label,
describing himself as “just your regu-
lar garden varicty conservative candi-
date.”

Regardless, we ‘think it’s: notable
they are both offering themselves as a
choice in such an apathetic age.

If only the young will! take note.

li’s al

point I felt I
should mention in
my “debst” col-
umn by way of
“pertinent infor-
mation,”: a
It wasn’t an easy’,
decision to make but:
one that ‘my landlord, a
300-pound walrus-like
fellow with a soft spot
for pitbulls and semi-
automatic weapons,

made that much easier by running me
off his property at four o'clock in the...

morning with the help of a Khmer

sion for the CIA in the 1970s.

It feally was a helluva spectacle and I

I recently moved from Deep
Cove to Central Lonsdale, a’

Rouge beheading sword he'd picked a
in Cambodia during a mercenary mis-

DEFENDER OF
UNIVERSAL

HEALTH CA
HYPOCRITIC OAF

bout upward mo

been some ugly incidents at the Raven

Pub (mostly involving myself) but you
won't find people stomping through
Panorama Park in a

snow storm wielding a

double-bladed axe. (A
Cambodian mango

slicer, perhaps, but no

.- The region’s relative
: remoteness, however, .
a _o tends to attract a cer-.
Whine & tain type of individual,
and it’s easy to get.-
Nesroses caught up in the local
slander.
; Gossip is 4 way of lite
‘in the Cove and, from the Yacht Club.
. to the Bike Shop to the Raven, there's a.
two-way telegraph transmitting scandal ..

ity ¢-mail server. .
None of it, of course, is especially .
; malicious, or necessarily. even-true.

and scuttlebutt faster than a high-priori-

" still can’t believe nobody called the
. cops. But that’s Deep Cove for you ~-
the closest folks want.to get to their .

the fence to. hand them a subpoena. |
But that's neither here nor there.”

beatific, serene —.and Pl probably -
“move back there one day (after they. lift
othe, restraining order), but for the : ©
“moment I felt I needed to be in the”
“heart of the city.” North Vancouver
City, that is.
Deep Cove, ‘you, see, really i is the end
of the'line and, for people in my racket,
a wonderful j acc to work at home.
The problem is, the isolation does -
. Start to get to you after a while.

We're not talking The Shining, here,-.. 4

you understand _ Lord knows there’ ’s

neighbours is when they’re leaning over.

Deep Cove is'a beautiful place: — placid,

Deep Cove is simply the type of
* place where everybody minds their own
~ business and everyone else’s as well.

Thus, with the triple-whammy of ter-.

ritorial landlords, cabin fever and -._.

‘actionable hearsay assaulting my ‘delicate

constitution, I opted for a change.
‘And I have to be honest — Central :

‘Lonsdale wasn’t my first choice. . - --

I used to‘be, shall we say, a bit of a:

° drinkin’ man, and I remember (albeit -

. somewhat vaguely) what happened.sev- -
eral-years ago when they shut down the
bars 4 at Lower Lonsdale’s St. Alice and:
“Olympic Hotels: The gutters backed up
with human detritus all the way from .
the Rusty Gull to the Queen’s Cross,
- depositing a unsavoury assortment of
- characters along the!way. :

4 unkies and drunks dropped ‘their -

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spent fits, broken crack pipes and emp
wine bottles wherever they pleased, a
even the occasional hooker or three .
made the great trans-métropolitan
_ crossing on the SeaBus to entertain the ;
“troops on the north side of the ditch.,
Almost overnight, Central Lonsdale -
had become the Mount Pleasant ofthe :
North Shore.
Mercifully, my home and native’

*burb is populated by enough do- good-,;" me
at the lowlifes.did-}

ers and. busybodies
n’t stand much of a chance andemost °
them simply slithered back to Past
Hastings where they. were welcomed
with wide open (and often scabrous) 7

The Grand Regentrification of:
"Central Lonsdale had begun

~The area now, I'm please | to.

“has become more of a neigho urhood
‘and less of a nightmar :

. Bistros, cafes and boutiques of vari
“ous castes have sprung ti phoenix-like:
out of the rubble of 1950s cinder-biock
. boxes, and the all-good intention |
transforming Central Lonsdale into.
“cultural mosaic” rather-than an: “ethni

: melting pot” has almost worke

~ Naturally, these decidedly. upwar
~ developments were verily swimming
my head’as I inked my si nature‘on the
“ lease ‘forin and shelled out, my first :

vay. ail
the endlessly fascinating cavalcade of.?:
human condition-— th
gi-powered telescopé in a fully

~» secured building 23:stories s abov:
; Lonsdal : :

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