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Canad [het Candion Publications Mail Saks Product Ayeerment Nu i avuulable Entire contents © 1996 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. Choke point “OW many of us have day- dreamed while stuck in bridge traffic about just fying over and out of cur commute from hell? A version of that wishful thought proved itself a nightmare on Wednesday when a medivac helicopter had te be called in to assist a young ciiild at Lions . Gate Hospital. The bridges across the Burrard Lilet were choked with cars and trucks, They will be like that for another month at least..as upgrade work on the Second Narrows Bridge progresses. Ambulances, routinely used to trans- fer patients between hospitals, are now a er Tre =e me . eT YOU VE read pre- : Canada Day columns. This is a post-Canada Day column. ” First, [Ml never use that term “Canada Day" again, |. It’s Dominion Day. dammit. It was born Dominion Day. It.” remained Dominion Day for 115 years, Then, while the Commons nodded on a July day in 1982, a hateful private mem- ber’s bill was flanelled through unchallenged in a couple of minutes, changing the name to Canada Day. (Private member's ‘biifs usually have a snowball’s chance in Hell — a: bellwether riding whose constituents have voted the government way since Confederation —- of passing.) ; The stirring arid very original term “Dominion of Canada” was the suggestion of Sir Leonard Tiley when Canada was born. Furthermore, the great constitutional expert: Eugene Forsey pointed out that under the “patri- ated" constitution of 1982 the official title remains “Dominion of Canada.” we But the feeble term “Canada Day” has won spurious favor — except at Toronto’s Globe and Mail, which doggedly has campaigned every year since 1993 fora return to the elegant old term. And, though I've often called the Globe a cur, this time the dog is right. ‘Canadians are not moved, inspired, or thrilled by the lifeless term “Canada Day.” July | has slipped into the same generic hol- Jowness as Victoria Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day and so forth. © ; And that is largely because the craven unable to make the trip across the bridges with any guarantee of timely travel. In Wednesday’s case, a two-year-old child with breathing problems required special equipment available at Children’s Hospital in Vaneoiver. Emergency Health Services (EHS) called in the chopper. Air transport is an expensive and aveidable hit to the taxpayer. Any contingency plan in place between EHS and the highways min- istry for ambulances needing to cross our bridges cannot get around the fact that miles upon miles of standstill traffic SO... IF You HAVE TEN POTATOES represents a formidable impediment to efficient movement. So far we’ve been pretty lucky. | The other issue raised is an old one.’ There was a time when Lions Gate was to be a regional trauma centre, with ‘all the staff and equipment such a.desig tion would entail. A helicopter pad‘ at the:hospital was in the mix. ., It didn’t happen and consequently ‘the North Shore remains withouw adequate facility to accommodate ‘he copter transport of patients to and fro Lions Gate Hospital. _ Poa es It’s enough to make you a litt sick, is@tit? © mailbox AND You ARE EXPECTING TWENTY MORE ... AND You. EAT THIRTY POTATOES , AND THE ONES YOu EXPECTED DON'T SHOW UP... How MANY POTATOES Do You HAVE ? "A HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN MILLION .- = ilitary mi _ Canadian establishment, time- servers, whose réal flag isn't’ the maple leaf flag but the white flag of surrender, con- trols our education systems, whose curricula mightily sup-/ press Canada’s history — cer tainly the carrently “unfash-/ ienable” parts of it, ! Pupils ‘learn something about prehistoric times, dinosaurs, the aboriginal peo- . ple —- but, until Grade 8, . nothing substantial about the history of their country. And York University professor J.L. Granatstein, also in the Globe and Mail, singled out our outstanding record in wartime as an area of special calculated ignorance for which the provincial education bureaucracies are squarely responsible. . . : . That history, said Granatstein, is scarcely, taught in schools, and even in university the ‘focus is on women’s work in wertime munitions ‘plants and on the nasty ueatment accorded Japancse-Canadians. Evidently, he drily notes, the education man- darins can’t find a place for our history in cur- ricula “crowded with sex education, multicultur- atism sensitivity training, field trips and teacher | development days.” : Bulls-eye, professor! Largely born after the Second World War or too young to remember anything of it, and so politically correct they squeak, the meek and nutless “Liberal” appa- ratchiks. who have reinvented Canada in their own latte-and-quiche image have simply ban- ‘ished anything that threatens their world-view. Yet, as Granatstein points out, we owe our freedom to our soldiers. Azid I would add: Ifa Dear Editor: How can David Mitchell sugg: that Canada /Day is a,boring: “Friday, June 28,. News) find his columns ‘most: in ‘but this time he is “out to Jusich. There could be no better'des ‘that is’ important 1): the breath-taking — ‘mountains, - rolling hills . Game. here to. make: be! ‘themselves and stayed t Jour country. For, all of us means freedom and opportunity. -» For'me, Canada Day is‘a _ tion of the great good fortune Irish ancestors emigrated to thi f Europe, and doubtless’ little i have sprung up even in the America: the flow. - Coe els What could be done to resto! pride, raise our'sense of who we are, character? © iy ee Military service. Nothing would benefit young Canadians more than two years of c pulsory military service: ee Flexible options could be offered: Say, fo summers of eight weeks’ service plus one ful year, Or allowing some credit for service in a reinvigorated cadet system ‘starting at perhap age 14,0 ot poe EE ” Won't happen, of course: Successive Libe governments with defence ministers like cisrrel military igaoramus, David Collenette have ;.. . ‘shrunk the armed forces to a small thoigh high ly professional nub. | s Soon British Columbia will be utterly: stripped of regular army forces, the nearest base’ in Edmonton. — 7 a The highest-ranking soldier in B.C: will be. Paul Crober, who is — no aspersions about his abilities — only a tieutenant-colonel. ° (Pronounce that leftencnt, please, you're in .-.. Canada.) wp We aye 2 { met Lieut.-Col. Crober recently and he hi self was sharply aware of the anomaly.” - Canada would ‘rather have its'young peop including university students, scrambling for. scarce or non-existent jobs and give welfare. cheques to aimless kids who split from their”: families than to have them serve in the forces an educational and maturing experience they'd cherish all their lives. ee de he :