| Sa ge his ISO. de MOS oe _.KIM CAMPBELL [5 HOLDING ON EINE ONE... CAE BARRETT ISON TWO...HALE THE TORY CABINET ARE ON A CONFERENCE CALL... GOT MORE NDPeRS HOLDING ON LINES THREE , FOUR, FIVE AND SIX, AS WELL.AS AFLOCK OF - YOGIC FLYERS WHO'VE VOLUNTEERED To HELP OUT... “NEWS VIEWPOINT — \ccess test HOSE’ WHO. support ‘the provincial * Freedom of Information and Protec- tion of Privacy. Act are‘in agreement with even ‘its: miidest’ of opponents ° — we. must be Vigilant ‘as to how the legislation i is Among’ the. purported. purposes - of ‘the act, ‘which’ became ‘applicable this month, is the: worthy ° ‘intention to make ‘provincial ‘he. pitblie should have a right to have access “to: records, : and ‘individuals should /e;a right te have access to orto correct : personal. information about themselves. But rowble comes in‘the thick list of excep- tions -included_ within: the. guidelines.. The ‘Conditions by. which information may be “refused are comprehensive and tip the balance in favor of protecting the privacy of public bodies rather than promoting the free-flow disclosure of public information. By far the broadest potential roadbluck to the public ‘release of requested material . is a fisting of conditions defining ‘the types of: disclosures: deemed to be harmful to personal privacy. Taken as a whole, the exemptions in this ; category potentially block the dissemination’ of information regarding individuals active - in public bodies ranging from ihe esoteric Seed Potato Control. Committees to: the. more publicly relevant Workers’ Compen- sation Board. The true scope of freedom of ‘informa- tion will be determined in the courts, There : are challenges ahead. NEWS QUOTES OF THE iE WEEK “4 dont know if this is what Mit- ~chell has to do with his time, but I _ think.he should ‘get ‘back into. a galicus somewhere. This is almost cmaking -fun out of what we! re. doing in Victoria.” | North Vancouver-Seymour “Liberal MLA Dan Jarvis —. not “amused by. a , tongue-in-cheek press release issued by West Van- couver-Garibaldi independent “Liberal MLA David Mitchell that :spoke.of the four! North . Shore MLAs forming a new coalition “party called the Bloc North Shore. ‘*..jit’s the most wonderful place in the world.” Photographer Chris Harris, on B.C. (From a Nov. 3 Now section story.) “This is a wonderful opportunity. I can do something really impor- tant — to save the last temperate rainforest in our area. This is the beginning of change. If we don’t change, there won't be anything left for anybody. But more and mere people are joining in. There’s no room for pacifity any more. We have to do what we can do.” Second World War veteran and West Vancouver resident Redner Jones, on being arrested on the Clayoquot Sound logging blockade. (From a Nov. 5 News Story.) ‘We were on the highway (Upper Levels) looking for a grey Subaru, so this guy could have just drove right past us waving at us.”’ West Vencouver Police Const. Jamie Gibson, after the police were given the wrong information about a stolen car. a roma Nov. 5 News story. ) Publisher . .. Peter Speck Managing Editor . Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor . Noel Wright Sales & Marketing Director. Linda Stewart ,_ Comptroller Doug Foot - Worth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph I! of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday - by North Shore Free Press Ltd. arid distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Posi Canadian Publications Mail Sates Product Agreement No..0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stampeg, self- addressed envelope. : Newsroom VIM 2H4 Display Advertising me Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions %86-1337 Maus Classified Advertising Sunoae WEONESDA 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. 980-0511 986-1337 (5 oy m LS This newspaper A contains Distribution 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 935-3227 Adrninisiration 985-2131 MEMBER ay recycled fibre Warin Shore managed SOA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) ; Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. ONE CITIZEN, one vote — that’s democracy! Or is sit? Since Oct. 25 the WAY people ¥ vote is coming under in- creasing scrutiny. i Obviously, something is badly wrong when 19% of the popular vote gives Preston Manning 52 seats while 16% leaves Kim - Camphell with only two. What’s wrong is an outdated system in a multi-party age. The first-past-the-post method of selecting winners and losers — inherited from 18th century England — functions fairly only when the voters’ choice is limited to two parties. Add a third party or more, and the relationship be- tween the distribution of seats and the popular vote becomes distorted — sometimes wildly. Example #2: B.C.’s NDP gov- ernment won 68% of the Legislature seats in 1991 with only just over 40% of the popular vote. Proportional representation and the proferential ballot are two alternative solutions — neither perfect. Pure ‘‘prop rep,’’ of course, eliminates constituency -- voting altogether, since parties win seats solely according to their . percentage of the overall national vote. | : Germany has devised a mix of - constituency voting with a ‘‘prop_ rep”’ element which gives it something of the best of both © worlds. Australians get roughly the same result by marking cani- didates on their ballot in order of preference — meaning a candidate can win by being the second (or even third) choice of the majority of! voters. ‘Whatever the answer, Canadian . democracy needs to find it fast. - On the way to the 21st century the system that served William Pitt and Edmund Burke no longer iworks. In municipal ‘elections — now, less than two weeks away — there’s quite a different hazard.. Here the ballots confront the voter ° with an alphabetical list of up to a dozen or more names, from which he must pick six, or one, or three, or four, or five. Despite the best efforts of can- didates, numerous of the names — if not most — may be unknown to many voters who haven’t been paying due attention during the preceding three weeks. Hence the intriguing theory that more than a few civic electors vote “alphabetically,”’ simply moving down the list from the top until HITHER AND YON - they have entered th the 3 required number of **X’’s. ' Painful though the: theory may ‘be to democratic purists, figures from the last two elections lend it* : .. more than a little support. In-1990 the names of 21'of the.32 suc- cessful North Shore candidates “began with letters from B to°H: In the previous election-14 of the 18... successful ‘council candidates were» also in the B-H group.” This doesn’t mean even a* Zygowki i is necesssarily doomed. But it does suggest that he has.” some special chores to attend to. ‘More next week on, =... - “alphabetical” voting as applied to the huge 1993 field of hopefuls. for mayoral, council and school, boarc seats,” fed : is the topic Triseday Nl Nov. 9, _ when the West Van Women’s Network meets at 8 p.m. in the Capilano West Chinese Restau-: rant, 2396 Marine Dr. — call: Lorna Anderson, 688-1301, for: info. :.. The North Shore’s - Waldorf School holds its open house from 6:30 to 10 p.m..Wed- . nesday, Nov. 10, at 2725 St. ; Christopher Rd., North Van. .... Give the gift of life tomorrow and” Tuesday, Nov. 8-9, at the blood ~ donor clinics each ‘day from 2:30. to 8 p.m. in the Crescent Learning. Centre at Lions Gate Hospital. ... And a very happy birthday Tues- day, Nov. 9, to West Van’s ir- repressible Bert Fleming. . NEWS photo Mike Wakefield JUDI AINSWORTH received an. Executive of. the Year award : from North’. Vancouver. Chamb: ‘¢ of Commerce executive | director Ted George recently in a ceremony at the North Shore Winter Club.