_ page 2- November 951 1971 - ‘North Shore News.

aoe te
+

Why are the municipal elections. so important?. ‘sals “and - all’ ‘the _ other:

The answer reminds me of a story about a man
whp denied that he was being dominated by his

wife. ‘Why,’ he said,.

‘‘ghe lets me make all the drone of voices. makes.’me.

big decisions in our. house—who we are going to

vote’ for, and what our ideas are on Can “som
foreign policy.” She ‘just looks, after the little times I find it difficult to: tell.

Ys

things—what we’re going to eat; where “we're
going to live, and how we spend the money.”

- Municipal elections are the |
most. ‘local and immediate a
form of govern nment for all of

us. Federal and provincial
tiers .of government. may

siphon off taxes, as does the _

municipality that you live in,
but the municipality pipes
water into your - house,
educates your children and
picks up your garbage.
Municipal firemen watch
over your home. Municipal
engineers plan your. boule-
vards. And municipal ass~
essors collect the. money: to

pay for these services. A
mind-boggling ‘array of ser-—

vices, from the dog pound to

the social welfare depart-

ment. All are financed by
municipal levies, and we, the
taxpayers, foot the bill. ~

On November 19 we
should elect the best people,

of urse, because we are

electing. the people who are
going to control the level of
government that is closest to
:us alf. ‘Local councils -are
strange forms of govern-
ment, without any form of
organized opposition within
the chambers and_ with
generally a very restricted

input from the taxpaying .

public. The mayors and
aldermen that we elect need
to be of the very highest
calibre, because they can get
‘bent very easily.

.CONFUSING PICTURE

- It’s hard to pick out a good
candidate. In this upcoming
set of civic elections about
thirty-five candidates are
contesting seats in-the three
municipalities that make up
the North Shore. They are
competing for three kinds of
seats—mayoral ". (City of
North: Vancouver), _ alder-
manic and school boards. (all
three). Voiers.must compre-

hend.

‘select...
-somehow remember all their

the. _ issues, |
through | thirty-five candi-

dates, find which are running

in their community, under-
‘stand what » they stand. ‘for,
a. slate. and - ‘then

names on the. way to the
ballot box. No. wonder three
out: of four. North Shore
voters stay home on election
day. ra ‘

To further confuse things, ~

many local politicians cam-

paign on a platform of trying
to avoid offending anyone by |

Stating publicly what they |

believe in or what. they .

intend to do if brought into;

office. Thismakes for an
election race that is slightly

more -exciting than mayon-
naise. . ot

If an aldermanic candidate:

wins a seat it is no guarantee

of him or her having the-
abilities to participate in the
management of a corporation *:
as. large.as any of our three’:
municipalities. The aldermen
that I know _ all hold down
jobs or operate businesses,
and their car seats are piled
high with envelopes and file
folders and reports’ and
photocopies. The theory, I
have heard, of having
three council meetings on
Monday
aldermen have the weekend.
to go through the reams of.
paper and prepare thein-

selves for the. meeting. It

must be hard to have a hobby
like that,’even if it does pay
$150 clear every two weeks.

So we have a dozen
art-time aldermen in each
district who try to deal with a
sea of paper every Monday’
night. Faced with: "state
reports, ‘briefings, ‘explana-
tions,” ‘presentations, | Propo-

"VERIFIED CIRCULATION 46,180 .

1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. v7™M 24

OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511
‘CLASSIFIED: 980-3464 CIRCULATION: 986-1337

Publisher Peter Speck
Associate Paublishor Bob Graham /Edlter-In-Chief

'

Noel Wright/News Guillermo Lam/Photos;, Elis-
- worth Dickson/Production Marna Leiren/Advertis-
Ing Kristi Vidler/Clasalfied Berni Hilliard/Circula- — .
tion Yvonne Chapman/Administration Barbara “
Haywood/Accounts. Syivia Sorensen. |

North Shore News, founded in 1969: ao an
independent community newspaper and —
qualified under Schedule 111, Part 111,
. Para graph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is
published each Wednesday and Sunday by the
North Shore Free Press Ltd. and djstributed to

every door on the North Shore. - me

Me

“Second Class Mail Rogletration Number 3885.

ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1977. NORTH’
SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All rights reserved.

wade

- cause.

traffic gets heavier, and the -
all

night is that ‘the

‘month. And they

_minutiae of. civic: govern-
~ ment, the aldermen plug on, :
watching the clock. “The

sleepy, but I’ve neve
ually seen an alderman
sleeping. Although: some-.

‘MORE PEOPLE,
“HIGHER TAXES»

Councils, ‘ike any. other.
groups that make decisions;.
occa -nrily . make. stupid:
decision 3. For. some ‘reason
they seem particularly
ceptible to wheeler-dealers.
“Some aldermen that 1. have‘
talked to in the. Past: say iar

‘per. capita” tax: Oa
increasing. the population ‘of |
an area is a myth. All across.
North ° America, as. ‘cities ‘
sprawl. and. population - den-
Sities increase, taxes go up to:
cope” with the enormous.:.
‘Strain. that “extra © bodies’
‘Why this’ hasn’t —
penetrated to our. aldermanic
‘stalwarts is beyond. me, ‘yet:
time after time our councils
go on- record as favouring |
more population for ‘the |
- North Shore. The. dévelopers -
Aire architects, the architects’
: nS ‘conceptual’ -
>. scaled down
trees ‘and ‘show. them to. the.”
aldermen, - and then ‘the
bulldozers roar and the real
trees fall down. More people’ _
come to the North Shore, the

demands on .-our — social.
services go up. Extra people
‘mean extra taxes. ‘,

If we keep circulating tHe
same faces in and out of
office we are revolving the
same set of prejudices. I
think we need to let some
fresh. air blow into council
chambers. J’d like to see

- councils on. the North Shore

dealing with other things

than land deals. We have a

garden community here, and
we could set an example for
many other places by coming
to grips with the problems of
our age-—pollution,. exces-.
sive governmental expense,
“social welfard abuses, the.
‘bleak life of senior, citizens.
- and many. otfier things.

' RECYCLEPAPER,

Let itt give “you aii
example. All three municip-
alities bury or burn hundreds
of tons of waste paper each,

uy.a lot of
paper. Paper recycling. is a

problem | at requires: ‘coll-
ecting, so he, anid: ‘trans:
porting of viiste paper back:
to, ‘the pulp’imill. It also _

requires | a market for ‘the.
recycled ' ‘newsprint, . which

the municipalities are in the

position to: help supply. We

. could use, our welfare recip-
fents to” their,

‘and our, —
udvaniage by. sendin inuni-
cipal dump trucks ahead ofv |

the Barbage ‘trucks on: your."

garbage day, to collect the |
papers stacked separately: by.
the garbage cans. The paper:
could be trucked to'a sorting:
facility, where: people. could |
sort ‘out the coloured: paper‘.
from the recyclable kind, and
then the tugs and barges that.
bring . ‘the: “Hewsprint._ rolls”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

@ alderman North Vancouver City 1973,
74,75, 76 | |

® resident of North Vancouver. City for:
25 years at 1849. Grand Boulevard,

oe studied’ economics and public finance
at U.B. C.

@ founder & managing director Court House. -
_ Racquets Club 124 West 3rd St. N. Ve

I you, need information or want to.

“help