6 - Wednesday, August 17, 1994 - North Shore News ‘ . “ mw wd Revere wh LAUT EVERYONE ? | | AUNTIE DEBBIE GHISIN AL {{ AUNTIE LIZZIE CAN SLEEP 1] AND UNCLE Jit CAN HAVE. THE SEAFE BEDROOM ONT | fCAN HE TE . - “er = Ca ARE GOING TO |) BASEMENT OTH CAN SLEEPIN | MY BROTHER BOB. THE ATIC... JUST A mote. || WHERE ARE | How ABOUT HALIFAX? | MASTER BEDROOIN, WEGOING ~ On the buses IF THE recommendations of a recent B.C. Transit study of North Shore mass transit options are followed, Skytrain supporters will have a long wait until the Light Rapid Transit track crosses the Burrard Inlet. The politicians in Victoria have latched on to the study and have declared it sound and compleie. The repert’s majer recommendation is “an, enhanced bus system which would make travel times so short that it would be difficult for any other transit system to compete.” Any system, that is, except commuters in cars. What the study doesn’t define, however, is just what an “enhanced bus system’? means. More buses? More bus-only lanes and feeder routes? The only sure thing the study predicts and implies is that Skytrain designers will not be looking at a map of the North Shore for decades. The study concludes that this “enhanced bus system” will provide comparable travei times to either “an enhanced SeaBus” er an LRT line. At a fraction of the cost. And that’s the rub. With one-way toils a given on the new and improved First Narrows’ crossing, municipa! and provincial governments will have little trouble spending on speculation to design a bridge that fits the needs of an “enhanced bus system.” Hidir.z costs by passing them on vis-d-vis the increasingly popular user-pay sysfem isn’t new for governments, but at a time when leadership js crucial to the future liv- ability in the Lower Mainiand, the study’s recommendations are short-sighted and a disservice to North Shore residents. Cap mall tenant says security is fine Dear Editor: Re: Page 3 article, Wednesday, Aug. 10. Lam concerned about ihe percep- tion that your article may give of Capilano Mall. I have been a tenant at Capilano Mall since moving out of 1139 * Lonsdale when the North Shore News wanted the space we had occupied before. Lam surprised that Mr, Methven did not interview any other tenants at the mall about the alleged flasher incidents before publishing this avti- cle. Where is the integrity of the North Shore News? Publisher Managing Editor Associate Editor Sales & Marketin: Comptrotier.... ad Peter Speck jothy Renshaw -Nool Weight inda Stewart The CEN-TA Group occupies the space directly beneath the old Women Only Gold's Gym. We share un clevator, a stairway, and a packing lot. Our duors are reaily only four feet apart (through the floor). We have female assoviates and are regularly here until midnight. The new Ricky's Restaurant is open untit 16 p.m. and has had no inci- dents. You can see the old Gold's Gym from Ricky's and vice versa, Why have we not heard about these incidents of indecent exposure and masturbation, if us Ms. Herbert suggests, “these weirdos do not sin- gle out (Gold's) staff and club mem- Display Advertising 980-0531 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 Classified Advanising Distribution Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions Admtnistration bers to target”? tntercon, Concord and now, Group 4 Security have provided excellent security in this mall. But no one can be everywhere at once. And while we have had one break-in over an eight-year period, we had eight break-ins while occu- pying the main floor at the present North Shore News offices. 1 do not appreciate Me. Baumgartner’s impugning the safety of Capilano Mall while involved in what is obviously a landlord tenant dispute which should be resolved in the courts. David Ingram, CEN-TA Realty North Vancouver 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independant suburban newspaper and qualiticd under Schedute 111, Paragraph 111 of tha Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to avery door on the North Shore. Canoda Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No, 0037238. Mailing rales available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsoticited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanisd by a stamped, addressed envelope. 1139 Lonsdale V7M 2H4 North Vancouver B.C. North Shora Managed MEMBER Avenue SDA OIVISION 61,582 (avoraga circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Crown’s bonus: is In power it denies others WHY IS the queen still so popular here? Could it be that Canadians are inherent- ly smarter than most other Commonwealth citizens? ff you've any doubts about her popularity, ask Dave Harris, the B.C. government's chief of proto- col — swamped with hundreds more requests for audiences with Her Majesty than he can possibly fit inte her short visit this week. With the unprivate lives of much of her family a disaster area, and Australia teetering on the brink of becoming a republic — which would leave Canada and New Zealand as her only two Commonwealth realms outside Britain —- how does one explain the warmth, once again, of B.C.’s welcome to her? There are two clues, I suggest. One ot-vious, the other less so. First, Faizabeth Hy, herself untouched by any hint of scandal or impropriety, has been an exem- plary role model throughout her 42-year reign. Mother of four. Tireless worker at her job as consti- tutional monarch, symbol and con- science of the nations for which she . performs the vital function of head of state. 66 Since you’re our Queen too, why not live here for three months or more a year?99 Personally gifted in numerous ways. In public still a little reserved, compared to her sonie- times foot-in-mouth spouse Philip. In private known as warm, willy and fun-loving. In short, at 68, the kind of mature wife and mother to whom thousands of Canadian families can instinctively relate — and not least because of the trouble with the kids. Today, so many families have their own Chuck and Di, Andy and Fergie, Anne and Mark stories. Far from censure, the Queen has their sympathy and understanding. True, Canada doesn’t lack indi- vidual critics of the monarchy. But the second reason why, unlike Australia, we have no highly vocal and organized republican move- ment may largely be due to geogra- phy. We occupy, after all, a ringside seat at the ongoing show staged by the world’s greatest democratic republic, our U.S. neighbor. I's a show so gripping and involving that we're often left grasping at any straws that help confirm our own separate Canadian identity. The monarchy is clearly one such straw, and u strong one. Canada, don’t let us forget, was created by American colonists who preferred to stay loyal to the * Crown. Even Quebec separatist Jacques Parizeau now muses about “keeping the Queen” if Quebec leaves Canada. And any royal visit- ing the U.S. today is assured of rave reviews there. In other words, our monarcitist roots run deeper than we some- times may realize. Our kings and queens — poiitically neutral but living symbols of afl our history and the national identity forged by it — have served Canada pretty well to date. Not least because they also provide an invaleable safety device against political tyranny. It’s fer easier for a ruthless, power-mad politician to dispose of a five-year-term politica’ hack in presidential top hat and frock coat than to push aside a hereditary monarch. As constitutional scholars have long pointed out: “The signif- icance of the Crown is not in the power it wields but in the power it denies to others,” Another wise old saying preba- bly sums up even better the majori- ty view of the monarchy in Canada: “If it ain't broke, don’t fix it!” Which leaves just one more mes- sage to deliver this week in Victoria: We'd like to see much more of Your Majesty. Since you're our Queen too, why not live here for three months or more a year?” WRAP-UP: Don your stetson and jeans, and mosey down to the 2400 block Marine in West Van Friday, Aug. 19, from 7 p.m. onward for ali the fun of the annual Dundarave Hoedown with west- em music, food, prizes and hoopla galore ... T-shirts for next month’s 1Sth-annual Coho. Festival have a touch of class this year — the design is by eminent Canadian artist Daniel Izzard of West Van ... Power Hockey Summer School at Hollyburn Country Club runs again Aug. 22-Sept. 2 — 10 days with 90 minutes ice time daily for $195. Call Jack, 922-161, to reg- ister ... Happy birthday tomorrow, Aug. 18, to North Van's Clara Peters ... Many happy returns of Friday, Aug. 19, to West Van's Jennifer Adams ... And wish that again the same day to retired West Van alderman Gordon Rowntree. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Always be suspicious of a subordinate who never finds fault with you.