SUMMER AFFORDS time and space for the bizarre, a
chance for the humble columnist to ennobie the most in-
consequential trivia. Today, a potpourri.

We salute authors and
publishers who conspire to pro-
duce timely, important books.

The Tenth Anniversary, a fan-
cy, colorful coffee table edition,
must have seemed like a guaran-
teed winner a year ago. It pays
tribute to the marriage of Prince
Charles and Princess Diana.

This bargain can now be had
for $5.99. It was spotted at a
bookstore next to another master-
piece, Ross Perot, The Man
Behind the Myth.

lan Jessop, Bill Vander Zalm’s
former press secretary, is now sell-
ing cars in Victoria.

‘Society seems quick these days
to embrace instant heroes.

-We note that Elijah Harper, the
native Indian who rose to national
stardom by opposing Meech Lake,

- isnow in the news again — back
pages this time.

His estranged wife, accusing
him of dereliction, supports her
children at subsistence levels from
welfare. Her lawyer, and the ©
Manitoba social services staff,
have demonstrated that Harper’s
various incomes, much of it tax
free, amount to almost $100,000 a
year.

Groups from coast to coast in
Canada — most notably the labor
movement — have honored him.

Itis said that in modern poli-
tics, impressions are everything.
During our recent travels to the
Maritimes and various destina-
_ tions in Ontario, many people
‘commented favorably about the
- performance of British Columbia
Premier Mike Harcourt and his
_Minister Moe Sihota.
I deliberately asked each person
what the B.C. representatives had
. said that was so profound.
. Nothing came to mind.
‘asked them to outline the B.C.
position. They weren’t sure.

.- Canada Post Corporation, my
. favorite federal entity, has laun-
ched a substantial advertising

, . campaign urging us all to avoid

lineups by paying ali of our bills
» by mail. :
-'. Some might protest that this
adds 42 cents to the cost cf each

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bill, but surely it costs at least as
much to run back and forth to the
bank?

Canada Post’s motive in all of
this is a word much cherished by
modern money managers: ‘‘the
float.’* History has demonstrated
that we are rather stupid when it
comes to buying things like travel-
ler’s cheques. Collectively, we
leave billions of dollars’ worth of
these gathering dust in drawers
until some magic day in the future
when we might actually travel and
use them,

The banks and traveller's che-
que companies enjoy this massive
pile of interest-free loot.

Businesses already give the post
office a hefty cushion of inter-
est-free capital when they use
postage machines in their office.
They have to pay in advance to
arm their machine.

This current campaign is
designed to fill every home with

reserves of unused postage
stamps.
Smart business.

We must report a recent gambl-
ing loss.

During June, | arrived at Pear-
son in Toronto with Jack
Hartland, Air Canada’s new
manager of sales development for
B.C. and Pacific.

Loaded with luggage and goif
clubs, we encountered a maze of
cushioned ropes, the kind of traf-
fic control lanes employed at most
banks. No longer were there a
dozen separate lines each making
its way to a separate check-in
counter. Now we all snaked along
in single file.

“How stupid,’’ | commented.

“I like it,’’ Hartland said.

He cited the obvious advantage
of orderly progression and
fairness to all.

I countered by saying that every
passenger now has to push nis
luggage back and forth the
breadth of 12 check-in units until
they reach the head of the maze.

“This was done for the staff,
not the public,’’ I guessed.

I bet him $10 it would be gone
in a month.

Not only has Air Canada per-
sisted, when we checked in recent-
ly in Vancouver airport, it was a
zoo. Every single case had to be
pushed a distance of 200 feet.
This bizarre snake stretched back
and forth in front of the Air
Canada check-in counters. It
bulged out into the terminal en-
trance area blocking two complete
sets of entrance doors.

The alternative, employed by
every airline in the world until
now, would have been perhaps 10
lines, 20 feet long.

We can now revort that Air
Canada hes done this thoreughly.

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Sunday, August 9, 1992 - North Shore News - 9

eat cops, luggage pushers and ‘the float’

Even in La Guardia Airport in
New York, where the airline
check-in is in a construction zone,
these handsome padded velour
topes direct your baggage through
the carpenter's tools.

When I gave Hartland a full
report, he suggested [ might hire a
porter. I told him this is the best
part of the story: the porter now
gets to take your suitcase about
six feet —- from the car to the end
of the line.

We need luggage pushers for
the next 200 feet.

Now I feel better abour the $10.

In a recent column dispatched
from New York City, | reported
about the presence of police of-
ficers on the streets and in the
parks. We mentioned a billboard
campaign proclaiming, ‘‘The Beat
Cop Is Back,”’ and the frequently
seen policemen chatting with
passersby and tourists.

This was a very different New
York. :

We learned this week that the
city’s brilliant police commissioner
Lee Brown is returning to
Houston because his wife is grav-
ely ill. It was Brown, who came

from Houston in 1996, who
demanded ‘‘community policing,”
a style practised in Vancouver for
20 years.

For the first time since the
1940s, New York has experienced
a drop in the crime rate. It is still
horrible by our standards, but
Brown is universally admired.

When he first brought his
message to the cynical, bruised
Big Apple, he was ridiculed. Some
suggested he was proposing a pic-
nic with the soldiers on a bat-
tlefield while the war was raging.

The city now fears that he can-
not be replaced.

America knows only violent
approaches to violent problems.
And they never work.

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