INSIGHTS Now GST shilis bill us for being brainwashed! IN A DEMOCRACY you're entitled to voice your opposi- tion to government actions as loudly and insistently as you wish — right? Right. Free of charge — right? Not quite. That is, if you're a voter in the Canadian democracy presided over currently by Brian Mutlroney and Michael Wilson, and if — like 75 per cent of your fellow voters — you adamantly re- ject their plan to hit us with the Gouge & Screw Tax. We're going to be made to pay for our ungrateful impudence. In case you didn’t notice, the Tories recently set up a $14.2 mil- lion ‘‘goods and services working group” charged with hypnotizing us naughty citizens into acknowledging that the GST is, after all, the greatest thing since RRSPs and family allowances. The so-calied ‘working group has an operating budget of $7.7 million spread over two years. A massive $4.5 million advertising budget, plus $2 million for addi- tional “public information’’ an- tics, is being splurged to “help Canadians understand the GST.”” While picking up the tab, of ry course. MICHAEL Wilson ...pay us to make you like it. What it really means is that the Mulroneyites have simply withdrawn from any further discussion of the tax with the elec- torate. They regard the three out of four Canadians demanding, in every recent poll, that they drop the idea and return to the drawing board as either cretins or villains. Father knows best. And he's not arguing — he’s TELLING you. This hardly comes as a surprise, however, because it’s the same ar- rogant message we got last year in that big government ad implying that the GST was already law — when the bill hadn’t even been in- troduced in the House. Even Tory-appointed Speaker John Fraser slapped his former buddies on the wrist for their cheek. It’s also the message North Shore voters have been getting for months from MPs Chuck Cook and Mary Collins. Their personal careers, like those of Tory MPs across the Iand, de- pend on unquestioning loyalty firs: to Brian and Michael in Ottawa — NOT first to Tom and Mary in Lynn Valley or Bob and Joan on Bellevue. Neither MP has given any sign of vigorously pressing the cabinet to heed the concerns of a large majority of the constituents they were elected to speak for. Now — courtesy of the tax- payers — they have a new $14.2 million tool to help them try to make those same taxpayers shut up, lie back and ENJOY the GST. True, the ‘‘working group”’ may cost you only a single hidden dollar on your tax return. But to pay even a dime more in tax for trying to stop the government gouging and screwing you when your MP won’t is a dime too much. And worse. Spill ills has done much more than open people’s eyes to I AST Friday’s spill of diesel oil in Burrard Inlet the dangers of increasing oil transportation through Vancouver harbor. Wy has again underlined the abysmal state of oil spill clean-up technology and man’s inability to deal effec- tively with oil spills of any size. Friday’s spill occurred after a freighter collided with a fishing vessel. Though fog has been cited as a factor in the colli- sion, conditions in the harbor were otherwise ideal. It is obvious, then, that similar accidents will continue to occur. There is no question that the accident should con- vince port authorities to reconsider any plans to ap- prove the movement of larger oil tankers through the harbor. But it should also convince port authorities to invest time and money in improving its contingency plans for dealing with harbor oi! spills. For instance, while the response to the spill was guick and enthusiastic, less than 50 per cent of the oil spilled has since been recovered. ; Booms used to contain the initial spill proved to be largely ineffective, and the rest of the technology for cleaning up spilled oil remains shockingly primitive: washing beaches, rocks and seabirds by hand; tossing absorbent pads into polluted waters to soak up oil. Oil transportation through Vancouver’s harbor is not about to stop and neither are oil spills. We need a better plan to deal with both. It makes us a ‘tuser-pay”’ democracy — to be brainwashed by government shills and billed for the privileges as well! ad TAILPIECES: On Wednesday, the last day at work for Park Royal’s popular, genial veepee and g.m. who's served the shopping centre since 1964, they put his name up in lights that said it all. And from now on it's ‘happy golfing” for Hugh Addison who turned 65 just three weeks ago — 60 of those years as a North Shore resident ... if you’re a small or medium-size business of whatever kind, tourism Fy 1S your business during the next six months. So don’t miss the panel discussion ‘*Making Tracks with Tourism’? Wednesday, Mar. 7, 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Lonsdale Quay Hotel, sponsored by North Shore Tourism and Cap College. Call 984-4488 for info and 984- 4901 for tickets ($25, including formal reception) ... And congrats to North Van's Marilyn Scoates, B.A., who'll be among the 42 grads formally recognized Mar. 16 Mihir © friday focus at the first annual convocation ceremony of B.C.’s Open Univer- sity, with broadcaster Peter Gzowski as keynote speaker — on video, naturally! Marilyn is now a part-time teacher at Capilano Elementary. nee WRIGHT OR WRONG: Much of your life in the workplace is like skiing. If you ain’t falling down, you ain’t learning. NEWS photo Mike Wakelietd SCANNING A GOLDEN HORIZON... YOUTHFUL-— LOOKING SENIOR CITIZEN Hugh Addison receives a retirement salate for over a quarter of a century's work well done. envetope North Shore News, tounded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quablied under Schedule 1117, Paragrapn Ht of the Excise Tas Act. es oubtished each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by Nottn Snore Free Press Ltd and disinbuled to every door or the Nort: Shore Second Ciass Mat! Regist-attion Number 3885 Subscriptions North and West Vancouver. $25 per year Mailing rates avaiable on request Submussians are welcome bul we cannot accep! ‘esponsibiity tor unsoticited Material mctuckng Manuccepls and prclures a which should DC accompanied by a Stamped. addressed 1139 Lonsdale Avenue. North Vancouver, B.C. 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