6 - Sunday, February 17, 1985 - North Shore News Editorial Page —_ * itt: of it! Polls vs leaders EVER before have opinion polls N dominated goverment policies and planning on today’s scale. And never before has government leadership been called into question so widely. There’s a direct con- nection between these two phenomena. It lies in the constant swings and contradic- tions in public attitudes, as illustrated in na- tional surveys by different reputable pollsters. During the 1981-82 recession, for example, one well known poll found optimism suzpris- ingly high, while another found it very low. Polls taken within weeks of each other have shown a marked divergence in expectations about unemployment. A survey which found most Canadians relied on government to guard their economic interests was contradicted by others showing strong distrust of government. More recently, one and the same poll reveal- ed that a majority of the public wanted the federal deficit reduced, while a majority also opposed cuts in social services for that purpose. As quick ‘‘snapshots’’ of public opinion, all these polls may accurately portray people’s passing reactions at any given moment. In the aggregate, they reflect what human beings are really like. What they fail to provide is a solid -LONG term consensus about the questions ask- ed, which is the only useful basis for sound policy decisions as opposed to merely winning elections. / As long as politicians concentrate on the lat- ter, they’re doomed to remain slaves of the polls instead of masters of the issues — con- fused followers of an understandably confus- ’ ed public instead of its leaders. °F hen the Minneapolis police got Stuck ay on the case of a suspected sex deviant who kept computer accounts of his sex adventures, they called on a 15-year-old ‘hacker’’:.whose hobby was tapping bank com- ‘Tell tale bytes _ puters. “He cracked the suspect’s computer code, which had baffled police for a month, in jist 45 minutes. Moral: don’t confide in your Apple — you never know who’s taking bytes Display Advertising $80-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 q north shore. ews Newsroom 985-2131 Dacia treeteenae ian Circulation 986-1337 -Subscriptions 985-2131 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7Ni 2H4 . Publisher Peter Speck Marketing Director Operations Manager Robert Graham Berni Hilliard Advertising Director Circulation Director Dave Jenneson : Bill McGown Editor-in-Chief fo Noel Wright lay Advertising Manager Production Director Dis Mike Goodsel Classitied Manager Vai Stephenson Chris Johnson Photography Manager Terry Peters North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Scheduie #!, Part Ill, Paragraph fit of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Entire contents © 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. : Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver. $25. pet year. Mailing rates available on,request. , No responsibility accepted for unsolicited material including maruscapts and pictures which should be aucornpanied by a slumped. addsessed envelope. Member of the B.C. Press Council s 65,770 (average, Wednesday Sor Onion Friday & Sundayy sm & paveere™ Coma THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE AN Y Uy yyy. Vw. YI ls 4 IF We Have TO DegL WITH YOU OVER ANY (NAITeR BPLATING TO YOUR TeX RETURN, WHICH WOLKD Ol) (CHECK ONE. ONLY) [AN ABUSIVE PHONE CALL [] SZURE OF YOUK BANK ACCOUNT CJ) SEIQURE OF SOUR KIDS BANK ACCOUNT [1 A VISIT FROM ONE OF “THE BOUS PREFER... PREMIER BENNETT has finally recalled the . legislature, and British Columbians will once again be treated to the amazing spectacle of the Social Credit government in action. By GRAHAM LEA As the leader of the least popular government in all of Canada, Bill Bennett will be eager to recoup some lost points in the public opinion pclis your taxes pay for, but jwhich-you never get to see. i . Patrick Kinsella’s restraint | program being no longer the “vote-getting public relations gimmick it used to be, the Socreds will energetically paddle away from it. What new wonders will be ‘ trotted out as phase two of the Socred economic plan? Let me give you my guesses. Despite continuing high unemployment and bankruptcy figures, finance minister Hugh Curtis will try to keep a straight face while telling us that restraint has worked, and that we are now _feady to inherit all the benefits we have suffered for, Mr. Curtis will probably inform us that spending is now under control, allowing him to ease some of the taxes with which he has been strangling industry. And he may even announce some hefty borrowing to finance recovery. The still-large deficit will have magically ceased to be a sure portent of the end of the world, becoming instead a wise investment in the foster- ing of new economic growth. Industry minister Don Phillips will then take the centre ring, and reveal the latest in the series of Socred economic extravaganzas. Borrowing the straight face used by Hugh Curtis, Mr. Phillips will tell us chat he is pinning our future to the brifliant new concept of free economic zones. . Prosperity, Mr. Phillips will shout, is just around the corner. All we have to do is close our eyes, tap our heels together three times, and keep saying, ‘‘! believe in free economic zones.”” Mr. Phillips will introduce enabling legislation. Details will be sketchy, but the ac- companying brochures and commercials will be state-of- the-art. We will soon be bath- ed in a misty glow of economic optimism, just as we were when BCRIC, nor- theast coal, and Expo were announced, So far, nobody — perhaps not even Mr. Phillips — seems to know exactly what a free economic zone is, or how it would work in British Columbia. But we can get some idea from an interesting report by BCTV on a free economic zone that has be: - operating not too far south of us for a few years. The United States has had free economic zones, or free ports, for some 50 years. Portland, Oregon, is one of the American cities that has given [ree ports 4 try, setting aside a piece of industrial land on the waterfront. BCTV thought it was fair to check out Portiand’s free port, because Oregon and B.C. are economically similar. We're in the same part of North America, fron- ting on the same ocean, suf- fering the same general economic conditions, and we both rely on the forests as our major industry. So,. when the BCTY camera crew toured the free port, did they find a bustling hive of enterprise? No, they found an empty warehouse. They interviewed the presi- dent of a steel fabricating company that had set up in the free port. Did he feel that operating in the free economic zone made a dif- ference to his business? No, he said. Had the move to the free port created any new jobs? No, said the president. The American businessman was. not en- thusiastic about free/ economic zones. But then, he/ probably hadn’t seen any of the new commercials Don Phillips will be showing us this spring. Hf they don’t work, the Socreds will just have to keep searching for some other piece of magic with which to dazzle us. But, whether they work or not, free economic zones have nothing to do with the real problem of economic policy-making in B.C. The real problem with the Bennett government’s economic policy is that they don’t really have one. Socred economic policy- making does not involve figuring out what would be good for the province and putting it to work. The Socreds make ecnomic policy by taking polls, finding out what appeals to you, and pat- ching something together. Then they hire. the best production houses to make commercials that will sell you not the steak, but the sizzle. Like the ‘billion. dollar rapid transit system or the semi-suicidal restraint —pro- gram, the final result may not. make much economic sense. But, by then, the government will have traded in the old PR gimmick for a brand new one, complete with a .whole new _ barrage « of » brochures ° and commercials,“ =) = +... The economy lurches from” each false hope to the. next, like a weary traveller follow- ing a will-o’-the-wisp through | a quicksand bog. But the- 'Socreds get enough political. mileage out: of each short- lived economic miracle ‘to - believe that TV commercials can substitute - for solid economic planning. However, more and more people are lesing faith in government by PR gimmick. In this complex, competititve world, economics is teo im- — portant to be left in the hands of politicians who.can’t, or won’t, do some serious brain- work. . British Columbia needs a neutral, independent institute of economics, where experts from government, industry, labor and the universities could put their knowledge and skills to work for all of us, ; They could first give us a clear picture of what needs to be done, and then some seust- ble ideas on how to go about doing it. Unfortunately, an institute full of experts would pro- bably embarrass the provin- cial government by not agree- ing with the Socres’ flying- circus style of economic policy-making. And _ besides, how could you make it into an exciting primetime TV commercial?