6 - Wednesday, March 4, 1987 - North Shore News News Viewpeint —— THE VOICE OF NORTH 4ND WEST VANCOUVER Peter Speck Noel Weight Barrett Fisher Linda Stewart under Get yeah “dt aaa t Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Advertising Director Display Advertising 980-0513 Classilied Advertising 986 5222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 North Shore News, Entire contents 1987 North Shore Free Press Lid All nights reserved Us good to hear Lower Mainland police are laun- Smarten them up! | 2ht= ching a crackdown on bad driving habits. Such a 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 LE is jong overdue, on the North Shore as elsewhere. The focus this time is not merely on drunken drivers, though these will continue, of course, to be a prime laa 58,287 (average, Wednesday . Friday & Sunday) SDA DIS ON police target. But too many of (he presumably sober Trectyrer motorists one encounters — and hopefully survives — Lge , every day seem to have long ago forgotten every rule they had to fearn for their original driver's test. Or else, they no longer give a damn. High on the list, along with straight speeding, are | MEAN WHAT MAKES those who run red lights, barely heed stop signs and : VANCOWER MORE fail to yield to the right at uncontrolled intersections. z 2 Almost as dangerous are the left-turners who play pe . ; . ATTRACTIVE THAN US chicken with oncoming traffic, the right-turners who AS AN INTERNATIONAL deny crosswalk pedestrians their right, the tight laine- BANKING CENTER? weavers and the impatient tailpaters. wre Close behind them come the drivers whose thoughtlessness, inattention or sheer sloppiness causes unnecessary stress to other road users — by ontitting (0 signal their intentions in good time, or cancel their turn signal, or lower their high beam for oncoming vehicles at night. And don’t let's forget the drivers of parked cars who fling open their doors in the path of foilow- ing traffic without a single backward glance. Smartening up atrociously mannered drivers on a wide scale would cut the accident rate significantly. H stiff fines IN ADDITION to demerit points are needed to ram the lessons home, they should be restored without delay. September 1980 baby become a major event in the North Shore calendar. Happily, Mike will still ENJOYING: A CIGARETTE with his coffee in a smok- ing-permitted Vancouver cafe, a middle-aged gent was - ‘physically attacked the other week by a rabid anti-smoker. He suffered two painful karate kicks in the groin from his assailant. City Mayor Jack Loucks and his merry band might well ponder this cameo of 1987 life before passing their bylaw to ban the weed not just from public places but from every workplace as well. PAUL GALLAGHER ... college recipes. LETTER OF THE DAY Public hurt by fee ban A law that can ultimately be en- forced only by encouraging fanatics to kick delinquents in the groin doesn’t seem to do an awful lot for civilization. That’s the trouble with what’s left of civilization today. Every trendy new cause breeds militants Noel Wright who make the 16th century rack . @ operators of the Inquisition Icok like welfare workers, Like Hitler, Stalin and every tinpot imitator in history, they’re obsessed with the end and to hell with the means. For them, ‘‘com- promise” (if they’ve ever heard of it) is a four-letter word. Being one of the vanishing breed, ! know the game’s almost up for ALL of us puffers. Mean- while, most of my friends who've quit remain embarrassingly tol- erant, even to providing me pity- ingly with an ashtray. Very soon, when cigarettes are officially rated with heroin, they know I'll be join- ing them — if not doing time in the slammer for trafficking. With the few diehards | can ca- sually butt out for an hour or two if If value their company enough. It’s all very couth on both sides. As an interim solution, Jack, it definitely beats laws that some Dear Editor: Doctors understand the tempta- tion of 90 million dollars to the provincial government for com- pliance with the Canada Health Act by the abolishing of user fees. However, the decision to do so underlines the prime problem fac- ing the delivery of health care in Canada; namely, its intimacy with the political arena. A moment's thought must draw the conclusion that to restrict the ability of the province to raise rev- crazy may remind you about with a boot where it hurts most! eh NAME GAME: Sweet music for Cap College guitar instructor Stephen Boswell, nominated for a Juno Award for the best classical Canadian recording ... Congrats, also, to first-year Cap College stu- dent Louise Papais, recipient of the Bachelor of Music Transfer Program's scholarship ... Inciden- tally, if you want to know what makes community colleges like Cap tick, read Canada’s Com- munity Colleges: A Critical Analysis (UBC Press 1986), co- authored by Paul Gallagher and John Dennison. As former presi- dent of Cap College, now head of VCC and awarded the Order of Canada last year for outstanding enue, especially from those who use the system, is unrealistic and counterproductive. No other gov- ernment so restricts itself. Today, provincial governments are trapped between public expec- tation for unlimited round the clock health care, an expectation fuelled by the politicians’ concern for the ballot box, and federal government restraint which reduces the transfer of funds an- ticipated by the provinces. With 30 per cent of its budget to health, the provincial government wednesday world @ services to education, North Van's Paul knows whereof he speaks ... Mount Seymour Lions Club presi- dent Chack Jorgensen and his fellow Leos had a happy start to the new year when their housing society finally got the go-ahead (after 10 years of dreaming and planning) to build a 40-unit seniors complex in Deep Cove ... Send get-well-soon notes to West Van Legionnaires Bill Hurford and Bill Redman — Bill H. recovering in LCH from multiple injuries in a bad February car accident and Bill R. convalescing from a_ mid- February heart attack New president of the Coho Festival Society is former West Van alder- man Don Griffiths. He succeeds founder-president Mike Nicell who's stepping down after seven years which have seen his must now not only replace the money that individual hospitals, etc., raise from user fees (2.7 mil- lion dollars for a community hos- pital such as the Surrey Memorial), but also accept the increased utilization that will accompany the removai of the charges. The Canada Health Act, which imposes a dollar for dollar penalty on the provinces for every dollar of user fees raised, is bad legisla- tion. It is a clear incursion into an area of provincial responsibility, namely health, set out in the be around to offer a helping hand whenever needed ... And Van- couver Symphony Orchestra is rat- tling the tin mug again with VSO veepee Alex Klopfer kicking off the Annual Giving Campaign next Tuesday (March 10) at a lunch Starting 11:45 a.m. in the Hotel Vancouver’s Panorama Room. Call 875-1661 for details. DON GRIFFITHS ... CohoFest switch, British North America Act of 1867. Had the debate on the Canada Health Act not been associated with the highly pro- vocative issue of extra billing, it would not have been tolerated by the provinces. Now the provincial government must raise extra revenue or trim services to compensate for the loss of user fees. Either way, the public loses. John O’Brien-Beil, DRCOG President, B.C.M.A. MBBS,