Pr Se nD 6 - Friday. June 5, 1987 - North Shore News Majority rule? fundamental right in a democracy. Lawbreaking Pics: against injustice, real or imagined, is a and causing grave damage in the process is NOT. Even the B.C. Federation of Labour doesn’t hail Monday’s 24-hour general strike as a success. It’s ob- viously unlikely to halt Bill 19. To all outward ap- pearances the stoppage was a sullen, unspectacular af- fair with no central focus. The unions could have made a much better impact on their fellow citizens with perfectly legal mass demonstrations throughout B.C. in non-working hours. / Instead, they ordered 300,000 workers to break legal contracts and lose a day’s pay — or more, if employers now exercise their own rights. They imposed a similar loss on countless non-union employees unable to get to their jobs. They inflicted major inconvenience on large numbers of the general public. They caused an estimated $100-million loss to the B.C. economy. And they again scared away badly needed outside invest- ‘ment for months, or even years. The specific aim of this costly lawbreaking was to frighten the democratically elected government into killing Bill 19. That bill may still be imperfect, but the place to improve it is the Legislature, not the illegal ‘ picket line. Otherwise, majority rule becomes mean- ‘ingless, with’ unions —- which represent under 20% of ‘the electorate — usurping the function of the elected MLAs. There’s nothing ‘‘hardline’’ about government seek- ing a court order to curb such a threat. It’s merely discharging its duty to its proper masters: the 1.7 mil- lion voters who alone are entitled to discipline it — through their MLAs and ultimately at the ballot box. ‘THE VOICE OF NONTH AND WEST VANCOUVER SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY +: FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2121 Distribution 9864337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Publisher: . Editor-in-Chief |... Managing Editor . Advertising Director Peter Speck . .Noel Wright Barrett Fisher Linda Stewart North Shore News, foundes in 1969 4s an imtependent suburban newRpape! and qualified under Schedule Il, Paragraph tI) of the Excise las Act, 18 publistied each Wednesday, f day and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd and arstributed to every doot on he Mort Shore Second Class Mail Regetration Numbet 3885 Subscriptions North and Wes! Vancouver, $25 pet year, Mailing rates, available on request Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept tespansibiity for unsolicited material including manuserpts. and pecturers which shouki be accompat.ed by a stamped, addressed em a Slamped, addtessed envelope 58,489 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday} YOU SAY BILL 19 WILL CAUSE CHAOS. RUIN THE ECONOMY, AND DFINE AWAY A knight of the vine “GENTLEMAN 3IM”, as his friends and admirers have nicknamed him, was in town last week. If you want to get formal, make that Sir James Hardy, OBE, - of Adelaide, Australia. To the average Aussie his fame is as a yachtsman. Now a youthful . 55, he became a household word ‘representing his country at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics in Japan and Mexico, He’s the winner of numerous international yachting trophies and was captain of three - unsuccessful Australian challenges for the America’s Cup in Newport, Rhode island, training the eventual Australian winner, John Bertrand, along the way. ‘ He’s also been deeply involved in the Royal Blind Society and other community activities, and is a patron of Expo ’88. In 1981 he was knighted by the Queen for his services to yachting, the communi- ty and his industry. The latter being the wine in- dustry. He’s chairman of the 134- year-old family wine company, Thomas Hardy & Sons Pty Ltd., one of the largest such winemakers in Australia and still run by direct descendants of its founder. It pro- duces a wide range of reds and cham- pagnes, and the company also con- trols four other ‘major wine firms — Houghton, Chateau Reynella, Rhine Castle Wines and Emu Australian Wines. The vintages I tasted (that, of course, being the object of the knight’s business trip) were definitely good — a couple very good — and another good NEWS phote Noel Weight GENTLEMAN VINTNER...Down Under's Sir James Hardy. { thing about them is their price, in two cases currently under $6. Gentleman Jim, I reflected, must make his wines the way he sails and lives — with enthusiasm, car- ing and style. eee | FLAK RAINING DOWN on North Van District municipal hall about tax hikes of 20% and up is worrying ‘Ald. Ernie Crist. For that mythical ‘average taxpayer’, he says, the municipality’s own in- crease is only a modest 5.2% but it’s not its own’ master when it comes to the bottom line on its tax bills. Assessments — set by the provincial authority — have risen sharply for many view properties west of Lonsdale because of the recently soaring real estate market. And District also has the thankless job of tax collector for external agencies like the school board (tax hike about 18%) over which it has no control. ‘Don’t shoot,’’ Ernie pleads, ‘‘we’re only the messen- ger!’’ ee MEMORY LANE DEPT.: Regu- lar downtown business lunchers of the ’60s and ’70s in the Carriage Room of the old Devonshire Hotel are getting together June 19 to swap nostalgic memories about those happy middays of-the long departed three-martini era. It hap- pens in the B.C. Club (ex-Cana- dian Club) on the Expo site, now run by West Van’s Louis Ster- vinou, former maitre d’-at the Dev. Organizing the memorial lunch (tickets $20) is Doreen Fredericks, favorite server for some 17. years to the noon-hour se’. in the Carriage Room, and if you qualify as one of its alumni but haven’t yet heard from her, the number to call is 876-6529. For reformed characters of the later 80s, I gather the B.C. Club does stock Perrier. one WRAP-UP: Selling like hot cakes, SDA DIVISION Entire contents © 1987 .North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.” acess N oel Wright . f° reports West Van Municipal Man- ager Terry Lester, is Bruce Ram- say’s new history of Tiddlycove, A Place of Excellence. Bruce’will be autographing copies of the book tomorrow, June 6 — West Van’s Community Day — from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Seniors Activity Cen- tre, and again on Monday, June 8, from 2 to 4 p.m. in West Van Memorial Library Alexander Lamont of North Van has news for his fellow clansmen. He was in Nova Scotia in late May and decided to look up the clan’s membership chairman Angus MacKaracher whose suburban Halifax address (from his press release) we printed May 24 in Sun- friday focus @® day Brunch. Angus was neither there nor in the phone book, nei- ther was his address, 159 Union Street — where .the mumbers only go to 86. Are those Scots’ putting us on again? ... And welcome, neighbor, to Joe Rimac, manager of North Van’s new Household Fi- nancial. Centre’ branch at 1219 Lonsdale, ceremonially opened last week by City Mayor Jack Loucks under the approving eye of Robert Elliot, president of HFC Canada. aoe WRIGHT OR WRONG: Freedom is doing what you like. Happiness is liking what you do. NEWS photo Stuart Davis NEW MONEY-MAN ON THE BLOCK...Mayor Loucks (centre) wel- ‘comes Joe Rimac (r) and HFC boss Robert Elliot.