~ Friday, October 30, 1992 —- North Shore News Could I REALLY hate to take issue wiih a fellow cosident of the Nort, Shore. I mean, if we North Shorers can’t stand together in unity, what hope for Canada? Eh? True, [ live in Greater Tid- diycove. It is an enclave of wealth and, I suppose, privilege. Howev- er, 1am kept .amble because the roof leaks and I can’t afford io fix it. - So I do nat look down conde- scendingly upon fellow residents of our shore, including, of course, North Vancouverites. Oh, I’ve neticed their peculiar accents. And their rather amusing table manners. One would have to be blind noz to sce them. Br? I overlook these trifles in the interests of North Shore unity. Sure, we have our differences. But we must fight tirelessly to dissolve our Three Solitudes: So it is in a spirit of fraternity, or is it now personternity — must check with the Language Police — that I extend a hand to North Vancouver’s most justly famous voice, and one of its sharpest minds too, Rafe Mair. There might be a shade of awkwardness in doing this. Rafe may spit in it. I was a Yes voter in Monday's referendum. Rafe was — as only the dead, the deaf and the 44 Rafe was — as only the dead, the deaf and the deported havent heard — a No.¥9 deported haven’t heard — a No. Rafe was brilliant. Obligatory listening. Tota! ly on top of the issue. Should win whatever broadcasting awards are ap- plicable. And also his producer, wife Patti. Maybe too his executive pro- ducer, Shirlcy Stocker. Rafe also passes the Old Mother Lautens Test. My mother’s main concern about anyone was: ‘‘Has he got a good heart?"’ Rafe has, in my view. But is my view tainted? Because here come the criti- cisms. One: On the above point, Rafe became obsessed during the refer- endum campaign with the notion that every journalistic commen- tator on the Yes side was not merely wrong in his opinion — but a craven toady, kauckling under to the iron directions of his (probably Central Canadian) boss. “Vee haf vays of making you - write ... Two comments. First, I’ve been in the editorial pages department of a Vancouver daily paper only since 1963, with three years off for gocd behavior, so in that short time I may have missed something, although I’ve worked or pinch-hit at every job in the department except the car- toonists’. Possibly I am a bit slow. But never by wink or nod have I seen or heard any evidence that head office in Toronto dictated any ed- itorial position. Rafe stubbornly clings to the dogma that Toronto speaks and its papers cringe. “Try common sense, readers: Wouid head office have told the editors to support the B.C. New Democrats in the last election? Personally, although it tars al! Yes journalists with the same brush, this particular Rafism doesn’t bother me. Trevor GARDEN OF BIASES I suppose 1 am no judge of my independence. But the really curious reader could ask my editor if I am notorious for falling in behind either my paper’s editorial policy or its zz#s judgment. Some reporters could also pro- vide helpful comments on this point. I am almost too shy to have written thai. Had to steel myself. Better journalists would have better cause to be annoyed by Rafe’s sweeping judgment. And I hasten to add that news- paper (and radio) opinion operates between undefined but undoubted limits of tolerance. A columnist who urged ter- rorism or stumped for the Nazi party would not long endure at any paper I’ve encountered. Now a factual correction: As recently as Tuesday, Rafe was still sarcastically calling my paper ‘‘the Bloor Street Sun."" Rafe, Rafe, you are out of date. Otherwise you would know that the chain's head office recently moved from downtown Toronto. Henceforth you will have to disparage it as ‘‘the Don Mills Sun.” Perhaps you and your friend Doug Collins, who likes to cail it “the Vancouver Wimp,” should get together and agiz< on an ap- propriate term of abuse. Point two. Do you really think that all politicians — certainly all the ‘*Yes'’ ones — are disgusting hacks and obedient party sycophants? Did you think so when you were one of them, a cabinet minister in the Bili Bennett Social Credit government? Never followed cabinet solidari- ty and party discipline — without which government would be cha- otic if not impossible — on some issue that you personally opposed? Then you are rare, even rarer than I affectionately hold you to be. If asked, I would have opposed holding a referendum at ail. The decision made, I publicly plumped for Yes —- for shame- lessly illogical, emotional, even patriotic impulses. I wrote interviews of several “*Yessirs’’ — Benoit Bouchard, Kim Campbell, foe Clark, David Mitchell, Clyde Welis — but I suspect the first three, at least, were not much amused by what they read. If anything, 1 was more critical precisely because I was a Yes ad- vocate. The point is that, up close, f heard no argument by politicians on either side that was without merit. 1 do not share the increasingly popular — if not demagogic — view that our politicians are stupid, self-serving and venal. In a democracy, the so-called common man apparently needs this conviction in order to think better of himself. (And also escape ‘personal responsibility?) In Canada, the only respected leaders are those out of power. The reputations of Robert Stan- field, Joe Clark, and, yes, Pierre afe be wrong? Trudeau, soared out of office. Point three, closely allied to the above: We heard a great deal from Rafe — among many others — about the ‘‘elite.’” And that the public, well equipped with good sense, rebuked them sternly in the referendum. Iam ashamed that I sometimes throw the “‘elite’’ word around carelessly mysclf. Surely, Rafe, any conscientious study would reveal that the refer- endum campaign pitted two groups against one another: The Elites-in-Office. And the Elites-in-Waiting. A little simplified, 1 admit. Some prominent Yes people among the Tories, for instance, frankly wact Brian Mulroney’s job. But generally the observation is accurate. Could anyone doubt Preston Manning’s or Jacques Parizeau’s ambitions — or that they aren’t among the Elites- in-Waiting? I say no more. Except, cryp- tically: Do not celebrate. The referen- dum results are not yet in. 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