6 ~ Wednesday, April 10, 1991 - North Shore News eae ===. wy LY, an ane Mbnygyier & Ler S AAAs ut Fuelling research EDERAL government support for a North Vancouver company is helping fuel the quest for what could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the worldwide search for non-poliuting power sources. Canada’s Energy, Mines and Resources department recently announced that $1 million had been committed towards testing the Solid Polymer Fuel Cell cur- rently being developed by Ballard Power Systems Inc. of North Vancouver. The funds will help Ballard test the fuel cell as a power source in 2 bus; success on that front could open new horizons for the fuel celi’s use. Commerciai applications of the cell, which produces only electricity and water, will help promote its use in such major urban polluters as the private automobile. The federal government has played a major part in keeping Ballard focused on the development of its fuel cell: the $1 mil- lion announced recently follows a com- mitment by the Department af National Defence to use the fuel cell for various military purposes. And it was the federal government that helped protect Ballard from buy-out over- tures from large international con- glomerates by agreeing in 1986 to take over ownership of the fuel cell technology in return for granting Ballard an exclusive 10-year deal to produce the cells and their accompanying technology. The Ballard fuel cell is a homegrown success story that should be celebrated as both an achievement of local technological know-how and a benefit to the world en- vironment. Reynolds reversed his position Dear Editor: Ouawa! meetings are for explaining to the In his letter to the North Shore News of Jan. 11, David Macaree of West Vancouver accused John Reynolds of ‘‘word twisting’? and “reversing his pledge’’ regarding his stand on the need for an en- vironmental assessment of Alcan’s Kemano project. On Feb. 10, Mr. Reynolds replied indignantly in the News that ‘‘nothing could be further from the truth.’ He went on to say he ‘‘still believes there should be public meetings to explain what is happening with the project.”’ So what did John Reynolds ac- tually say on that fateful Dec. 4 in Peter Speck Publisher Timothy Renshaw Managing Editor Associate Editor Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quaitfred under Schedule 111, Paragraph Il of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. ang distrbuted to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mai Regrstration Number 3855. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver. $25 per year. Mauling rates available on request. Subnussions are welcome but we Cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited matenal including manuscripts and pictures which snculd be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. According to the parliamentary record, he was being questioned by Jim Fulton, MP for Skeena. Mr. Fulton asked, ‘Should there be full public hearings and an En- vironmental Assessment Review Process for the project known in B.C. as Kemano?"’ Mr. Reynolds replied, ‘‘There will be an en- vironmental process and there will be pubic hearings.’’ And fater, “We have no trouble, as you know, in B.C. in having public hearings and listening to people, and we will do that.” The important point is that Reynolds shifted from promising hearings to meetings. Public public ‘‘what is happening with the project’’ as Reynolds says in his letter to the News. Public hearings are where the public can present evidence and call expert witnesses to testify before an im- partial commission. ft appears that our former en- vironment minister either doesn’t understand this crucial difference or else he still believes he can con- fuse the public and cover up his reversal of position with more “word iwisting’' and campaign styie rhetoric. Richard Tarnoff North Vancouver Display Adveriising 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 North Shore Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions 986-1337 managed Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 Newsroom 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 "MEMBER Farr pace eed 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) SDA DIVISION a new voice? IN TROUBLED Canada last weekend a tide was running strongly for a politician one hardly associates with Shakespearean characters. But then we still have much to learn about Preston Manning. At the Saskatoon convention of the hitherto western-based Reform Party its populist leader won vir- tually unanimous delegate backing to expand nationally. The transformation still has to be ratified by the full party membership later this spring. Bur there seems litle doubt that it wiil be confirmed. Then Manning can cash in on growing support for the party al- ready evident in Ontario and the Maritimes by actively organizing in those provinces. But not in Quebec. And that’s the REAL story. In the looming crisis over Canada’s future — with Quebec imposing an early deadline for quitting if the other nine provinces don’t give away the store to it — Manning's strategy is now ob- vious. A “national’’ Reform Party, sea-to-sea except for Quebec, could pre-empt the federal Tories, Liberals and NDP as the true voice of anglo Canada. Unlike the latter, its bottom line would NOT be soothing or appeasing Quebec. The RP’s bottom line would be to confront Quebec with what ANGLO Canada wants in a revis- ed constitution. And if the two goals could not, in the end, be reconciled, let the chips fall. That approach would level the playing field right away. And it obviously plays well from Van- couver to Halifax. The Spicer circus and every other recent survey have made one thing very clear. The citizens of three-quarters of the nation are in no mood to pay whatever price is PRESTON MANNING... let the chips fall. gees LUCIEN BOUCHARD... deserves RP prayers. Noel Wright HITHER AND YON demanded to prevent a sulky teen running away from home. If that finally happens, say the Reformers, so be it. Tories and Liberals cannot risk such tough talk. Both federal par- ties vitally need Quebec’s 75 seats — now endangered by Lucien Bouchard’s separatist Bloc Quebecois. Preston has good reason to remember Lucien every night in his prayers. The Reform Party can probably count on up to 40 of the 86 western seats in the 1992-93 elec- tion. That alone could give it a balance of power in a five-party “Commons split between Reformers, Tories, Grits, the NDP and the BQ. With Ontario and Maritime votes a Reform-led coalition or even — in Canada sans Quebec — an RP government within this century is no longer just a dream. Dangers for the party still lurk, of course: the need, nationally, to tone down some of its more ex- treme rightwing policies — and to avoid being taken over, as earlier western-based reform groups were, by Ontario’s political clout. But in the affairs of Preston Manning there seems little ques- tion that the tide today is at its flood. eee TAILPIECES: Local history buffs gather tomorrow, April 11, for West Van Museum & Historical Society’s a.g.m., 7 p.m. in Cedardale Centre, 595 Burley off Taylor Way at Inglewood. Guests (non-voting) welcome and Hugh Jobnson winds up the evening with his slide show on ‘‘Early Days of Logging in West Van, 1869-1926" ... “‘A night to remember” for ail North Shore grads is promised at the All-Night Beach Party Saturday, April 13, in the Lonsdale Rec Centre — tickets from schooi reps or call 980-8851 ... If Spain’s hot, sensu- ous inusic.is your thing, Presenta- ion House is where it’s at Sun- day, April 14, when acclaimed flamenco guitar maestro Gerardo Alcata performs at 8 p.m. — for tickets ($12/$10) call 986-1351 ... And happy birthday today, April 10, to North Van’s Frank Decker. eoe WRIGHT OR WRONG: Why do newborn Canadian babies cry? Because, says Peter Speck, they’re wet, cold, hungry — and already $21,000 in debt. SE RESE ECO Sl