TEM: BC To SEND PATENTS ouT oF
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Nol GOING TO
MAIL THEM THERE

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i

Agreeable agreement

HE 20-YEAR police services con-
tract for North Vancouver is a good

thing.

Following a four-year period of uncer-
tainty while negotiations between the fed-
erai Minisiry of the Attorney Genera! and
the provinces and municipalities dixeyed
on, North Vancouver municipal offi<ials
and the North Vancouver RCMP can row
focus on the mauis and bolts of providing
first-class police coverage for the com-

munity.

The 90% cost share to be paid by the
municipalities reflects a realistic price for

services directly benefiting

couver. The cost-share percentages will not
change for the 20-year period of th

agreement.

That’s exceptionally good news because
the municigal share of RCMP costs has

tisen regularly over the past decade and
the federal government had intended to

year,

North Vaz-

Children being used as political pawns

Dear Editor:

The attempted derailing of the
construction of a new middle
school in the western region of
West Vancouver by a self-serving
vocal minority who live a few
blocks from Hillside School reeks
cf what has been a problem for

Publisher

Peter Speck

far too ong here in B.C. ... using
children as political pawns.

At a time when the education of
our children must take priority,
we have a ‘‘Chicken Little’ group
tumiing off to the new NDP gov-
ernment in Victoria telling the
education minister ‘‘the sky is
falling,’’ rather than working to
improve the overall quality of

Display Advertising 980-0511

Distribution

increase the municipal share to 95% last

Although the local RCMP detachment
and North Vancouver politicians have al-
ready made police accountability to the
community 2 priority, the new contract
solidifies the focus by including provisions
which enhance requiremeats for ongoing
consultation on policing and coordinated
budget planning.

Who pays what is settled. But an equally
pressing need remains unresolved.

Now the two North Vancouver coancils
must move expeditiously to complete a
; badly-needed new police station.

AY

education for all children of West
Vancouver.

Education Minister Anita
Hagen should not be so foolish as
to fall into the trap being set for
her by this rag-tag group.

Oh, by the way, yes, Virginia ...
there is life outside Am*leside!
George Madden
West Vancouver

North Shore
managed

Managing Editor .. . Timothy Renshaw
Associate Editor. . Noel Wright

ising Director .. Linda Stewart
Comptroller Doug Foot

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an
independent suburban newspaper and qualified
under Schedule 117, Paragraph (Il of the Fxcise
Tax Act, ts 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 2885.

iptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per
year. Mailing rates available on request.
Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept
responsibility tor unsolicited material including
manuscripts and pictures which should be
ace ied by a stamped, addressed envelope.

Real Estate Advertising 985-6982
Classified Advertising 986-6222
Newsroom 985-2131

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V7M 2H4

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Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

wn eae ees ee ee re ee

Yes, political
polis do have
two good uses!

WITH RED-FACED polisters licking their wounds after
their recent U.K. election fiasco, the question of whether
opinion polls should be banned during election campaigns -

is again being raised.

The British nose-counters,
you'll recall, almost unanimously
elected the Labour Party with a
Jead of up to eight percentage
points. Not one of them came
within a country mile of predic-
ting the workable overall majority
won by John Major's Tories.

Not that there’s anything very
new about their disaster. In his
1990 bock Margin of Error na-
tional columnist Claire Hoy
chronicles the many similar prat-
fails by their Canadian buddies
over the past 30 years — including
the poll that made Brian
Mulroney the clear loser on the
eve of his sotid 1988 ‘free trade’’
election victory.

Nor will former Ontario
premier David Peterson quickly
forget how his 50% approval rat-
ing by the polls lured him into
calling an unneeded 1990 election
— only to be thrown out by Bob
Rae's NDP.

The quiz industry itself has
plenty of built-in problems —
among them, different methods,
sample sizes and question-word-
ing. Thus, comparing different
polls on the same subject is an
apples-and-oranges exercise.
Pollsters admit they can provide
only a snapshot of public opinion
on one specific date and, oddly
enough, closeness to voting day
does NOT seem to be any guaran-
tee of greater accuracy.

Then there’s the ‘‘undecided”’
count. The media naturally
headline and emphasize the more
interesting ‘decided’ vote. So to
hasty news scanners, party A may
appear headed for a landslide over
party B when, in fact, 56% of the
electorate hasn't yet made up its
mind.

But an intriguing NEW theory
about the fallibility of polis is now
emerging: the possibility that to-
day’s sophisticated public is
beginning to play its own polling
games — that more and more poll
respondents are cunningly pro-
testing the invasion of their
privacy by bamboozling their
quizzers with false answers.

The huge polling errors in the
U.K. election, a leading British
political commentator argues,
could only have happened because
“people lied about their intentions
right up to the moment of voting
and went on lying even as they
left the polling stations.”’

HITHER AND YON

If he’s right, there’s obviously
not the slightest reason to ban
opinion polls for fear voters take
them too seriously. Therefore a
better question would be: have
they any worthwhile uses at all?

Yes, they definitely have two.
First, as a godsend to editors on
slow news days. Second, as public
entertainment, because everyone
loves watching politicians being
deflated — even those they vote
for!

ace ;
TAILPIECES: A smart salute to’
West Van's Dick Biockberger, ° -
recently honored at a cerernonial. |
parade in Calgary by being named
Patron of his former regiment,
Lord Strathcona’s Horse. He
becomes only the third recipient
of that honor in the regiment’s
92-year history ... Volunteers
from ali three North Shore com-. .
munities will be feted Tuesday, .
April 28, by North Shore Com- .
munity Services at North Van’s
Lucee. Centre, with live entertain-
ment, special awards to five out- —
standing volunteers and ir-
repressible Butcher Black (Black
as with Peter) the guest speaker —
call 985-7138 for free tickets ...
And remember Rita Johnston —
for 28 weeks last year Canada’s ~
first ever woman premier? Today,
April 22, wish Rita happy 56th
birthday.

ean
WRIGHT OR WRONG: As Will
Rogers noted, everything is funny _
as long as it is happening to
somebody else. _

indy Goodma

™ ~ NEWS photo
WEST Vancouver Library’s muiti-miltion-dollar expansion begins.

At this month's launching party

West Vancouver Mayor Fark

Sager (left) and chief librarian Jack Mounce (right) honor 84-
year-old Elizabeth Musto, who developed the original library trom
scratch as its founding chief librarian. ce