© — Wednesday, Octcber 2, 1991 — ftorth Shore News

‘NEWS VIEWPOINT

Election ethics

high premium being placed on

. ethically upright behavior on the
part of politicians. The past misconduct of
Social Credit cabinet members and Mr.
Vander Zalm have whetted the public ap-
petite for an honest, open leadership seer
to be performing in the public’s self-defin-
ed best interests.

The heat of the provincial election has
keenly sharpened the facus on integrity.

The timins of the tiny tempest in West
Vancouver-<zaribaidi, where the winds of
- political fortune apparently blew a bribe
across the path of Socred candidate
Rodney Glynon-Morris, smacks of shadowy
‘ opportunism.

The candidate was reportedly approzch-

T HIS MONTH there is a particulary

ed with an offer of $125,000 io withdraw
his candidacy. According to Glynn-Morris’
campaign manager, the constituency
lawyer was given details concerning the
bribe in early September.

News of the bribe broke just days before
the candidate was up for reconfirmation of
his nomination. He was handily supported
by his riding association Monday.

But losing contender Margot Furk gues-
tions the timing of the allegation.

Yhere is merit in the questioning.

While the hard facis of the alleged bribe
attempt remain cloaked, the critical ele-
ment, that of ethical behavior being tested
by the light of public scrutiny, remains
missing from the equation.

LETTER OF THE DAY

Hunter “msulted’ Quebec

Dear Editor:

Re: Bob Hunter column, Sept.

15, “The tribal ways of Quebec.”

Man are you ever a lost soul!
Although I like most of your writ-
ing, you seem to feel more com-
fortable in L.A. than in Montreal!
Well, why not?

Being one-eighth Canadian with
no eastern roots you can’t
possibly know how it feels to be
born in Quebec an anglophone
(“‘Maudit Anglais’ and we called
them ‘‘French Pea Soup and
Johnny Cake’’). We loved it and
we loved them (we still do). As
proud of Canada as anyone, they
fougiit and died alongside us in

Publisher
Managing Editor .
Associate Editor
Advertising Director .
Comptrelier

Peter Speck Display Advertising

. . Timothy Renshaw Real Estate Advertising $85-6982 Subscriptions 986-1337
rig F

. Linda Stewart an

Doug Foot

two world wars!

There has always been a hard
core “French only g:oup’’ of ap-
proximately 15% uf the popula-
tion.

Our position ‘s really quite sim-
ple. No one takes any part of
Canada and claims it for
themselves! If they want to leave
— it’s our loss, but then where
will they go? Back to Frence? I
doubt it!

You probably realize that the
Ungava area —- approximately one
half of Quebec, was Hudson Bay
territory and was and is now a
part of Canada — but under the
stewardship of the Province of

Quebec.

980-0511

Classified Advertising 986-€222
985-2131

Distribution

Another matter most of you
Johnny-come-latelys don’t seem to
realize is that a very Jarge number
of Canadians — Indian, French,
English, Scottish, Irish —_ that
were born in Quebec (now living
elsewhere}, would in the event of
a referendum have every righi to a
vote on Quebec’s future. We are
still citizens (by birth) of Quebec,
just as we are still citizens of the
Hibs Gf this great and glorious

So, Bob Hunter, on this one
you have insulted them and you
have insulted us!

A.R. Symons
West Varcouver

986-1337 North Shore °
managed

7

Administration 985-2131

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Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Canadians still
much better
off than the

Japanese

ONE OF the perennial chestnuts of economic analysis is
how well the Japanese economy is performing and how
poorly the North American economy is performing.

The increasing presence of Jap- ‘

anese tourists in most areas of
North America, the purchase by
Japanese firms of some of the
tandmark businesses in North
America, and the fact that Japa-
nese firms are increasingly
prevalent arnongst the largest 100
firms in the world, ail lead to the
impression that the Japanese
economy is in some sense winning
the battle for pre-eminence on the
world scene.

Once of the most often-repeated
economic notions is that Japan is
the wealthiest country in the world
and we should therefore attempt
to emulate whatever practices have
fed to that pre-eminence. As a
matter of fact, I don’t agree with
that assessment of the Japanese

By Michael Walker
Contributing Writer

pet’ 1,000 people. That is fewer
than haif the number of cars per
capita as the United States and
just over half as many cars per
capita as Canada which has 454
per 1,000 people.

They also have fewer tele-
phones, fewer televisions, fewer
miles of highway (per square
mile), and less of an opportunity
to own housing. The Japanese
have access to a much more
limited range of products in their
retail stores than are available to
Canadians living in even smail
Canadian cities.

* There are undoubtedly a lot of

Noel Wright on vacation

economy. ! think that in terms of
wealth that matters, Canadians
and Americans are much better
off than are the average Japanese.
Well how to measure it?

The most relevant way to
measure wealth is to measure the
spending power of consumers,
because in the end, the purpose of
economic activity is not produc-
tion but consumption.

The total consumption capacity
of the Japanese is consideravly
limited compared to that of the
Canadians and Americans. During
1988 the average Japanese citizen
had a purchasing power of about
$8,000 in U.S.-equivalent terms.
The average American had access
to $13,000 and the average Cana-
dian access to $11,000 during the
same period.

In other words, the average
Japanese had from 37% to 62%
less purchasing power than was
available to Canadians and Amer-
icans. This is reflected in their ac-
quisition of consumer goods as
well.

According to the most recently
released OECD study of Japan,
Japanese citizens have 241 cars

remarkable things about the Jap-
anese economy, but one of them — |
is not that it produces, ielatively
speaking, a high standard of living |
for its average citizen — at least.
not yet. :

It may be that eventually as the —
Japanese continue to invest in
more productive technologies, the
average citizen will enjoy a high
standard of consumptiou, but it
hast."t happened yet and I don’;
expect it’s going to happen soor.

Ia part, my assessment is based :

‘on the fact that many of the im-

pediments, such as a destructive

agricuiture policy, which lie :
behind the ‘consumption deficien- ;
cies, are going to be very diffi icult i
to chaage. ‘

In any event, it is those policies :
that will provide a-clue as tothe = -
direction of change in living :
standards in Japan and whether or‘.
not they reaily will assume a posi- -
tion of wealth dominance in the
world.

Dr. Michael Walker is the
director of the Fraser Institute, a
right-wing economic think tank
based in Vancouver.

NEWS phots Cindy Goocersa

FAIRWEATHER MAKES for good fishing at Ambleside landing.