@ — Suaday, Nov. 1, 1992 — North Shore News ey B \hankvyou for submitting your manuscri it ath We mB We havereviowad stand al a it Heal TRadS Maior (viSiONS a and therefore does not meet our ff Tequirements ot this tind. NOASCOTIA SASKATCHEWAN 4 QUEBEC ALBERTA MANITOBA BRITISH coume’ =n ; cS SS N \ oe real ‘NEWS VIEWPOINT Senior HE NORTH Shore’s_ growing senior population has rightly been seceiving attention from local gov- ernment of late. North Vancouver District Council recently voted to support a Lionsview Seniors’ Planning Society survey that will gather data on the housing needs of seniors in the municipality. The information should provide the district, with the planning framework not only for housing, but for the wide range of associated social and logistic planning needed to address the many issues facing our aging population. A similar study in North Vancouver City earlier this year underscored the dramatic shift in local demographics as the Baby Boomer generation ages. The city’s 55 and older population is service expected to grow by about 40% over the next 10 years. Hts population of 65-plus and 80-plus age groups is expected to shoot up by 51% and 80%, respectively, over the next decade. The city’s seniors’ survey also showed that a lot of elderly people live out the waning years of their lives in grim cir- cumstances. Many are poor, and most live alone. They face a host of probiems that accompany loneliness and advancing age ~~ everything from being the targets of con artists to dealing with inadequate public transit. For local municipalities to make the so- called ‘‘golden years’? of its residenis bearable, the information gathered through such efforts as the Lionsview survey will be invaluable. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “Governments have put their Burrard Indian Band chief scrutiny. I'm all for identifying hands on the hot stove of public opinion and have been burned badiy.”” West_ Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA David Mitchell, on the failure of the Charlottetown Ac- cord, “It’s like when you're put ini soli- tary confinement, you have no alternative but to work towards getting out — that’s what we have to do as a nation — as a people. I don’t want anybody to be in soli- tary confinement, but I’d at least like to be in the same environment ’ as everybody else.’’ Publisher ... Peter Speck Leonard George, on the failure of the Charlottetown Accord and its promise of self-government for aboriginal people. “‘For some of these kids, the only form of discipline seems to be a whack on the head.”’ Toby Snelgrove, a partner in North Vancouver-based counsel- ling firm Easton Snelgrove, on vi- olence in the home, during an Oct. 23 forum in West Vancouver on teen violence. ‘‘Anonymity means the system is Protecting them from public Display Advertising 980-0514 Distribution the serious and repeat offender.”’ Retired Vancouver police chief Bob Stewart, speaking against the ban on publishing young offend- ers’ names as dictated by the Young Offenders Act. “In the first year, the team scored one goal in regular season play. «ft was one of those teams that spent more time at McDonald's than on the soccer field.”” John Miller, manager of the na- tional champion North Shore Shooting Stars under-I4 girls’ soccer team, on the team’s humble beginnings. 986-1337 € Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor Noel Wright Sales & Marketing Director. Linda Stewart Comptroiler . .Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph II! of the Excise Tax Acl, is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and asinbuted to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mait Registration Number 3865. Subscriptians Nortn and West Vancouver, $25 pet year. Mailing rates available on request Submissions are welcome Dut we cannot accept tesponsibility for unsoncited materia’ inciuding manusctipts and pictures which should be accompamned by a stamped, addressed envelope Newsroom V7M 2H4 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 988-6222 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. = Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER Printed on 10% recycled newsprint 985-2131 a. Norn Shore managec SUNDRY + WEONESGAY - PmIDAY SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Frnoay & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Union a better way to go than top-down unity? days have found more than a few armchair coroners mus- ing about a radically new form of democratic government for Canada. Cut out ‘‘new,’’ however. If there’s one thing last Monday proved, it is that we do not have democratic government in any modern sense. Nor do numerous other western **democracies”’ which have evolv- ed from the centuries-old British parliamentary system — based on an ancient theory of democracy no longer in tune with the 1990s. A fegacy of bygone ages, it de- veloped long before the advent of universal education, when most people still lived on the land, light years removed from today’s media and communications explosion. The peasants still pulled their forelocks to their betters, some of whom they were allowed, as 3 reward, to elect every few years as their masters, Between whiles they minded their own business. With scant schooling, with horse and stagecoach the only links between communities, with no phones, tadio or TV, they had little choice. Aside from a handful of newssheets for the few citizens able to read, virtually no oppor- tunity existed to keep tab on what their betters, once elected — were doing, let alone contro! it. Sounds familiar? Of course it does. Despite adjustments as society changed, the parliamentary system remains essentially elitist. Short of a rare palace revolution, the un- questioning caucus obedience im- posed by ali majority parties gives today’s Mulroneys and Majors, Raes and Harcourts, up to five years of almost the same absolute power as any despotic monarch of old. Last Monday showed how out- dated the system is in a geographically vast country with a scattered “‘tribal’? population rep- resenting many diverse cultures and economic needs. Some 55% of them — but, far more significantly, six (and nearly seven) of the 10 provincial “tribes”? — told Ottawa in no uncertain terms that a centralized parliamentary dictatorship no longer works in modern Canada. The real issue here is the distinction between unity and union. UNITY is the direct enemy of the diversity that defines a multi-racial nation. UNION — protecting equaily the interests of all its parts, while respecting their diversity — is a far worthier goal. It would mean, of course, a much slimmed-down central gov- ernment looking after only such Noel Wright areas as banking policy, defence, . individual rights and equalization funding for social services. Otherwise, each ‘‘tribe’? — pro- vincial or native — would be sovereign on its own turf. Howls of rage, no doubt, from - champions of strong top-down rule by Ottawa. But Monday's signposts clearly pointed the op- posite way. WRAP-UP: Capilano-Howe Sound Reform Party's four can- didate-wannabees -—-- Eric Cast, Margot Furk, Herbert Grubel and Neil Thompson — answer your questions Monday, Nov. 2, ata public meeting in St. David’s Church Hall, Taylor Way and Upper Levels. ... Also Monday at North Lonsdale United Chureh li- © > brarian Helen Graham speaks at . 7:30 p.m. to the Widow's Net-_ work — new members welcome. - ..- “Carnival of Venice” plus Bach and Handel favorites await you at the organ and trumpet concert by Pat Shaw and Steve Woodyard Friday, Nov. 6, at 8 . p.m. in Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Gladwin and Upper Levels — tickets at the door or cali 988-5838. ... Andavery. . happy birthday tomorrow, Nov... 2, to our keeper of the keys to the Vintage Years, fellow-columnist Eleanor Godiey. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Don’t ever slam a door. You may want to go back in. THE MULRONEYS, RAAES et al... prime ministers and premiers as all-powerful for five years as any despotic monarch of old.