wet eg i t A6 - Sunday, April 3, 1983 - North Shore News HE editorial page: Cooling it - The season of late-night party mayhem is rapidly approaching again. In West Van- couver, the opener came a week ago when police were summoned to a quiet residential street to disperse a noisy mob of 100 or more revellers. In this all too familiar scene the police and their vehicles were hit with a hail. of beer bottles and forced to retire to await rein- forcements. Two officers were injured (one could well have lost an eye) and patrol cars suffered hundreds of dollars of damage. Police policy in such situations is to try to avoid “confrontation” by calling upon the partygoers to disperse voluntarily and by avoiding initially any heavy show of force. In numerous cases, however, it doesn’t work. The handful of officers first on the scene find themselves vastly outnumbered ‘and under physical attack by a _liquor-maddened rabble. The next ugly step may well have to be the reinforcements in riot gear, backed up by dogs and tear gas. That's when people REALLY get hurt. We've never understood why our local: police don't.avail themselves of that humane, highly effective European riot control tool — the armoured water cannon. It's impervious to rocks and bottles. It ‘completely protects its two-man crew. It knocks down rioters without injuring them. And suddenly finding oneself lying on the — sidewalk in sodden clothes is a powerful argument for going quietly home, with no harm done to anyone. It seems to us an ideal way to cool things. Face the truth? There may be an important message for us in that newspaper picture last week showing a make-up girl painting and powdering Joe Clark's features before the Tory leadership candidate appeared on a local TV show. Nobody can blame Mr. Clark for wanting, like his challengers, to put the best face on things. But if we've reached the point where our choice of leaders depends on the skills of cameramen, lighting specialists and Avon ladies, we're probably getting exactly the kind of governments we deserve. Teee VOCE OF HHONTT HS AND WERT VANCOUVER sunday : news Display Advertising 980-0511 north shore Classified Advertising 986-6222 ri ews Newsroom 965-2131 ; Circutation 986-1337 1139 Lonsdaie Ave., North Vancouver,BC V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter Spec bk Edltorin-chief Noel Wright Assocfate Publisher Robert Graham Advertising Director Tam Francis Personne! Director Mrs Bern Hithard Circulation Director Bian AoE ths Production Director Office Manager Photography Monageér Chins Jonnson Donna Grandy Terry Peters North Shore News founded i TBO an an iopeEndent «omni und y Newspaper and Guoathed undec Schedule I Vac th Paragraph Mat the txcsse Tan Act os putbtshbed oath Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Pross Ltd and oasatibuted to every dog: an the Nett: Shore Second Class Mail Heyat avon Number 366% Entire contents 1982 North Shore Free Preas Lid All rights reserved Subscriptions North and West Vancouver $25 per year Mailing rates available on request Ne reanonsibthty accepted ten Wee pt ad ge tare wlte stated fre a carisyeodie esd eer iy we teeetinng, werapetere et tery oy gerapeercd ac bate es eased eb ivesdeag ne VERIFIED CIRCUL ATION 64 643 Wednesday 94 093 Sunday CL ideleat», i SS sm G THIS PAPER IS RECYCLAGLE THE CITY of Merritt is trying to deny ladies’ wear retailer Dan Ashton a license to-do business, and the embattled storekeeper has vowed to fight city hall. ° By WALTER BLOCK Ashton had applied to do business selling bankruptcy Stock on a discount basis. But he wanted to remain in operation only for a limited time, and then to move on . The Merritt city council refused to grant permission for this, on the ground that Ashton sales would harm other stores which serve the public the entire year round. “We have a _ reasonable cause for refusal,” said Alderman Harry Kroeker. “We have a responsibility to our business community and to our residents. Businesses here have been serving the people for 12 months a year. Now this firm wants'to come in at the top opportune time and take the cream of the crop and then take off.” Now this is a very un- fortunate turn of events, and for numerous reasons. Why should council make invidigus comparisons between those who “serve the people” all year through and those who wish to do so just a few days or weeks per year? Cannot people “serve the public” on a part-time basis? Where is it engraved ‘in stone that business must be conducted 365 days per year, or not at all? Why a POLLS APART are Premier Bill Bennett’s coy teasing about secking a new mandate “sometime in the next [3 to 14 months” and the hot tip from local Socred insiders that he'll drop the long delayed election writ next Thursday, April 7. In North Van Capilano positive-thinking MLA Angus Ree reckons his campaign has already started with a bang — to be precise, the rocks recently hurled through his constitacncy office windows ‘Those boarded-up windows have been a real help.” he says “Dozens of passers-by told me they'd never known where my office was. Now they do!” Despite his comfortable $803) mayority last time, Angus 1s Icaving nothing to chance Mean while, his fellow-Socred Jack Davis oint North Van Seymour, with a slimmer 1979) margin of 2.610, 15 geanng for a tough NDP assault from CU&C manager David Schreck. Watch for quite a battle West Van Howe Sound promises cacitement of a quite different kind Socred Attorney General Allan Willams, who coasted home with a mammoth = 10,673 majority last time. is widely rumored to be considering retirement, ino which casc local party stalwarts plan to catapult: 25 year-old former school board chairman Mark should people be prohibited . from engaging in mutually beneficial trades, on however many or few days it suits them? According to the logic (or illogic) of the Merrit city council argument, seasonal industries such as sales of ice: cream from push _ carts should be prohibited. People should not be allowed to sell home heating fuels in the winter only, nor sell Christmas trees in the first few weeks of December alone. Churches will not be able to hold bingo games only on Friday nights, and the Calgary Stampede would have to be held all during the ’ year - not on.a once a year basis. As well, this would be the end of touring symphony orchestras, travelling cir- -cuses, rock concerts, visiting lecturers and other part-time Or seasonal events. For do not those special occasion business “skim off the. cream"? Why allow Santa Clauses to “skim off” charity for the destitute during Christmas, when ‘other charitable organizations “serve the people for 12 months a year”? This legislative finding of the Merrit council is so perverse, it calls into question the whole idea of licensing businesses. First of all, licensing businesses, for whatever reason, is an infringement on human liberties. People have sunday brunch by Noel Wright Sager into the vacant nomination. But if so, the latest whisper is that he might just possibly find himself up against a high- profile, small “c” con- servative Independent candidate. Asked about that, Mayor Derrick Humphreys responds for the moment with a smiling “no com- ment’. In politits, as they say, perception is reality .. Old names die hard in North Van Distnct — like when its chicf magistrate, officiating last weekend at the B.C. Ringette Champion. ships in the Winter Club, heard Kathy McKenzie introducing her as “Mayor Marilyn Bell”. Red faces and apologies as Kathy ran through the intro again, this time swapping “Bell” for “Baker”. Nice to know youre not forgotten cx mayor Don Bell ... MOM COMES VISITING this Thursday with son Clair Kantz of West Van and her other offspring Some visi Some Mom A lively, outgomg SO year old) widow from Dundas. Ont. Eden Kuntz 1s) the beloved) matriarch of 75 direct deséendants plus all the in-laws Scattered over four Canadian provinces, thg US and Ireland, Clair and her other eight kids have provided her to date with 47 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren. The score (with grand- children and great-grand- children shown in that order) comes from 60-year-old Rita in Fredericton (12 and 7), Laverne in St. Catherines (8 and 11), Clair in West Van (6 and 1), Nelson in Saskat- chewan (2), Blanche in California (4), Jerry in Vancouver (4), Marfann in Ancaster (7), and Jeyce in Dublin (4). And then there's Sister Marjorie, a nun in Vancouver On Thursday Edna and her nine children will mect for a five-day reunion at Clatr’s Inglewood Avenuc home - the first = time they've all been together since the death of their father, Harold 26 ycars ago It will be a talkative weekend They don't make families hike that any more eon FOLKTALES: A big public “thank you” from Mrs. A. Ludtke to Lynn Valley bus driver No. 24631 (Lost and Found wouldn't tell her his name) who turned in safely the purse she left on his bus a week ago Friday She'd love to thank him in person if he cares to call her at 980-9694 Enviable adman Mort Graham of West Van is off to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for & stint in the sun looking after McCann Erickson chents Coca-Cola, American Hapress and General Motors in the Caribbean Newly . businessment Away with business licensing a right to engage in trade on any mutually agreeable basis, and a licensing requirement is an_ in- fringement on that human right. \ Some pundits claim that licensing is a means of protecting the public against unscrupulous businessmen. But a certification system would do just as much to protect the public, without violating the rights of anyone to engage in business. (Under licensing, those deemed unsuitable may not practice at. all; under cer- tification, unsuitable can- didates may engage in business, but cannot display the seal of approval issued by the board of cer- tification.) In any case, the licensing scheme in. Merrit had nothing to do with protecting the consumer public. Its purpose was specifically to protect local against competition from Mr. Ashton. (This is the way most licensing schemes work out in practice, pious platitudes about the “public _ good” notwithstanding.) This specific Mevzrit decision must be revoked immediately, and our blind adherence to the institution of business licensing must be brought into serious question, and _ recon- sideration. (Dr. Block is Senior Economist of the Van- couver-based Fraser In- stitute.) elected v-p of the Greater Vancouver Convention and Visitors Bureau is West Van’s Art Jones, senior v-p of Kenmuir Brickenden Jones Ltd and past president of the North Van Com- munity Arts Council ... Say it with flowers is the 1983 motto of the Park Royal Merchants Association which has chosen as this year's president Ronald Cockroft, a Park Royal florist for 30 years Election results from the March 20 annual meeting of the Vancouver-Coast Region, Boy Scouts of Canada, abound with North Shore names — among them, North Van's Hal Upbam (re appointed Regional Commissioner). assisted by Deputy Com missioners Doug Sabourin of North Van and Jim Stout of West Van Congrats to Carson Graham grad Jeffrey Lyth who's won a $4,050 theatrical scholarship to the Banff Sctioot of Fine Arts where he hopes to study stage management this spring and summer and a salute to Bil) Read of West Van for “adopting” (with ao monthly cheque = through Poster Parents Plan of Canada) another under privileged Third World youngster, six-year-old Magelyn Rodriquez of the Philippines whose fisherman father brings home less than $48 Canadian per month ooo WRIGHT OR WRONG: A man is olso known by the company he keeps clear of and a very happy Easter to you, too.