4 - Sunday, December 15, 1985 — North Shore News

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| Bob Hunter

© strictly personal ®

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I HAVE plans to take one of the most amazing
trips ever taken next summer. And ] will do it
by not going any further than the Lower

Mainland.

I have long suspected
that despite whatever in-
ternal wrangles there may
be in B.C., when the cur-
tain goes up on Expo 86,
the rest of the world will
notice us and be impressed.

And because, as British
Columbians, we do share a

weird kind of collective ego
or psyche (schizophrenic as
it may be), we are all going
to ‘take pride’’ in the
high-tech Show of Shows
that is going to blos:om
down around the hea! of
False Creek.

Already, as everycoe on
the North Shore can see,
the skyline of downtown
Vancouver has been
transformed into a ‘‘City
of the Future” such as you
might have seen on a 1950s
cover of Popular
‘Mechanics. ‘

All that is lacking are the
solar-powered family
helicopters that were sup-
posed to be common by the
mid-1980s. And 1 have to
say this: the SkyTrain sure
isn’t bad as a substitute. I
am still dazzled from my
first ride on it.: :

The really incredible
of the SkyTrain ride
comes, however, when the
machine swoops down and
around and over the Expo
site. Of course it’s a circus!
Nothing -less than - the
Greatest Circus on Earth.

_ V’ve seen most of the
great entertainment sites in
the world, fram
Disneyland to Coney
Island to the Tivoli
Gardens to the Tiger: Balm
Gardens, and this gonzo
amusement park taking
shape near the heart of

Drinking drivers

RECENT convictions in
North Shore courts have
resulted in the following
fines and penalties for drink-
ing-driving related offences.
Mandatory licence. suspen-
sions are in addition to
published penalties.

WEST VAN COURTS:

Lance Franklin Sparling,
1050 Jefferson Ave. West
Vancouver (impaired, $750);
James Morris Steadman,
1318 Ross Road, North
Vancouver (over .08, 14
days); Solomon Isac Silva,
7968 Graham Ave. Burnaby

Stalling

Vancouver is simply the
wildest, the latest, the best
this planet can serve up.

I know. This sounds like
shameless boosterism. ] am
embarrassed, indeed. But
let me he the first of the
doom-criers to lay down
his sign s*-“1g THE END
IS NIGH.

Like just about every
other journalist in town,
I’ve taken a few kicks at
the Expo can along the
way, carping about Jimmy
Pattison’s wicked capitalist
ways, scowling enormously
at convoluted merchandise
deals Expo has done with
the dreaded Yanks, and, in
the same breath, snarling
at the unions for fighting

. for their own.

I freely confess that po-
litical thoughts have
entered my mental picture
of Expo. If someone thinks
they can convince me that
this isn’t part of some-
body’s plan to get the cur-
rent government re-elected,
go ahead, try! Let’s be re-
alistic. It didn’t start out
that way. But that is what
it has become.

You can’t bring down a
government that is flashing
a class act at the world.

My first few glimpses of
Expo as it begins to stir
have been very much like
my impression of the
SkyTrain: an absolute
winner! While 1 haven't
been overwhelmingly nega-
tive about either project, I
do know I could fairly
easily be described as hav-
ing been as much an Expo
critic as a booster.

Isn’t that typically Ca-
nadian? If it’s happening

(over .08, $250); Robert
John Rose, 1402-1625 West
13th Ave. Vancouver (over
-08, $375); Arthur Boyd,
1557 Woods Drive, North
Vancouver {impaired and
failure to provide breath
sample, $2000); Patrick
Raymond O'Neil, 305-1516
Charles St. Vancouver
(failure to provide breath
sample, $400); Richard
Gordon Lewis, .1365
Crestwell Road, West Van-
couver, $400); Daniel Martin
Lade, 4593 Woodgreen
Drive, West Vancouver (over
-08, $400). —

Starting

Problems? Problems
Winter Tune-up

4 cyl $29.95
6 cyl $39.95
8 cy! $49.95

4

*

here, it can’t be fantastic.
Maybe it is just that 1 am
hung up on big being ugly.
But even the head of the
Bank of Montreal, Bill
Mulholland, admits that
there are certain ‘‘sins of
bigness,’ and his outfit is
the second biggest bank in

a land known as much for |

its gigantic banks as for its

mountains. He should ]

know.

Big can be awful, but
when it really clicks, it can
be awfully beautiful, too.
There! | have amended my
dogmatic small-is-best phi-
losophy to accommodate
the rare okay big guy. Ex-
po looks like it is going to
fit in there.

This is NOT a drawers-
of-water, hewers-of-wood
performance. Costing $1.5
billion, Expo cannot help
but produce a tremendous
ripple effect through the
West Coast's economy.

One may not entirely
buy Premier Bennett's
predictions of ‘‘the greatest
period of growth...ever’’ in
B.C. as a result of Expo,
but imagine, if just this one
time, he was right!

I’ve bought the family
season passes to Expo
already. This is one sum-
mer — maybe the only
such summer for another
thousand years — when
THE place to be on Earth
is. Greater Vancouver.
Well, that’s apart from ac-
tually living here, which, of
course, only the Chosen
Million or so can do. -

So, NDP. I hate: to
demoralize you, but the
end is NOT nigh. Bennett
probably can‘t lose.

Politically, is the Fair
fair? Of course not. But
it’s brilliant, you have to
admit that.

A NORTH Vancouver man heavy smoke staining

was taken to Lions Gate throughout the house. ;

Hospital for observation Cause of the fire remains

after an early morning fire under investigation. and it is

Friday. not’ known how the man
escaped injury.

City of North Vancouver. Two separate neighbors
fire officials say the man was called in the fire at 5:25
lucky to escape alive from a.m., both saying they had
the fire at 325 West 14th heard a loud explosion.
Street. The occupant was not in-

The fire caused extensive jured and fire officials say
damage to the house, gutting there is no evidence of a
the living room and leaving smoke detector in the house.

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