GET THAT RACKET OUTTA
HERE! WECANT HEAR OUR
CASH REGISTERS RINGING!

eee

a

ights removed

HE TINKERING continues as. the
social engineers in Victoria wield
cloaked agendas .to. bend legislation
to suit their ideological goals, |
- In July, the province passed Bill 35,: the
- <Loeal Elections Reform Act.
... The ‘move disaliows the municipal voting
‘right of those ‘who operate businesses in a
y given: ‘saunicipality but .do .not live in the .
“municipality.
The. change. came ‘about with little fan-
"fare and’ reaction. from the. Iocal business
community | itself:
» It took a “West - Vancouver businessman,
formerly. of Ontario where he enjoyed the
‘ght to: vote in both the municipality in
which . he lived and within the jurisdiction

in which he operated a business, to raise
the issue.

. The change represents a blunt attack
upon the business community.

Without a municipal vote, the disenfran-
chised business: operator is without a fun-
damental power — the right to support or
reject municipal politicians. .

Council decisions most closely shape the
conditions under which a business may

operate within a jurisdiction.

Local Liberal MLA Jeremy Daiton vows
he will take up the issue in Victoria.

The act should be amended. in the name
of self-interest and democracy, the business
community must take this issue to heart.

LETTER OF THE DAY

: ‘spondent’s
‘from’a far-off era (Dec. 17).

.. permanent gratitude these brave air-
men, who were spending their. des-
-perate time and dying:in his name,
‘ owed to the.king, just because he
‘ condescended to pay them’a visit.

‘Associate Editor..:
‘Sales & Marketing Director... Linda Stewart

Dear Editor: ;
T.am at odds with your coire-
recollections of royalty

., for_one, cannot recall-any

growing anticipation, or excitement
‘for any so-called dignitary's visit to
“the RAF stations that 1 was on dur-
_ing those war years. ,

The.general opinion then was

ithat they were a bloody nuisance - a
‘waste of airmen’s precious time
(and it was precious then).

- Nothing. more than additional

Unnecessary spit-and-polish and
BS. “Let's get on with it,” was more
“like the attitude.

‘Also, E-would like to know what

Publisher
Managing Editor

Peter Speck
. Timothy Renshaw
Noel Wright

Comptroller Doug Foot

What is this courageous and pos-
itive role the royal family played all
about? Give me an instance. _

Was it because they stayed in
Britain? «

What other choice was there if
they expected to remain in pam-
pered luxury on the throne after-
wards?

In any case, by staying, they
knew they-would never be exposed
to any real danger.

T remember the much-publicized
single. bomb incident at
Buckingham Palace when the king
emerged from his bomb-proof shel-
ter to inspect the damage.

And later, when he visited the
devastated East End of London
telling some poor fellow who had
lost everyihing, “My house has

_ been bombed ‘as well, you know,”

and receiving the prompt reply,

Disptay Advertising

980-0511 Distribution

No anen positive role played

“Which one?”

_ IL also remember when, as redun-
dant aircrew in 1947 on the RAF
station Cirencester, we were mus-
tered in a hangar and told they were
collecting for Princess Elizabeth's
wedding present - so much for offi-
cers, so tnuch for NCOs, and so
much for other ranks; we were even
told what to contribute.

I can still hear the several hun-
dred voices telling them collective-
ly to stuff it.

(I believe something similar
happened with one of His majesty’s
guards’ regiments who, after her
inspection, were not enamored of
the prickly princess).

Surely it’s time we got real
about all this - as Bob Hunter puts ‘it
- royal rot.

Denis Mason

West Vancouver

086-1337 as

Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions 986-1337

Classified Advertising 986-6222
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Entire contents’ ©1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All, tights reserved.

THE TROUBLE with un-
popular governments (what
other kind are there?) is that
the more they outrage us,
the longer we get stuck with
them.

Consider Mike Harcourt’s NDP
administration, which the polls say
would be wiped out in a Liberal
landslide if an election were held
tomorrow.

The reasons: ruthless arrogance,
broken promises (‘tan end to
patronage,’' ‘‘no more taxes’’),
financial mismanagement and the

. suppression of free speech (Bil!

33).

Yet the 60% of B.C. voters who
rejected the NDP in October 1991
could be forced to suffer Mikey
and his jackbooted cohorts for a
further two years and 10 months,
if the latter choose to hang in for
their maximum five-year term.

Which they almost certainly wili
do, as the blows to their credibil-
ity continue to rain down thick
and fast.

Among the latest, a year-end
report card by the 20,000-member
B.C. Chamber of Commerce has

given them a failing grade on —
"every policy except (ironically) the ..

Clayoquot Sound logging com-
promise, where they managed a
solitary C-plus.

Then, Auditor General George '
Morfitt ‘discovers the accumulated -
provincial debt ($23 billion) is a_ ,
staggering $3.6 billion higher than
shown on Victoria’s books and ©
seven billion more than the $16 |
billion inherited from the Socreds:
in 1991, A

A government so low in ‘the t
mid-term polls as B.C.’s NDP has
only one option left: hang in there
in the hope that things will sorne-

t

how improve by the time the latest -

possible election date arrives.’

This was the case federally ‘with
the bitterly reviled government of
Brian Mulroney and provincially
with the scandal-ridden Vender
Zalm government. 4

Both attempted to stave off
disaster in their dying months with
a new woman leader. Both clung
to power for the absolute five-
year maximum and were soundly
thrashed by the voters.

Can anyone imagine Bob Rae’s
equally unpopular NDP govern-
ment in Ontario risking an appeal
to the electorate a single day be-'
fore its mandate is up in the
summer of 1995?

Politicians have no stomach for
suicide.

When — under our present
parliamentary system — you give

HITHER AND YGN

a bum bunch a majority, you have
to suffer them for the duration.

~ Yet the solution is extremely _
simple: remove the right of the

prime minister or premier to call
an election at any time WITHIN

‘the five-year maximum.

Adopt, instead, fixed four-year -
terms, as in the U.S. This would
have three very healthy effects.

First, no government would 4
have to resign if defeated on a bill -
it introduced. It would simply be
forced to return to the drawing
board and try to do better iext

_time.

Second, today’ s rigorous party
discipline ‘would disappear — the .
government could no longer bully
MPs/MLAs into toeing the party”
line by threatening to plunge them

_into the turmoil of a snap elec-

tion, : ;
Finally — since free votes in the
House would become the norm —.
constituents could automatically
depend on their MP or. MLA to
push THEIR interests ahead of :
those of the party bosses. -:

Agreed, you'd still have to put
up with governments for four | .’.
years at a time. But voters —
through their elected repre-°
sentatives ——- would remain in the
driving seat throughout. And thus”
your chances of being pushed

_around by government would be

greatly diminished.
Doesn’t that sound a whole lot

‘more like democracy is supposed

to be?

eoe@

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Count
your life by smiles, not tears.
Count your age by friends, not |
years.

FREE-WHEELING GIFT ... West Van Mayor Mark: Sager (left)
receives $9,000 cheque from Calvin Lindberg, president, of:
the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, for signage ‘on
the planned bicycle path from Ambleside to Horseshoe Gay.