4 ~ Sunday, April 6, 1986 - North S

hore News

Bob Hunter

® strictly personal e

I TRY to understand, you understand. But sometimes,
nothing makes sense. Not locally, not nationally, not

globally.

Let’s start wiih the near-strike
on the SkyTrain. After a great
deal of flapping and schrecching,
the union involved promised not
to go on strike until Expo is over.

Is that wonderful? Well,
maybe, But as the dispute un-
folded, | kept scratching my
head. Hadn't the SkyTrain just
been BUILT? Weren't the
endless little technical and
logistical hassles all part of get-
ting the bugs out of the system?

In fact, wasn’t it automated in
the first place partially to
eliminate the need for drivers
who might go on strike? As it
turns out, attendants — bounc-
ers, basically — prowl the system
day ‘and night watching for
sneakaboards and vandals, to say
nothing of purse snatchers or
people laughing too loud.

It seems to me if you’re going
to have to hire a small army of
_ attendants anyway, why not
throw in a few drivers? At least
then somebody would be in con-
trol on the spot.

The fantasy of a totally
robnticized transit system with no
labor problems is of course im-
possible to achieve, even if you
got it down to a single operator
in the central control bunker —
because he or she, sooner or
later, would set up a picket line
for one reason or another. Bet on
it. . ‘

Still, I found it breathtaking to
realize that the staff of a system
that had just started up, essen-
tially unskilled. people who
hadn’t even got the bugs out yet,

Surely, they should at least
learn how to use the tools before
they down them!

_ Indeed there are bugs to be got
out of the system — but [I'm
afraid they’re there to stay.

We Icap now to the national
level, where, in my youth, I used
to suppose cooler heads prevail-
ed

Enter Brian Mulroncy, telling
The New York Times that as
soon as he heard about ihe tuna
scandal, bang, out went the
minister responsible.

This of course came as news
not just to former fisheries
minister John Fraser, but to the
rest of us, who recall that in fact
Mulroney first defended Fraser,
and only later accepted his resig-
nation. .

And even then, that was only
after Fraser pointed out
Mulroncy’s office had known
about the matter for quite some
time.

The loss of Fraser from the
federal cabinet was a tragedy for
British Columbians, especially
since here was one of the very
few West Coast Tories able to
achieve any real power, being
destroyed by an ill-advised at-
tempt to save an East Coast can-

nery.
That’s all in the past —- or at
least it was until the Prime
Minister blurted out his obvious-
ly cockeyed version of what hap-
pened, to the American media.
Only two conclusions are
possible: either the Prime
Minister has a lousy memery or

had the audacity to threaten a he is, indeed, a fibber. I’m not

WEST VANCOUVER: Monday,
April 7, 8 p.m.: 20th Street Park-
ing Lot and Capilano View
Cemetary bylaws/Sign bylaw
amendment/Lane paving in 1200
block Duchess and Clyde
Avenue/Traffic in Ambleside/
Foreshore subleases and licence to
occupy Travers and Radcliffe
Avenue/Temporary Parking
Horeshoe Bay/Annable property
rezoning/ Expo '86 Transit Service
Plan. —

NORTH VANCOUVER CITY:
April 7, 7:30 p.m.: Finance Com-
mittee. reports re: grant applica-
tions, parking reserves, planning
program, business license by-
law,/Report on nuisance proper-
ties/Report on tourist accom-
modation uses in multiple family
dwellings/Temporary vehicle park
proposals/Intellectual Freedom
motion.

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT: April 7, 6:45 p.m.:
Capilana College sitting area
amendment/North Lonsdale traf-
fic study/District drainage pro-
blems/Waste removal bylaw/
Cultural Policy Committee
report/Noise regulation bylaw/
Public hearing regarding
Development permit for the con-
struction of a Hasty Market in
2700 block Mountain Highway.

sure which is worse.

/

por

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If he’s just lying, at Icast he's
probably got all his marbles. But
if he's only firing on one valve,
we could be in even more serious
trouble than we are.

What If ask mysclf —- still ury-
ing to understand, you unders-
tand — is what on earth docs
Mulroncy gain by stretching che
truth so outragcously? Even if he
did manage to impress the
readers of The New York Times
with this tale of Conan the Bar-
barian-like political axe-wielding,
he doesn’t get clected or
unelecied by them.

It’s us back here -- who know
bloody well what really happened.

But Ict us look to the very
heights of international power
for the truly unfathomable stuff.
I refer to the John Wayne
number Ronald Reagan just laid
on Colonel Khadafy.

Khadafy is a dictator, right?
He controls the media on his
home turf, right? So he draws a
line and dares the biggest bully
around to cross it. Bully crosses.
Khadafy sends out a couple of
doomed patrol boats. They get
zapped, along with a radar base.

Then, abruptly, the bully tums
and mns. At home, Khadafy
looks like a giant killer. His tame
media trumpet the news: Yanks
retreat! Amd sure enough, there
are the Yanks departing the area
five days ahead of their own an-
nounced schedule.

Back in the rest of the uni-
verse, there is much scratching of
heads. What has Reagan proved?
Did he get his scripts confused?
Khadafy comes out looking like a
hero, the American military
machine like a paper tiger. And
Ron gets his turkey status con-
firmed.

I dunno. I just dunno. I TRY.

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