6 - Friday, July 6, 1990 ~ North Shore News INSIGHTS |} pain . memes BL! VANDER-ZALM, YOURE CLEARED (0) LAND..CAROL GRAN HOLD THAT ATIERN...DYLIS MICHAEL TURN LEFT ON VECTGR 190... JOHN SAVAGE TAX! To RUNWAY 25....PETER DUECK YOURE TOO CLOSE TO STAN HAGEN_.BUD SIimH i KNGW YOURE LOW ON AIEL, BUT NEIL VANTS SUITCASE HAS ‘leaders’ to grow up Fair's fare OR ALL those who value the Prerertaiament and employment provided by the anaual Pacific National Exhibition, the last few days have been a ride akin to that provided by the fair’s giant roller coaster. On Tuesday, cancellation of the 17- day fair was announced by PNE presi- dent Morgan Thomas after PNE ‘management failed to reach a contract agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees by an deadline set by the PNE. On Wednesday, the cancellation itself was cancelled following some _last- minute behind-the-scenes negotiations and a promise from PNE unions that events at the fair will not be disrupted during the summer. . But the question that the whole affair has raised is: Was the PNE worth say- 110 a.m. ing? Its cancellation would have dealt an economic blow to the entire Lower Mainland, not just Vancouver City. And it would have heen especially hard on those least able to afford it: small area businesses and young people who rely on the PNE as a good source of summer employment. But many have come to regard the 80-year-old fair as an expensive and unimaginative grab for tourist and resi- dent dollars by PNE hucksters. The prospect of no 1990 PNE and possibly no PNE thereafter raised speculation about the future of the fair and the need for a viable and perhaps more relevant alternative that would better reflect the character of B.C. and the entertainment and social needs of fairgoers. Quebec is not bilingual in the claim that Canada is a bi- lingual country? If Quebec is in- cluded, and Quebec is unilingual French, the claim that Canada is bilingual must be wrong. Open leucr to the 1999 GVRD Board of Directors: I am writing to the board, par- ticularly Mayor Don Lanskail of West Vancouver, for clarification regarding your recent unanimous vote publicly supporting bilin- gualism on the basis that Canada is a bilingual country. I would like to know how the board can make this claim when Quebec, with over six million people, is officially unilingual in the French language; restricts the use of the English language; and, Publisher Associate Editor Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Noe! Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart according to newspaper reports, since 1977 when Bill 101 was enacted, has prosecuted Canadian firms and merchants who used the English language in violation of the restrictions. As an English-speaking Grade 10 student, I have never been “rewarded”’ for turning in mer- chants who use French on their signs, yet in Quebec, many of my counterparts have been given $100 upon reporting to the language police those merchants who dared put up busines signs in English. Does the board include Quebec THE VOICE OF NOMTH AND WEST VANCOUVER SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FHIDAY North Shore News, tounced in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaner and aqaltied under Schedule t1t Patagraph Hi of the Eecise Tax Act. «6 Oublshed wach Weonesday. Friday and Sunaay by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every coor on the North Shore Seconu Class tai Reqrstraton Numper 3685 1 Vancouver, $25 per veat UDITHSSIONS ate Subscrpnons Narn and Mading te weleume t unsoncted m esponsiniity fot nints and pictures a ss = _ ee 1139 Lonsdate Avenue. North Vancouver, B C V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) Bt which cnould te aecampanmed Dy d Stamped, addressed envelope SDA DIVISION Display Advertising Classitted Advertising Newsroom Orstribution Subscriptions How can anyone claim that Canada is a bilingual country when Quebec takes the position that official bilingualism is for Canada, but Quebec is a ‘‘distinct and separate entity within Canada’’ and is therefore not bound by the official language policy of this country? Iris Blanchett North Vancouver 980-0511 986.6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore owned and managed Entire contents «> 1990 North Shore Free Press Lid. Al! rights reserved. ““CHICKEN” USED to be a thrilling but perfectly safe game for spectators. If the two idiots behind the wheels miscatculated and paid the penalty, tough luck but it was their own choice. No one else got hurt. Not so any more, now that chicken has become the national sport in Canadian public life. When the messy collision comes, everyone stands to get hurt. Two weeks ago the Meech Lake hot-rodders crashed, playing chicken with Canada’s future. This week it was local community hot-rodders who came within an ace of smashing up that cherished 7t-year-old B.C. institution — the Pacific National Exhibition. CLIFF Michael ...traffic cop steps in. The similarities in both games were striking. In each, only a comparatively narrow gap between the opposing sides remained to be bridged in order to reach agree- ment. And in each, one side challenged the other with the ultimatum of a tight deadline — in effect, a demand for uncondi- tional surrender. In the PNE brawl the Canadian Union of Public Employees wanted a two-year contract with eight per cent annual pay hikes for its 1,360 workers at the fair. The PNE board offered six per cent annually over three years — three-quarters of the money the union was seeking, but guaranteed for a period half as long again. Then, while CUPE pondered its next bargaining move — and with only a few days’ notice — the board slapped down its deadline ultimatum: settle by 1! a.m. Tuesday ar the fair’s off. Not about to be bullied, the union met the deadline head-on in its own fashion. It refused to hit the brakes, but did publicly prom- ise not to strike this year’s fair. In short, opening day preparations could safely go ahead while bargaining resumed. “Can't trust CUPE to keep its word,”’ retorted PNE president Morgan Thomas, slamming the gas pedal to the floor. There would be no 1990 PNE. Period. Meaning 3,300 jobless (including 2,000 student temporaries), $30 million lost to the local economy and over a million disappointed and angry fair-lovers. Fortunately the Socreds, given their present rating in the polls, needed this kind of late summer scenario like a hale in the you- know-what. So in a flash traffic cop Cliff Michael, tourism minister responsible for the PNE, stepped between the two hot- rodders and called the game off — adding a government guarantee to the union's no-strike pledge and telling Thomas and his boys to get back on the job. Bur it was a close call. The last-minute rescue of the PNE from sudden violent death il- lustrates once more the perils of allowing our elected servants to behave like teenage dragsters with neither nerves nor brains. Too many have still to grow up and learn that muscle-power is no substitute for mind-power! anee POSTSCRIPTS: Busy as ever with public service activities, former West Van mayor Derrick Hum- phreys has added yet another — he’s just been named Returning Officer for the new West Van- Capilano riding. Although the bets now are on a spring 1991 provincial election, the riding’s electoral boss will have plenty of advance work to keep him busy when he’s not sitting on Parole Board hearings, presiding over the West Van Kiwanis Club and ad- judicating civil disputes as a Chartered Abitrator ... Entry deadline nears for North Van Ci- ty’s big summer fun event — the July 22 Clam Chowder Contest with awards for best chowder, costume and table decor in the business. restaurant and anyone- else categories. Call Rete McKay, 987-4120, to register your bowl and ladle ... And if you’ve ever wondered what an accountant’s soul is like, drop by West Van Library this month and savor the widely varied nature watercolors of retired C.A. Archie Kerr. wae WRIGHT OR WRONG: When you look down on someone, don’t expect him to see eye to eye with you. DERRICK Humphreys ...boss vote-counter.