A6 - Wednesday, June 16, 1982 - North Shore News

EEE editorial page |

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13% democracy

West Vancouver taxpayers concerned
about such things have roundly rejected an
invitation to go into hock to the tane of nine
million dollars or so in order to fix 15
crumbling miles of municipal roads. The
defeat of the proposed $5.6 million ioan
bylaw for that purpose by a 61% majority in
Saturday's referendum may reflect the
caution and anxieties of ordinary citizens in
these tough economic times.

Nevertheless, the result of the referendum
leaves something to be desired in relation to
our democratic process. Less than 13% of
eligible West Van voters bothered to cast
their ballots.

In round figures that means seven out of
eight eligible voters expressed no opinion on
the matter. A “majority” of only one elector
out of every 13 sufficed to kill the bylaw. In
the absence of a compulsory voting system
like that of Australia, it’s a rather sad
comment on civic responsibility. With an
appreciably larger voter turnout the result
might, of course, have been the same. But
the pity is that we'll never know.

There should be no criticism of West Van
council, however, for endorsing the
proposed loan. The 14.5% interest rate via
the Municipal Finance Authority would have
been less than the interest earned by the
municipality on its own invested funds.
Victoria’s restraint policy precludes “pay-as-
you-go” financing of such a project. If the
job was to be done at all, the council
proposal was the most economical way of
doing it.

Less than 8% of the voters decided the job
should not be done. Thirteen per cent
democracy has spoken.

Shock cure ?

internationally, the Canadian economy
under the Trudeau gang has for too long
been like the man with the breath problem:
even our best friends wouldn't tell us. Now,
as the dollar crumbles they're at last telling
us with brutal frankness to do something fast
about our economic decay. If that finally
spurs us to act, a seventy-something-cent

dollar may be the best thing that’s happened
to us in years.

S9S8 VONGE OF CONTIN Aten WERT VAROUUWER

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CANADIAN COMMENT BY PETER WARD

Did Trudeau setup Chretien?

Senous damage has been
done to the image of Justice
Minister Jean Chretien over
the issue of whether or not
he told the truth = to
Parliament. The question is,
was Jean Chretien, the only
Francophone member of
Parliment to enjoy
widespread respect across
Canada, set up by Prime
Minister Trudeau?

Chretien ran afoul of the
opposition over the federal
decision to take
Newfoundland to the
Supreme Court on

jurisdiction over off-shore
oil resources. Chretien was
asked by opposition leader
Joe Clark whether or not
cabinet had made such a
decision, and Chretien said,
twice, that no such decision

HOW TO PROFIT from the recession and build
future security was the message from the guest
speaker at Friday’s annual general meeting of the
North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. And
the speaker, I hasten to add, was no financial
snake oil salesman making a hit-and-run pitch to

the rubes.

It's true that
Honourable Hugh Curtis,
BC's minister of finance,
confined himself to broad
gudchnes for making the
most of the slump. leaving
his histeners to work oul the
precise details of the process

the

for themselves Bat that.
after all, as what free cn
terprise ts about

Mr Curtis whose

resonant votre lends a

comforting mag of authornty
to his ufterances
his teat the
“perspective”
BC os resource based
cconomy he emphasized,
has always turched along tn
strong cycles because of the
volatile nature

took as
theme of

of resource
markets So our current little
problems arc merely a sharp
remindce of the basic oature
of that cconomy nothing
teally to panne about
bapectally Mr
continued

C wetts
when
comsider all the

you
long term
advantages bestowed on ous

boy cote vetittable treasure

house of resources” whieh
aly happens to be the very
bnhks Ho in

separably to the to

Uy Ge

ternabonal«omauanatty

BOOM AND BUSI

These factors

mcan re

dhe has abrcadty been cant feos

BC. Mr Curts declared
Like it or lump if, we're
resource-nch and therefore
trade-dependent — which
cxplains our prosperity in
geod times and our
vulnerability in tough times
So what to do about 1t?

Diversify our markets,
sand Mr Curts Drum up
more customers around the
Pacific Rim instead of
putting all our trade eggs in
Uncle Sam's bask ct

And. of course,
out industnal base where
practicable, though Mr
Curtis didn't see much hope
of BC ever becoming a
major producer of bagh tech
consumer goods

Aside from that, trust the
government to smooth out
BC Os boom and bust
coonumy as far as possible
with as polhkcy of “shaving
the peaks and filling in the
valicys o litte ~
bepinaing to
happencd (to

recape for
proftang from = the
recession pray be reassured
It cames immediately after
the Commercaal break which
Mr Curte: permitted tamsclf
at this potntin bas apeech 5

He inserted an ca

cxpand

(if you're
what
(he mamaster's

wondcr

actually

thusioastye plug fave the

nottheast coal prope t which

had been made.

That was .at Question
Period, Tuesday, May 18.
Early on the morning of May
19, Chretien flew to
Newfoundland, and Prime
Minister Trudeau wrote a
letter to Premier Brian
Peckford announcing the
decision of the federal
government to take the off-
shore issue to the Supreme
Court.

The opposition § cried
“foul”, and_ insisted that
Chretien ha not told

Parliament the truth. With
Chretien in »ewfc ndland,
Prime Ministe~ |

au was
questioned by t'- “ition
about when set
decision was

A condii 44 n
was made 7 ucs’ “ag,
Trudeau said in Par) ment.
That gave the opp. .uon a
direct contradiction’  .een
Chretien and Trt John
Crosbie, foun-

diander «who makes politics
colorful and force ac-
cused Chrette: of
deliberate !y n....cading
Parhament.

In hiss a.ge:
expressed manv sc. .ments
when he said We have had
enough of half truths and
evasions. Yesteru.. here
was a senous black and
white deception of the
House as io what was to
happen on the off-shore
muineral issue. [he mumnuister
(Chretien) flew to St. John’s.
His plane was ready and

ssbie

Noel Wright

will employ some 5.500
poopie this summe: = thercby
serving as 8 prime crampic
of the Socred

walleys” approach

peaks and

Me slapped publ service

employees politcty on Ube
weet fos then upcoming
wage demands asking why
they alone should be oan
sabatcd from the universal
acod to doo more for bess”

SACRED OCRERD

Be stressed that: haopital

budgets had been increased
eoticul Phe bullabaion trom
bcalth workers and hospital
trams had!

arisen simply

teewcausc this years thihes

waiting for him after he
misled this House. No way
will I withdraw. Not for one
second.”

By May 20, Chretien was
back in Parlament to face
charges of

lying. It was
apparent that the heaviest
weapon against Chretien

that the opposition had was a
statement of Mr. Trudeau's
to the effect that a con-
ditional decision had been
made mere hours before
Chretien denied in
Parliament that any decision
had been made.

Mr. Trudeau is too sharp
of wit to make such a
statement without knowing
how it would affect Jean
Chretien’s case. Chretien, in
the debate over his truth-
fulness, assured Parliament
that as far as he was con-
cemed there had been no
decision made when he said
so in Parliament.

It’s significant that neither
Energy Minister Marc
Lalonde nor Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau were in
Parliament to defend the
beleaguered Chretien.

The opposition is still
angry and becoming more so
daily. It's a reflection of the
mood of the country because
of the feeling that govern-
ment is less than frank with
Canadians.

Jean Chretien’s reputation
may become a casualty to
that anger. But is the anger.
in that case, directed at the
right man?

et ready for the NEXT slump

which bring the province's
health services bill to $2 2
billion, or 30 per cent of
Victona’s total expenditures
— were less than they had
hoped for

Health workers, declared
Mr Curtis, are producers
just like private industry and
growth in the public sector
must be related to growth in
the pnvate sector

In his closing commercial
for Social Credit Mr Curtis
recited once more the sacred
party creed Don't go into
debt Save now. spend later
Stash away “rainy day
money in the fat years for
use when stimulus is necded
in the lean years

If the latc WAC Bennet
was Listening somewhere he

must have been smiling
happily
And so on to Mr Curtiss

final words of advice to his
audicnce make good use of
all the lessons we're learning
during the present recession
because there ll be anothe:
one coming along after (he
next BC boom Learn how
to cope with the current
stump the Socred way and
you won't have to worry any
more about future shumps
With a message hke that it

helps, oof course, to be
preaching as oon this
on CASON to Une cam
verted) But Hugh's formula

fos making the must of the
recession may cven provide
some crumbs for ought
outside the

fasthful

tanks of the

‘
PDoomly because most of us

at the moment damt have

any alternative formula