6 - Friday, April 24, 1992 ~ North Shore N INSIGHTS | =| Raw democracy needed to end Number one ND NOW for the good news: Canada has been sdjudged the best place in the world to live, ac- cording to a United Nations report that compared the quality of life in 160 coun- tries. That’s the best, not one of the best. But a lot of the residents of this best country in the world will greet that rating with derisive raspberries because they are more interested in morning about what a rotten place Canada is. its easier for Canadians to complain about everything from the weather to the GST than to rejoice in their geod fortune at living in Canada. It’s easier, or more Canadian at feast, to disparage this country and let it fall to pieces than to fight just a little bit to keep | OF THE it together. The United Nations survey was based on such factors as education, life span and purchasing power to rank social and eco- nomic development of the countries on the ist. The survey itself found quibbles with Canada — the income gap between men and women and between rich and poor Canadians was considered too wide. But overail Canada, a second-raier in a lot of Canadian minds, beat out such perennial first-raters as Japan and the ‘United States in the survey. All those who don’t agree with that first-place ranking should either take ancther look at what they have or pick another country in which to whine. Bias evident in Hillside reporting Dear Editor: J recently moved to West Van- couver and have, until now, con- tinued my ways of benign neglect in matters pertaining to civic af- fairs. However, I can no longer re- main silent over the biased ap- proach the North Shore News has taken with respect to the Hillside School controversy. It appears from my vantage point that once again a small but vocal group has attempted to in- fluence public opinion through a well-planned media campaign. Your columnists have swallowed Publisher Mana ing Editor . sociate Editor Aavertising Oirector . Comptroiler Peter Speck . Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright . .Linda Stewart Doug Foot the party line hook, line and sink- er by attempting to sway the peo- ple — the counter-arguments must also be presented. To suggest, as Gary Bannerman does in his column of April 5, that there is no point attempting to set the record on a more even keel, as ‘‘Ms. Szibbo got there first,”’ is tantamount to a society where healthy debate is suppressed and contravening opinions judged heretical. I despair when I hear of teacher layoffs. 1 despair when I read how poorly teachers are treated and how much we expect from them. Perhaps if we provide them with Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Newsroom 985-2137 Distribution Subscriptions Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Administration good facilities, it may alleviate some of their problems. As for the few (?) parents who wish to protect their vested inter- ests in seeing Hillside maintained as an institute of learning, tet’s see them put forward some construc- tive alternatives, especially to meet the needs of those living in the growing areas of West Vancouver. Surely the most important point is that our children get the best education possible. Some seem to have lost sight of this fact in all the rhetoric. R.A. Fairweather West Vancouver a North Share 986-1337 $85-3227 985-2131 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph lit of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year, Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept fesponsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 ‘north shore ry 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. MEMBER srngaerig ase 61,882 (average circulation, Wednasday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Hillside wars “DEMOCRACY,” quipped Winston Churchill, “is the worst form of government — except for all the others that have been tried.’’ The trouble being that democrats are never wholly right or. wholly wrong. The Battle of Hillside is shaping up as a textbook example. It revolves, you may recall (after 10 days of moth-spraying news) around the plan to bulldoze West Van's 30-year-old middle school. and flog the site to developers for $13 million. Schools Superintend- ent Doug Player and his obedient class of four school trustees want the money to build a new, smaller school on Cauflfeild Plateau. But the relationship of their estimates to reality remains far from clear. Fighting them are Concerned Taxpayers for Public Accountabil- ity in Schoo! Administration. The CTs’ only trustee ally is Mangot Fark — Player’s one dropout. They also run a desktop publishing operation that churns forth frequent editions of the Save Hillside News with checkout-stand headlines like ““RESIDENTS STORM BOARD OFFICE.” Caulfeild parents, who naturally want a school of their own, are lobbying the board hard to stick with the Player plan. Pushing your own interests is a democratic right, even if others stand to lose. Basically, of course, the same goes for the ‘‘Save Hillsiders.”’ It was this built-in conflict zone in democracy that led to the theory of “responsible government.”’ Every so often we elect a bunch of citizens whom most of us think we can trust to do the best job for everyone and then leave them to do it — meaning they can act any way they wish until the next elec- tion without seeking our permis- sion. So what happens when they’re clearly screwing up something vital? If their screw-up (e.g., the GST or free trade} can always be cor- rected later, we simply turn the tascais into toast at the ballot box. But what about a threatened screw-up that can NEVER be corrected? In that case the ONLY accept- able solution is a temporary return to democracy in the raw. So forget the reasonable desires of Caulfeild residents, backed by Mr. Player, his tame trustees and their doubtful math. Forget the understandable sentimentality of Hillside parents and grads. Forget the propaganda war being waged by both. The issue is much simpler. Bulldozing Hillside means losing far all time a vaiuable public fa- _ MARGOT FURK... Doug's 's soll- ” tary dropout. HITHER AND YON cility in the core of the community that can never be replaced except- at astronomic cost. If that’s what Hillside’s owners — West Van taxpayers — want, they must be allowed to say so in a referendum. If it's NOT what they want, the school beard must forget the Player plan and seek a better way. to pay for Caulfeild’s school. . Anything less is not democratic © government. It’s one of ‘‘all the others that have been tried”” and found even worse. WRAP-UP: A quarter of a cen- tury later North Van’s Westover Community Schoo! invites all past and present students, parents and friends to its 25th anniversary re- union 7:36 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 ... Meanwhile, Monday, April 27 — like every last Monday. of the month — is free legs: aid - day for low income seniors at . Sitver Harbour Centre, 144 East 22nd. Call 980-2474 to make sure of your appointment ... Many happy returns of today, April 24, to Noith Van birthday boy Jeffrey Adams ... And tomorrow, April 25, salute all dinkum Aussies and their sheep-island neighbors as they celebrate ANZAC Day. © WRIGHT OR WRONG: We are the geniuses who, each year, fly round the world ia less time —~ and need more time to get to. work. DOUG PLAYER... trusteas’ class teacher.