6 - Sunday, January 5, 1986 - North Shore News Editorial Pag News Viewpoint Deficit Trap ill Canadians this year face up to their worst (and potentially disastrous) economic problem: the federal deficit? Most of us don't yet see Canada’s current annual over-expenditure of some $38 billion that way because i( doesn’t yet directly affect most of our fives. But unless if can start to be reduced by significant amounts, it soon will. Mere than one-quarter of all Ottawa's revenues are now eaten up merely to pay INTEREST on the debt, so far with no reduction in the debt itself. On the contrary, the feds have been increasing it for years and we've become trapped. / The personal parallel would be a family with a $36,000 income paying $9,000 a year carrying charges on short-term debts totalling $65,000, to which it was adding further debt all the time. Obviously, such a situation could oaly end in financial catastrophe. This year: the Mulreney government finally. starts to cut the $38 billion deficit: — but only by about $1.5 billion annually, which is ludicrously too little. At this 4% yearly reduction rate it would take 2a CENTURY to eliminate the deficit completely, whiie still paying high interest each year. Business leaders and top economists insist that annual cuts of $5 billion or more are vital ' to restore the economy to Jasting health. But they don’t have many votes — and surveys show that under 5% of Canadians in general worry about the deficit. Americans, by contrast, rate the U.S. deficit as their second top concern. Until we, too, wake up to the reality that our own deficit lies at the root of most of our economic woes, including unemployment, we're in growing peril. There’s no hope that we can simply “bull” our way out of the trap. And yet no government will take ‘the .tough,: unpopular, mcasures essential if it means risking defeat at the next election. Haymaker? fn quitting the federal cabinet on an unrelated issue, Suzanne Blaise-Grenier, the high-flying junior minister for transport, has at feast put her mouth where her money was. Attacked last year for lavish spending of public funds on trips to Europe, the lady may now prove that she’s quite capable of buying her own air fare tickets — or was she simply making hay while the sun shone? Mal ed pelle AnD WEST tvancouvtn Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1237 SUNDAY » WEDNESDAY » PIIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Publisher: Peter Speck Editor-in-Chief Noel Wright Operations Manager Berni Hilliard Advertising Director Linda Stewart Managing Editor Nancy Weatherley North Shore News, founded in 1909 as an independent suburban Newsraper and qualitied under Schedule 11 Part I Paragrapn Itt of the Excise Tax Act, 1s published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by Norn Shote Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3835. Entire contents :¢1986 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. _ Subsenptions North and West Vancouver, $25 pet Sear, Mailing rates * -available on feauest. Submissions are are wiicome but we cannot accept responsibitily “.. for unsolicited matesial incl ding Manuscnpls and peiures which should pl be accompamed by a Slamped, addressed envelope Member of the B.C. Press Council 2 56,245 (average, Wednesaay SDA DAASION Friday & Sunday) i SN’ ranean Reewnmers wf beers Vac sa THIS PAPER iS RECYCLASLE @ Noel Wright ® sunday brunch e photos submitted NOISIER THAN USUAL, Silent Buat Club members (top) iaunch their craft on a new ele- ment. Taking no risks, Stan Burke (lower left) keeps his lifejacket on. Bearded Dr. Mike Davidson (lower right) and unidentified club member display commemorative plaque of the zany 1985 “‘regatta’’. “SILENT” is the name of these oarsmen but you wouldn't have known it when they gathered for their annual regatta — several thousand feet above sea level. Vancouver's Silent Boat Club is strictly confined to craft that make no sound louder than the whispered swish of an oar or paddle: i.e., canoes, kayaks and rowboats. Even sailboats are excluded as being too noisy. Each Boxing Day ‘the litde armada of maybe [5 boats, most of them starting from the Kits beach area, propels itself across English Bay to Stanley Park for a festive barbecue. ‘ This Boxing Day the fog made the voyage a distinctly CAROLS AND CRUMPETS ... Coll- ingwood's Tiffany Grenke with classmates. L bad idea. But that didn't faze the club executive, which in- cludes movers and shakers of the ‘‘no problem’) school like Nanaimo Times publisher Stan Burke and North Van's Dr. Mike Davidson.) Okay, they said, what’s the next best thing to water in winter? And prompuly came up awith the answer. / SNOW. j Thus it was that SBC members trundled their canoes, kayaks and rowboats up to Cypress’ Bowl, high above the fog, and celebrated their sixth annial meet with a downhill boat f face in the white stuff, What with the novel hazards of faunching, navigating, capsizing and ber- thing at the bottom of the slope in the crisp powder, it was far from being a silent event, Riot would be a better description. But at least nobody got dunked or lost in the fog, and the bright sun was a welcome plus at the equally noisy barbecue that followed. Now, the question is whether, . on future Boxing Days, the once silent mariners will ever take to the water again! x k THE MIRACLE at Christmas came by phone to North Van author Richard Steele from a local car dealer. Following the success of Richard’s recently published “Stanley Park Explorer’, he’s been commissioned to com- plete two new books on B.C. parks (1,500 to be visited in all) in time for Expo. Sensing that his ancient Toyota was close to death, and with no ad- vance cheque due until April 30, he'd written to major car dealers throughout the area suggesting sponsorship of the job through the foan of a small, gas-efficient vehicle. No responses. A few days before Christmas — the 180,000-mile Toyota finally expires — ard almost simul- taneously, out of the blue, Jack Irwin of Pacific Honda in the 700 block Marine calls to ask if Richard still needs a car. Last week, despite protests that a used vehicle would be more than sufficient, Jack handed Richard the keys of a brand-new 1986 Honda Civic Wagovan, complete with in- surance and a full gas tank. No strings attached and not even a form to sign. Jack says he just wants to assist the worthwhile project of a North Shore neighbor by ensuring there are no mechanical head- aches during the hundreds of miles to be clocked up meeting the deadline. Grateful Richard’s com- ment as he hit the road for his long tour: ‘Discovering that there 1S a Santa Claus is @ bit of a shock at 35 years of age!’ ‘ kt Ok SCRATCHPAD: First of West Van Mayor Derrick Humphreys’. 1986 phone-in programs will be aired Tues- day (January 7) at 9 p.m. on Channel 10. His Worship pro- mises two tidbits. that’ will “have some effect on tax- payers’ pockets’? — get ready with your questions ... West Van Secondary teacher Cam Kerr, who in 1981 coached China's national hockey team in Peking, uses his experience from those days in a new ‘Asia Pacific Studies” course for adults interested in Pacific Rim countries — cal! Cam or principal John Williams at 922-3931 for January registra- tion... Grade Fiver ‘Tiffany Grenke was among West Van's 40-member Coll- ingwood School Junior Choir which sang carols over town during the holidzy season at a traditional English afternoon tea for Mandarin Hotel guests .. Congrats to Windsor science teacher Bruce Gurney on receiving his Master of Education degree after five years of after-hours study — he was also one of six contri- butors to the Grade 10 provin- cial science textbook ....The same again to North ‘Van's Wendy Matsubuchi on achiev- ing a first-class (85% plus) average in the UBC education program ... Joyce’ Moller of North Van City Library has a special ‘‘PJ Story Time’”’ lih- ed up this/ Wednesday (January 8) at 7 p.m. for the - wet-mitten, cold-nose crowd. Come in your PJ’s and bring your favorite stuffed toy is her, message. to the youngsters ... And West Van DID open its heart and pocket. Santa Claus Fund ‘director Ruth Stout says she’s “very happy’’ with the final results of the appeal which brought $20,000 in cash, a mass of toys and clothing and gave some 260 needy families a much better Christmas than they'd expected. * * * WRIGHT OR WRONG: If you're feeling good, don’t worry — you'll get over it (Murphy’s 9th Law), NEWS photo Noel Weight “HAVE WHEELS, WILL WRITE” ... author Richard Steele (right) receives keys of loaned, brand-new 1986 Wagovan from ‘Santa Jack" — a.k.a. Pacific Honda dealer Jack Irwin.