THE PROSPECT of a federal election in which two of the
leaders of the three main parties will not have hair on their

chests is mesmeriz

It is not just historic, it is
downright revolutionary stuff.

It is all the more fascinating
because this is not, | suspect, how
the hardcore feminists wanted it.

Ht is all very well to have
Audrey MacLaughlin annointed as
leader of the wimpy New Demo-
crats. That fits. The NDP openly
(and te its credit) welcomes
feminists, lesbians, gays, etc.

But to have a woman running
as leader of the fascist bloadsuck-
ing corporate lapdog Yankee-
loving Tories is something else.
Meaty stuff. The stuff of mass
psychology.

If anything could, the coming
election ought to spark renewed
interest in Freud and Reich. All of
our libidos, you see, will be in-
volved in a way they never could
be when the choice was just be-
tween males.

Whatever else remains to be .
said about Brian Mulroney, you
have to admit the guy is either a
political genius or simply, as his
unauthorized biographer, John
Sawatsky, reports with a shake of
his head, so damned lucky he gets
away with murder time and again.

In the twinkling of a move —
something J didn’t think he was
capable of, namely letting go —
he has transformed the Canadian

STRICTLY PERSONAL

advantage of his party.

{ hate to say it — I really hate
to say it —- but the guy has some-
how saved his bacon again. A
final dazzling leap, landing, as
almost ever, on his feet.

Damn, I hate that!

Most wisely he has slipped
behind the curtain, promising to
come out every once in a while
only if there is enough applause,
thank you.

It is whut I would have done,
which is way I thought he’d never

Virtually overnight Mulroney
has created something that, in its
muted 1990s style, is a resurgence
of populism.

Kim Campbell is being pres-
ented to the Tories as the savior,
and to the country as the Madon-
na we have all been waiting for.
Politics, smalitics. A popular
surge rolls right over party lines.

And this is the televised,
presidential-style election era,
don’t forget.

I've never met Kim Campbell.
Of course I want to now.

Anybody venturing into lead-
ership of an entire country, a
modern industrial state in par-
ticular, should be required to read
a good biography of Hitler, with
special attention to the Fuhrer

‘ toward the end, when he had trig-

gered his secretly tonged-for Got-
terdammerung.

Too much power leads to
madness. Period.

You see it in the eyes of
municipal politicians, rally orga-
nizers, newly-elected politicians of
every stripe. Suddenly, they are
important. They can make things
happen.

The bad ones start to drool the
moment they get in office.

Sooner or later, no matter how
well-intentioned and rational they
may be at the beginning, if they
stay too long or soak up too much
unmitigated authority, with too
many people bowing and scraping
around them too many days of
the week, jets coming and going
at their merest nod, toadies fawn-
ing over their every whim, they go
looney.

Mulroney, of course, had the
advantage of suffering from
paranoid delusions of grandiosity
from the time he was a child.

He was fixated on the prime
ministet’s chair. That’s a rarity,
mythology notwithstanding, and it
makes an excellent case for
single-mindedness of purpose.

Nowadays, it is frightening how
much daniage a prime minister
with a majority and a unified
caucuscando.

Look at Trudeau. Look at
Mulroney.

The damage inflicted upon the
country by previous generations of
leaders was limited, at least, by
the vastness of the area over
which control was being sought.

Today, entirely new and
untested political ideas like the
FTA or NAFTA, can be locked in

place between elections, involving
displacement of uncountable
billions of dollars in wealth, af-
fecting the lives of millions of
people trapped in urban con-
glomerates, with no survival skills,
and a crumbling medical and
welfare superstructure, and there
is little even a majority of the
voters can do to stop any of this. :

Whoever becomes the next
prime minister inherits an inher-
ently corrupt, inefficient, only
quasi-democratic machine of
state, bereft of vision, blind to the
future, tied to a flawed
patliamentary tradition that has
not even begun to come to terms
with the real problems of the day.

Obviously, there is more to be.
said on the subject of power and
its pursuers.

1, for one, am extremely happy

_ with the prospect of having a

choice between a punchdrunk- '
looking old male warhorse, a
rather stiff and utterly correct
spokesperson-sister, and the
twice-divorced Blonde from Hell.

Libido. Think libido. What did
Reich call his stuff? Orgone
Theory. Yeh, that was it.

political landscape to the immense do it. Damn again!

NV man appointed

“I’m Looking For Great Values, ;

Because I Want
The Most F or My Money.”

BC Place

NORTH. VANCOUVER
resident Dan London has
been appointed the new fa-
cilities director for B.C.
Place Stadium.

He replaces’ John Sutherland,
who. has become director of
operations for the parent B.C.
Pavilion Corp.

Most recently an independent
consultant, London spent six years
as vice-president of
Schenley Canada Inc.

He has: also served as a sales
manager for both Evergreen and
Agency Press Ltd.

London’s primary respon-
sibilities will include marketing the
facility: and overseeing its day-
to-day operations.

London’s community activities
and interests include serving as a
director of the Council for Cana-
dian Unity; a director of the
‘North Shore Youth Soccer
Association and the Lynn Valley
Soccer Association.

-He is also a member of the

ma

sales for

director

DAN. LONDON...appointed .to

BC Place.

Termina! City Club and the Van-
couver Sales and Marketing Exec-
utive Association.

Currently, London is the man-
ager of, the B.C. Boys All-Star
Soccer team and is past-president

- of the B.C. Distiller’s Council and

the Vancouver AM Tourist Ser-
vices Association.

aha’w’llah

(1817 — 1892)

“The appreciation of beauty
is one of the unique
capacities of the human spirit.
We can find it in our
relationships with each other
as we see the beauty of God
reflected in each other’s

soul.”

NV City 984-2895

Baha'i
Faith

NV Dist 929-4708
West Van 921-3334

Bookstore 731-8199

Collector’ Cherry.

avery important collection o of eighteenth
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Savings Up To 50% Off.

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HOURS: :
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1080 Mainland Street
Vancouver, BC.

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