6 - Sunday, February 9, 1992 - North Shore News \ ITS NoT Quite. How | REMEMBERED IT. NEWS VIEWPOINT Overpass under axe brace themselves for some bad news about the proposed highway inter- change at Westview Drive. And that news is that the $20-miilion project will be delayed again, if not cancelled outright, by the NDP govern- ‘ment. Cancellation of the project would be unfortunate for two reasons: it would feave a single irksome knot in the now free-flowing Trans-Canada Highway, and i would seriously devalue the huge in- ‘vestment already made in the $22-million highway overpass at Lonsdale Avenue and the $115-million Cassiar Connector. The two tmega-projects initiated and fi- Nore SHORE residents should nally completed by the Socreds have removed two major commuter logjams in the local highway aad commuter transpor- tation system. But with those logjams gone, the vehicular pressure is now fully upon the Upper Levels Highway intersection at Westview Drive. The Westview project was originally an- nounced in concert with the Lonsdale overpass, because the two went together. One without the other was largely self- defeating. But the recent vague responses from the NDP government and the local NDP MLA on the fate of the Westview overpass bodes ill for its-future. . Hts priority is definitely sinking, and once it has sunk it will be a long, long time before it is refloated. The North Shore is a long way from Victoria, and that distance has increased with the results of the last provincial elec- tion. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “Whoever did this, did this on purpose — they’ve got less brains than a mosquito.”’ Fred Legebokow, chairman of the North Shore Fish and Game Club (NSFGC), after detergent was dumped into Mackay Creek, threatening the club’s salmon hatchery program. “You can get more done with a bit of honey.” North Vancouver City Ald. Stetla Jo Dean, advising council against being too aggressive in lobbying for the highway inter- change at Westview Drive. : Publisher Peter Speck “It’s kind of ironic, we're afl proud about being Canadians, but our best feaction audience-wise and record sales-wise has alwzys been in the United States. It’s hard to sell this country. We've toured across the country a few times and it’s just a big bine zone.”’ Smugglers member Grant Lawrence, on selling Canadian talent in Canada, after the West Vancouver Sand members were recognized as outstanding young Canadians by YTV. “I’m more concerned with the Display Advertising 980-0511 Distribution crowds inside than the crowds outside.”” Reform Party of Canada leader Preston Manning, on a protest outside his Feb. 3 rally at the Centennial Theatre in North Van- couver. : “As a creek, that section is going to be dead. If you're going to have to bury it, make dara sure there'll be nice flowers on the grave.’’ West Vancouver resident Ed Guy, on the decision to enclose another portion of Lawson Creek in a culvert. 986-1337 North Shore Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor Noel Wright Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an Newsroom distributed to every Second Class Mai! Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Maiting rates available on cequest. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility tor unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax north shore 986-1337 managed 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER Ski EN Subscriptions 985-2131 a <> SUNDAY - WROMESDAY + FmGAY e 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. SOA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Time for WV to repatriate its stolen jewel! FORGET ABOUT Croatia, Slovenia, the Palestinians and all those other offshore rowdies for a moment. We have a much more serious frontier injustice right on our own doorstep, crying aloud for redress. The victims are 3,000 souls on the western bank of the Capilano, cruelly separated from their West Vancouver fatherland by the jackboot politicians of North Vancouver District. And after a week in their midst conducting depth research, this column owes them a humble apology. A couple of Sundays ago it wrongly labelled them ‘‘foreigners’’ to West Van — aliens who should pay $5 to walk the Seawall or, better still, never even be allowed west of Taylor Way. On the contrary, inhabitants of the beautiful border community of Woodcroft are true West Van- couverites in everything except their postal codes. They look, dress and talk (mostly, anyhow) just like other West Van natives 50 yards across the boundary line. They eat the same food, drive the same cars, use the same beaches, shop in Park Royal and Ambleside, and have 925/926 West Van phone numbers. Yet the only way they can drive home is through the dangerous wilds of lower Capilano Road. And every June they must empty their wallets to a foreign dictator's rapacious tax men. The map — showing the crazy frontier dog’s-leg responsible for their plight — tells the whole story. The boundary is clearly the Capilano River. When West Van seceded from North Van in 1912, John Lawson & Co. must have been asleep at the switch to let the eastern tyrant get away with this triangular Tiddlycove jewel. All later West Van bids to repatriate it by peaceful negotiation have failed. So now — in this decade of ethnic communities everywhere bursting their shackles — is the time for West Van to throw down the gauntlet. Aside from senti- ment, Woodcroft’s six highrise villages can offer Mayor Mark Seger $2 million in taxes as a reward for reunification. It needs only a well-planned midnight coup, with West Van Police Dept. swiftly occupying the eight-acre territory while bulldoz- ers open a driveway from Keith Road. The Fullerton entry bridge would be barricaded and mined against a North Van RCMP counter-attack. By dawn, as the West Van flag was raised over the Pemberton building, Woodcroft would be Taylor Way Keith Rd Noel Wright HITHER AND YON liberated at long last. If Mayor Murray Dykeman still wanted to try any tough stuff, we'd fax the UN right away to send a peacekeeping force. ' In today’s world territorial self-determination is the only way to go, whatever the cost in police overtime and fax charges. ~ And once the foreign yoke is lifted, I know I’m really going to enjoy my own new Woodcroft pad! SCRATCHPAD: Ster speaker ' nabbed by North Van Chamber of Commerce this month is Premier Mike Harcourt. The Preem will kick off local celebrations of Chamber of Commerce Week at a 7:30 a.m. breakfast meeting =~ Monday, Feb. 24, in Cheers Res- taurant and the number to cali pronto to reserve your seat is 987-4488 ... Congrats to Cap Col- lege philosophy instructor Stan Persky, awarded a prized Maclean Hunter journalism scholarship for an essay project this June at the Banff Centre for the Arts ... And salute new “‘Golden Club” : members Joe and Reta Thorniey — widely involved for 42 years in Deep Cove-Doilarton community life, for which Joe received 2 1991 _ Distinguished Citizen Award. ; They notch up their 50th anniver- sary Tuesday, Feb. 11. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Never pay a compliment as though you expected a receipt. & “he WOODCROFT WOODCROFT... 80 years of territorial injustice under a foreign yoke!