32 - Sunday. July 22, 1990 - North Shore News

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Capital fellow

NEWS photo Terry Peters

NORTH VANCOUVER-Capilano MLA Angus Ree: ‘very sad and
disappointed’’ the day he was dropped as B.C.’s first solicitor-general.

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700 Marine Drive,
North Vancouver

MLA ANGUS REE WILL ALWAYS KEEP

ONE EYE ON VICTORIA

IN HIS 11 years as the Social Credit MLA for North
Vancouver-Capilano, Angus Ree has seen his share of
mud-slinging between the Socreds and the New Demacratic

Party.

But, says the 60-year-old West
Vancouver resident, the Bud
Smith tape scandal is the worst he
has ever seen.

Smith resigned last week from
his post as attorney-genecral after
NDP justice critic Moe Sihata
released intercepted taped tele-
phone conversations between
Smith and Bill Stewart, the assis-
tant deputy attorney-general of
criminal justice, and between
Smith and CKVU-TV legislative
reporter Margot Sinclair.

The Smith-Stewart tape revealed
an attempt by the two Lo try to
discredit a lawyer Sihota had hired
to prosecute former tourism
minister Bill Reid over his han-
dling of provincial lottery funds.

Other tapes revealed a personal
friendship between Smith and
Sinclair, in which the reporter of-
fered Smith information on her
press gallery colleagues and read
him transcripts of stories she had
planned to air.

Ree, who wrote a July 18 letter
to the News editor lambasting the
use of electronic surveillance, says
he has never seen anything as
serious as the Smith tape scandal
in all his years as a B.C. MLA.

“I'm very, very disappointed
that we can’t have private conver-
sations without them being made

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public,”* says Ree. **The release of
them (tapes) was done for political
purposes. If they had been handl-
ed responsibly they would have
been turned over to the authorities
and not made public.’’

Rumors of Ree’s retirement
from politics continue to circulate.
But, says Ree, he has made no
decision on his future and is in-
stead concentrating on repre-
senting, his constituents.

“I've had a very interesting ca-
reer in politics,’* he says. ‘I’m
not saying it’s come to an end.’”

Ree, who has held a variety of
careers including running his own
private law practice, running a
general insurance agency, working
as a captain in the Canadian
Armed Forces, acting as staff
counsel for the Vancouver Stock
Exchange and working as a lawyer
for Trans Mountain Pipeline, was
first ciected to the legislature in
1979,

He was re-elected in 1983 and
1986 and has held a variety of
posts, including chief government
whip and solicitor-general.

He has also sat on several gov-
ernment committees.

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Ree’s biggest appointment came
in July 1988 when, after sitting on
the legislative back benches for
nine years, he was appointed
B.C.’s first solicitor-general.

It was in that same Vander
Zalm cabinet shuffle that Smith
was appointed atiorney-general
and the new solicitor-general’s
ministry was created from the at-
torney-general's ministry.

When Ree was appointed solici-
tor-general he announced that
there would be ‘‘a close relation-
ship with Bud and I, because he’s
got the prosecution side of justice
and I’ve got the enforcement side,
and I think we have to work
together."’

Ree says his appointment as so-
licitor-general was the highlight of
his political career.

“*T guess my greatest achieve-
ment was as solicitor-general and
raising concerns about traffic
safety and bringing in traffic safe-
ty regulations,’’ says Ree.

But just as being named solic-
tor-gencral was his greatest politi-
cal achievement, Ree admits he
was disappointed 16 months later
when Vander Zalm dropped him
from the post in a cabinet shuifle
fast November.

“*Yes I was disappointed. I cer-
tainly didn’t have enough time to
bring in all the traffic safety
measures that ! wanted to,’” says

See Ree’s
Page 33

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