WHEN THE Oxford English Dicticnary indignantly advises
that a selected word is colloquial, one becomes beth
apologetic and grateful to emerge with the requested in-

formation.

A less respectful writer would
complain that inadequacy of fan-
guage has forced literary inven-
tion,

“Spunk”? is such a word.

Grudgingly defined in Oxford, it
describes ‘‘courage, mettle or
spirit.’’ Yet it characterizes one of
the most desirable attributes of in-
dividual or collective humanity.

Most politicians have spunk.
They weather a variety of defeats
and humiliations in search of suc-
cess. Many never get there, but
labor on regardless.

Some years ago, when recession
damage was at its worst, I visited
the city of Nelson. Few com-
munities had suffered more. The
local college had been closed. The
biggest employer had its facilities
burned to the ground. The locals
were convinced that the govern-
ment was punishing them for
voting NDP. Nearby mining and
forest activities had never been at a
lower ebb.

An outsider would never have
known that anything was wrong.
The historic buildings were all be-
ing renovated and smartly painted.
The community was alive with ex-
citement about two major motion
pictures that were to be filmed in
the area.

Meanwhile, just down the road
at Trail, where Cominco never
missed a payday, the mood was far
more sombre. One community was
poor but didn't know it. The other
was unaware of its affluence.

The city of Vernon has spunk.

. While it has never had to suffer

like Nelson, nothing has ever come
easy. While the Okanagan effete
reside in comfortable Kelowna and
tranquil Penticton, the rougher-
hewn timber of Vernon under-
stands the meaning of the word
“community’’ and the awesome
achievements that can be forged by
collective action.

The Vernon Winter Carnival is
not only British Columbia’s most
successful off-season event, after
decades of development, it is now
second only to Quebec’s Carnival
d’Hiver in Canada.

Meanwhile, Kelowna has allew-
ed a few thugs to terminate its suc-
cessful summer regatta.

eat

I first met Patrick Nichol, grad-
uate of West Vancouver’s Hillside
High School and some of the
smallest radio stations in Western
Canada, when he and a delegation
from Vernon visited my program
to promcte the annual winter
event.

It was a zany troupe. Year after
year they would arrive, complete
with sweaters, toques, Miss Silver
Star and the carnival mascot.

After discarding an ambition to
seek fame as a ‘‘rock jock,”’

Nichol began a management career
with a station in Grand Prairie,
Alta., moving to Vernon in 1977 as
program manager with CJIB, the

dominant voice of the North
Okanagan.

He is now vice-president and
general manager, a promotion that
pre-dated acquisition of the station
by the Rogers group.

In broadcasting, the old fash-
ioned way to success is by intense
and obsessive community in-
volvement: festivals, local politics,
service clubs and charities,
Everyone at CJIB participates.

**Alderman”’ Patrick Nichol has
topped the polls in local elections
on more than one occasion.

In a recent column, | suggested
that the current generation of
broadcast managers in “‘ancouver
are involved in nothing and
unknown in the community. The
formula sounds emanating from
their stations is to be expected.

If they can suppress their big ci-
ty superiority for a moment, they
may learn that CJIB in Vernon has
a larger audience than many Van-
couver outlets. It has more
listeners than the two top Kelowna
stations — combined.

Spunk.

gee

The British Columbia Medical
Association and others may be
correct in their assessment that the
new Royal Commission on Health
Care is just a way to postpone
decisions until after the next elec-
tion.

In the Royal Commission
department, however, this gov-

. emment has had just one, and it

has been an unqualified triumph.

The late Barry Sullivan’s Royal
Commission on Education augers
well for the effort just announced
by Health Minister John Jansen.

It was a Royal Commission, led
‘by Mr, Justice Emmett Hall, that
defined Canada’s medicare in the
1960s.

The doctors were adamantly
against it.

In B.C., the last study was
commissioned by the NDP. Arthur
Fouks QC was asked to analyze
the national plan five years after it
started.

There is no one who has studied
the situation who doesn’t believe it
is now time for an exhaustive study
of the system. The cost of
medicare threatens to explode out
of control.

There is no limit to how much
can be spent. It may be time for a
user charge to curtail abuse, a fee
that could be refunded to the legit-
imate needy by way of tax credits.

Health professionals demand
not only top benefits for
themselves, they argue for expen-
sive equipment, more hospitals and
a variety of other publicly-financed
services: a bottomless cache of
money.

The typical argument seems to
go this way: people will die if we
don’t have this service, so you bet-
ter pay me more money.

Am I missing something? @

REGLAZED

9 - Sunday, March 4, *™%0 -

North Shore News

Winter Club expansion approved

REVISIONS TO the North Shore
Winter Club expansion were ap-
proved Feb. 26 by North Van-
couver District Council.

By PAMELA LANG
Contributing Writer

An expansion to the club, which
includes a condominium highrise
for seniors, was approved last
year, but changes to the devel-
oper’s plan came before council
Feb. 12.

The approved changes include
reducing the number of suites to
166 from 182, but altering the type
of suites involved.

Previously approved were 72
one-bedroom units, but the new
proposal reduces that number to
39.

As well, three two-bedroom plus
den units and 61 units with one
bedrocm plus den have been elim-
inated.

But the number of two-bedroom

units has been increased to 127
from 46.

Although some concerns were
raised Feb. 12 about the changes
which create fewer larger suites,
they were approved Feb. 26
without further discussion.

Several councillors agreed when
Ald. Bill Rodgers originally sug-
gested that the new proposal con-
stituted a ‘‘revised vision away
rom affordable housing for
seniors to standard highrise rent-
als.’”

Developers have also added a
billiards room, a pool area and an
exercise room to the amenities
available in the tower.

Council deferred a decision Feb.
12 while asking for clarification of
changes as they pertained to the
original plan and the restrictive
covenant that governs the con-
struction.

The covenant ensures that the
tower will house adults, with at
least one resident per suite being 50

years old or more. It also outlines
in detail the type of structure to be
built.

“At no time has there been a
shift in our philosophy with
regards to the fundamentals of the
already existing restrictions,’’
assured a Feb. 15 fetter from Peter
Malek of Millennium Development
Corp.

Peter Fentiman, president of the

See NSWC
Page 10

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