6 - Sunday. September 1, 1991 - North Shore News at SIGH «.. 7H END OF AuGusT AND WE HARDLY HAD ANY SUMMER AT ALL. I Don'T KNowW IF WE'LL EVER RECEWVE MAIL AGAIN ... THE SovieTs ARE ARGUING OVER WHo GETS THE MISSILE FIRING CopEs WHILE THEIR COUNTRY /S COLLAPSING ... .. AND WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL... INSIGHTS THANKS FOR CHEERING ME. UP, SWEETIE. NEWS VIEWPOINT Laboring on would iike to forget. We are sodden with rain and backdropped with grey. Worse still, on a weekend in which the contribution of organized labor to Cana- dian society is to be honored, ceiebrations of labor-management harmony are being overshadowed by illustrations of iabor- management discord. Gur mail delivery has been disrupted as Canada Post and its unionized employees trade blows on picket lines and in the media; our border crossings have slowed to a crawl under a federal civil service work- to-rule campaign; and Vancouver’s two troubled daily newspapers are being pro- LE IS a Labor Day weekend that most duced in fits and starts as Pacific Press and its unions stare each other down. For members of the general public, this is no way to cun a Labor Day weekend. Perhaps it is time to rethink the whole celebration. : Maybe it would be better to eyeball something called Non-Labor Day, and in- vest a good bit of reflection upon what it is like to i:ave no labor, no job, no workers, no Uusiness. Perhaps it is a good time to see things from the other point of view and set aside personal greed, stupidity, bullheadedness and political grandstanding. That might be something worth laboring for. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “We cannot agree to job protec- tion for the unborn.” A Canada Post statement, commenting on post office union demands. “It’s a known fact that we have more substance abuse with youth on the North Shore than anywhere else in B.C..”’ North Vancouver City Ald. Stella Jo Dean, expressing concern over loss of a substance abuse program in North Vancouver schools following budget cuts by the provincial goveznment. “This is the motker of all issues.’’ North Vancouver District Ald. Publisher Managing Editor Associate Editor... Peter Speck . Timothy Renshaw ...Noel Wright Ernie Crist, upset over a district policy that requires an alderman to get permission to attend a committee meeting of council. “The victims were embraced and facing each other with their arms ground each other when they were found.”’ North Vancouver District Fire Department assistant chief Gary Calder, describing how the latest Lynn Canyon victims were found. “it’s a nightmare over and over again. We can’t keep losing tives like that. This cannot continue.”’ North Vancouver RCMP Const. Marty Blais, on the latest deaths Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 $85-2131 Distribution Subscriptions Fax 985-3227 Administration at Lynn Canyon Park. “Our strength is our people.*‘ Great Canadian Railtour Co. president Peter Armstrong, on the main reason his North Vancouver company’s train trip was ranked one of the best in the world by International Raiiway Traveler magazine. “There are people who want to Jead us to believe there is no prob- lem. These are the same people who would have us believe that weapons of destruction are peace-keepers.”’ Ed Begley Jr., on the world en- vironmental crisis. 986-1337 986-1337 North Shore 985-2131 Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart Comptroller ..., Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph ft! of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscnptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates avaitable on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept esponsibility for unceicited maternal including manuscripis 2nd pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Newsroom V7M 2H4 ‘Fre CONES OF HeQNTT NE Ase EET WANCOUVER ‘north shore. MEMBER SUNDAY « WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY : 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Lid. Ail rights reserved. A North Shore savior of the Soviet economy KICK-STARTING the stagnant Soviet economy to get it moving towards a free market is going to cost a bundle. But a North Van mining expert believes he has the answer that would benefit the West as well. Joba Clark, a 69-year-old min- ing and exploration consultant with a lifetime of experience in that field, is so sure of his plan that he has sent it directly to U.S. Secretary of Staie James Baker. His letter to Baker two weeks ago notes that western leaders — with a vital interest in a Soviet free market — obviously realize the enormity of the task facing the Russian reformers. So the only reason why the G-7 nations are not offering major financial help, he concludes, is that they're strapped for moncy themselves. Then why shouldn’t the U.S.S.R. create its own money? The ruble (official exchange rate of $1.91 Canadian) has a Western market value of only a few cents — useless for external trade. Ah yes, says Mr. Clark. but the U.S.S.R. also owns 2,300 odd tons of gold. Deposit that in some international ‘‘Fort Knox'’ under the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF), use it to back, say, 10% of the ruble's value and presto! — the Soviets would have a hard currency with over $200 billion buying power in the West. Not only that, he continues, but the huge deposit would boost the price of gold, maybe to as much as $1,000 an ounce. Meanwhile, an ongoing production of perhaps 260 tons of Russian gold a year would roughly triple the purchas- ing power of the original desposit and add some $7 billion annually to the new hard currency. This wouldn't, he admits, solve the whole Soviet problem ‘‘... but it is a better start than any that has been offered to them yet.”” As a leading non-expert on monetary science, | have no way of judging if the Clark plan could fly. Checks with independent sources suggest his numbers are realistic. It’s a little hard, of course, to understand why no bright IMF or World Bank genius hasn’t tumbled to the same idea, but then again, you never know. Russian history is unfolding to- day at such a breakneck speed that even Gorbachev is having problems keeping up. The U.S.S.R. is the world’s se- cond biggest gold producer after South Africa. I haven’t a clue what they presently do with it all. But converting it somehow into the billions they desperately need right now in hard cash sounds like PRESIDENTIAL HOSTS of Coho Festival an idea whose moment has come. Could North Shore nieghbor John Clark — still waiting to hear back from Mr. Baker — have beaten them all to the punch? Stay tuned, SIGN-OFF: Four top fisheries ex- perts are panelists at the Thurs- day, Sept. 5 ceremonial kick-off breakfast for Coho Festival '91 hosted by Coho Society president Bill Chapman and West Van Chamber of Commerce president Don Youngson in the Hollyburn Country Club — 7:15 a.m. with serving at 7:30 a.m. prompt. For any remaining tickets ($15) try Eaton’s Park Royal ticket office or 926-6614, 926-7311 or 987- 4488... Stretch legs and lungs to help our four-legged friends by joining the SPCA’s 5 km Walk- A-Tbon around Stanley Park Sea Wall, 10:30 a.m. next Sunday, Sept. 8. Entry forms at all SPCA shelters or call 879-1725... And a very happy birthday today, Sept. 1, to West Van's Wendy Hanna, executive director of the North Shore Volunteers for Residents in Care Facilities. WRIGHT OR WRONG: If you MUST make mistakes, at least be smart enough to make a new one each time. "91... West Van Chamber of Commerce’s Don Youngson (left) and Coho Festiva! Society's Bili Chapman.