Trevor LauUtens GARDEN OF BIASES HOW BRUISING is an election campaign? Bioody bruising. Now it can be told: the winning Reform party candidates in the two North Shore ridings suffered severe depression during the cam- paign. (nsinuations of racism — malicious and largely flimsy, | would say — were raised against Ted White and Herbert Grubel. White, as the whole world now knows, went on to win the North Vancouver riding with about 40% of the popular vote — better than the 37% attained in the last elec- tion by the much-liked Conser- vative, Chuck Cook. Grubel also easily won, defeating Liberal Audrey Sojonky _ by 4,000 votes and ousting Tory Health Minister Mary Collins, a distant third. But both White and Grubel found out just how nasty politics can be, before they were so rous- ingly vindicated by the voters. In 1993 White ran in the B.C. provincial election for the Western Canada Concept, a separatist party led by Doug Christie. Christie’s far-right stances were, perhaps understandably, unknown to White, a New Zealand im- migrant, and only later did Christie become widely recognized as the lawyer for neo-Nazi Ernst Zundel, Holocaust denial advocate Jim Keegstra, and such. I raised at least two eyebrows i in print myself over this. But White’s explanation deserves at least the benefit of the doubt. {n fact, the only insinuations raised came from the media, White insists. He never had a_ single call over the matter froma constituent. But the revelation, made later in the campaign --- White had in- cluded his brief dalliance with the WCC in his party nomination papers — took its toll on him. “I did feel a little bit down last Sunday, because J was very con- cerned about these racist charges,’? White said the morning after his election victory. But his spirits were greatly lifted when an ethnically Chinese cam- paign worker, Karin Tam, met him at the office and gave him a card. In it, she said that she knew from working with him that he was ‘‘a very good man’’ and that he wasn’t a racist. But how do you fight the ac- cusation of racism? That still worries him. There's always some mud, or whatever, that sticks. Herbert Grubel went through worse agonies, and with far less basis for any such smear. Grubel is a widely known economist with a classic market- place philosophy. As a respected professor and ‘scholar, he was hardly prepared for the down-and-dirty insinua- tions made about him late in the campaign. When | had an (unpublished) interview with him in September, Grube! was upbeat. At the worst, if he lost, he’d have widened his experience and understanding of people and the political process, he told me, A week before clection day, he was deeply depressed. He said he had made a mistake in cunning. He told friends that he and his wife were very upset over anony- mous calls to their home and public charges that he was a racist. These arose when he explained — or tried unsuccessfully to ex- plain — that these days im- migrants as a whole are a net fi- nancial burden on society in the first few years after their arrival in Canada, and that those who have been in Canada longer are act contributors to the economy. His remarks were based on a scholarly study. But this was all the opening that the smear artists, or those who ITALIAN STYLING LEATHER SOFA 100% top grain leather, solid hardwood frame. Lifetime warranty on frame construction. Matching loveseat and chair available. LEATHER SOFA ON SALE NOW did't or couldn't understand the complexities as Grubel tried to ex- plain them from the platform and in interviews, needed, His ordeal took on Kafkian proportions, He confided toa friend that one reporter for the electronic media kept hammering, hammering away, repeating the same question with variations. Then he suddenly smiled and said, in iageatiatingly ‘“kind’’ tones, that pertiaps he, Grubel, had not meant to say what he felt. The experience shook Grubel. He compared the effect to the Kind of ‘bad cop/good cop"’ in- terrogation that we've all seen depicted or described. (Grubet, aged five when the Second World War began, grew up in Germany.) Absurdly, Charan Gill, head of 222 AVAILABLE LY 3 OMFFERENT ELROV'EAN &4& Both White and Grubel found out just how nasty politics can be...99 B.C. Organization to Fight Rac- ism, demanded that both White and Grubel resign from their cam- paigns. -CKNW, exercising what I’d call rare bad-news judgment, actually ran the story, or pscudo-story, at the top of the news. Last week Grubel looked tired and il] at ease during an all- candidates’ meeting, By the end of the week he ITALIAN STYLI LEATHER SOFA Higher back contemporary sofa, 100% top grain $ leather, solid hardwood frame, lifetime warranty an became more fatatistically serene and, like White, he began to relax. On Saturday he and his wife had dinner together and he was in bed carly with a copy of the soothing National Geographic, On Monday, election day, North Shore voters resoundingly showed what they thought of the smear artists. frame construction. Matching loveseat and chair available, Choice of colours available. LEATHER SOFA ON SALE NOW... . ITALIAN STYLING LEATHER SECTIONAL Contemporary styling leather sectional, lifetime warranty on frame construction. Includes all 3 pieces. Choices of colours available COMPLETE 3 PC. 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