6 - Sunday, July 15, 1990 - North Shore News Cynicism could put democracy in peril NDP MLA Moe Sihota’s release of taped phone conversa- tions by Socred Attorney General Bud Smith leads to some gloomy conclusions about the present health of democratic government. NOT, however, because of Mr. Smith's free-wheeling comments on a sensitive legal case in conver- sations he assumed to be private with one of his Assistant Deputy Ministers and a TV reporter. No, the real problem is quite different. The taped interceptions (it seems eavesdropping on radio and cellular phone calls with a scanner is still legal) exposed Smith discussing how to kill a private prosecution of Socred MLA Bill Reid for alleged lottery fund ir- regularities. Sihota demanded Smith’s resig- nation for obstructing justice. Crying foul, a furious Premier Vander Zalm stormed out of the legislature with his cabinet to discuss damage-control. Under our parliamentary system one of the opposition’s most joyful duties is to unearth dirt on the government of the day and its individual members, eagerly assisted by the media, especially the audience-hungry tabloids and TV. Politicians being part of the human race — and not all of them excessively bright — there’s no lack of ‘‘scandal’’ material, whether arising from a wilful flouting of public office ethics or, much more often, just plain dumbness. That's amply borne out by the record of the Vander Zalm gov- ernment, afflicted by regular prat- falls such as Stephen Rogers’ con- flict of interest, the Knight Street pub, Billi Reid’s lottery fund caper, Peter Dueck’s expenses and Carol Gran’s love of government jets. In Ottawa Mulroney bears at least as many messy crosses. But the scandal artists and their media allies may well have overplayed their hand — because what we are now suffering from is scandal burnout. Although Bud Smith — caught redhanded by modern technology — has resigned in temporary disgrace, 171] bet that within a month the general public will recall the event merely with a big awn, The sad truth being that most people are now neither surprised nor especially outraged by such incidents, which they have come to accept as the political norm. Only short decades ago we still, to some degree, looked on political leaders as role models. Today there’s a deep, widespread cynicism about ALL politicians, especially among the young. So Bud Smith’s telephone in- discretions and the virtua! certain- ty that they'll be shrugged off by the time the next scandal breaks in Victoria or Ottawa, are only a symptom of the real problem. Cynicism has become our pain-killer against chronic scandal! — and once you grow addicted to a pain-kiiler, it gets harder and harder to kick the habit. That's a serious threat to the health of democracy. If we can no longer trust ANY leaders, why bother to elect them? ake POSTSCRIPTS: Accountant Bill Perrault heads North Van Chamber of Commerce as 1990-91 president following its recent a.g.m. — supported by past president Debbie Trinacty, 1991! president elect Bob Chambers, veepees Bill Heffernan and Ray Baroni, treasurer Bill Heese and a board of 22 other elected directors ... Still with the Chamber, two different color prints (8x10) of that striking Maple Leaf flag formed by 850 people atop Grouse Mountain on Canada Day, and shot from a helicopter, are now on sale at $18 a pair — phone 987-4488 or drop by the Chamber office, 131 East 2nd, to order ... Welcome to West Van’s new “Golden Club’? members Lawrence and Helen Hill who to- day, July 15, celebrate their first 50 years together — all in the house he built for them at 14th and King’s ... And happy 92nd birthday Tuesday, July 17, to West Van's legendary cinematographer Osmond Bor- radaile. ke K WRIGHT OR WRONG: If you’re unhappy, it’s better to be poor than rich. The poor have hope — they think money will help. BILL PERRAULT ...top North Van business spokesman, Dl | DONT CARE WHAT NEW | HORMONE YOURE TAKING ...FACT IS, YOU WERE DOING G5 INA AOK ZONE... NOWS ITEM: BOSTON SCIENTISTS DEVELOP GROWTH HORMONE ALLEGED To REVERSE AGEING... Gy G reen talk | promise that negotiations on an acid-rain accord will soon begin is too little too fate. Pp RESIDENT GEORGE Bush’s For a decade now Canada and the U.S. have discussed curtailing acid rain, but those talks have never materialized into any significant legislation. Bush’s latest announcement, made this week at the G-7 meeting, is an emp- ty symbolic gesture. And for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to hail it as a significant departure from past positions on environmentai protection is outright obsequiousness. . As the president of the Washington- based Sierra Club has charged, signing an accord when the U.S. is about to pass its Clean Air Act is ‘‘a little bit like scoring goals after the game is over.”’ Acid rain, a toxic mixture of sulphur and nitrogen oxide resulting from emis- sions of pollutants released into the at- mosphere, has already killed thousands of our lakes and is destroying Canadian forests. Despite this travesty the U.S. has re- used to impose restrictions on the deadly emissions produced by coal-burning fac- tories. And Canada’s track record hasn’t been much better. There may be more green talk coming out of Ottawa, but that only makes us look more hyp- ocritical. We may have already lost out on the acid rain front because of industrial sloth and government inaction. “Perhaps neighbors could get together with their hazardous wastes to save gas."’ West Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail during his council’s re- cent approval of a_ hazardous waste collection program proposed by the Greater Vancouver Regional District. **We'd hoped to feature it (stained glass window) in a special com- fortable alcove designed as a haven for relaxation. Will that plan, too, have to be altered?”’ West Vancouver Memorial Library funding campaign chair- man John Humphries in his ap- peal to the community for $1 mil- lion to help pay for the library’s expansion program. “He said we could still turn left on a green light. I said, ‘I’d like Publisher . Associate Editor Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw _..Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart = to see you try and make a left turn on a green light.’ The high- ways department said we never complained (about left-turn signals). Well they must have our letters on file some place and if they don’t then they’re damn liars."” Red Williams, who lives east of the Taylor Way and Inglewood intersection and says the highways ministry has ignored repeated re- quests from area residents to in- stall left-hand turn signals at the intersections. “I don’t know where they (coun- cil) get this. I don’t know what they’ve been smoking. I¢ just real- ly irritates me when they do this. I don’t see that happening in the near future. We have people who come by and look at the site and they talk to us and to other people THE VOICE OF NDETH AND WEST VANCOUVER, SUNDAY - WEONESOAY - FRIDAY North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an indepenuent suburban newspaper and qualilled under Schedule 111 Paragraph It of the Excise Ta» Act, is published each Wednesday, Faday and Sunday by North Shore Froe Press Lid and distubuted ta every door on the North Shore Second Class Mai Registration Number IKAS Subscaptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year ae Friday & Sunday) Matting tates avaiable on request Submissions welcome but we carcot accep! responsibdity unsolcited Mitethil Mciucing MaANUSCNpls ANd rctures which should be accompanied by a Slamped. agdressed envelope 1139 Lonsdale Avenue. North Vancouver. BC V7M 2H4 59,170 (average. Wednesday tor s ig y o> SDA DIVISION Display Advertising Classitied Advertising Newsroom Disinbution Subscriptions and then the media lights up." Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. president and chief executive of- ficer Peter Quinn denied a report that the North Vancouver-based shipyard will soon be submitting a residential development proposal to North Vancouver City council for part of its Lower Lonsdale property. “People who go down there do stupid things. Most of them (acci- dents) are stupidity-related. If a guy’s going to climb 40 or 50 feet up a tree and slips and hits a rock, that to me is stupidity, especially if the guy’s in his mid- 20s."” An_ unidentified North Van- couver RCMP spokesman on the brain power of people who jump from rocky cliffs in Lynn Canyon Park. 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore owned and managed Entire contents © 1990 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.