6 — Friday, February 1, 1991 — North Shore News 1 SURVIVED YET AGAIN... AND NOT A MARK ON INE... —< INSIGHTS ites or, Gaer i iE 4 Cg NEWS VIEWPOINT Death of a salesman HE master salesman cannot sell himself. In his televised province-wide ad- dress on Tuesday night Premier Bili Vander Zalm peddled the party line, prais- ed the work his government has done since 1986 and unveiled a twelve-point election platform aimed at dealing with everything from the recession to the effects of the Persian Gulf War. Some of the promises sounded good: no one would argue against a tax freeze, and a fuel smart program to help deal with threatened energy sources brought about by the Persian Gulf makes good sense en- vironmentally and financially. -But Premier Vander Zalm can no longer sell his own public image. The sale of Fantasy Gardens and his role in that sale continue to cast doubt on the premier. And that doubt overshadowed what value there was in his Tuesday night ad- dress, while public doubts about the premier and his leadership continue to cast a wider pall over the province and the en- tire Socred party. Reporters questioning the premier after Tuesday night’s speech immediately con- fronted him on the sale of Fantasy Gardens. The conflict of interest question was again tendered; public suspicion was again raised. Premier Vander Zalm may be a master salesman, but when doubt lingers about the integrity of even a master salesman, his pitches will fall only on deaf ears. LETTER OF THE DAY Blackouts linked to cutbacks Dear Editor: After spending the night on my security job at the waterfront without power 1 passed by the nearest Hydro substation on my way home. The large fights which il- luminate that yard were brightly lit, yet nobody had power, even on a feeder line barely two line- spans long, across the railway twacks, half of which is under- ground cabie, and ‘‘weather- proof,”’ Before retiring, | once was an electrician on that crew which ser- vices this and other North Shore sub-stations on the system. | know that in order to have those yard Publisher ... Associate Editor |. Snore. Secon3 Class Mail Registration Number envelope. ...... Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw . .Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Paragraph IIt of the Excise Tax Act. 1s published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Nortn Snore Free Press Ltd. and disitibuled to every door on the North 3885 Subscriptions North and West Vancouver. $25 per year Mating ‘ates available on request Submussions are wetcome bul we cannot accept responsibility tor unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures e which should be accompamed by a stamped, addressed lights on, there has to be a feed from at least one incoming 60,000-volt supply circuit. In that case, there could have been some customers reconnected. The reason they weren’t, as well as the reason that outage lasted so long in some areas, is due to re- cent policy which has seen service crews cut to the bone. The crew from which I retired went from eight to four men, yet these are expected to continue maintaining the same number of stations as they maintained before the reduc- tions. Similar cuts have been made to crews in the lines department. That is whv line crews had to be Tek YOKE OF ‘omTH AND WEST VaNCOUUT NE SUNDAY WEDNERDAT rome 1139 Lonsdaie Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C V7M 2H4 §9,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) XS SDA DIVISION Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Fax called in from outside to lend a hand. Times are admittedly tough just now, and economies of operation are definitely prudent. But the fact is, if Hydro got rid of every employee it has, the savings still wouldn’t come close to equalling the costs of the borrowed money they are presently trying to repay. Cutting out experienced per- sonnel seems to be a false economy. It also undermines the reliability of service and the safety and secu- rity of the customers for the sake of saving a few dollars in wages. Ray Sutton North Vancouver 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER Mlade-for-TV Zalm outscores media pitbulls THE REASON Bill Vander Zalm’s media tormentors have so far failed to destroy him is simple. In the only medium that matters he’s better at their job than they are. es Noel Wright In this audio-visual age damn- ing headlines anc ranting colum- nists are no longer any real match for the TV camera. Seeing is believing — right? Thus, the iinai score once again on Tuesday evening, when B.C.’s made-for-TV Premier delivered his 20-minute ‘‘state of the province’ address and cheerfully underwent a 40-minute grilling by three TV journalists purportedly repre- senting the Voice of the People. His speech — the 1991 Socred election platform — was hardly Gettysburg standard and critics quickly panned his 12-point reces- sion-fighting program for lack of detail (though how much detail CAN you squeeze into 60 seconds per point?). Nonetheless, as TV, it was a highly competent performance. Wearing business-like glasses, Bill came over audio-visually with smooth, warm, confident sincerity — right down to the classic gesture of finally removing the glasses for his closing punch line. He gave viewers what they wanted to hear: promises to freeze taxes, create ‘‘enviro-jobs,’’ pro- tect jobs in ailing businesses, spend $1.4 billion on the forests, curb public service pay hikes and stand firm on Indian land claims. Plus plausible reminders of a solid Socred economic record so far. Sure, it maybe won’t all quite add up, but let those with more time do the math ~ at least the guy LOOKED and SOUNDED okay! Vander Zalm’s next 40 minutes under attack from CBC’s Kevin Evans, BCTV’s Jack Webster and UTV’s Russ Froese strengthened impressions that both they and he may be in the wrong business. Panel members first wasted one-third of the time chewing away at the dog-eared Fantasy Gardens sale story. ‘‘Of course I talked on the phone ... saw the documents,’’ said Vander Zalm, citing love of Lillian as the reason. “‘It’s not a piece cf gov- ernment property’? — so where was any conflict of interest? They never got to answer that one. Grimn-faced as prosecuting counsel in a soap opera — Webster quite alarmingly choleric — they then bored into Bill on the environment, doctors’ pensions, Bud Smith, ‘‘stolen’’ Indian land and why no leadership vote? Most of the questions were fair HITHER AND YON enough, but that was hardly the point. On the tube the humorless interrogators came over as human pitbulls savaging a smiling, cour- teous and, for the most part, remarkably relaxed victim. It was great TV — with no doubt about the star. Later, UTV ran a 30-minute yes-and-no phone quiz with the question ‘‘Did you approve of what the Premier said?”’ It drew over 700 calls — some 25 a minute. The score: “tyes’’ 54 per cent, *‘no’’ 46 per cent. It may not save him in the end. But one had to wonder where Mike Harcourt’s telephone troops were when needed! POSTSCRIPTS: If you've wondered what’s happened to North Van Rotary’s famous Capilano River Duck Race this year, relax —~ it’s set for Sunday, March 16, three weeks later than the usual mid-February date. One reason is to avoid competing with the Heart Fund. As well, there are only so many Sundays when the tide in the Capilano is right. Grand prize line-up, say orga- nizers, includes a theatre-’n-limo week in London, a trip to Nice returning via Concorde and lots more. The five-buck ducks will be on sale in mails, at North Shore Credit Union, numerous other stores and the ‘Y’ ... And female Cap College students can now benefit from a further $500 an- nual award thanks to the latest donation by the West Van Uni- versity Women — their Mary Neil Memorial Bursary endowment. NEW BURSARY for Cap women .. Photo submitted . (left to right) Randi Duke, Cap College resource development director, receives West Van University Women's endowment cheque from WVUW president Claudia Paton and v.p. Jean Johnston.