4 - Wednesday, September 2,

1982 ~ Narti: Shore News

Constitutional deal stiffs

fastest growing province

OUCH! What a tough cail.
The latest constitutional
package.

A while back I wrote a piece
praising Joe Clark’s work in get-
ting the premiers (sans Bobby
Bourassa) to agree to a deal that
would bring in the Triple-E
Senate, establish aboriginal self-
government, and give Quebec
enough playthings to feel at home
in the sandbox.

Something happened on the way
from lunch at the prime minister’s
place.

Self-government is still there,
albeit with land claims limits, a
five-year phase-in period, and
lots of lawyers and judges invoiv-
ed.

But something awfully weird -
happened to the Triple-E. And
something even weirder to the
age-old concept of one person,
one vote. (There. I went and said
person again.)

Rep by pop has never actually
existed in Canada, of course.

In its place we have a
parliamentary system wherein the
winner takes all on a.constituc-
ncy-by-constituency basis, leading
to such undemocratic side-effects
as Brian Mutroney winning a ma-
jority with less than half the
votes, and Bob Rae doing the
same, with even less, in Ontario.

The constitutional deal which so
impressed me has disintegrated in-
to a complicated mish-mash that
would leave everyone except
Quebecers voting for senators.
How equal can that be? We elect
em, but Quebec picks 'em.

At dest, it will be a Senate ‘vith
three-quartezs equality, the dif-
ference between elected and ap-
pointed being the difference be-
tween night and day.

Why on earth should some
hand-picked bagperson (did it
again!) or party hack from
Quebec have a vote equal toa
senator who was duly elected,
after spending a wad of moncy
time and energy,to earn that
«. tight?

_Imean, this is an improvement
aver the current Senate, which is &
boil on the rump of democracy, a
travesty that ought never to have
existed, and that simply should
have been all-elected or all-
dismantied.

As it is now, it drives one more
wedge between folks in'‘Quebec,
whose governing party will still
have a tax-funded patronage
trough to reward their own, and
the rest of the provincial ad-
ministrations, which will heve to
put up with duly-elected senators

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STRICTLY PERSONAL

who just might have independent
thoughts.

Cosy deal for Quebec, eh?

Meanwhile, back on the West
Coast, what happens? We have a
guarantee now that Quebec, which
already exerts a disproportionate
influence over national events, will
continue to do so ‘‘for eternity.”

Eternity is a pretty awesome
length of time. So far, no regime
or nation has lasted that jong.
Even the planet is not expected to
Jast for eternity.

Of course, what do I know?
Maybe, after the sun itself has
burned out in a few billion years,
Canada and Quebec will still be
drifting bilingually in the void.
Maybe still having constitutional
mectings.

Ina nutshell, British Columbia
-~ the fastest-growing province --
has been thoroughly stiffed.

My kids and yours will get to

. vote for their handful of senators,
but even if B.C.’s population goes
to Ki million, and Quebec’s actu-
ally shrinks, our kids will still be
woefully underepresented in Ot-
tawa.

And as time goes by, the
undevepresentation will inexorably
increase.

I have yet to see any commen-
tary on the impact this new, con-
voluted and essentially anti-
democratic deal will have on the

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vital question of the prime
ministership.

Strange. Because, as far as I
can see, what this does is virtually
guarantee that we will also have a
prime minister from Quebec for
eternity.

The Quebec tendency to vote as
a bloc, which deposited Pierre
Trudeau and Mulroney alike in
the PM's office, isn’t likely to
change.

If anything, it will likely
become more pronounced,
especially since the sense of dif-
ferentness that distinguishes
Quebecers from the rest of com-
mon Canadians, will be enhanced
by their 25% parliamentary guar-
antee, with its attendant senatorial
patronage system.

Talk about a ‘‘distinct society”!
Quebec won't even have the same
system of government.

Joe Clark tries to defend the
deal by comparing it to the Magna
Carta, the Declaration of In-
dependence and the UN Charter.

I'm sorry, but weren’t these
other historic documents intended
to increase equality, not guarantee
the priviliges of cne entrenched
and powerful group over others?

If anything, this constitutional
hodgepodge guarantees an ever-
increasing degree of inequality and
unfairness as Canada’s population
grows outside the boundaries of
Quebec.

Logically (not that logic has
much to do with any of this, it’s
all bare-bones realpolitik), the on-
ly way to maintain a degree of
equal representation in a future
Canada is to slam the doors on all
immigration now, before the
unevenness of our constitutional:
arrangement worsens.

Having said all this, 1, for one,
find myself in a real quandry. if
the only issues involved were the
unfair Senate and the unfair
guarantee of future powers, !
would simply be against the deal,
no matter what.

Yet the deal does one good and
noble thing. It entrencshes
aboriginal self-government. In my
next column, {ll try to deal with
that particular paradox.

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Effective Sept. 7, 1982
For North Vancouver

This Fall we'll be making a number of schedule adjust- -
ments and improvements in your community to meet
seasonal demands, including service to the UBC campus
and the introduction of eight new accessible routes.
Here are the changes to !ook for:

SEASUS
Effective September 13,1992 midday service
on Sundays and public holidays reverts toevery _
30 minutes. i

Lonsdale Quay/Pemberton Heights/

St. Patricks

Service to the W.E. Lucas Centre will resurne
for the Fall.

‘ Lonsdale Quay/Grouse Mountain .
Seasonal service to Grouse Mountain will revert
to every hour through to Thanksgiving Day.

West Vancouver/U8C

North Vancouver/UBC

Peak period service to UBC will resume with the
start of Fall classes. ;

NEW ACCESSIBLE SERVICE

We've increased the number of wheelchair .
accessible buses within the Lower Mainland service area. -
Lift-equipped buses wiil be added on the following routes .
in North and West Vancouver in mid-October: .

#211
#272
#2174
#215
#226
#250

Seymour/Phibbs Exchange

eep Cove/Phibbs Exchange

Blueridge/Phibbs Exchange

indian River/Phibbs Exchange

Lonsdale Quay/Pembarton Heights/St. Patricks
Horseshoe Bay/Vancouver

#251 Queens/Vancouver

#252 inglewood/Vancouver . .
Call 261-5100 for complete details on service implementa-
tion dates, accessible stops and times of accessible trips for
each route.

For more information on these and other Service Changes:
Read the Aug. 28 edition of the Buzzer.
® Sick up new timetables, free of charge, at
public libraries, city and municipal halls,
chambers of commerce and Travel InfoCentres.
© Call Transit information 261-5100 or
West Vancouver Information aia

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