6 - Sunday, November 13, 1988 - North Shore News

INSIGHTS

Are we being conned in|
the free trade battle?

WEEKS AGC I WARNED anyone allergic to politics to
spend November in Hawaii. If you ignored me and now
have a headache, may I offer you a mild pain-killer?

DON’T try to understand
anything more about the free trade
deal. You'll only feel worse. For
every reasonable argument in favor
there’s an equally reasonable
argument against. On points the
debate is a straight tie with no fur-
ther score now possible by Nov.
21.
That’s because neither side has a
clue what will ACTUALLY take
place over the next 10 years with a
set-up that’s never been tried. If
certain things do and don’t hap-
pen, the deal could be an ongoing
bonanza for Canada. If other
things do and don’t happen, bye-
bye to tie True North Strong and
Free.

So all one can do this final week
is ponder MOTIVES and CREDI-
BILITY.

Ed Broadbent is fighting to win
(or keep) as many seats as possible

A ‘a

KEN GEORGETTI ...top labor

for his minority party. As a socia!-
ist, he automatically rejects the
naked market-forces credo of
Bush-league America. Honest Ed
simply stays true to himself.

John Turner is another matter.
Was it pure, unadulterated patri-
otism that led him to talk the
Senate into blocking the trade bill?
Or one last wild gamble to save his
hide on the hustings before his
own party ' quidated him? Is there
really a Liberal Sir John A. Mac-
donald under the maple leaf cloak
— or just a desperate opportunist
fighting for his political life with
no holds barred?

A month ago, despite Brian
Mulroney's own credibility pro-
blem, free traders handily out-
numbered opponents among
decided voters — their views
formed not in the heat of a cam-
paign but by calm assessment of
the deal as it unfolded from 1986
onwacd. Tories didn’t even see it
as a major vote-catching issue until
John Turner roared forth, slashing
and hacking, in the Oct. 25 TV
debate.

With the endless detailed pros
and cons all plausible but still un-
provable, Nov. 21 has to be ‘‘a
leap of faith’? anyway. Faith that
either the deal is Canada’s
economic salvation or that salva-
tion lies in doing nothing. One
other question remains: have we
been conned, and if so, by whom?
By Mulroney for the past two
years? Or by flag-clad Turner for
the past three weeks?

Sorry if traces of your headache
linger on!

Finish highway

HILE MANY commuters are delighted with
the recently announced Cassiar tunnel pro-

ject, Liozs Bay councillors are left fuming —

and rightfully so.

Parts of the multi-million dollar Squamish Highway

POSTSCRIPTS: The North Shore
became a little poorer last weekend
when my old friend Colin Smart
lost out to the big ‘‘C.”’ Wartime
RAF service, devoted family man,
successful private entrepreneur,
staunch supporter of West Van
United Church and a warm, hap-
py-making companion, he belong-
ed to a breed of which the com-
munity can never have too many
... B.C.’s sophisticated top labor
gun, university-educated Ken
Georgetti, acclaimed president of
the B.C. Fed and executive
member of the CLC, takes ona
free-enterprise audience Thursday,
Nov. 17, at the 12 noon Junch
meeting of North Van Chamber of
Commerce in the Canyon Gardens.
Guests welcome — just phone
987-4488 to tell them how many of
you are coming ... Quote of the
month from former highways
minister ‘‘Flying’’ Phil Gaglardi,
summarizing his philosophy of life
for North Van Kiwanians: ‘‘If you
want to have kids, behave — then
teach them how to do so!”’ ...
Recently elected Fellow of the
Australasian Institute of Mining &
Metallurgy is West Van’s Derrick
Humphreys, a longtime member of
the Institute from his pre-1950
mining career Down Under ... And
that recent auction by the North
Shore Association for the Mentally
Handicapped had Deug beating
Mary 7-1 as a table companion. A
lunch date with Capilano’s lady
MP went for $10. Bidding for the
lunch with the North Shore News
pet pit bull reached $70. Last
names? Oh, sorry ... Collins.

sae

WRIGHT OR WRONG: The first
thing a child learns when he’s
given a drum is that he’s never go-
ing to get another one.

WHAT THE NAVY
WANTS

WHAT THE COUNTRY
GAN AFFORD.....

NEWS photo Cindy Bailamy
SWFETENING ST. AGNES’S PURSE...Rev. Ray Walker and kis wife
Dolores prepare a batch wf fudge to be sold at the forthcoming St. Agnes
Anglican Church Fair. 3 Se fair — to be beld Saturday, Nov. 19 from 10
to 3 p.m. at the church & 11, 530 East 12th, North Vancouver -- will in-
clude a craft, food and white elephant sale as well as games for the
children.

improvement have been left in a dangerous state of in-
completion. The southbound acceleration lane out of
Lions Bay has already caused a rash of accidents, while
village council expects a fatality to result if drivers are
forced to use the temporary Bailey bridge erected at
Lonetree Creek all winter.

Squamish RCMP say the daily commuters on the
highway are aware of the dangers presented by these
problem areas and drive accordingly. However, no one
is looking forward to winter weather conditions and
the seasonal influx of weekend skiers who will
substantially add to the volume of traffic, making
conditions predictably more dangercus.

Local highways staff are trying to alleviate the pro-
blems by considering decreasing the traffic through
Lions Bay to single lane, and they have already coated
the Lonetree Creek Bridge surface with an anti-slip
substance.

When lives are at stake, however, half measures
aren’t acceptable. And as welcome as the Cassiar tun-
nel or Vancouver {sland highway improvements may
be, their implementation shouldn’t necessitate the ne-
glect of safety concerns on a highway that has already
claimed too many tives.

MHA WELL PROBABLY

setae

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