1 —- North Shore News

a ~

A little math
rightens look
of Quebec vote

WHEN AGONIZING over Quebec, a little math can be
helpful. After all, democracy is based on math — the idea,

WELL DEAR , WHEN You

_ WENT 16 SCHOOL , THE
ae _— INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
OF BUSINESS WAS LATIN.

NEWS VIEWPOINT

Drive drinking home

part ia the fight to take drinking

drivers off the road. :

. As a friend, make sure that someone

. wko has been drinking doesn’t drive home.
Get them te give up their car keys, take a
cab, or allow you to drive them home.

As a host, provide non-alcoholic drinks
as an alternative for your guests. Let them
stay overnight.

As a parent, talk about the dangers of
drinking and driving with your children.
Let them know that you are concerned
that they return home safely with a sober
driver. Set a good example.

As an. employer, ensure that your

I T’S TIME to make a pledge to do our

employees are aware of the risks and con-
sequences of drinking and driving. Use
ICKEC as a resource for literature and sem-
inars on the topic. Become one of the
many companies that have established
policies on drinking and driving for
employees attending corporate functions.

And as a citizen, become involved in the
effort to eradicate drinking and <siving in
your community. Talk to focst golice or
ICBC about becoming involved ix « traffic
safety committee.

if you see a suspected drinking driver on
the road, don’t let it pass. Call the police.
Tips from citizens result in approximatley
15% of all impaired driving charges laid.

NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“I don’t think it will make a very
good deli item though.’*

Local mechanical engineer Peter
Roosen, on his company’s new
vegetable-oil-based plastic, after
eating a portion of the product to
show its non-toxicity.

“Oh, they’re just lunatics. You
wouldn't believe the things that go
on around here. But a lot of it is
just to get the pressure off. But
the humor is just unbelievable.
You wouldn’t allow half of it out-
side the door.”’

North Vancouver City Fire
Chief Tom Cumming, on the an-

Publisher

Associate Editor...
Advortising Director
Comptroller

independent suburban newspaper

....Peter Speck
Managing Editor imothy Renshaw
. .Noel Wright
Linda Stewart

Doug Foot
North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an
f and qualified
under Schedule 111, Paragraph Iil of the Excise

tics of fellow firefighters to defuse
the pressures of the job.

**,..We're not dying. In the nor-
mal course of television business,
shows will come and go. If we
were all still sitting here watching
“Guasmoke’’, life would be a lit-
tle boring.”’

Cannell Studios general manag-
er Ralph Alderman, on the ups
and downs of producing television
shows.

“A bad book is a bad book,

whether it’s Canadian or not.’
North Vancouver MP Chuck

Cook, questioning the need for

Display Advertising 980-0511
Real Estate Advertising 985-6982
Classified Advertising 986-6222
Newsroom 985-2131

THE VORCE OF MONTH AND WEET WUNCOUVE

/north shore

Distribution
Subscriptions
Fax
Administration

subsidizing the Canadian book
publishing industry.

“For those of you who were of-
fended by my intention te bring «
smile and a laugh to someone’s
face, I apologize. Fer those of
you who have laughed and to the
children who have smiled, I raise
my hat and wish you all a very
merry Christmas.” .

Butcher Peter Black, after a
Dundarave area resident com-
plained about a Christmas tree
Black had decorated with meat as
part of a fundraising effort orga-
nized by Peppi’s restaurant.

986-1337
986-1337
985-3227 B
985-2131

MEMBER

North Shore
managed

Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and ff “
distributed to every door on the North Shore. a
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ST VAN

SUNDAY + WEDNESOAY + OMICAY ‘ . .

1139 Lonsdale Avenue, ~~
North Vancouver, B.C.

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61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)

Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. ,

. SOLUTION?...

when last I looked, being to easure the greatest good of

the greatest number.

Examining the current constitu-
tional crisis that way, the numbers
immediately tell you something
that’s widely overlooked. The
problem for Ottawa and the other
nine provinces is not Quebec at
all. It’s simply Jacques Parizeau
and his Parti Quebecois.

All the flip-flap-flopping ai the
moment by Anglo Canada and its
alleged leaders arises from next
October’s gun-at-the-head
deadline for a Quebec referendum
on whether or not to stay in Con-
federation. If it resulted in, say, a
60% vote for separation (presently
seen by the pollsters as excessively
optimistic), that would be the
decision of ‘‘the people of
Quebec” — right?

Wrong. At best it would be the
decision of only one Quebecer out
of three — about 2.3 million out
of the 6.8 million population.
‘That is the read-out you get after
allowing for a record 80% turnout
by Quebec's 4.7 million eligible
voters.

A true ‘‘majority of Quebec"’
would need an unheard-of 92%
“*yes’’ vote.

Meanwhile, even the doubted
**60% majority’’ for sepazation
would mean the decision to
destroy Canada — not to mention
inflicting heavy costs on two out
of three innocent fellow Quebecers
— had been made by precisely
8.6% of the nation’s 26.5 million
citizens.

Another aspect of the problem,

PROBLEM... PQ
ques Parizeau.

Premier Robert
Bourassa.

Noei
Wright 7

HITHER AND YON

however, is Quebec Premier
Robert Bourassa. He’s good at
math and has no doubt at all
about which side Quebec’s bread
is buttered — the side staying in
Canada. But the Parizeau gang
and its supporters have hitherto
been just big and noisy enough to
hold Bourassa and his ruling Lib-
eral Party hostage on the in-
dependence issue. .

So to date the premier has felt
forced to play hardball with the
rest of Canada, though recently
he’s been softening his act a little
— proposing a review of the out-
door sign law and hinting he
might even, after all, get together
with the other premiers.

What does it af! add up to dur-
ing the next 10 cliffhanger
months?

First, there's no reason
whatever to get mad at Quebec
itself.

Second, Bourassa the dark
horse may be a better bet than he
at times seerns. For a closet feder-
alist between a rock and a hard
piace his track record so far is
pretty smooth. He may yet outrun
the PQ.

If not, the time will have come
to stop mincing words and call
Parizeau’s goal exactly what it is
— treason punishable under the
law of Cenada against a majority
of Quebecers and all other Cana-
dians.

WRAP-UP: ‘‘Sweet Music’’
Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m.
comes from four concert and two
jazz bands plus orchestra and
vocal jazz choir at Handsworth
Christmas Concert — 1044 Edge-
mont with tickets at the door ...
Thursday, Dec. 19, brings Neigh-
bourhood House’s 6-9:30 p.m.
Christmas Lights Tour of Van-
couver including a mini-railway
ride in Stanley Park — call 987-
8138 to book ... Make LIFE your
Christmas gift tomorrow and
Tuesday, Dec. 16-17 at the Lions
Gate Hospital blood donor clinics,
2:30-8 p.m. each day ... And
many happy returns of today to
another West Van Kiwanis birth-
day boy, Don Waddell.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Research
scholars have found that Murphy
did not write Murphy’s Laws.
They were written by another man
of the same name.