NU CASB OF WAR THE PREMIER CON RETREAT To oN UNDEREROIND BUNKER, WHICH 3150 HAS SCtommODOTION FOR THE Media... a LAS ASSSSSSIOHES LLL La hee eacdasesiisde EE necetithidsssuststsiciiciic LL Kea PHILO MOLL ESTEE te eee REE seoees. SRT WALittlttyybyy Yyyyyyuiininiannyyyyyy Voters vs. common sense ESIDENTS spoke louder than technical advice in the recent deci- sions by North Vancouver City Council and the provincial government to choose the diamond over the loop inier- change design for the Westview Drive and Upper Levels Highway intersection. Advice from both Neorih Vancouver Ci- ty’s engiseesing department and an in- dependent engineering firm hired by the highways ministry backed the loop design for the $22-million interchange. The advice was based on studies that showed the loop would be fess disruptive to build and, ultimately, better for traffic flow. But both North Vancouver City Council and the provincial highways minister ig- nored the advice. An effective lobbying effort by the Homeowners Against the Loop Option LETTER OF DAY (HALO) appears to have convinced the politicians that the concerns of area resi- dents carry more weight than the advice of engineering experts. HALO, which has battied the loop design since it was first proposed in 1985, lkas argued that the loop would have a far more negative impact on area environment and quality of life than would the dia- mond. HALO petitions opposing the loop were signed; HALO presentations to council were made. Some extremely valid points were raised by the residents against the loop design, in favor of the diamond, despite technical advice to the contrary. In the end, the diamoxd von. Those making the final choice on the in- ‘ terchange should have based their decisions on all the evidence presented, not just the evidence presented by area voters. Don’t mix library, rink issues Dear Editor: correct a the I would like to misconception expressed in letter from Ann and Bil! Earl, ‘*Mall should have rink’? iNorth Shore News, Nov. 25). The writers suggest that an ice rink would be a more important element in the proposed Parkgate commercial/ recreational development on Mount Seymour Parkway than a **second”’ library. The public library proposed as a part of the Parkgate complex has always been planned to replace the present Seycove Branch; there has never been any question of having two libraries in the area. The North Shore News article “Survey uncovers library need” Publisher Associate Editor .. Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, tounded in 1569 as an inaepenaent suburban newspaper and quaified under Scnedute 111. Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act. 1s published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and arstrbuted to every door on the North Shore. Secona Class Mail Registration Number 3485 Sudscriptions Norn ang West Vancouver, $25 pet year Mailing tates availapie on request Subrrussions are welcome bul we Cannol accept responsipiity tor unsolicited matenal inciuging manuscnpts ana pictures. a which should be accomaanied by a stamped. aadressea env ope Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright makes it plain that there is a serious need for a new library fa- cility in this rapidly expanding area. The combined school/public library at Seycove has worked well for the past 10 years, but over- crowding is now causing major problems for both parties. When the public library moves to Parkgate, the school library will also have the space it so badly needs. Ninety-six per cent of the respondents to the recent library- sponsored questionnaire listed the new library as a very important community facility; 62 per cent indicated that the proposed Parkgate location would be con- venient. In an earlier survey, conducted org reer i139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) XO OF SDA Div!siION Dispiay Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions Fax for the District of North Van- couver in 1985 by Thomas Con- sultants Ltd., respondents gave the library the third highest rank- ing among the proposed retail and community land-use objectives, behind only a supermarket and a drugstore. It is evident that a new library facility for the eastern area of the district. is essential, and that Parkgate is the obvious location. The question of whether or not an ice rink is needed, or even fea- sible, is a different issue altogether, Cotin Lawrence Chairman North Vancouver District Library Board 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 North Shore owned and managed Controlling ‘power surges’ the vital task THE GULF crisis suddenly makes the GST, Canada’s constitutional brawl! and Bill Vander Zalm’s leadership battle seem pretty small potatoes. Yet through them all there runs a common thread. it's called POWER. Henry Kissinger described it as an aphrodisiac. Historian Lord Acton declared that it corrupts absolutely. Mao said it comes out of the barrel of a gun. Take your choice, but humanity can neither function without it nor tolerate too much of it. As with a washer or refrigerator, power is needed for human society to operate. Some- body has to provide the energy to make its wheels turn smoothly. But like appliances, society can be damaged by power surges — . especially if their voltage (read, purpose) is wrong to begin with. Saddam Hussein demonstrates this philosophical truth, of course, better than anyone since Hitler. Both his voltage and his present power surge are potentially devastating to the civilized world. But our little domestic troubles follow the same basic pattern. The GST, a fundamentally sen- sible tax concept, has been fatally flawed by Brian Mulroney’s power surge. At 14 per cent in the polls he needs all the money he can get to purchase votes in the next 18 months. Hence his refusal to heed the massive outcry over the absurd complexities of the tax, the obstacles to monitoring it and well-founded fears that the extra GST billions will NOT be used for their only acceptable purpose — attacking our horrendous $370 billion debt. They won't, of course. They'll be squandered in the bid to buy Mulroney a renewed grip on power in 1992-93. On the Constitution, the PM’s power surge — temporarily short-circuited by the Meech fias- co — isn’t the only one. Equally bent on exercising or retaining power regardless of what 80 per cent of the population wants are PQ leader Jacques Parizeau, Bloc Quebecois leader Lucien Bouchard and Quebec Premier Bourassa. All with their private power agendas, and to hell with the rest of us. Likewise, B.C.’s current Socred power struggle over Bill Vander Zaim’s leadership, which ignores the long range impact on the pro- vince as a whole. Other things being equal, more British Columbians might still prefer to remain plugged into the free enterprise Socred ‘‘voltage’’ than risk an economic brown-out with the NDP. eo. ee: SADDAM Hussein teaching us tc learn. HITHER AND YON Noel Wright But even though the Premier appears to be winning out over the rebels, their combined power surges may already have blown the divided party’s fuses as an ef- fective 1991 election machine. And so it goes on in virtually ever; form of human organization — the unions, corporations, trade, health, education, charities and ‘the church hall. Maybe we’ll never learn how to curb destructive personal power surges before they burn out the wiring of everyone directly af- fected. But Saddam is at least a grim reminder that we'd better keep trying. eee DATELINES: Heading the 1991 hom-coming parade comes Fruit- vale in the beautiful Beaver Valley east of Traii, which celebrates Aug. 2-4 with receptions, dances, pancake breakfasts, beef brunches and all the usual hoopla. Send s.a.e. (No.10 size) to K.W. Mit- chell, Box 272, Fruitvale VOG 1L0 for full details ... Just time for neophyte sailors to get to Windsor School by 8 p.m. tonight, Jan. 16, and register for the Capilano Power Squadron’s spring boating course ... And contrary to Shaw Cable TV Telepages there’s no such animal as ‘‘Thursday, Jan. 27!’ Correct date for North Van Chamber of Commerce’s lunch meeting at the North Shore Winter Club, with Mayor Murray Dykeman as guest speaker, is tomorrow, Jan. 17, at 12 noon —. call 987-4488 to reserve. oee WRIGHT OR WRONG: Behind every successful working woman is an enormous pile of laundry.