4 - Sunday, September 2}, 1986 - North Shore News Screened Top Soil #1 Quality $13.00 ya delivered locally (under 6 yds, extra cartage) Jones Bros 123 CARTAGE wn. 987-3000 Bob Hunter @ strictly personal ® 1 DON’T believe Brian Mulroney actually did anything has become more. not less, of at particularly wrong to land himself at the bottom of the despot. He has too much power! palls so quickly. Solution: Go to a system, like the admiiable Swiss, where the leadership oof the country is rotated automatically every year among an elected council. On a given day, most Swiss couldn't tell you the name of their current national leader. That's haw little he or she mat. ters in the scheme of things. Which is the way it should be. The Swiss voter concerns himself with issues, not per- sonalities. No wonder Switzerland is the most ra- tionally-governed country in the world. Everyone marvels at Swiss watches, but it is their political system which is the true wonder of the country. The behavior of Canada as a political entity, by contrast, grows loonier with every passing month. Our political contests have become celebrity quiz games with the paramount consideration be- ing the gross at the ballot box. With so much resting on his personal performance, the Prime Minister has no choice but to put on an ‘‘act.’’ It’s not just that it SEEMS hollow, it IS! The Prime Ministership has become a pop roadshow. Put the office out of its misery, f say. It no longer serves us well. In fact, it has become an expen- sive, de facto media monarchy with the sovereign making worse and worse blunders as more and more power is concentrated in his increasingly incapable hands. Of course he has betrayed the West, bungled the economy, pig- ged out, etc. But he hasn't done anything SERIOUSLY wrong, is what 1! mean, like get us into a war. He is doomed nevertheless, The fact is the Prime Minister- ship of Canada has become a dead-end rather than a pinnacle of power. Trying to rule Canada has always been a Quixotic assign- ment. From Macdonald to Trudeau, we see a long line of men grappling with a geopolitical windmill. No wonder so many of our illustrious leaders were either lunched or plain daffy! There was nothing in the primeval soup of history to predict the evolution of a strange entity like this country, a giant appendage to always-smaller em- pires, from France, Spain and Britain to America and eventual- ly, I suppose, to Japan. Canada and compromise are virtually synonyms. Rather than getting more streamlined, thanks to communications technology and the advent of computers, the formula for management of the country has actually got more compliczted. The compromises required now are stunningly complex, indeed. It used to be, you only had to be a schizophrenic to run the country. Now you have to bea multiphrenic, to coin a term. There are so many pressure groups, regional, ethnic, politi- cal, religious, economic and single-issue blocs, all firmly en- trenched, that the point has pass- ed where any one leader could hope to represent them all. The problem of power at the top in Canada has become the fact that leaders perceive themselves as having to at least TRY to be all things to Cana- dians. Their pollsters tell them so. Yet it is no longer possible. All that happens is that they inevitably tick EVERYONE off. Whomever he stands up for is bound to be disliked by someone else. Whatever cause he espouses, the opponents of that cause will be on his case. Anyone he tries to help is bound to have enemies who then become HIS enemies. There’s a solution. Take note, I’m not even kidding. We should abolish the office of Prime Minister. {[t has become counter-productive. And not just for the country. The -.ty system itself has been badly perverted by the arrival of mass media. Instead of being the dogs that wag the tails, the par- ties have all become tails. Mass media means the leader gets all the exposure. And so the fate of the party rests in his hands. Its popularity waxes and wanes with his. No wonder, with each suc- cessive prime minister, the man Wi/ SCHOOL BOARD PROGRAM Child abuse prevention okayed WEST VANCOUVER School Board (WVSB) has given its approval for the development of a child abuse prevention program to be ticipate in the program. The program wil! be run on an in- troductory basis for the 1986-87 school year, and will be reviewed by WVSB in June, 1987. Trustee Barbara Howard, chair- man of WVSB's Education Commit- to help combat a recent increase in child abuse cases. “Parents have become extremely aware of the problem and the need’ to ensure that their children are knowledgeable about what to do in situations that seem to threaten REC FITNESS Phone 988-6166 operated out of elementary schools in the district. By SURJ RATTAN Contributing Writer WYSB will also be allocating $5,000 to fund the program. It is up to the principals, teachers and parents of children in each elementary school to decide what kind of child abuse prevention pro- gram they want, and what that pro- gram will consist of. Those decisions will have to be made and submitted to the district's Supervising Principal of Special Education by Oct. 10. WVSB will review all of the pro- grams at a meeting Oct. 20. The programs will be integrated into the district’s elementary school curriculum and principals must tee, said the program was developed them,” said Howard. Women on Social Assistance! Job Re-entry - Clerical training/re-training. Fully funded. Combines classroom and on-the-job training. Call North Shore Continuing Education, 985-3695 ii OFFICE SPACE “SHOPPING LIST” THE OFFICES AT CAPILANO MALL The new Capilano Mall now has three floors of office space. Check these items a: , j and you will see that Capilano Mall is ‘make suitable arrangements” for “hl > a perfect for your new office. any children who do not want to par- CONCORDE COPY WHILE YOU WAIT SERVICE ON MANY JOBS HIGH QUALITY ECONOMICAL PRICING NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR COLLATING OR COLOURED STOCK 1350 PEMBERTON AVE. NORTH VANCOUVER copies,,..... Brand new offices designed to suit your requirements Five minutes to the Lions Gate Bridge and Upper Levels Highway Some offices with views of the harbour and skyline Spectacular foyer entranc2 with glass elevator 110 shops and services } : Ample FREE covered parking <> Fine Cuisine & Bistro Bar. from 5 PM. For Further Information Contact Roya ePage E Exclusive Agents David Thomas or Doug Mowatt - 683-. 311%