6 -— Friday, September 7, 1990 — North Shore News Plastic-happy Canadians face orim reality SOUNDING OFF recently about anarchy, the Indian problem and scemingly gutless politicians, I suggested that maybe we ought to take a hard look at OURSELVES in the mirror. This week — warning of an even more direct threat to Canada — one of the country’s top bankers urged Canadians to stop being financial hypocrites. Matthew Barrett, chairman of the Bank of Montreal, didn’t pull his punches. If we continue to ig- nore the now $350 billion national debt, he told the Vancouver Board of Trade, Canada is headed for economic disaster. And the guilty ones, he in- dicated, are really Mr., Mrs., and Ms. Average Canadian. Over the past six months they’ve been too preoccupied with Meech, the GST, Indian blockades and the Gulf crisis even to remember the debt — which, says Mr. Barrett, could destroy “everything we have achieved this century.”’ But the reality, he sug- gests, is worse than a mere tem- porary lapse of memory. The active sinners, of course (though Premier Vander Zalm might disagree in B.C.’s case) are wildly extravagant federal and provincial governments. ‘‘Yet can we without hypocrisy,’’ Barrett asked, ‘‘blame our leaders, when polls show so little voter concern with the deficit?” There’s a good reason why talk of the $350 billion debt — rising by around $80 million, plus inter- est, every single day — tends to be met with a yawn. Individual Ca- nadians as a whole are head over heels in hock themselves. Personal and household credit buying (read: debt load) has reached an all-time high — nudg- ing 60 per cent of all personal fi- nancial assets. And we do indeed seem to have remarkably short memories. The previous peak, in 1980, lower by a percentage point or so, dropped to less than 50 per cent by 1985. Since then it has soared back ~-- during 1987-88 by nearly 20 per cent — to its dangerous new level. We want the lot, we want it now and we’re ready to live well beyond our means to get it. But for plastic-happy Canadians the ultimate price tag can only be runaway inflation like the 10 per cent plus of a decade ago which triggered the worst recession since the Thirties. Government extravagance reflects the fact that our wants in- clude everything we think gov- ernment itself should ‘‘give’’ us. We don’t question searchingly enough the price of public policies, so neither do our MPs and MLAs. Noel Wright HITHER AND YON Banker Barrett puts it politely but precisely: ‘‘We have allowed Canada's evident prosperity end quality of life to beguile us into a false sense of financial security ... The debt should be at the top of the agenda. If it isn’t, it will soon be the ONLY thing on the agen- da.” Another way of repeating that wise old rule for all human behavior. If you don’t deal with reality, sooner or later reality will deal with you! eke WRAP-UP: From Russia with love — a recent house guest with West Van newlyweds Ald. Mark and Kathryn Sager was Valery Sabelkin, who piayed hockey with Team Russia against Canada 20 years ago. Now head of a Soviet outfit called Face to Face Joint Ventures, he was here exploring j.v. opportunities among B.C. en- trepreneurs ... UBC marks its 75th anniversary with week-long Homecoming celebrations Sept. 27 to Oct. 3. Highlights include a gala dinner dance, a classic foot- ball game, an Arts ’20 relay race and much more — call Ron Burke, 228-6410, for all the details ... Happy 55th anniversary today, Sept. 7, to Horseshoe Bay’s Charles and Helena Christie ... And many happy returns to West Van’s retired — and founding — Chief Librarian Elizabeth Musto on her 83rd birthday. kek WRIGHT OR WRONG: Success is doing what you like to do best and getting someonc to pay you for doing it. = CAUTION! / 67 GATE Vs ; anv Vf me i NO MISSING Science World!...Skytrain attendant Lorianne Amadeo (left) directs North Shore’s Kirsten and Leigh Newlands and Mimi Power at the newly re-named ‘Science World" Main St. Station. INSIGHTS wrt, coer hill Z ULL ity it NEWS VIEWPOINT Ferry tales the politically correct decision and delivered one of two $120-million superferry contracts to North Vancouver- based Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. But the Social Credit government has gone one step further in rejecting interna- tional bids for a second superferry. Highways Minister Rita Johnston said Thursday that the B.C. Ferry Corp. will begin negotiations immediately with Ver- satile for construction of the second vessel. Coupled with the award of the first superferry to Versatile, the decision to build the second ferry in B.C. represents an economic boon to shipyards in North Vancouver and elsewhere on the West Coast. It also provides further indication that a Te provincial government has made provincial election is just around the cor- ner. Versatile originally submitted a bid on only one of the two ferries, stating that it could not mect the 1992 delivery date for the first ferry. Its bid was one of the highest received, and its bid was the only one tendered by a Canadian shipyard. But to have awarded the ferry contract outside B.C. would have been political stupidity for the Socreds. It would also have hammered another nail in the coffin of the local shipbuilding industry. Thursday’s announcement, then, was politically correct, and, fortunately for the North Shore, it will be economically beneficial. LETTER OIF THE DAY Aboriginal rights are recognized in Constitution Dear Editor: Re: Aboriginal rights. Trevor Lautens’ Aug. 10 col- umn reflects an attitude of unnec- essary fear. Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution provides that ‘'The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.** Our choice is whether we want the courts to give meaning to those werds or whether we would prefer to use the political process. We do not have the choice of denying the existence of aboriginal rights. They are already recogniz- ed in our Constitution. Lautens’ article could contribute Publisher Associate Editor __. . Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw .Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart to a racial backlash rather than to goodwill and harmony. It is fool- ish to suggest that less than three per cent of the population seek to control the land mass of British Columbia. Claims that natives want B.C. ‘‘lock, stock and bar- rel”’ ignore the reality that no one is going to give away the province. We are entering a negotiating process. What must be done is to create the economic stability that native and non-native alike need to flourish in British Columbia. Continual uncertainty over pro- tracted court battles does not assist economic development. Confusion seems to exist be- tween modern ideas of land title THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WITT WNCOUVER SUNDAY + WIONESOAY + FHIOAY North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Wi of the Excise Tax Act, is pubhshed each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Snore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3: 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 85 80,170 (average, Wednesday Subsceiptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per yeat Mailing tates avatlable on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscnpts and pictures rt a which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Friday & Sunday) KO SF SDA DIVISION Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions (developed over the last two hun- dred years) and a concept of aboriginal title which predates our notion of private property. Native people have repeatedly stated that they are not claiming other indi- viduals’ private property. A charitable public opinion is what is necessary to put an end to confrontation. The shift in public opinion towards sympathy with the environment reflects a shift towards a traditional native way of thinking. Perhaps we can learn a lot more from the traditional native ways. David Schreck North Vancouver 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER Entire contents © 1990 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. nt prevent rere