Exit: Quebec? F ONLY it were over. The Quebec elec- tion, the referendum, the decision — whatever it may be — and the details. Everything. As Westerners, many of us feel like chil- dren who have been crouching on the stairs night after night for years, listening to our parents bicker and scream and threaten to leave each other. Much of the time we silently pray it won’t happen — our parents have been together as long as we’ve known them. Their constant feuding is our familiar landscape. But when the crockery really flies, we can’t help but cringe and wish they’d make the break. We’re particularly sick of their perpetual accusations of indifference when it’s obvious the two players are anything but indifferent to each other. Without a sparring partner, how will these individuals define themselves? Won’t Canada, without its proud percep- tion of itself as a country founded on two cul- tures, become a kind of bland, jiggly English pudding — a custard to which various new- comers can only try to add piquant nuggets? How unappetizing. Quebec, which claims that the rest of Canada threatens its cultural heritage, has nevertheless flourished culturally in a way the other provinces have not. How wil! this enclave of French-speaking people survive in a North American market where it can no longer take for granted the cooperation of nine other provinces and two territories? At worst, it will have to deal with their outright antipathy; at best, it will meet with ennui. Perhaps this marriage really is doomed. If it must end, end it. Meanwhile, we can’t help but wonder what will become of the children. “He's the most offensive man Pve ever met.” Coatition for Gun Control spokesman Ray Eagle on his recent meeting with Capilano-Howe Sound MP Herb Gruhel. (Front a Sept. 4 News story.) “One life dies, and another begins. And this is a new tife for me. I can hardly remember the other life.” Story.) life.’ ” Publisher........... Managing Editor Associate Editor... Sales & Marketing Director... .Linga Stewart Comptrolier Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. ..Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw «Noel Wright Newsroom V7M 2H4 North Vancouver actor Jay Brazeau on personal changes. (From a Sept. 7 Now Spotlight “As Fen used to say, ‘Once you get involved, you’re hooked for Jim Wardlaw on the sporting spirit of North Shore amateur base- bafl and soccer coach Fen Burdett. (From a Sent. 7 News sparts story.) Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising Classitied Advertising North Vancouver 8.C. North Shore Managed “They are sympathetic. They also realize that the highway is very popular.” Westview Interchange Action Committee chairman David Steiner on the reaction at the provincial level to concerns his group has about a proposed alignment of the Westview Interchange. (From a Sept. 9 News story.) 980-0511 Distribution 985-6962 Subscriptions 986-6222 Fax 985-2131 Administration MEMBER 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 ths newspaper contains recycled fibre SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulauon, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) TT Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. ® Only one way 24 to halt growth in population NO MATTER what kind of declaration the Cairo popu- lation conference winds up with this week, it has at least exposed, as never before, the only possible solution to the population crisis. For Unat, thank in part the clash of ideologies in Cairo — the tem- porary moral alliance of the Vatican and the Mustim world, jointly batting what they condemn as the Western world’s immmearal, family-destructive answer to the problem. Whatever you nay think about the theologies, they're nevertheless right for a purely factual reason, Flooding the Third World tomor- row with abortion clinics, condoms and the pill simply won't work. Wherever a male-dominated socivty subsists in acute poverty — which describes so much of the Third World — large famities are their parents’ only form af “wel- fare” and “old-age pension.” You produce 10 children in the hope that at least two or three will sur- vive to take care of you whea you can no longer support yourself. There's no way free condoms and pills will change that overnight. Conversely, advanced societies like the First World's 25% of the global population no longer need or produce large families for survival purposes. Today the North American fertility rale is only just 66 Flooding the Third World tomorrow with abortion clinics, condoms and the pill simply won’t work. 99 at the replacement level of 2.1 chil- dren per woman (1.9 in Canada). The European rate of 1.7 is well below replacement level. With tough government inter- vention China has also got its rate down to 1.8. But overall in the developing world — which accounts for three out of every four of Earth’s inhabitants — the rate is 3.6. In Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan it’s a terrifying 6.2, and in Africa 3.8. So the answer to the population explosion stares us in the face: raise living standards by developing eco- nomic prosperity. As well, the history of economic prosperity in our western world, especially during the 20th century, has gone hand in hand with the emancipation of women as contrib- utors to the economy and con- sumers of its output. And once women enjoy equal status with mea, it's they, no longer the men, who set a much reduced fertility agenda. At that point, Third World —_——-—. wamen will also seck condoms, the pili and safe abortion — like so many good Catholic women already do. But getting them to that point through aid and education, particularly in still-primitive Africa, is an awesome challenge for the developed world, currently still battered by ecanamic woes of its own. Meanwhile, the message from the Pope and the mullahs cannot be lightly dismissed. Sure, they say, the industrialized west has conquered population problems with condoms, the pill aad abortion. But what’s the bot- tom line? Rampant promiscuity. Breakdown of the family and its values. Fatherless kids galore. Test- tube children being raised by gay and lesbian couples. AIDS, youth violence and crime at an all-time high. That is what happens, they warn, when you flout God and Allah. Maybe — though surely lessons painfully learned by the West might in some way be used to avoid similar problems when liber- ating and empowering Third World women. But whatever path is fol- lowed, secular or theological, that other crucial question constantly looms. With the planet’s current 5.7 bil- lion people now adding a further billion every 10 years, can any solution possibly come in time? SCRATCHPAD: Guest speaker Thursday, Sept. 15, at the 11:30 ¢ a.m. North Van Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting at the North Shore Winter Club is four- day workweck crusader Bruce QO’ Hara, author of Working Harder /sn't Working — call 987-4488 by Tuesday... Capilano Power and Sail Squadron holds a basic boat- ing course Tuesday, Sept. 13, anda seamanship power course Wednes- day, Sept. 14, cach at 6:30 p.m. — call 921-9395 or 926-6726 for info... Silver Harbour has a 9 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. day trip to Whidby island Naval Station Wednesday, Sept. 14. Advance tickets ($24.25 including lunch} essential — calf 980-2474... Congrats Monday, Sept. 12, to North Van's Roly and Stella Jo Dean on their 43rd anniversary... And many happy returns of that same day to West Van Kiwanis birthday boy BiH Davidson. ves WRIGHT OR WRONG: An opti- mist is someone who believes a hausefly is looking for a way to get out.