LETTER OF THE DAY Education interruption HE RECENT uproar over North Shore schoc! salaries has illustrated that finuncial compensation should “not be an issue for either school ad- ministrators or teachers. Theirs, it turms out, are comparatively ‘ fucrative careers. What should be an issue is the quality of local education and the dedication of those within the education system to produce what our country so badly needs if it is to maintain iis stature and quality of life: educated students. Even without benefits, salaries for North Shore school administrators are more than fair: in. District 44 they range from about $95,000 up to $126,000; in District 45 they range from about $70,000 up to $95,000. - The average annual teacher’s salary in both districts is around $50,000, without benefits, The school year includes approx- imately. 190 working days, which is about 30% less than most other people’s working years. Job actions and approaching strikes in B.C. school districts, therefore, confound and frustrate parents and the rest of the public. No one is begrudging school ad- ministrators or teachers a good living from the invaluable profession of educating our children. But parents shouid seriously begrudge the regular disruption of. their offspring’s education over issues thai have little real importance beyond scoring polit- ical points. NEWS VIEWPOINT Minimum wage should be set higher Dear Editor: Why would there be such a discrepancy between the minimum and union wages? A loaf of bread costs the same for everyone. There has been a spread of $15 “to $20 an hour for journymen for years. One is trying to catch up and the other is trying to keep ahead. J have said for years that with the cost of living as it is, the min- imum wage should be $7.50 per hour, and a cap put on high wages and salaries. A few more cents on a meal should not make) that much dif- ference to a couple that can af- ford to eat aut three or four times a week. They are just too lazy to make a meal or too busy making money. With a minimum wage of $7.50, it may be an incentive for more people to look for work and get off welfare. J.H. Cooley West Vancouver Publisher .Peter Speck - Managing Editor .. Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor...... ;.Noel Wright Sales & Markating Director. Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper anu qualified under Scheaute 111, Paragraph itl 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, Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates avaifabie on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material iacluding manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. Newsroom V7M 2H4 Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. @ Printed on 10% recycled + Newsprint North Shore managed Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER 980-0511 985-2131 SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. WHEN MIKE HARCOURT says his prayers each night, it’s a safe bet that Judi Tyabji is high on the list of those’ he asks the Lord to bless. The January uproar over Judi’s “Sust-good-friends’’ relationship with her boss and sometime over- night guest Gordon Wilson has not, it seems, died away. A heated Liberal caucus meeting 10 days ago behind closed doors reported- ly voted to issue an ultimatum to their party leader: Wilson must fire Tyabji as house leader, or: else... The ‘‘or else’ being that Wilson needs the support of 65% of the delegates at the party's convention in April to avoid a leadership review. He hasn’t yet caved in. But he concedes he has a tough fight ahead and admits he is keep- ing his ‘‘options open .’" This is far more than a mere titilating internal party squabole. The eventual outcome is of very direct importance to the 60% of B.C. voters who rejected Harcourt and his NDP dictatorship in 1991, Today’s Liberal caucus has Wilson alone to thank for being suddenly catapulted — snuch to its own surprise — into the role of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. Yet ever since, it has been expen- ding morc energy fighting the leader to whom it owes it ex- istence than fighting the socialist government it should be working to replace. Whether the Gord-and-Judi issuc has anything much to do with good government for B.C. is open to question. But it's shaping’ up to be the sword on which the © first Liberal Opposition in 40 years finally impale as itself — thereby realizing its apparent death-wish. in 1991 British Columbians still showed their majority preference by electing the NDP on probation ; with a reduced popular vote of —; DAVID MITCHELL... the obvious warning. sounding GORDON WILSON... concedes a tough fight ahead. t HITHER AND YON only 40.8%. Meanwhile, by split- ting — for good reasons at the time — the 60% opposition vote, they gave the Liberals their first chance since the early 1950s to become B.C.’s free enterprise voice. : But with this latest bickering anid backstabbing the latter are al- ready on the verge of screwing up completely. And ironically, it is Liberal defector David Mitchell, West Van’s maverick MLA, who now sounds the obvious warning. The defeat of the NDP by 1996... calls for ONE effective free enter- “prise party -~ not two ineffective . halves, Whatever the name, it will clearly have to include the best of Gordon Wilson's present bunch plus Jack Weisgerber’s ‘‘cleansed’ Socreds — whose corporal’s guard in the legislature has been doing a significantly better job than the official opposition. - The mutineers in the Liberal | caucus — preoccupied with trying to eat their creator alive and ne- glecting the job for which they were elected — would be smart to figure out the score themselves.- Before free enterprise British . Columbians figure it out for them. TAILPIECES: Footnote to the above — you're very welcome to attend the North Van Liberals’ $5 breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. . 13, in the Coach House Inn where Gordon Wilson (still very much alive) will address the faithful and the curious ... Then on Sunday take your true love to the 11 a.m. Valentine Day Heritage Brunch sponsored by North Van City Heritage Advisory Committee — call 983-7351 for tickets ... This Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. are also North Shore Softball . Assn. registration days for boys aged seven to 19 at Lynn Valley ~ Centre — call Jack Hubbard, 987-BALL, for info ... And many happy returns of Thursday, Feb. 11, to North Van Kiwanis birth- day boy Doug Horner. : WRIGHT OR WRONG: If we had as little on our minds as ele- phants do, we too could | remember.