The Horth Shore Nowa ts published by Worth Sheva Free Press Ltd., Publistor Poter 2peck, trom 1139 Lonsdale Averxe Worth Vancouver, 8.C., YIM 284 PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (101) am re Doe Dhl Homan Resources Manager 985-2131 ch ey eal atta Fa. ‘008-1433 Nowrercean Fax S80-2158 decorating & Kain Office Fax 905-3227 earth Shore tens, founded in ‘1969 as an Suburban newspaper and qualified”, independent under Schedule 111, Paragraph 11! of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednisday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press _ Lid, and distributed to every door on the North v Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail + Sales Product Agreement No, 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. C2 3S ta e = REL I ee RTE UA BA LN STS TY AISA LE RSS LIN AIOE MITTEN YUL ROME PA LES LE STRELA O ITE STEIGER , sipeuialk| Appia sales news viewpoint “wa the year goes to... David Mitchell! What a performance. Said Mitchell to the ' News ‘when asked whether. he wants to be considered again for the job of conftict-of- : interest ‘cominissioner: “I think it's easy to understand that the events of this week have forced me. toire-evaluate whether or not the institution’ of Parliament needs the: strain , that my: nomination would have on the job.” Strain? in the whirlwind | events of last. full-blown. gag reflex. Victoria choked. and spat Mi chell right out of the picture.’ up deal concocted between the. week © witnessed a" Parliamenta " The sweet tcheli proved itself to. be unpalatable. The issue is not one of limited. interest to. ardent followers of the. Pee ‘lip-flop f | HE ENVELOPE, “please. ‘And the. - award for. political understatement of. blatant example of a naked power grab and © political tinkering with an apolitical role.” __- Ted Hughes was to serve out his five-year — term to May 22. Premier Glen” Clark . ‘attempted to ensure a successor to his. ‘diking - ‘ would be in place and therefore tried to ‘push _ out Hughes ‘and rush in Mitchell, prior to. the reconvening of the house this month. No © messy debate would have been necessary for. a job that cails for even-handedness in ani often volatile political environment. Mitchell. is on‘record as being an outspoken critic of ‘ the provincial Liberals. To be fair he’s lam- basted the NDP too, but it’s his history with the Liberals that. most interested Clark. Tiie Liberals:cried foul and rightly so. — The big losers in the whole political farce: are Mitchell's constituents. They. have: beén ©’ -trustee’s report. Dear Editor: Will my child’ be able to - graduate from high: school “next year and will he have the courses necessary for post- secondary education? If Mr. Bob Smith’s report is’ imple- mented by the Ministry ‘of. - Education the answer may be - “no! Mr. Smith has recommend: ed that, unlike every other: B.C. school: district, North: Vancouver should, not offer’ | extra academic courses such | as Calculus 12 to its students: .§ ~so that these students.“‘would . § be better prepared | when applying for: post-secondary institutions and for Scholar- ships.” ; Secoridly, . Mr. Smith haz. -. recommended. that drama atid - " band programs are to be ¢' ‘Pinated. : But.:in’ B.C. ery: ‘senior secondary student mu sek ate. Exactly what! course: wi our students take? ther ia Mr. Sm: hisher gradu or “low-enrolme 1 “will simply have te transfer to another high school i the dis-: ~ chaos’ that. would “unimaginable. “ : it is one ‘thing to; cu out . “waste” in.a budget’ but: iti system.. Politics. should :no ‘affect t the educational OwITH CHEESE } you - have choice; 2? says that Forrest Guiap-like guy in the TV ads, He might | equally well ibe describing two-party democracy. oy it, too, mearis choice. Two main parties with roughly equal support provide: democracy's basic safeguard |-— an alternative | government which voters can . turn to whenever their current temporary bosses screw up.. Today, however, the political right wing is suf- fering from a severe split personality that robs US . of that safeguard in both Ottawa and Victoria. This is all the more curious in view of the recent. : Swing in much of the country to what can fairly / be called right-wing attitudes. Canadians of most political stripes now back Finance Minister Paul Martin’s cost-cutting attack on the deficit. Law.and order has become a top priority. Polls showing strong support for the death penalty in certain homicide cases. A grow- ‘ing revolt against-lax public education standards is bringing a boom to charter and private schools. . ~The Reform party reflected these public atti- tude shifts in 1993 by sweeping B.C. and Alberta : to become the de facto official opposition of ': English Canada in the Commons. | Meanwhile, Alberta’s Ralph Klein and Wright | | cial legislature. oF Ontario's Mike Harris are | demonstrating that tough‘ _ love” can work in restoring fis- cal sanity, while still retaining majority approval. ” Yet in Ottawa nothing short of a firm coalition between - Preston Manning’s 52 Reformers and Jean Charest, with his slowly reviving grass- roots Tory faithful across Canada, can muster.enough votes in'the next election to topple the Liberals’ massive 177-seat majority. ; In B.C., with an election looming by late May or earlyJune, polls showing the NDP with well under 40% of popular support allow interim Premier Glen Clark little hope of winning an overall majority. . * But here again a three-two split between Liberals and Reform — with born-again Socreds, Gordon Wilson’s modest Progressive Democratic Alliance and even candidates from the long mori- bund B.C. Tories thrown in for good measure — gives the NDP a realistic chance of sneaking up the middie in enough ridings to form a viable minority government. Locally that’s a strong argument for knocking sense into right-wing heads. But the federal scene remains even more worrying. Stubborn egos, pride i in the Party’ s historic tole and a few solv- left. without a representative in the: Provin- able policy ¢ differences underlie the present Tory ' rejection of any merger with Reform. Add also: the question of whether, despite Jean ‘Charest's ": good personal image nationwide, anglo | Canada’ “ would accept — after Trudeau; Mulroney and - Chretien — yet another Quebecer as prime min- ister, ‘What it finally boils down to is that upstart Reformers presently have momentum but no her- itage. Tories — slaughtered at the 1993 ballot box by the Mulroney record —— have valuable heritage but no momentum. That's why, despite all immediate obstacles, it’s vital for.the.two to get their act together at the federal level as fast as possible. |Until they do, democracy in Canada will . remain on hold — because there will continue to be literally no alternative to Jeard Chretien's inept and increasingly dictatorial “Natuial Governing Party.” WISH happy birthday Saturday, April 6 — and many more to come —~ to longtime North Shore cleric Rev. Ray Murrin. . . WRIGHT OR WRONG: Too many folks want to carry the stool when the piano has to be. moved.