A6-Wednesday, : ae Health warning In recent years governments and other regulatory bodies have cracked down hard on advertising deemed to create a_ false impression. that could be harmful to the consumer public on the receiving end. It's time to take a similar hard look at election advertising. Much of the current campaign advertising by both Tories and Grits —- especially on TV — would have been banned before it ever appeared if it had been subjected to the type of regalation imposed on the promotion of food and drugs. Most of the commercials being aired by the two major parties are worse than merely tasteless — devised, apparently, by party advertising agencies which believe success at the polls can be achieved only by appealing to the lowest common denominator of voter intelligence. Or instincts even lower than that. Their vicious character assassination and moronic caricatures of vital, complex national issues are an insult to the electorate, which is a great deal smarter in these matters than the Madison Avenue geniuses to whom our would-be rulers have entrusted their messages. Even worse, this type of ad- vertising may well have encouraged the widespread and unhealthy cynicism towards both major parties which is now so evident. Before the next election the public should demand.firm ground rules for the content of political ads and commercials — bringing them up to at least the same standards that apply to cold cures and cake mixes. Listen and learn North Vancouver District council is to be congratulated on having second thoughts, however belated, about listening to the Sey- Lyun firehall site protesters. As Alderman John Lakes had the grace to admit, council “might learn something” from the public meeting now slated for February 12. The fact that council took so long to tumble to that possibility is why all the fuss arose in the first place. Listening and learning is a vital requirement for any elected government concerned with self- preservation. sunday news north shore news 1139 Lonsdale Ave . North Vancouver, B C V7M 2H4 (604) 980-0511 NEWS - AOVERTISING CLASSIFIED CIRCULATION 980-0511 986-6222 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright Eric Cardwell Classitied Manager & Office Administrator Berni Hiltard Production Tim Francis Faye McCrae Managing Editor Andy Fraser Nows Editor Photography Chris Uoyd Elisworth Dickson Accounting Supervisor Barbara Keen North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent commun ty newspaper and qualified under Schedule Il Par lll Paragraph Ml of the Excise Tax Act. ts published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 384645 Subscriptions $20 per year tate ¢ ontents, VATA Neth Sta we Free Press Lid All rights reserved No responsibility accepted tor unsolk Ned omatenal ic tudieg manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by oa stamped. addressed return envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION ae 49,503 48,478 Gon SN Wednesday Sunday ~ tana THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE For most consumers, financing is a_ relatively painless task. With banks and financial institutions falang over each other to pick up customers, the availability of consumer credit for everything from new cars to winter vacations in the sunny South seems unlimited (within reason). Yet while Canadians can seemingly get as much money as they need to finance a neat, new, $10,000 van, a shortage of financing has suddenly become the Number One problem for the people operating the country’s small and medium- sized businesses. Something has gone awry. Even bankers are advising smaller businesses to postpone expansion plans. Credit, the bankers say, is too expensive. Consumers, though, are besieged with inviting bank advertising that outlines the wonder of winter vacation loans. - Confusion after along tlHimiiiidititit By ROGER WORTH The pity is that the world has been -turned topsy- turvey. The small and medium- sized firms that are creating more than 50% of the new jobs in the country can't get loans. Consumers off on a spending spree have no difficulty at all. The impact of this simple fact has shown up in results of a Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey. In the third quarter of 1979, the organization conducted 11,000 in-depth interviews with members asking the question: “What is the single most important problem facing your business today?” About 18.5% claimed lack of adequate financing headed the list. Even a layman can see what's happening. Banks are restricting the availability of credit to smaller firms, forcing them to tighten their belts and forget about ex- pansion plans, even if there is a ready market for the product or service. The only thing that can be said with any cer- tainty about the current federal campaign, now mercifully drawing toward its close, is that it will undoubtedly qualify for a place in the Guinness Book of Records under the heading “Strangest Election”. A standard feature of every previous election has been a steady dechne in the percentage of “un- decided” voters as polling day approaches. This, of course, is com- pletely logical. The longer people listen to the platitudes of the contending candidates over an eight- week perod, the more of them make up their minds about which platitudes appeal to them most. Suddenly — with barely two weeks left until polling day on February 18 — this tume-honored pattern’ has been reversed. The latest poll, completed less than seven days ago by the CTV. shows that the number of undecided voters has shot up to 40 per cent, compared to 30 per cent a mere couple of weeks earhier. ROSES NOT ENOUGH? What tt means 1s that two out of every five voters (many more than are needed to give either tHe Tomes or the Grits ai comfortable Majority) apparently find themselves in a similar situation to that of = the shipwrecked sathor who has muslaid his life packet now With the vessels bows atready disappearing beneath the waves. is it better (oO jump into the shark infested waters or go under standing on deck? In other words wo would seem that two out of five voters oot this late stage fervently wish they were being offered choses other than Mr. Clark and Mr. Trudeau It also seems fair to assume that last week's Tehran embassy adventure — news of which broke just before the CTV poll was taken — had more than a little to do with the astonishing jump in_ the percentage of undecided voters. Ambassador Ken Taylor and his staff nightly emerged from the danng and dangerous escape operation covered in glory. But Prime Minister Clark also came out of the affair smelling of roses, despite the best efforts of his startled opponents to put the electorate. so to speak, off the scent. For the moment, however, even the Tehran caper failed to translate into any very dramatic gain for the Tones in the CTV poll Among decided voters they advanced to 33 per cent from the previous 31 per cent, while the Liberals slumped to 46 per cent from their carher 51 per cent LITTLE TIME LEFT The only conclusion to be drawn 1s that most of the deserters from the Liberal ranks - while not yet ready to embrace Mr Clark — suddenly found that they preferred even indecision to Ma lrudeau while they paused to figure things out Unfortunately there s precious hitthe ume left. for figuring things oat Wath so still where do the sanc answers to the undecided dilemma he” few cays remaining voters all? High interest rates and a weak Canadian economy, it seems, have convinced the financial institutions they should reduce their risks. Noel Wright Last weekend two of Canada’s leading newspapers decided independently that the answers hie tn forgetting about personality quirks and detailed platform promises and in concentrating. instead, on the broad overall record of the past eleven and a half years. In a front page editorial the Toronto Sun (circulation 380,000) said. “Despite disappointments Clark is sull so much better and healthier for Canada than Trudeau, there 1s really no com panson He ts young, has made mistakes, but ts im- proving and learning from expenence The Sun stressed that the Clark ‘team was far supenor to anything = the Liberals under Trudeau could now put together af clected February 14 Calling the Liberals aoonce great party othe paper said tes tanks have been almost single handedly ravaged by Trudeau since 196M Judging only from his tecord as prime minister Perhaps it's time for the bankers to start thinking about restricting consumer: credit, at the same time loosening the reins on business loans. sleep?: the Sun continued, “Trudeau has been bad for Canada, fs bad for Canada, and will be even worse if he’s re-elected ... it is not only because of his ideologies, policies, attitudes, manners, style and methods that we oppose him. It is for his deeds and goals that we feel he is dangerous for Canada- and should be beaten.” The editorial praised Clark for giving Canada an image of “courage and in- tegrity” and for beginning to “put government back into. the hands of the people after | 11 years of people in the hands of government." Clarks's six-month tenure in | office, it said, was “not | enough time to see if the Tories can deliver. They deserve another shot.” DREAM WORLD Simultaneously, the Vancouver Sun (no relation to its Toronto namesake and a very different type of paper) came out with its own endorsation: “We again urge Canadians to give Mr. Clark a chance.” “Mr. Clark.” continued the lead editorial, “should get a second chance because the first was abbreviated and because he should have learned from his mistakes. We do not think Mr Trudeau has learned from his “Mr. Clark should get a second chance because, despite tts ghastly flaws, his government's first and unfulfilled budget) was at least headed in the nmght Nirection Tt the first ghmmer of perception of reality in a dream world ~ was Dream world” Maybe explanation the = real OUF that's for con busion in Chis most confusing of c¢lections The confusion of a sleeper on being sud denly awakened