6 - Wednesday, May 30, 1990 - North Shore News Socred showdown O DIANNE Hartwick failed to move mountains Monday night in her bid to defeat John Reynolds in the Socred nomination battle for the newly-created riding of West Van- couver-Capilano. The dismal lack of support from the Socred faithful fi: Hartwick, who pick- ed up 46 votes compared with the 217 scooped by Reynolds, had more to do with questious over her motivation for going head-to-head with Reynolds rather than a lack of confidence in her ability to turn back the socialist hordes at the bridges come election time. _ Hartwick denies that her wrangling with the Vander Zalm government over an ongoing bid by her and her mother to develop 2 ski resort at Powder Mountain had anything to do with her nomination bid. But it’s tough to win support when the fight is perceived as a simple matter of settling an old score. Trumpeting the support of the eco- soldiering Terry Jacks, a bizarre mar- riage of convenience if there ever was one, surely hurt Hartwick’s chances as well. The dust-up may be over, but the dust hasn’t settled yet as the parties get their riding houses in order for the provincial election. Hartwick vows to consider seeking Socred nomination in other ridings. All eyes are now on West Van- couver-Garibaldi. Polar 8 contract promise was simple federal porkbarreling Political conversation pieces... DID YOU KNOW that May 16 marked seven months since Reform Party candidate Stan Waters was elected as Alber- ta’s nominee to fill a seat in Canada’s Senate? Dear Editor, 1 am overwhelmed with the irony of North Vancouver, a bas- tion of free enterprise, lamenting the loss of a federal government handout (‘'Versatile closes drafting division,’’ April 15). The Polar 8 icebreaker contract was not simply another government expenditure mandated by necessity. No, this baby oinked loudly and squealed to the heavens: pork, par ex- cellence. -The Conservative gov- ernment explanation for the Publisher Associate Editor Shore. envelope. rn Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw bene ‘Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspayer and qualified under Schedule 114, Paragraph III 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 Second Class Mait Registration Number 3885 Subscriptions North and West! Vancouver, $25 per year. Maihng rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept respansibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by 3 stamped, addressed cancellation of the contract, that “it had become too expensive,’’ understated the extent of the prob- lem. Really, this thing should never have been conceived. The taxpayers of North Van- couver, and of Canada as a whole should be on guard against gov- ernment support of industries which are clearly moribund. I have the greatest sympathy for workers who are displaced by technology, and by workers elsewhere in the world who are willing to work for a lot Jess than we consider decent wages. But if Canada is to have an industrial policy, then that policy should be inclined toward support- ine industries most likely to suc- ceed. If we must do something for displaced workers, then let us do it directly through our taxes by sup- port and retraining. The ‘billion dollar boondoggle’ that was just turned aside would have been a high price te pay for a thousand obsolete jobs. Charles DuBois North Vancouver THE VONCE OF WORTH AND WIST VANCOUVER 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) es SDA DIVISION Display Advertising Classilied Advertising Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Seemetientenemeets Subscriptions 986-1397 980-0511 986-6222 MEMBER Waters, a former member of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC)’s national advisory council, is still waiting for Prime Minister Mulroney to appoint him. The longer the delay, the lower the Tories sink in Alberta: the Reform Party is now twice as popular there as the PCs. Mean- while, since the Meech Lake Ac- cord was signed, Mr. Mulroney has appointed four new Senators from Quebec, none of whom was elected. kak IN MID-MARCH Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Jobn Major brought down a budget with yet another surplus. This was ac- compolished while introducing tax exempt savings accounts — nick- named ‘‘Tessa’’ — to encourage personal savings and investment by Brits, In Canada, the modest $1,000 tax exemption for interest and dividends from Canadian sources was ended not long ago by Finance Minister Michael Wilson. * A STUDY by a leading business consultancy firm, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, says that half of the 13 it surveyed favor locating their next plant outside the province, mainly in the southeast US. The reason cited was Ontario’s costly | government intervention, such as so-called ‘“‘pay equity’’ programs éthe NCC predicted this). we AFTER TRUDEAU-ERA leftover Gerard Pelletier resigned as chair- - man of the CBC, the new president Gerard Veilleux said on January 30 that he had found 500 bureaucrats who could be cut — most of them in head office — without affecting programming. . anak INTERNAL REVENUE Service data show that US President Reagan’s tax cuts made the rich pay! Bureaucratic predictions made at the time of revenue short- falls as a result of cuts were wildly inaccurate. The ‘‘supply-siders”’ who then predicted increased tax revenues, however, were proven correct. The data show that from 1981 to 1986, total income tax rev- enue rose by 29.3 per cent. How- ever, in the same period, revenue from families earning $200,000 to $500,000 rose by 112.3 per cent. From families earning $500,000 to $1,000,000 it rose by 215.3 per cent. A Gallup poll, meanwhile, STAN WATERS waiting. Ontario auto parts manufacturers ~ NCC president David Somer- ville, shows that 70 per cent of Cana- dians are very concerned about - government taxation levels. fae ANOTHER POLL, this one commissioned by the Globe and Mail and CBC, shows that 51 per cent of women in Canada either disapprove or strongly disapprove of employers giving women pref- erence in hiring over men to achieve better representation for women in the work force. It also said that 51 per cent of Canadians believe the government should cut its spending on arts and culture. ake THE IRONY was rich in Toronto on the morning of March 22. Sec- retary of State Gerry Weiner, the federal government’s minister in charge of official Multiculturalism (which has done se much to divide and weaken the Dominion), was speaking at a breakfast meeting in the Dominion Ballroom. As pro- testers got up and marched from the room shouting protests against token cutbacks in taxpayer hand- outs to pressure groups, Weiner defensively boasted that Mr. Mutlroney’s government had tripl- ed the financing of multicultural programs from the level of the former Liberal government. whe JOHN FRYER, head of the Na- tional Union of Provincial Gov- ernment Employees, recently ad- mitted that trade union members traditionally do not back the New Democratic Party. However, he still believes that union members should be forced, through their compulsory dues, to fund the NDP. ete THE RESULTS of a poll of 1,100 Quebeckers by the Institut quebecoise d’opinion publique released March 2) revealed that 67.5 per cent supported sovereignty-association for Quebec. The poll asked the same question as the one asked in Quebec’s 1980 independence refer- endum, when it received only 40 per cent support. David Somerville is president of the National Citizens Coalition, a Toronto-based lobby organization which believes in “more freedom through less government.”’