"6 > Wednesday, September 18, 1985'- North Shore News Editorial Page Cheap heef 6 r4 Cites residents’’ groups are a dime a dozen nowadays and the windmills they tilt at are sometimes even cheaper. Last week’s grand prize for cheapness goes to the group of ‘‘concerned West Van residents’’ protesting the spectacle of old folk in wheelchairs in the lobby of Beacon Hill Lodge, the community’ s largest long-term care . facility. The spectacle, says the group, ‘‘is not in keeping with West Vancouver.”’ In a municipality with one in four of its population over 60 that statement alone deserves an addi- tional prize for blind fantasy. Beacon hill and other seniors’ homes are the bottom line of the community’s present population trend. For those who find the sight of infirm elderly people uncomfortable the simple solution is to ‘stay away. Beacon Hill is, after all, private property — a reputedly well-run home for 230 senior citizens, average age 80, who can no longer manage on their own. By all accounts they have. plenty of ‘social activities suited to their age and ‘Situation, And they pay their way. In many cases they. are there because today’ Ss" “families no longer look after elderly. parents — ' who in bygone times were perhaps more hap- ' pily visible as members of three-generation households. The fact that they are now often ‘visible only in institutions, divorced from the -younger mainstream, reflects on our modern lifestyle, not on seniors who worked to make it possible. _ So, as the TV Ad asks, where's the beef? The only wisdom shown by this handful of West ‘Van crackpots is their decision to remain ‘anonymous. They should retreat back into the woodwork before their names become known. Dress ‘em up! - 6 6 Le: Vancouver Symphony members could be on to a smart ; idea for fellow unionists. Maybe the reason most pickets cut little ice with the public in labor disputes is their casual garb — ‘but who can ignore workers who hit the bricks “in white ties and tails, playing trombones? So _next, how about striking transit drivers in ‘tuxes? Or grocery clerks in grad gowns? Worth a try, Art Kube! pavectermemmamstviccsons § —- Digntay Advertising 980-0511 north shore Classified Advertising 986-6222 news. Nowsroom 985-2131 Sonaay T EDMURDAY * RORY Circulation 986-1337 . Subscriptions 986-1337 “~. 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 214 - Publisher Peter Speck General Manager Roger McAfee Operations Manager Berni Hilliard Marketing Director Advertising Director - Sales Bob Graham Linda Stewart Circulation Director Advertising Director - Admin, . Bill McGown Mike Goodsell Productlow Director Editor-In-Chief Chris Johnson Noe! Wright Photography Maneger Classified Manager “Terry Peters Val Stephenson North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule Hil, Part ill, Paragraph IIt of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid, and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Ciass Mail Registration Number 3885. Entire contents ) © 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver, $25. pet year. Mailing rates available on request, No tesponsibilily accepted for unsolicited material inctuding manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a slamped, addressed envelope. Member of the B.C. Press Council (ENE 56.245 (average, Wednesday SOA DIVISION Friday & Sunday) S's THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE + sees tpl oe SRR ANTACN IIe onnese0e ® The votes they never see GROWING PUBLIC disenchantment with the non-achievements of the year-old Tory gov- ernment has all the political pundits searching for what’s gone wrong. Brian Mulroney promised everything to everybody and clocked up the. biggest ma- jority in Canadian history. Why has so little happened since Sept. 4, 1984? Gordon Gibson JSr., ' former B.C. Liberal leader and North Van MLA, has an explanation, and an interest- ing solution, in his regular column this week in The Fi- nancial Post. Newly elected gov- -ernments are too cocky, says Gordon. Promising all . things to all people, they fall ‘on their faces when it comes to delivering. He’s not knocking Brian alone. As other examples of non-delivery he cites Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson - (with his famous “first 60 days’) and Pierre You- Know-Who, who was in trouble two years after the Trudeaumania of 1968. Unfulfilled promises quickly turn the average voter’s election-day euphoria into post-election skepticism. And the bigger the promises, of course, the bigger the skepticism. What’s needed, Gordon argues, is a way to bring that skepticism forward to the ballot box itself, so as to en- dow prime ministers and their cohorts with a ‘‘useful humility’ from the. start. His proposal: add a line to the ballot allowing electors to put an ‘X’ against ‘“‘None of the above’’. If 50 per cent voted that way, a new elec- tion would have to be held. The sobering effect of this ‘*none’’ vote, would prevent any MP from becoming too boastful and persuade party leaders to be more realistic in their under- takings. He admits that no gov-. ernment is going to in- troduce such a ballot form in the foreseeable future. | Anyhow, he points out, the “negative”? vote already ex- ists in the 25 per cent of the electorate that abstain from voting altogether. Given the advance polls, it’s obvious that only a very tiny fraction of them are ge- nuinely unable to vote. The LETTER OF THE DAY Ban the two-legged folk! Dear Editor: I am a dog, aged six or seven — a 16-pound terrior, and a regular reader of the North Shore News. (“‘Mum”’ puts it under my feeding- bow! to keep the kitchen floor clean.} The old copies, that is. Lately, my Missus and I have noticed some letters in which two-legged people said ridiculous things about ban- ning dogs from all the parks and back-lanes of North Vancouver. They say we make the environment “filthy’’, and other insulting words, What a stupid fuss! “Mum” carries a_ little trowel in a plastic bag and when I've finished doing what comes naturally, she just pops it under a hedge, or buries it nearby. No big deal. We wouldn't even think of leaving a mess on a lawn or where two-legs walk! he feels, by Noel Wright ft ] overwhelming majority of abstainers are clearly saying: “I'm not convinced by any of the candidates enough to waste my time in a polling station.’ i ‘In the present case ‘nis “‘none’’ vote reduces the Mulroney ‘Tories’ overall **50 per cent mandate’ to a considerably more modest 37.5 per cent. Closer to But what really makes me scratch my ear is this — what about the messes’ the two-legs leave behind? In the woods, and gorgeous places we go sometimes for walks, we find lots of broken glass and beer bottles and cartons under the trees, and cigarette packets and big gulp plastic mugs, and dry hamburger bun with no hamburger, and old blankets and stuff. You name it — I’ve smelt it! And those shopping carts they use out home, Chuck Cook's “aq per cent in North Van-Bur- naby drops to around 33 per cent of the TRUE popular vote. Even Capilano’s whiz-girl MP Mary Collins has to settle for about 42 per cent instead of her. boasted ‘556°’ per cent. If the votes they never see were formally recorded at the ballot box, it could be a powerful inducement for exuberant politicians to con- fine themselves to election pledges which they cam keep — and to KEEP them. As preventive medicine against post-election skep- ticism the Gibson theory makes a lot of sense. In the. mass of statistics spewed forth at every. election it’s surprising how little atten- tion is paid to the one voter in about four who doesn’t. ‘He spells the shape of things to come when the victors fail to deliver. Until Gordon’s -‘‘none- of-the-above’’ ballot is adopted, the media will have to do the job — by keeping the spotlight constantly fixed on that important 25. per cent who. know in advance how it’s all going to turn It would be a kindness to the politicians themselves! ‘in Une parking lot at Super- Valu —- we see them all over the place, even in Mosquito Creek and Capilano River. They look dreadful, all rusty and bent. Personally, I'd be for banning two-legged folk from the parks and wilderness areas. What do you think? “Lucy” Per E. Grubbe North Vancouver