A6- — February 20, 1980 - North Shore News “Polls,” said the late John Diefenbaker, “are for dogs.” And quite a few candidates in. Monday’s election have also been muttering about the possibility of consigning Dr. Gallup and his imitators to the doghouse during federal campaigns. In the campaign just ended this newpaper has run election opinion polis, as have namerous other media across the country. We shall do so again in future federal campaigns as long as such surveys remain legal. We see no reason why — at the local candidate level — the North Shore shouldn't join in the fun, too. Nevertheless, the arguments for banning political polls altogether during federal campaigns (as they are already banned during B.C. provincial campaigns) merit some serious consideration. The chief argument is that they may act as self- fulfilling prophecies. The human instinct to be on thee winning side is a strong one. If the electorate is assured continuously that one of the three major parties is the certain victor, it seems at least reasonable to assume that a proportion of the electorate may be in- fluenced to vote accordingly, rather than be “odd man out”. Defenders of the pollsters maintain the information they gather must not be withheld in a free society, even if such in- formation is inaccurate. But in fact, it is the remarkable accuracy of polls like Gallup and CTV that makes it hard for them to refute the self-fulfilling prophesy charge con- vincingly. Who knows what Monday’s results would have been if Dr. Gallup and his competitors (including The News) had been firmly gagged last December — leaving the voters nine weeks to think for themselves? Built-in safety The big car manufacturers have been plagued during the past decade by the need for massive recalls of certain models found to be defective after being marketed. They'll have a fellow-feeling for the makers of a new Canadian Forces training tank whose doors and lights are reported to fall off when its 76 mm cannon is fired. However, the tank is still one up on the Pinto. Firing the cannon is said also to set off its fire-extinguishing system. sunday news north shore. news 1139 Lonsdale Ave . North Vancouver, B C V7M 2H4 (604) 980-0511 NEWS - ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED CIRCULATION 980-0511 986-6222 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright Eric Cardwell Classified Manager Production & Office Administrator Tim Francis Berni Hillard Faye McCrae Managing Editor News Editor Andy Fraser 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 Ill, Part It, Paragraph Ill of the Excise-Tax Act. is published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Ma!! ARedistration Number 3885 subscriptions $20 per year Entire contents © 19078 North Shore Free Press Ltd All rights reserved No responsibility accepted tor unsolicited material Inc tuding manuscripts and pictures which should be acCOMpanied by a stamped addressed return envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION 49,503 48,478 @ Gu SN. .¥ Wednesday THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE - igger is not always better By W. ROGER WORTH Governments in several provinces are taking a second look at the economic and social impact of the Massive shopping centre developments that have permanently changed the face of the Canadian land- scape. Prince Edward Island, for example, has passed legislation that places a moratorium on new mall developments. Nova Scotia has tightened regulations relating to new shopping centres and Quebec and provinces in Western Canada are not far behind. The reason for ali the activity: shopping mall developments have proliferated to the point where overbuilding has become the order of the day in even the smailest of Canadian communities. One successful, reasonably-sized shopping centre, it seems, results in an even larger unit designed to win sales from the original development. Then a third mall may enter the com- petition, many times en- suring there isn't enough business to go around. Meanwhile, traditional independent businesses in the downtown cores of Canada’s communities are caught in the middle of the shopping centre fray. Mall developers aren't seriously interested in having them as tenants (more than 80% of the businesses in shopping centres are owned by major national com- panies) and the odds are stacked against smaller downtown retailers. In survey after survey, independents represented by the 55,000-member Canadian Federation of Independent Business contend they are being treated unfairly, which 1s one reason some provinces are placing restrictions on new shopping centre developments. One shopping centre in a small community may in- crease competition. A INTERNATIONAL ‘OLYMPIC COMMITTEE second may be viable. But the overbuilding of shopping centres based on the bigger- is-better syndrome is creating horrendous problems. It's time every provincial government in the country reassessed policies on such developments. Canada’s © traditional independent merchants deserve to be treated fairly. (Roger Worth ts Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business.) Trudeau’s victory headache Monday, February 18, was a sad day for Canada and a thought-provoking day for the West — particularly British Columbia. The election which returned Pierre Trudeau and his Liberals to power with an absolute majority nationally also succeeded in splitting the country more deeply than ever. In the “old” Canada — the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario (the original founding provinces’ of Confederation) — the Liberals won a _ massive majority compared to their much more modest showing there last May. In the “new” Canada — the resource-rich Praine provinces, B.C. and the far north (the Johnnies-come- lately in Confederation) — the Liberals were all but wiped out. They hung on to a mere two seats out of 80, with none at all west of Winnipeg. East of the Manitoba- Ontano border Liberal MPs outnumber Conservative MPs by more than three to one in the new House of Commons. West of that border they have virtually no voice atall lf the Prainmes, BC., Yukon and the Northwest Terntones happened to be a s¢parate nation from the rest of Canada, it would be governed today by = a dominant Tory mayorty with a small but healthy NDP opposition, mostly from BC NO WESTERN ROLE Politically speaking. 1t's not exactly the glowing picture of a united nation from sea to sea which the Fathers of Confederation envisaged 11} years ago Politics pure and simple however are only part of the The new picture pobtucal breakdown will make itt extremely diffi ult Wf not impossible — for B.C. and the West to have any ef- fective role at all in the new Trudeau government. With only two western MPs out of 147 to choose from, what kind of a voice can Trudeau give in his cabinet to the 28 per cent of Canada's population living west of Ontano? He might, of course, create a couple of extra senators or so from among the western faithful and give them cabinet posts. But newly created cabinet senators are at best a cop- out. Government members, like the rest of the Com- mons, should ideally win their spurs by facing the public on the hustings The economics of | the situation, however. are much more important The Liberal-dominated East has the people and the manufactunng capatihtes The Conservative-dominat cd West possesses the resources upon which the rest of Canada ultimately depends for prospenty its continuing ME-FIRST PROVINCES The West has the energy resources essential (oO keep the manufactumng plants of Ontario and Quebec humming It also has the grain resources and much of the Umber that are Canada's biggest caport carners Under Canada’s present constitution, the British North Amernca Act those resources belong fo the by Noel Wright provinces. The federal government can have a say in how they are used only by negotiated agreement with the province concerned on an equal-partner basis. We've already seen some of the problems that entails even in the case of former Tory Pnme Minister Joc Clark wheeling and dealing with his) fellow-Albertan, Tory Premier Peter Lougheed. over the pnce of Alberta oil The prospect: of Liberal. French Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau having any greater success in dealing with a booming. me-first province whete he ots completely unrepresented looks thin Nor is he hkely to carry much clout in Tory Manitoba NDP Saskat chewan oor Socred (read Dory) British * olym bia when HWocomes to negdtiavons on the lifeblood of provinces coonomics those If he holds Quebec in Confederation, Trudeau can claim to govern with the solid backing of some 72 per cent of Canada's population. His major problem remains the 28 per cent which has almost totally rejected him. Were that 28 per cent distributed evenly throughout the country, he would have httle to worry about. Bufit's not. It is concentrated, terntonally, in more than one half of the country’s area. Moreover, that area contains a preponderance of all Canada's natural wealth and, rightly or wrongly, the people who own it have a big chip on their shoulder over the manner in which they feel fat-cat Eastern Canada has been neglecting and short-changing them for generations. Despite his lopsided Eastern majority in the new Parhament, Mr. Trudeau's real unity headache may be only just beginning. The headache of what to do about the — richly- endowed, independent-mi- nded West — _ where separaust voices speaking Enghsh have already been raised BECAUSE PEOPLE GAVE BLOOD an friends for life Ne anacian Aled ons