fig ween Fan: mg OK_ATS AGREED. THE US. GETS 10 KEEP IT FROM MAY 10 OCTOBER. AND CANADA GETS IT FROM NONEMBER TO APRIL. NEWS VIEWPOINT Street work PUBLIC fire should be lit under North Vancouver City. Council to 4. Jkencourage its members to proceed now with a plan to make Lower Lonsdale a North Shore focal point. Already the city has indicated that it wants to move quickly to make the im- provements needed to revitalize the heart of North Vancouver. _ But the heat from public fires has a way of motivating politicians and bureaucrats, ‘who by nature prefer to move with glacial speed when it comes to changing anyihing. And at. this point the Lonsdale area would benefit greatly from some. change. A public meeting has been set for tomor- row night ai the Lonsdale Quay Hotel to discuss improvements to the sireet’s entire business area. And while the whole wide expanse of what has been established by the Greater Vancouver Regional District Livable Region Strategy as the Lonsdale Towncentre has much potential as a mecca for social intercourse and activity, Lower Lonsdale is especially blessed. I has the history, the waterfront Jocation and the unique blend of industrial grit and com- mercial potential that has been key to transforming such formerly’ bieak areas as Granville Island in Vancouver into thriving cenires of commercial and social life. In addition to Monday night’s Lonsdale Towncentre meeting, a Saturday, June 26, public forum has been scheduled at the Lonsdaie Quay Hotel to gather public in- put on the city’s Lower Lonsdale plan. Both meetings should be well attended if North Shore residents are truly interested in having a stake in shaping Lonsdale’s future. t i “Seniors don’t cause any noise. ‘They go to bed at nine o’vlock.” North Vancouver City Coun. Stella Jo Dean — during debate over a proposed seniors’ housing complex near Wagg Creek Park — on the threat seniors pose to neighborhood peace and quiet. (From a May 26 News story.) “It’s the least important thing facing the planet. The only less. Artist Robert Bateman, on crit- icism of his work. (From the May 26 News Now Spotlight). “It's ironic and somewhat unfor- tunate that the threat of a Joss of amenities should bring us together. Who said the residents of the West are apathetic?” Roy Bartholomew, a director of the Gleneagles Ratepayers Association, at a public meeting called to raise concerns over BC Rail development plans ‘for its right-of-way in West Vancouver. (From a May 28 News story.) “In the long run they'll give up as they dic off.’ North Vancouver District Coun. Paul Turner — during council debate over legislation to ban smoking in all municipa! buildings — on cigarette smokers. (From a May 30 News story.) important thing is sports scores.”’ . .Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor Noel Wright Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptroller . . . Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 112, Paragraph HW) of the Excise Tax Act, is pubushed each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday £y North Shore Free Press Lid. and dsttibuted lo every door on the North Shore Canada Post Canadian Publications Matt Sates Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing tates available on tequest Subtssions are welcome but we Cannol accept responsibilily for unsolicned Matenal including Manuscripts and pictures which snould be accompanied by a Stamped, addressed envelope. Publisher . . Managing Editor Newsroom V7M 2H4 Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Hot WNC OF WORTH AND WERE UnrecOUVER 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 Foxe Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER Soy SR. IK contains recycled fibre 985-2131 ay ' Morth Shore managed borer reerirrmerrreaanirc s 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, 8.C. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average cuculation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1893 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. SO THE POLLSTERS have temporarily decided Jean Charest — not Kim Campbell any longer — is the Tories’ best bet to beat Jean Chretien'’s Liberals. Not that it’s of any great importance. Campbell may yet rally, of course, and regain the lead in these final two weeks of the lead- ership campaign — though | doubt whether that’s how the smart money is betting right at the moment. At this point she’s become an almost sad figure, having started out so impossibly high that there was nowhere to go but down - at least, just a LITTLE down. But what nobody expected was Kim's talent for repeatedly shooting herself in the foot with the off- the-cuff rnusings about the papacy, non-political SOBs, enemies of Canada (all who disagree with her) and her per- sonal experiment with pot-smok- ing. Meanwhile, Jean Charest has overtaken her simply by being a nice young family guy who speaks English like an anglo, says the right thing to everyone and avoids any goofs. But if we’re talking seriously about a future prime minister, the two, alas, have much in common. With only 14 days left, we've still to hear any firm details of how ei- ther would run the country. As aspiring LEADERS they’re beginning to make Mulroney look good. Platitudes galore, yes. Camp- bell’s unexplained gimmick about ’ the “politics of inclusion.’’ And vague pledges to eliminate the def- icit in five years (Campbell) or four years (Charest) — with no facts or figures on how. But so far, not a single memorable new idea or proposal of SUBSTANCE from either, ; The reason none of this matters much, of course, is that neither the Tories nor any other party can form a majority government after this fall's election, in which the 295 Commons seats will! for the first time be split between five viable parties. The very best the Tories can hope for is to win a few more seats than the Grits and form a majority coalition with the Reform Party. Since the latter, with 30-40 seats, would have nothing to lose, the terms of such a marriage of convenience would be dictated by Preston Manning — the only par- ty feader with a detailed, costed- out program for eliminating the deficit in three years and the guts to implement it. A growing majority of Cana- dians now rate debt-reduction — PRESTON MANNING... Reform medicine better than IMF’s. HITHER AND YON painful though it may be — as the nation’s No. ! priority. Neither Charest nor Campbell seem to have fully grasped this urgency. Until they do, whichever of them wins on June £3 runs the risk of becoming an increasingly irrelevant player on the national stage. Because there are now only two cures for Canada’s tife- threatening financial malady. One is the home-brewed medi- cine — effective but slightly bit- ter-tasting — prescribed by the Reformers. Failing that, the other is the far nastier medicine that would then. be forced down our throats — sooner rather than later — by the fiscal physicians from the Interna- tional Monetary Fund. eee POSTSCRIPTS: Does anyone in this neck of the woods know George R. Patterson or his whereabouts? ‘‘Pat’’ to his friends -. and believed once to have lived’ near Whytecliff Park, he’d now’ be at least in his 70s — a Second ': World War member of the British Parachute Regiment, dropped in Italy and taken PoW there. Eager to contact ‘*Pat’’ — if still alive — is wartime comrade-in-arms Tony Stigbel, who served in Bri- .- tain’s 17th/2lst Lancers and is : visiting here fram South Africa in - | June. Please call Robyn at 985-: | 4962 if you can help. ... Deadline for entries in the North Shore Youth Taient Search is Saturday, June 5 — with the talent perfor-' mance set for Sunday, June 20, in Deep Cove Shaw Theatre. Call. 922-6969 or 929-5581 for details. ... Artists working in a craft me- . dium are wanted for West Van’s Harmony Arts Festival, Aug. 9- . 15. Apply at the Ferry Building Gallery, 925-3605. ... And you could still be in time to enjoy this. Sunday’s (May 30) Maplewood Scheo! Carnival — just across from Maplewood Farm — where ‘entertainment, crafts, food, bingo, : games, prizes and other family : fun are in full swing from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. WRIGHT OR WROMG: Educa- tion makes life much easier. If you hadn’t learned to sign your name, you'd have to pay cash for” everything.