j i 4, i 4 ~ Friday, April 5, 1991 - North Shore News In and out of exile, Davis was a puzzle SOMETIMES YOU retain the most vivid memories of people whose life scarcely touches you at ail. Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES That’s sucn a banality that for once I feel sure everyone will agree with me. But why Jack Davis? Before this column is finished | may be able to explain why Davis — who died last week sadly emaciated by cancer at age 74 — falls into this category for me. But {can’t explain it yet. Davis was, I confess, a grand puzzlement to me. In 1981 1 left the newspaper business and was fatteringly ask- ed to help your government and mine in Victoria improve its communications, which is proba- bly a chronic perceived need of governments everywhere. This was of course the Social Credit government of Bill Bennett. With impeccable timing, 1 arrived in Victoria shortly after the British Columbia economy peaked, and began to feel my way around a government that was soon waist- deep in recession and grappling with the grim problem of hawking a restraint policy that had no en- thusiastic buyers. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that Jack Davis, the Socred member for North Vancouver- Seymour, was the most odd- man-out in the legislature. Here was 2 man who was, in the best sense of the word, a technocrat. Brilliant, unlike most politicians — or journalists — he didn’t just know about things. He knew things. Energy, mines, for- estry, transportation, environ- ment. Name it, he knew it. Davis was both a Rhodes Scholar who had studied politics at Oxford and a McGill doctoral graduate in engineering. In Ot- tawa he had worked with C.D. Howe, had been Lester Pearson’s parliamentary secretary, served in Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s cabinet. After five successful federal elections he ran and won provin- cially in 1975. And, in that first Bill Bennett government, which was jeered as the ‘‘car-dealer coalition,’’ Davis seemed to have more education than the rest of the cabinet put together. Then he stepped on the banana peel that, ostensibly at least, dropped him into political limbo. He was found to have cashed in his first-class tickets on govern- meni flights for economy ones, and pocketed the difference. It seemed an absurd peccadillo. He paid the penalty, was dropped from cabinet, and — for reasons that no one I know in Victoria past or present could explain -— was placed permanently on Bill Bennett’s special tist, and 1 don’t mean Christmas. Davis then became a quiet but persistent critic of his own gov- ernment, chiefly in letters to the editor. And a devastating one: his facts were never challenged and he couldn't be accused of partisan- ship, though he might have fallen under the suspicion of cold revenge, L asked a well-placed Socred how the party viewed hin. “*He’s very useful, because his being something of an outsider helps the government look toler- ant of public criticism in its own ranks," said my informant, or words to that effect. I wondered whether, in fact, the Bennett Socreds had any choice. Or felt the least bit open-minded about Davis. Peculiarly, | have a strong rec- ollection of once seeing him in a men’s washroom in the legislature. These white-tiled rooms are small and rather serious and, when the legislature isn’t sitting, as silently uninhabited as the halls. To have more than one person in them ata time is to have a crowd, and to more ar iess feel grateful for the sight of a fellow human being. So, more than in your average washroom, the im- pulse is to nod, say hello, or o:herwise acknowledge the ex- istence of the other party, especially since the patrons are almost ali in the brotherhood of government work. Davis came in while ! was per- forming the usual ablutions. He said nothing, neither did he nod. He was as remote as the Sphinx. I felt as uncomfortable as if, say, Charles de Gaulle had entered and did not propose to be distracted from grand visions of the future of France. That I remember this eminently forgettable incident only underlines that it tenaciously ref- uses to be forgotten. Was he shy, lonely, aloof, alienated, or alt of the above? [ don’t know. He was, on the surface, the least likely politician in the world, since politicians cannot afford to be so complex as to seem shy, lonely, aloof, alienated, or indeed graduates of Oxford. And so it was all the more of z jolt when — can I be sure i: was before or after my days in Vic- toria? — I once saw him dancing at the Commadore. Yes, Jack Davis dancing. It was to the music of Russ Morgan and His Orchestra — Russ long dead, the band led by his son Maurice, playing some of his father’s old pieces that were too close to my adolescence to describe without bursting into unmanly tears. (All right, associated with a girl approxi- mately aged 14 whom I secretly and unrequitedly loved — as if all love at that age isn’t automatically secret and unrequited. Or wasn't, 40-odd years ago.) I was dancing with a woman almost equally bewitching, but a good deal more legal than a 14- year-old, when the tall figure of Jack Davis materialized, as unex- pected as a poetry reading ina desert. There should have been nothing especially significant about this. Indeed, this week the Sun’s Denny Boyd, with his fine gift for figure of speech, recalled that socially Davis and his wife Margaret always looked as if they were ‘‘on their way to a party at the F. Scott Fitzgeralds.’’ Yet, in my mental geography, there was no place for such an encounter. Davis shouldn't dance. He should have been home writing those fetters, or figuring out better than anyone else what to do when the Columbia River treaties ex- pire. Mayhe Bill Bennett couldn't quite place Davis either. BI Vander Zahn may net have been sure cither. But when he became premier he brought Davis back into the cabinet — fittingly as minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources. That the brilliant Davis was a Vander Zalm loyalist seems just as baffling as his role as a Bill Ben- ne outcasi, And that Davis died the very day before Vander Zalm’s beginning-of-the-end speech on Good Friday is, as they say, an irony. So why Jack Davis? Because, I suspect, [’m mad at myself — maybe, in part, journalistically mad. Annoyed that we never met, that I never interviewed him. f wish I'd known him better. He could have been a good column. NOTHING UNEXPECTED... NOTHING UNEXPLAINED... GRANT BOTTO — REALTOR— Cail me today for a complimentary market evaluation. 984-9711 24 HR PAGER) Revenue Canada has introduced new measures to simplify the tax filing process. The guides use clearer, plainer language, the Special return has been trimmed down and there are two new “no calculation” returns. What are the new returns and who are they for? The one-page, gold 65 Plus return is for seniors with income from pensions or interest. The white Short return is for people, like students, with simpler tax situations. These “no calculation” returns have been sent to over 5 million Canadians, along with the Special return. People with more detailed tax situations received the General return. Which return do I use? 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