Gary
Bannerman

OPEN LINES

IT IS widely perceived that
labor is calling the shots for
the New Democratic Party
government, and that the de
facto premier is Ken
Georgetti, the wiry, street-
wise native of Trail.

During recent days we talked
with both the ersatz premier and
the real premier, and several other
Prominent public personalities, in
search of some year-end reflec-
tions.

To understand Georgetti, one
should understand Trail itself.

The City of Champions — the
home of raany sports legends —
has been repeatedly clobbered by
iodustrial circumstances. But an
i. zominatable spirit refuses to ac-
cept defeat.

Any power not within the grasp
of the historic Consolidated Min-
ing Company, COMINCO, is
within that other establishment,
the United Steelworkers of
America.

COMINCO,, its various owners
through history, and the union,
have had their strings pulled from
afar; either Vancouver or United
States urban centres.

But neither force could be com-
fortable in British Columbia's
Wesi Kootenays without respec-
ting the resident ethnic power.
Trail is a blue-collar ltalian-
Canadian city.

If it had been suggested to Ken
Georgeiti’s parenis when he was a
child in Trail, that he would one
day become the president of the
United Steelworkers of America in
B.C., it would have been consid-

a mere fantasy for a young
italian. And even more remark-
able that his friend Saady Satori,
currently the mayor, would onc
day preside over the city.

Just 40 at the end of 1992,
Georgetti has gone far beyond
that.
But he is aot premier. [1 is just
as preposterous to suggest that the
B.C. Federation of Labor is the
teal government, as i was in the
past to say thaz the Board of
Trade, the Fraser Institute or the
Business Council of B.C., pulled
the Social Credit strings.

Georgetti is as ambitious as his
past would indicate. As much as
one individual can influence a
cumbersome, diverse and demo-
cratic labor movement, he will not
permit his own instinctive
precociousness to limit future
horizons.

He recognizes that the in-

or whatever advantages that are
provided by the new labor code.
would hack fire.

Organized labor has two
possibly fatal uimors eating away
at its body.

The only healthy and-rapidly
growing clement within labor cir-
cles is in the public sector, a reali-
iy thal puts the lie to government
posturing about trimming the fat.
Public sector unions have totally
suffocated the traditional traces
and industrial sector.

Government is designed to
**serve’’ a society. We aré rapidly
becoming a country in which gov-
ernment ‘‘is*” the society.

Nowhere is this more disturb-
ingly true than in labor circles.

That is the first tumor and so
far, it has not only been benign, it
has been benevolent. Public sector
unions have been a huge source of
funds for labor organizations.

The second tumor is more per-
Vasive.

During the contentious debate
over Bill 84, the labor legislation,
it was said that Georgetti had his
entire wish fist fulfilled.

When he protested that he was
disappointed that ‘*sectoral
bargaining” was not included,
business groups dismissed his
comment.

Business was desperately afraid
that the union organization of one
hamburger restaurant could dic-
tate the terms for dozens of sepa-
tate outlets in the same chain.
And every multi-branch industry
could be similarly unionized.

Futurists are unanimous in
predicting an explosion of small
companies.

Giant employers with tens of
thousands of employees may still
exist, but they will be structured
and layered into infinite numbers
of small, productive, en-
treprencurial units.

At will be a survival of the fitrest
world. Those with unique skills,
superior intellect, vast financial
tesources or qualities of extraor-
dinary industriousness wili thrive
in this environment.

The mass — without repre-
sentation — would revert to a
Space-age style peasantry.

And organized labor wouid
perish, and even the protecied
civil service would soon suffer the
consequences of an angry, disad-
vantaged citizenry.

These are some of Ken Georget-
ti’s thoughts at the outset of 1993,

eee

We taiked to many others dur-
ing the past several days. There
was universal recognition that the
worst of the recession is over in
Eastern Canada.

Recovery in the U.S. will not
only turn the tables in Ontario,
new home starts south of the
border should be a boon to our
forest sector.

No one is predicting a boom for
1993 in B.C., but quictly better
times are ahead.

We interrupted Dr. Michel
Walker, the director of the Fraser
Institute, as he rushed from his
West Vancouver home carrying a
Santa Claus suit. He had been the
star of the office Christmas party.

But we did talk business. His
new year’s message was that Ca-
nadians shouldn’t forget how
privileged we are.

countey that can afford to main-
tain its uaemploved at an
assistance level higher than the
poverty line, is along way from
being a country in deep trouble.

It caught up to Premier Mike
Harcourt during an equally in-
formal moment. As we were
wrapping up a long phone conver-
sation, we heard someone dialing
on an extension phone.

Finally responding to the
Premier’s entreaties, Justin Har-
court said: ‘‘Oh...sorry, Dad."? -

“Pll be right with you, son,”
Harcourt said, and the boy hung
up the phone.

Justin was impatiently waiting
to accompany his dad on a pre-
vacation shopping trip.

Harcourt said his biggest
challenge during the past year was
sorting out the financial mess his
government had inherited.

“It was so much worse than
what we had thought ... but it’s
fixed now," he said.

By ‘‘fixed’’ he meant only that
everything is now properly struc-
tured.

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In Vancouver Call &

Sunday, December 27, 1992 — North Shore News - 9

Politicos consider the paradoxes of 1992

The premier said the one thing
he wished he could do over again
was the way his government
handled the doctors, retroactively
eliminating the pension agreement
that had been negotiated with the
previous government.

“‘We must controf health, in-
cluding payments to doctors, but
we should have been fairer in our
negotiation.’’

Opposition leader Gordon
Wilson will surprise no one when
he says that the discord within his
own caucus has been his biggest
disappointment.

He expected that inexperience
would cause problems, but he

didn't anticipate the bitterness.

Wilson says his party’s over-
whelming strength in the polls,
along with the withdrawal of the
unhappy David Mitchell, creates
optimism at the advent of 1993,

The Socred house leader Jack
Weisgerber, widely acclaimed by
the Victoria press galiery as the
most effective speaker on the op-
position side, takes satisfaction
from survival itself.

“A year ago, everyone thought
we would simply go away ... well,
we are here; we are strong; and
we are here to stay,"’ he told me.

Have a Happy New Year! |

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