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| ORDON Campbell is on the

right track with his proposed
3 parent and volunteer protec-
tion act. But, when it comes to this
~. ‘province’s education system, he and the
"gest. of his Liberal party need to take
‘that protection one step further and
apply it to the system’s main cus-
"tomers: students.

In a May 3 Liberal party press
release, Campbell announced that he
“would: introduce a private member’s
“ bill entitled the Public School. Parent
“and Volunteer Protection Act to ensure
~that parent. volunteers remain welcome
“in the province’s schools.

The move follows recently revealed
‘demands by Canadian Union of Public

mployees. (CUPE) . negotiators ° to

remove parent volunteers from schools:

-because ..the.. union “considers them
“threats ‘to union turf. _CUPE?’s. mis-

cua Priddy stated to the independent school people that
the Present

did nc not have the $5 million needed to n

guided push’ is but one threat to the
quality and consistency of B.C. schools.
More labour disruptions to’ educa-
tion loom with upcoming . contract _
negotiations between the province and.
the B.C. Teachers Federation. |.’
Our province and its students can

‘il afferd any more interruptions to

what is already an underachieving
education system.

Campbell said fast month that he
would make education an essential

_service and end school closures if he

were elected premier. That statement
needs to be more than just another.
campaign promise. B.C. students
need to be afforded government edu-
cation protection. They and their par-
ents need a government-guaranteed

-minimum, number of in-class educa-
“tion days per year. And that ‘mini-

minmt should start at 200.

AMID ) shrieks from the brainless
ostriches that Alberta’s Bill lhe
will lead to two-
“tier American-style
~ medicine comes.a ©
blast of sanity from s
uries

oO doube that her bias is showing? Maybe she is.
nt their children educated in‘an envi-':

ten Te is not pean
and other things.
See}

to put their garbage on

age day-instea
would reduce the temptation
nell of food and ted be into res-

‘with their own’ cultural background.
fo wants God kept ou of the schools
replaced by corruptive material such | as the McCreary § sure *

. recently reminded itg

. readers of the facts :

‘ presumably forgotten by

many Canadians, if they

ever registered them —

-and the story was taken .

‘Up last weekend by Vancouver. Sun busi-
ness columnist Michael Campbell.

A far more radical switch to private .
medical care than that now proposed by
‘Premier. Ralph Klein took place more
than’a year ago in neighbouring: :

-- Saskatchewan with scarcely a peep of
Protest.

Saskatchewan, of all places _ home of

“medicare’s saintly ‘creator Tommy.

of putting '**. gain! But then; Premier Roy Romanow,
ist; already. qualifies as one of Canada’ s
three smartest politicians. i": :

‘Private clinics in his province can now.
provide a much wider assortment of pro-
‘cedures than allowed under Klein’s pro- .

posed legislation: all pai

ernment in the same way as doctors, tn :
ray

‘Yate enterprise test Jat pratorics and

trast, Alberta's Bill\12. would

it private clinics only to'do routin

minor surgeries requiring an overnight
‘stay. It also specifically forbids private

linics to offer services (i ncluding queu

Mack Fancher <2 6
Creative Services Director
985-2131 (127)

-Douglas and NDP-governed into the bar-
:Jalso the NDP’s balanced budget special-"":' 7

for by gove

WEALD THIS BF CONSIDERED

AY OF THE
CONSUCTATION PRDSESSON
Te FERRY RESERVATIONS

jumping) f for those willing t to pay.
No such prohibition exists for

_Saskatchewan’ s private clinics. So why. all.

the uproar about Ralph
Klein's very modest pri
* yvatization experiment, -
~ but almost none a year:
“er so ago about |
Saskatchewan’s consid-

The answer,
nist Campbell notes, is
simple politics. For
. Chretien Liberals it
much easier to make'a
.. villain out of hard-right:
conservative Ralph Klein than budget-
balancing, “really-one-of-us” NDP
. manow, Campbell also agrees
with a point made in this column a cou-
ple of weeks age (Cure medicare or pay
the price, Apri
¢ noisy opposition to Klein. =
‘They are, of course, the health care
kere unions, faced with compcti

8
against private clinics* nori-union stafis.:

But the daunting problems now con-.
* fronting medicare go much deeper th
‘the unions’ urge to protect their turf,

.” They are in part structural and in part:
.. demographic, and simply throwing mor

at the system a3 presently con

"mon
erbate those prob-

cived ‘can only exac
lems ’
' Seructurally, medicare suffers from 4 :
‘op-heavy bureaucracy which, by defini
tion, breeds waste and inefficiency. I
jacks any accountability on the part of.

patients for the government expenditures :

on their behalf. And it would benefi

from a fundamental overhaul of the.
METHOD (though not. the c
ing doctors, including the conce

| Gall Seelgrave
Genera) Office Manage
) 985-2181 (105)

‘system: the rapidly ‘4
- eration with its oid in

fam media

‘ Canadians a year.
‘Th

26) about the leaders'of..”

lass guarantee [—_\~"

~ hoitr family practice physician gro’

Such structural reforms could goa’
long way.t ting the awes dent
graphic challenge: now fast overtaking

B baby boom gen:

which require’ maxi
care during the final f
ears of life. Add to. that Canada’s

may be only'a couple
away from a mere.two working Canadi
for every retiree ~- something
Douglas may never have co f k
in the 1960s when Canadian mothers
were producing f.three.n

is

ee

¢: medicine”. at any fort to ‘adapt’

aia ass d the