Smoking ban pondered

THE DEBATE over a proposed
smoking ban covering pubs and
‘all other places of entertainment
is about to heat up in North
Vancouver City.

NORTH VANCOUVER
GITY COUNCIL
By Robert Galster

‘The ban agreed to in principle by
council last year, is scheduled to take
effect here and throughout the Lower
Mainland on Sept. 1, 1996.

Monday’s council agenda includ-
ed the first volley of what promises to
turn into a barrage of criticism of the

~ proposed ban.’

A public opinion poll submitted to-
council by: the Lower Mainland

- Hospitality Industry Group. contra-
dicts that the public supports a com-

plete smoking ban.

Although councillors did nat dis-
cuss the issue during the course of the
council mecting, several expressed
their opinions of the proposed ban,

Coun. Bill Bell, a smoker,
acknowledged the significance of the
issue by calling it “one of the hottest
topics right now in terms of people
being for and against.”

While stopping short of support-
ing the ban outright, Bell said ine sup-
ports some aspects of the proposal.

“Where families are involved
(family restaurants and fast food out-
lets) — kids really don’t have the
same choice that adults do in pubs,"
said Bell.

He added that it is imperative for
any ban to be complete and include

every municipality so as not to pre-:

sent an unfair advantage for business-
es in an unaffected municipality.
"Mayor Jack Loucks said he has
nut made up his mind on the subject.
“I's not something I'm going to

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make a quick decision on,” said
Loucks, cautioning that the proposal
runs the risk of “making smokers sec-
ond-class citizens.”

Meanwhile Coun. — Darrell
Mussatto, a non-smoker and ambu-
lance attendant, made no bones of his
outright support for the ban,

“E work in health cure and I see
people die of cancer," said Mussatto.

“Lequate it to drinking and driving

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— 20 years ago it was socially
acceptable.”

The survey wus conducted by
Insight Canada Research and consists
of a sample of 2,400 adults sampled
between June 23 and June 26. Some
of its findings include:

@ 70% of the survey's respondents
supported a solution which is fair to
smokers and non-smokers alike;

BB 47% of the smokers sampled said
they would frequent a bar “much fess
often” while 37% respondents 1adi-
cated the same would apply for bowl-
ing alleys.

advertorial

oe DUTIES

_ Part of my job as an MP is
unavoidably partisan in nature
because |t Is one of my duties to
do everything | can to help
Retorm to achleve its goal of
becoming the naxt Government.
This week | decided to write
about my involvement In some
recent partisan. activities in
Atlantic Canada, so that you can
see that from time to time | am
also actively selling the Reform
message {n other parts of the
country.

ATLANTIC OUTREACH

During the. waek . beginning
September 11th, Reform MPs trav-
alled to Halifax, Nova Scotia with
three major’ objectives in mind:
(t) We needed to mest as a Caucus
to plan our strategy for the Fall ses- -
sion of Parliament,

K (2) We wanted to discuss with
delegates from across Canada our
“Medicare Plus" idea to save health
care, Herb Grubel's “flat tax" pro-
posal, and the possibility of replac-
ing CPP with a “Super RASP* pro-
“gram.

(3) We had arranged visits to -
every part of Atlantic Canada to lis-
ten to yotar concerns and to explain

§ Reform's ideas for breaking the
region's cycle of dapendence on-
Government transters.

You have probably read or heard
media claims that it will be an “uphill

‘battle’ for Reform in Atlantic
Canada, but Reform made it into
second place in a few Ridings in:
Atlantic Canada in the last election.
We would have won at least two _
seats if there had not Deen a ‘split
vote with the PCs, and we received
a larger percentage of the total vote
than we did in B.C. in the 1988 elec-
tion.

WHAT DID WE OFFER?

Our research into the problems
of Atlantic Canada highlighted the
fact that prior to confederation the
main trading routes were North -
South, but after confederation the

# transportation links and tariffs were
‘altered to favour East West trade.
However, tha recent NAFTA and
World Trade agreements have once
again opened major tourism and
trading opportunities North South at

f a time whan the region lacks the

/ necessary . infrastructure “to take
advantage of this new trade oppor-
tunity. ; :

As a result of this research
‘Reform presented a plan io Atlantic
Canada which’ would move the |
emphasis ‘of Government funding
away from patronage laden grants

¢ and money losing msgaprojects into

| ireeways and other infrastructure
“which would benefit everyone and

open up the North South Trading
links, Atlantic Canada could then
access a market of more than 13
million people encompassing four
provinces and five states witft a cor-
tespending drop in dapendence on
government “make work" projects, :
wellare and grants.

WHAT DID WE HEAR?

Everywhere we went we heard
that patronage has long been a way

" af life in Atlantic Canada. In parts of

Prince Edward Island we were told
that up to 95% of families are recelv-
ing government benefits for part cf
the year and that the only way to get
a job is to have government connec-
tions, One man told me that PEI.
stood for "Patronage Every Inch",
and at a local public meeting the’
Liberal MP for the area sat beside
the door to take note of who attend-
ad. (This caused some peopie to
turn away without even entering the
hail.) Some people told us privately

cthat they were afraid to show any

‘interest in another. political party
when thelr jobs depended on the
Me, and that they would put the *rul-
ing party“ sign on their lawn aven if
they Intended to vote for someone
elsel
in the larger citias fike Halifax. §

things were much more open. We
-were told that our North South pro-
posal was just what the region
needed and that everyone is sick of

“the, patronage. and government.

‘handouts which benefit people with
“political connections to the -detri-
~“ment of everyone else. | met with the
upper management of several major
businesses in Halifax, attended a }
dinner for more than 250 people in

’ the Annapolis Valley, and spoke with

several groups of residants. | discov-
ered that Reform is considered to be
the real opposition in Ottawa. and
that Atlantic Canadians are anxious
for us to take over the Official
Opposition status from the Bloc as
soon as we can. We were all well
treated by the locat media and {
came away confident that Reform
can realistically expect to win at
least eight seats in Atlantic Canada.
One Liberal MP even told me in
Ottawa Jast week that he thinks we
wil! probably win his seat because
he is not allowed to represent his
constituents and people are getting
fed up with being told what to think.

The polls may not be showing it
‘yet, but there is a lot mora underly-
ing support for Reform in Atlantic |
Canada than any of us have been
led to believe. ° :

AT CAP

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CAPILANO
COLLEGE

2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver
.” British Columbia

‘986-1911