Time big stupid white guys united

THERE was a cartoon in the North Shore News recently that tickled my fancy. It appeared after those idiots in Victoria changed the name of Chinaman Lake in

order to suck up to

Victor Wong of the

Vancouver Association

of Chinese Canadians.

The cartoon showed a guy standing by a sign that read, ig $ Stupid White Guy

Exactly. We salute happily while being kicked in the rear, © ~~ and to the rear. There is no limit to our spinelessness.

All ic took for the name to be changed was onc letter from Wong toa B.C. cabinet minister.

ere’s more. Wong has started a campaign to eet all “offensive” names struck off the map in Alberta and Manitoba. (Perhaps the name Alberta itself is offensive since it was named in 1882 after a British princess who was the wife of the Governor General.)

I can see it now — human rights commissions in those provinces going through the gazetteers microscopically. Truly, we have become a nation of grovellers.

It is amazing that Vancouver hasn’t been renamed so that its new residents can feel more at home.

How. about Chinaman’s BlufP

: Ifyou think that’s unreasonable, consider that some big

” Bar, for instance, which is listed in the book B.C. Place

be renamed. Several articles to that effect have appeared in the Vancouver Sun.

To them, Britis: Columbia stinks of official racism, colo- niatism and imperialism. Away with it.

Why stop there? A rich field for review offers itseif. B.C. is littered with politically incorrect names: Negro Rock, Sambo Point, Minstrel Island.

Disgrace ful!

It worries me that Wong has missed a few points. China Names is being named after “the Chinamen who washed for gold

ere.”

The volume was published in 1986 by two academics who didn’t understand how wrong they were. They couldn’t have checked with Wong.

Such wounding oversights should be taken off the shelves. So should the Canada Council, which helped to finance the book. It’s just the kind of thing thar Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh, calls “systemic discrimination.”

No doubt he will organize a more thorough swecp through the map when his newly formed Human Rights Gestapo gets cracking.

Meanwhile, a lot of people have been asking what’s wrong with the word Chinaman, seeing that we have Englishman, Frenchman, Irishman, etc., and even an Englishman River over on Vancouver island.

If there are any English left in these parts they should com- plain about it to Glen Clark & Co. If Chinaman is racist, it follows that Englishman is, too.

Meanwhile, be sure to avoid that old expression, “He does- n’t stand a Chinaman’s chance.” Wong might hear you.

‘dumb white guys have even agitated for British Columbia to

"Dear Editors

The Dec..29 eter written |

~ by Ace Cetinski, C.A., M.B.A. ’ from Alberta, reminds us all of the; Prime: Minister’s election promises: regarding ‘ not only elimina-

GST but also NAFTA

tion pr

° Chretien’ “made these_ public announcements ~*~

feet to the fire.”

‘Of: course - business ‘itself ™:

doesn’t pay GST because it is a + consumer tax and most busi- : nesses pass the tax along to the - ultimate ‘consumer. But busi- ness is an unpaid collector and ; remitrer of ¢

. “unintentional initerpretation- : ‘al errors” allow. for “hundreds “of millions’ of dollars”. to go -unpaid.-But it is also true that ~ businesses” lose “out on’ GST input tax credit (TTC) because

it is generally more difficult to

: account , for: ITC deductions

Too : bad- Prime Minister’

¢ federal tax.-° *: ) And“it)may be true ‘hat

; . without | . ‘ thinking” We'll now “hold his’ *

than the more simple proce- dure of accounting for GST arged to customers.

ir the blended GST isn’t going to make GST go away, nor is it going to appease con- sumers.

But it is also true that most trading nations in the world have a consumer tax; call it GST, VAT or sales tax of some sort.

Even most: states in the

‘WN, Jet complaint is just plain petty

: Dear Editor: Q

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the story on page 3 of your Jan: 10 issue of the North Shore News regarding a :.Mr. David Brown and his complaint of noise from jets flying ~ over his British Properties home. What a shame. I guess the noise disturbs him while he is sitting in his hot tub or lying beside his swimming pool.

Gawping through the gazetteer | detected other names that

U.S. havea sales tax and another luxury tax or the like, even though it is not called GST or VAT — it’s the same thin

Bier shopped in New York? Ever shopped in Europe? As a consumer, I don’t like paying sales taxes, but as an econo- mist, I recognize that reducing income taxes and increasing Consumer taxes is the way to go not to please consumers, but to collect taxes somehow, and particularly when the economy does not generate income taxes in times of eco- nomic slow downs.

Consumers need to be reminded that the GST was never intended to be applied to the debt or the deficit, bur to place manufacturers and exporters in a better compara- tive advantage with other world traders.

But, Mr. Cetinski, you can’t convince me to join your GST-WAR2 unless and until

LBOX

: Canada needs ¢ GST alternatives

you explain clearly how you intend to replace whatever GST income is ultimately col- lected, with another source of income.

Does big business and the Canadian elite love the GST? I don’t think so. And you are treading a dangerous cconom- ic path if you think that increasing corporate taxes and increasing the marginal tax rate on high income earners will continually contribute to increased tax collection.

1 trust you know this sim- plistic concept doesn’t work.

And don’t even mention a corporate capital tax concept, we already have such an animal in British Columbia and it’s driving business away.

Exactly what “acceptable alternatives” do you have?

I'm sure the feds would like to know.

S.M. Vandervoort MBA, CGA North Vancouver

ICY: Letters to the editor must be legible

(preferably typewritten) and include your name, full address

and telephone number.

Submissions can be faxed to 985-2104.

Lan Now Available

‘T’ve lived in North Vancouver for 55 years and the noise has never been a problem with me. Where would he expect these planes to fly? Mr. Brown should donate more of his time to something worthwhile like helping those who are in need,

“instead of worrying about an airp! ane flying over his house.

Lorne E. Dennis North Vancouver

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might offend.

Hookass Bay is hardly the kind of name you would use in polite company.

Jackass Mountain is questionable, as are Hooch Lake and Belly Up Canyon. The old-timers were a bunch of drunks (not to mention racists) so let us not hand their ways on to furure generations.

I searched in vain for 2 Smokers Creek, but failed, thank goodness.

Even on a lesser scale there is still much room for improve- ment.

What about Indian Arm? Shouldn’t that be renamed First Nations Arm? Better still would be something like Moe Sihota Arm.

Mind you, it is possible that all this name changing will” come to nought. Such revisionism was a big thing in Russia. Petrograd became Leningrad and is now Petrograd again.”

After Stalin died Stalingrad went down the tube and: became Volgograd. But to the world and no doubt to the Russians. it is still Stalingrad. ‘

In fairness ( and f am nothing if nor fair, as is well known) it could even be claimed that name- changing i isanold:- = Canadian custom. Whar-is now Kitchener,'Ont:, used to be Berlin, Ont. Then came the First World War: : °

The incorrigible locals up in the Chinarnan’s Lake district _ claim they will still — offensively — call the place byi its origi nal name.

Good. Big Stupid White Guys. unite.

— The North Shore News belzeves strongly in freedom of ‘speech and the right of all sides in a debate to be heard. The columnists: published in the News present differing points of view, but thos: views are not necessarily those of the newspaper itself.

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