8 -. Sunday, June 23, 1991 - North Shore News

the trough again

STEADY, I told myself. Keep calm. Above all, think gen- tle thoughts. Do not allow the demon Outrage to gain dominion over Rational Sensibility.

So I decided to remove myself for a day or two. Far from com- menting on the news out of the Legislature, 1 forced myself not even to think about it. Something told me that a tranquil and serene silence just might be the prudent path to enlightened objectivity. It was a precaution, ! feared, that many of my colleagues would deny themselves.

I was correct, of course. My hastier brethren did exactly as I worried they might. In the white heat of anger, they rushed to take up their pens.

Bitterest gall bditing at their throats, gorge rising like foam on warm beer, blood surging to the boil, they flung themselves at their video data terminals to denounce the latest perpetration of sheer in- famy by the men and women of the legislature of this province. And after all, who could blame them? Their outrage was, let us admit, wholly appropriate.

They are biackguards, of course, our Members of the Legislative Assembly. They are men and women who make a special point of calling each other Honorable, when they are demonstrably not honorable at all.

Well if they are not Honorable, what other names might fit? Brazen thieves? Mountebanks? Charlatans?

Perhaps.

Or are they merely just another example of raw, ungovernable greed? Pigs at a trough. Doing what pigs do.

Are they, in short, worth get- ting mad at? Are they big-time chisellers, or are they just another clutch of small-timers whose trifl- ing peculations are hardly worth mentioning among the shenani- gans of the vast horde of greedy gobblers who populate this world.

Their crime, if we are to call it that, is that they got together and said, Hey look, some day all of this will be over. Some day we won’t be Honorable Members any more. We'll be Contempiible Working Stiffs, like everybody

By Brian Swarbrick Contributing Writer

else.

So before that happens, Iet’s take care of ourselves a little, eh? It’s OK for the guys who can hang in for seven years and claim a lifetime pension. But what about the rest of us, the incompetents, the unsavory, the losers, the guys who can’t cut it as elected of- ficials? Shouldn’t we get a touch of the gravy, too? Nothing illegal, of course. Just a little touch of every British Columbian’s paycheck...

And so they voted themselves a severance package of half a year’s salary. Anybody who got kicked out, or just decided to pack it in, could pick up a nice litthe chunk of dough just to say bye-bye. Nothing big. A little over $24 grand for the small fry, up to about $44 grand for the head honchos.

Nothing, say, to match the 100 or so big ones Big Bill arranged for his principal secretary when the heat forced him to slip out the back door and wave us all bye-bye after less than a year. Say, wasn’t that a neat ploy?

Hey, speaking of the premier, what we MLAs are grabbing is hardly more than he slipped in his pocket for whatever service he rendered that billionaire from Hong Kong. Whatever came of that, anyway ... ?

And when all’s said and done, could there be any real harm in helping ourselves to a little dip in the trough if the NDP'’s in on it, too? It’s not as if it’s just us Socred hogs, it’s those whiter than white boys, as well. Doesn't that give it a touch of, what’s that big word, verisimilitude?

Yes, sir, all in alt I'm glad | told myself to keep calm. One shouldn’t upset oneself over another display of the shabby greed of politicians. It’s all a mat- ter of perspective.

NV car thefts rising

NORTH VANCOUVER is ex- periencing a rash of car thefts.

By Michael Becker News Reporter

During the past few weeks more than 24 vehicles were stolen in the municipality.

Said North Vancouver RCMP Const. Martin Blais, ‘Vehicles are being stolen for joyrides and for going from party to party and then being dumped.”’

Blais warns that in addition to causing losses to vehicle owners, once identified by police, car thieves may become a menace on the road.

Said Blais, ‘‘If they are spotted by police they start a chase automatically. Those kids want to get away, so they might cause traffic hazards."

A recent morning chase down Mount Seymour Parkway saw

four suspects bail out of a stolen car and elude police near Brockton Crescent.

Added Blais, ‘‘It’s stolen car ci- ty all over the place. We recover most of them. Sports cars are a big thing. Z-28s are coming back into action, Mazdas, Toyota vans -— there’s a lot of those — really easy to get into.””

In April and May, 240-Z and 280-Z Datsun sports cars proved to be the vehicle of choice for car thieves operating in West Van- couver. The West Vancouver Police recovered three of the sports cars and arrested and charged four teens.

Earlier in the spring, both North and West Vancouver municipalities were hit by a string of vehicle arsons.

Added Blais, ‘‘The problem is that you can’t secure your vebicle — it’s impossible. Just be vigilant and put an alarm system in it."*

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