6 ~ Wednesday, December 3, 1997 — North Shore News north shore news

VIEWPOINT

| Condo kudos

. applause for North Vancouver City Council’s ecigion to implement a

mandatory new home warranty.

After a dozen or so years of hectic ‘construction in the Lower Mainland, finally one municipality is trying to bring about a program that should have been initiated years ago, when leaky condos came to light. —

Te’s true, as some point out, that the province is working on similar legisla- tion for the whole province. So why should the city stick its neck out and go alone on this?

. Well, for one thing, the hacks in Victoria have been trying to balance B.C.’s budget for years. In the province’s capital, it doesn’t pay to lis- ten to what might be.

Meanwhile, condos and townhomes . are being built on the North Shore that

tors.

-”.° "THE North Shore News Free Speech Defence '-” - Fund is closing in on $150,000. : ‘To press time Tuesday, donations from over 2,000 News readers and free speech supporters to the fund

stood at $144,266. Legal fees expended thus far by the:

- . News have already exceeded $200,000. “AN funds received will help defray the legal costs faced “py the News in its batt! with the Human Rights Tribunal over a'complaint laid against the news- “,” paper and its’ columnist Doug Collins by the * Canadian Jewish Congress. . : The hearing into. the matter, which began on May 12, concluded on June 27. The decision from tribunal chairman Nitya Iyer “was‘handed down on Nov. 12. Full coverage of the decision appeared in the Nov. 14 News. ‘Iyer found that Collins’ column was not hateful, but also ruled that, while the legislation under - which the News was prosecuted infringes upon , the Charter’s guarantee of free expression, it was constitutionally valid. Extra. copies of the News’ Free. Speech Supplement, which was originally published in the Aug. 20 News, arc available at the News

—U 0G TT E

: Offices, —- ’ Another excerpt from the thousands of respon- . dents to the cause: 900

"I believe that Doug Collins speaks for most of us, and I want to praise him for having the courage of his convictions and speaking out.” ; : — Marion Harris of West Vancouver

00

Donations to the fund can be sent to: 1139 Lonsdale

Ave., Nerth Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Cheques should be

made out to the North Shore News Free Speech Defence * Fund. . — trenshaw@direct.ca

North Shore News, tounsed in 1969 as an independem suburban newspaper anc quakhe under Schedule 111, Paragraph $11 of the ‘Excise Tax Act, iS published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press. Ltd. and gesinbuted to every door on the Nosth Shore. Canada Pust Canadian «~:bhcations Mast Sales Product Agreement No 0087238. Mathng rates avadable on request

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61,582 (average Citulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)

provide precious little protection for owners who can afford monstrous repair bills.

A new home warranty program also makes sense from the municipality’s perspective. Currently, when condo owners have leakage problems, they look for someone to sue. It’s common practice for developers to set up new. companies with each new development to limit the liability of company direc-

The last line of defence becomes the municipality, which inspects buildings. So owners sue them, sometimes suc- cessfully. Ask West Van, which coughed up $280,000 fast year in an out-of- court settlement with owners at 2419 Bellevue.

Local legislation could provide some much-needed condo cures for buyers and city staff alike.

OIRICEI7

Nose-hold time for B.C. Reformers a

THE COLLAPSE of the BC Reform Party as a result of the disastrous three-month “leader- ship” of oil consultant Wilf Hanni is terrible

news for 70% of BC

voters.

It’s terrible because more than 60% of the B.C. electorate rejected Glen Clark’s NDP in May 1996, when it squeaked to victory with a three-seat majority. Since then, revelations of budget lying and deccit, and clear evidence that the once booming B.C. economy, after

six years of NDP mismanagement, is now .

a Canadian basket case have undoubtedly added at least 10% to the anti-NDP vote. But where does that vote now go in what could well be a snap 1998 spring elec- tion?

No, your scribe has not been smoking something funny. Premier Clark is a con- summate politician. The recall petition campaigns against Helmut Giesbrecht in Skeena and Paul Ramsey in Prince George North, if successful, could wipe out his majority (one NDP MLA being the voteless Speaker of the House). And beyond that lies the B.C. Supreme Court action against three other NDP MLAs, charging them with misleading voters by claiming a balanced budget when it was actually awash in red ink, That might yet land Clark and senior bureaucrats in the witness box under oath.

So what better time to try to save

PETER SPECK

Stewart Human Resources Sales & Marketing Director Publisher 985-2131 (177) 980-0511 (319) 985-2737 (101)

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Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Lid. Ail rights reserved.

your hide with a quick vote than when half your opponents are in total disarray? With widely respected former B.C. Reform leader Jack Weisgerber now sit- ting as an Independent in protest against hamfisted Hanni’s fol- lies, Reform no longer has a single MLA in Victoria. Yet many B.C. Reform supporters, - though equally disillu- sioned with Hanni, nevertheless swear that they could never vote for Gordon Campbell’s Liberals. With a sad heart I sug- gest they'd better think again. Once more, as so often in politics, it’s nose-holding time for the greater good.

B.C.’s topmost priority right now is to rid itself, at whatever short-term political cost, of the NDP government that’s already well on the way to ruining the province financially and cconomically for a generation or longer. Once this is achieved, anything becomes possible again — including the eventual emer- gence of an effective new right-of-centre party under some charismatic leader yet to be found, as happened in 1952 with the Socreds led by W.A.C. Bennett.

But there’s clearly no way this is going to happen in dme for a possible snap spring clection. Nor even perhaps — on B.C. Reform’s record to date ~ in time for the next regular clection three years down the road. And in any event it would still be essential for the Liberals and B.C. Reform to agree on a joint elec- tion strategy to avoid splitting the anti-

LETTERS 10 THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone numtier.

VIA e-mail: tenshaw @ direct.ca

Managing Editor 985-231 (116)

Comptroller 985-2131 (133)

‘Trixl Agrios Promotions & Acting Display Manager 885-2131 (218)

b a1 igrove General Office Manager ‘935-2131 (105) internet: http://enew.nsnews.com

HE WANTS “fo BE PREPARED FOR A MARKET

REGouND

NDP vote. ft was the absence of such a plan in May 1996 that allowed the NDP - to creep back in.

If a joint election strategy between the two opposition partics is not in place by

- the ume the next writ is dropped, B.C.

Reform supporters who love B.C. have’ only one ch

bunch of bankrupt, province-wrecking ¢- | social engineers packing by VOTING | -. LIBERAL. :

Yes, I’m fully aware of the one-time sacrifice 1’m asking of loyal Reformers, A. dirty job indeed, but somebody has to do - it, if B.C. is ever to be liberated from the _- NDP’s financially ruinous tyranny. And surely that’s a prospect that makes it worthwhile for B.C. Reformers to hold their noses for just five minutes next time they’re in a polling booth!

go00 a SOLVE GIFT PROBLEMS fast -

Saturday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St.

Catherine’s Arts & Crafts Fair, 1058

Ridgewood, North Van — treasures by more than 40 artisans, festive foods and baking, coffee and snack room. ... And

belated 77th birthday wishes yesterday,

Dec. 2, to North Van master craftsman

Vic Baldwin.

900 .

WRIGHT OR WRONG — from TV’s Jack Paar: My life is one long obsta- cle course, with me the chief obstacle:

— The North Shore News believes 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 those views are not necessarily those of the newspaper itself.

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oice: send Glen Clark and his : ;

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