6 - Friday, Apri? 6, 1990 - North Shore News

IAL COMMISSION ELECTORAL REFORM

ALTHOUGH og MAL ws QUITE WHAT WE REDO AHACOATE TOL YOUR ANTE

NEWS VIEWPOINT _.

City siblings

WINNING North Vancouver

couver District.

District with a Soviet community

could provide the North Shore with a convivial fraternal business part- ner, but it could also create a ponderous two-headed monster.

District Ald. Ernie Crist, an employee of North Vancouver’s Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc., has pushed the idea on the theory that an official link with a Soviet Far Eastern city would pay off in a bonanza of industrial, and specifically shipbuilding, contracts for the North Shore’s beleaguered shipuilding in- dustry.

Contracts could result from such an association, but, as with any interna- tional business venture, any payoff would require an investment of legwork and initiative that might be beyond the capabilities and resources of North Van-

North Vancouver City has been of- ficially twinned with Chiba, Japan, for the past 20 years, but the link provides for little more than cultural exchange.

A twinning association with a Russian community might not progress much beyond such a relationship.

There is little doubt that forging links with other countries, especially those around the Pacific Rim, is the way of the future for Canada and B.C., but ad- vocating such an association and actually bringing it to fruition are two very sepa- rate issues.

The cost of extracting viable business from twinning, including the numerous mecessary and unnecessary official junkets between the twinned com- munities, might outweigh the business that would result.

Citizens need to be protected

OPEN LETTER TO WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL:

As all of you are aware, our house was damaged and the lives of our family threatened on March 27 by a blasting incident in the Sannis Development on the Caulfeild Plateau.

Approximately two years ago, a similar incident took place in Monte Verde Estates, albeit with another developer and bDiasting company.

When the Sannis Development was before council for approval, the concerns for the safety of both citizens and property were drawn to the attention of council and staff.

Publisher

Associate Editor ...

Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw - Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart

The time for staff study, com- promise and vacillating has passed. The time for action faces you squarely. You, as elected repre- sentatives of the citizens of West Vancouver, must do everything in your power to ensure the safety of citizens and preservation of prop- erty in West Vancouver.

If this means disturbing a few developers, this may be a small price to pay. If you shirk this duty, the price could be horrific in terms of loss of property or human life. Luck may not be around for the third incident.

Set out here are my recommen- dations to council: © You must ban blasting in devel- oped areas.

* You must insist that in any blasting, within the boundaries of the municipality, that all precau- tions, including blasting mats and evacuation within wide arecs

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around the blast, are adhered to.

While blasting is certainly the cheapest and most expeditious method of getting rid of rock, there are alternatives available to developers and the city. If they choose not to avail themselves of these alternatives, they can develop around these natural impediments.

I feel that in many cases, this would not only give a more attrac- tive development, but also preserve the naturai setting that we, in West Van, are paying a high price to en- joy.

I urge you to stand and be counted on inis issue —- to act as the executive body should act, and show the leadership you are capable of by protecting the inter- ests and property of the vast ma- jority of citizens and not the pocket books of the selected few. John and Jill Mingay West Vancouver

980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227

MEMBER

Loyal Kim

and Mary

owed hetter breaks

IS MULRONEY A SECRET WOMAN-HATER? One has to ask the question after his recent treatment of two of his star female MPs — both from these parts.

Vancouver Centre’s super-bright Kim Campbell clearly had nowhere to go but up, once she’s paid her nominal back bench due. And up, indeed, she went.

Right up into the hot seat of Justice Minister — charged with stickhandling the government’s atrocious abortion bill through the House amid rumblings of mutiny within the Tory caucus itself.

It’s not the kind of challenge even a battie-seasoned veteran minister would welcome, let alone a rookie with only 15 months parliamentary experience.

The bill is unique in that it enrages Pro Life and Pro Choice warriors alike. For the former, it guarantees the fetus no protection until — at best, and not always then — a late stage in pregnancy. For the latter, it denies women the tight of choice by forcing them to get a doctor’s permission for an abortion.

Meanwhile, doctors themselves can theoretically face jail if too slaphappy about handing out okays. They can be sued by disgruntled boyfriends and hus- bands. And even now one or two have reportedly had their homes picketed by Pro Life goons — a pastime likely to be encouraged by the proposed law.

Hopefully, Pro Choice Tory MPs will gather enough courage to kill the bill. But Kim — who one suspects may have a private thought of her own about the idi- otic measure — loses either way.

If it’s defeated, she earns a black mark from her boss. If it passes, she gets a black eye from half the women of Canada.

Life is equally tough these days for Capilano’s Mary Collins, who was doing very nicely inspecting annual cadet parades as Associate Defence Minister.

So in Feoruary, boss Brian promected her to become Minister for the Status of Women as well — right or. the eve of Michael Wilson's budget which cut off funding for women’s centres, forc- ing at least 80 across Canada to close.

ALBERT and Dorothy .. -65 happy years lates!

Since the total saving for Ottawa is a paltry $1.6 million, plenty is tightly being heard about it from angry women coast to coast, but scarcely a peep from their new minister. After all, what CAN a gal sav. if the big boys in cabinet decide that’s how it’s going to be?

Poor loyal Kim and Mary deserve a better break in their new posts, but they can’t expect it from the most recklessly self-centred prime minister in Canadian history — and maybe the most foolish.

{f you aim to attract cabinet- calibre women to your team, you don’t reward them by hanging them out to twist in the wind on issues vital to their own sex!

wae

IN HAPPIER VEIN: Not everyone gets to build his own monument, .:s Albert Peterson did decades ago vwrhen he felled and bucked the tree that frames Lumberman’s Arch in Stanley Park. Tomorrow, April 7, at the Emerald Park Restaurant the former longtime Vancouver Parks employee and organist wife Dorothy, North Van residents for 44 years, celebrate ancther ‘“‘monument’’ in their lives with friends and family (now three chiidren, 12 grandchildren and 12 ° great-grandchildren). Congratula- tions, Albert and Dorothy, on your 65th anniversary! ... For art lovers West Van Library gallery presents, throughout April, water- colors by Mary (Murph) Ranspot who's been painting since a child in New Orleans and later a fine arts student at Louisiana State University. Sensitivity, a wide range of subjects and a seemingly tiinitless palette are her hallmarks... Meanwhile, birthday greetings today, April 6, to North Van’s Rev. Ray Murrin, rector of St. John’s Anglican Church on West 8th... And tomorrow, April 7, many happy returns of the day to birthday gir] Martha Brueckel, gracious hostess and co-owner of West Van's Ambleside Inn.

zeke

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Experi- ence is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.

AMBLESIDE birthday girl .--Martha Brueckel.