4 ~ Sunday, April 6, 1986 - North S

hore News

Bob Hunter

® strictly personal e

I TRY to understand, you understand. But sometimes, nothing makes sense. Not locally, not nationally, not

globally.

Let’s start wiih the near-strike on the SkyTrain. After a great deal of flapping and schrecching, the union involved promised not to go on strike until Expo is over.

Is that wonderful? Well, maybe, But as the dispute un- folded, | kept scratching my head. Hadn't the SkyTrain just been BUILT? Weren't the endless little technical and logistical hassles all part of get- ting the bugs out of the system?

In fact, wasn’t it automated in the first place partially to eliminate the need for drivers who might go on strike? As it turns out, attendants — bounc- ers, basically — prowl the system day ‘and night watching for sneakaboards and vandals, to say nothing of purse snatchers or people laughing too loud.

It seems to me if you’re going to have to hire a small army of _ attendants anyway, why not throw in a few drivers? At least then somebody would be in con- trol on the spot.

The fantasy of a totally robnticized transit system with no labor problems is of course im- possible to achieve, even if you got it down to a single operator in the central control bunker — because he or she, sooner or later, would set up a picket line for one reason or another. Bet on it. . ‘

Still, I found it breathtaking to realize that the staff of a system that had just started up, essen- tially unskilled. people who hadn’t even got the bugs out yet,

Surely, they should at least learn how to use the tools before they down them!

_ Indeed there are bugs to be got out of the system — but [I'm afraid they’re there to stay.

We Icap now to the national level, where, in my youth, I used to suppose cooler heads prevail- ed

Enter Brian Mulroncy, telling The New York Times that as soon as he heard about ihe tuna scandal, bang, out went the minister responsible.

This of course came as news not just to former fisheries minister John Fraser, but to the rest of us, who recall that in fact Mulroney first defended Fraser, and only later accepted his resig- nation. .

And even then, that was only after Fraser pointed out Mulroncy’s office had known about the matter for quite some time.

The loss of Fraser from the federal cabinet was a tragedy for British Columbians, especially since here was one of the very few West Coast Tories able to achieve any real power, being destroyed by an ill-advised at- tempt to save an East Coast can-

nery. That’s all in the past —- or at least it was until the Prime Minister blurted out his obvious- ly cockeyed version of what hap- pened, to the American media. Only two conclusions are possible: either the Prime Minister has a lousy memery or

had the audacity to threaten a he is, indeed, a fibber. I’m not

WEST VANCOUVER: Monday, April 7, 8 p.m.: 20th Street Park- ing Lot and Capilano View Cemetary bylaws/Sign bylaw amendment/Lane paving in 1200 block Duchess and Clyde Avenue/Traffic in Ambleside/ Foreshore subleases and licence to occupy Travers and Radcliffe Avenue/Temporary Parking Horeshoe Bay/Annable property rezoning/ Expo '86 Transit Service Plan. —

NORTH VANCOUVER CITY: April 7, 7:30 p.m.: Finance Com- mittee. reports re: grant applica- tions, parking reserves, planning program, business license by- law,/Report on nuisance proper- ties/Report on tourist accom- modation uses in multiple family dwellings/Temporary vehicle park proposals/Intellectual Freedom motion.

NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT: April 7, 6:45 p.m.: Capilana College sitting area amendment/North Lonsdale traf- fic study/District drainage pro- blems/Waste removal bylaw/ Cultural Policy Committee report/Noise regulation bylaw/ Public hearing regarding Development permit for the con- struction of a Hasty Market in 2700 block Mountain Highway.

sure which is worse.

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If he’s just lying, at Icast he's probably got all his marbles. But if he's only firing on one valve, we could be in even more serious trouble than we are.

What If ask mysclf —- still ury- ing to understand, you unders- tand — is what on earth docs Mulroncy gain by stretching che truth so outragcously? Even if he did manage to impress the readers of The New York Times with this tale of Conan the Bar- barian-like political axe-wielding, he doesn’t get clected or unelecied by them.

It’s us back here -- who know bloody well what really happened.

But Ict us look to the very heights of international power for the truly unfathomable stuff. I refer to the John Wayne number Ronald Reagan just laid on Colonel Khadafy.

Khadafy is a dictator, right? He controls the media on his home turf, right? So he draws a line and dares the biggest bully around to cross it. Bully crosses. Khadafy sends out a couple of doomed patrol boats. They get zapped, along with a radar base.

Then, abruptly, the bully tums and mns. At home, Khadafy looks like a giant killer. His tame media trumpet the news: Yanks retreat! Amd sure enough, there are the Yanks departing the area five days ahead of their own an- nounced schedule.

Back in the rest of the uni- verse, there is much scratching of heads. What has Reagan proved? Did he get his scripts confused? Khadafy comes out looking like a hero, the American military machine like a paper tiger. And Ron gets his turkey status con- firmed.

I dunno. I just dunno. I TRY.

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