B.C. versus the Great Elsewhere

“DADDY,” SAYS the little boy, “‘Is that man a British

Columbian?”’

“‘Hush,”’ says his father, “Don’t talk so loud. If he’s a British Columbian he will let us know and if he isn’t we shouldn’t embarrass him by making him admit it.’’

Those of us who live our sheltered lives between the Rockies and the Pacific Ocean find com- fort in words such as these. How- ever, now and then, when snatch- ed from our native land and transported into that terrible region called Elsewhere, our con- fidence falters. . . .

Sometimes, we find it conve- nient to not mention that we are Britis: Columbians.

One such occasion that comes to mind was when I was absent from B.C. and living in Ottawa for four years,-an act of disloyalty for which I was justly reproved.

The Vancouver Sun arrived one —

day with most of its front page tci.2n up with a picture of Mayor Tom Terrific Cempbelil. Having been recently made aware of rats on the waterfront, he had put a harness on his house cat and gone rat hunting. He and the cat inad posed for news photographiers on one of the harbor wharves.

464 To return to these mountains is a gladsome thing.

Once inside the

compound, the ‘Great Elsewhere

doesn't matter any more. 99

Although I can’t remember what crisis was convulsing the world or the nation on that day, I am confident it was something that neither Vancouver’s mayor nor his cat understood or cared about.

On occasions such as these, if people didn’t know you were a British Columbian you didn’t tell them because it made them look sideways at you and hide letter openers and other sharp objects in the desk’s bottom drawer.

When a British Columbian goes abroad, to Calgary, Seattle and places even more distant, there are herds, shoals, shimmering multitudes of people in the Elsewhere who do not awaken each morning clamoring to know about the health and happiness of the B.C. people. There are even quite a few who have never heard of us and our local heroes.

Within this province it’s an ar- ticle of faith that Canada’s Parliament hung on each word that fell from the fat lips of the late Gerry McGeer, an MP and another Vancouver mayor. In four years’ residence, I never found one person who remembered his name.

Like other famous West Coast names, it had become Jost in the clamor and excitement of matters concerning places far bigger, far richer and immensely more scphisticated than this province. Yes, there are such.

This alien view unsettles me whenever I’m absent for a few

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

Paul Pierre

weeks or months. Out there, Brit-

ish Columbia just seems different,

somehow.

To return to these mountains is a gladsome thing. Once inside the compound, the Great Elsewhere doesn’t matter any more. We are right and they are wrong and this is the way God intended it.

Just for a time, during read- justment, the other perspective persists. The case of Senator Pat Carney is an example.

Ms. Carney was bounced from the Senate’s constitutional com- mittee. She says it was because she was one of the Conservative senators voting against the gov- ernment’s abortion bill. (The fate of the others is unknown in these parts.)

Senator Lowell Murray, the Senate’s Conservative party lead- er, says it was because Ms. Carney wouldn’t do her work.

He produced records to show that she had the second-worst at- tendance record of any Conser- vative senator.

Ms. Carney responded by call- ing him a liar, the most un- parliamentary of all words. She didn’t dispute the record but in- sisted he was lying about his motives, She knew what he was thinking, even if he wasn’t saying it.

Ms. Carney excused herself by saying she suffers from arthritis, something she knew when she ac- cepted the appointment. Also, she said, Ottawa is a long way from Vancouver. She knew that too.

She suggested B.C. has an in- herent right to a seat on the committee, even if the occupant doesn’t contribute much to the committee’s work.

What would be astonishing anywhere except in B.C. is the reaction of the province’s press. They rushed to the lady’s defence, shouting loucly that she needed no defenders. :

Columnists and editorial writers warned Senator Murray that they could not be responsible for his safety when he acted so recklessly. They demanded to know why B.C. isn’t loved more.

In time, having had her spank- ing, the petulant senator will be reinstated on the committee and will then doubtless do the work for which Canadian taxpayers are paying her. West Coasters will see this as a proud victory of B.C. over Elsewhere, a w-2icome con- firmation of our moral and

. Spiritual ascendancy in the

Parliament.

People in Elsewhere, if they notice at all, will consider it all just another West Coast loony tune. CR

Bank of British Columbia

Division of Hongkong Bank of Canada <>

Friday, February 15, 1991 — North Shore News - 9

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