GEE GUYS ...\T SURE 1S SWELL OF YOU TO FORGET ABOUT THE PAST AND THROW THIS STAG FOR file... « BUIBE. GuYS?. :

Heath gt a LR Se ee

wane ane

i ike

.N OPPORTUNITY to make Socal

streets safer for bicyclists, uncisg i 2Amajor transit arteries and improve focal air quality in the process should not be missed.

- All North Shore residents interested in the, above should therefore get involved in the joint bicycle master plan being put together by North Vancouver District and City. The plan is aimed at encouraging the use of bicycles as an alternative to. motor vehticles. It will also establish a network of bicycle’ routes on the North Shore for transit and pleasure use.

The network is a key to making bicycle

use safer and therefore more viable as a

transit alternative. North Shore streets currently provide no allowance for bicycle use. Bicycling to and from work or to and from anywhere is consequently. extremely

GS ssrorweys

RC ee

WANN Ee SSS

input

dangerous. The bicycle cannot replace the automobile as a primary means of transit for many people, but it can for some.

Motor vehicles are currently responsible for 90% of the carbon monoxide emitted in the Lower Mainland and fur 64% of the nitrogen oxides and 54% of the volatile organic compounds that combine in the atmosphere to form ozone smog.

The private automobile has for too long been considered the main mode of com- muter transit. Times are changing; local transportation facilities need to change too,

Proposed bike route plans. will be displayed around the North Shore over the next two weeks. Call North Vancouver Ci- ty at 985-7761 or North Vancouver District at 987-7131 for more information.

LETTER OF THE DAY

Take

steps to wipe out ecological insults

Dear Editor:

1 am writing in response to Bob Hunter's article ‘‘Eco-nightmares in the Third World’? (March 10), in which he laments the death of fragile coral, no doubt having been trampled upon by tourists, and’ returns ‘‘back home ap- preciating Canada more than ever.”’

' Citizens of the developed world must realize their hand in the ecological insults within the de-

Not uncommonly, the offenders are companies and corporations, based in wealthy countries, who take advantage of the resources of less developed nations.

I too have recently returned from a developing country, where 1 was chagrined to learn that a prominent Vancouver-based gold mining company has been reaping benefits while polluting the water on which many lives depend, the extent that the local popula- tion is avoiding the cyanide-red- stained river because of the in-

creasing numbers of dead animals found along its banks.

While we in Canada have standards for pollution control, what is to stop Canada’s overseas operations from deviating from such guidelines?

Perhaps instead of just pointing fingers, we could take steps to en- sure that we, as proud Canadian citizens, are not guilty participants in the ever-increasing global ecological problem,

Joy Wee

veloping world.

Peter Speck . .Timothy Renshaw .Noel Wright

Publisher .

Managing Editor . Associate Editor. . Sales & Marketing Director. Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot

North Shore Mews, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied under Schedule 111, Paragraph (ti of the Excise Tax Act, is Published ¢ ‘each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sates Product Agreement No. 0987238. Mailing tales available on request. Submissions are welcome bul we Cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. :

Newsroom

V7M 2H4

Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Ciassified Advertising 986-6222

North Vancouver

9 Printed on

10% recycled newsprint

Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2131

980-0511

985-2131

SUNDAY WEDNESDAY + oMIDAY

1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C.

SAT DIVISION

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

Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

MAYBE it’s something to do with your scribe’s blissful (shame on him at 75) mini-honeymoon last week with his. third Dearly Beloved at the Empress — overlooking Vic- toria’s gaudily lit legislature building.

Maybe personal late-blooming romance has atrophied his analyt- ical brain cells, but if so, he’s not alone. Publication of an “‘obsessive’’ love letter to Liberal leader Gordon Wilson from his former house leader Judi Tyabji has aroused widespread public anger — not against the bumbling lovebirds themselves but against the media.

Exposing political sins is the media’s bounden duty. But vicious political assassination by merciless daily torture is apparently more

than many viewers and readers are |

prepared to stomach.

Wilson says the letter was stolen, photocopied and returned to him without his knowledge. _ Since he would hardly have passed it to the media himself, there's no reason to disbelieve him.

Ablaze with self-righteousness, Vancouver's daily tab defends its decision to publish the deeply private personal document -~ pre- | sumably known by its editors to have been stolen — on the ; grounds that it proves Wilson lied to the public beyond all further ° doubt,

Good grief, we'd known for. three weeks that Gordon originally {and not very convincingly) , downplayed his relationship with Judi —~ only to confess later that they were indeed in love, The un- surprised public, which had al- ready watched the knife go into his back, was now being pressed to drink the gore as well.

So what to make of the whole tedious mess in which the embat- tled leader and his party now find themselves? Three things seem obvious. j

First, the stolen letter and its timing leaves no doubt about a conspiracy to dethrone Wilson, who fought off a‘similar conspir- acy three years ugo and has been plagued by challengers from within his cauclis ever since assuming leadership of the official Opposition.

Second, there’s still nothing i in Wilson’s récord to date that detracts from his POLITICAL judgment. -

True, he showed reckless favoritism to Tyabji in naming her house teader. But favoritism is rife among all party leaders and there’s as yet no proof that she was incapable of handling the job. ‘ ‘True, his judgment in personal affairs is wide open to question. He regarded his private life as

CHIEF LEN GEORGE... pitching native self-government to business. .

HITHER AND YON

nobody's business but hisown: | and panicked i in his initial reaction “when it was publicly probed. A - less honest politician would have handled his attackers far more smartly.

That said, however, he remains the leader who _ against all odds — revived a virtually extinct party — and singlehandedly gave it 7 seats.

He provided the political judg- . ment free-cnterprise British Col- umbians sought at the October 1991 election and continued to .,

provide it through his personal

performance in the legislature. Even if he decides to run in the September leadership race, it’s un

' fikely that anything can save

Wilson this time around. Or, for. that matter, his fractious party,’

which has equaliy damaged itself ;

in the eyes of the voters who. ex- pected so much of it. '

For 40 years the Liberals were | suspect in B.C. as a branch plant’ of Ottawa. Free enterprise rallied’ behind homegrown Social Credit

. until that party disgraced itself,

thereby enabling Wilson to give provincial Liberals the new chance which they’ve now bungled.

By destroying him, they've shot themselves in the foot as well. And somehow I can’t see Gord . ‘and Judi honeymooning at the Empress!

SIGN-OFF: This evening, March 17, at 5 p.m. in West Van Seniors Centre and 6:30 p.m. at Peppi’s, see 24 talented young German folk dancers and musicians cur- rently touring here — thanks to West Van resident Gisela Beha, 79, who’s raised some $6,000 and chipped in $4,000 of his own “travel money’’ towards bringing

. the troupe to B.C. ... Aboriginal

self-government is the topic at

tomorrow’s (Thursday, March 18)

North Van Chamber of Com- merce lunch meeting, 11:45 a.m...’ in the North Shore Winter Club,

with Burrard Band Chief Lennard |

George as guest speaker ... And also on Thursday give the gift of life at the special blood donor clinic from 2:30 to 8 p.m. in’ West Van Rec Centre. . ;

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Happy 17th of Ireland — where writers are referred to as failed conversa- - ticnalists.