Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 11, 2002 S ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com , EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Think twice AS FINANCE minister, Paul Martin was responsible for taxing and spending decisions which don’t seem to add up. They are enough to ‘cause worries about the prospect of him taking over the leadership of the federal Liberal party _and with it, the job as Prime Minister. Consider the payroll deductions for Employ- ‘ment Insurance. The theory is that every dollar deducted is to go to various programs for _ people who are unemployed or at least tucked away for a time when it is needed. Instead, the money is blended in with general government revenue. And. because not every ‘dollar collected by EI deductions is spent, the _ extra money is registered on the plus side of the _ books. . Latest estimates place the unspent EE deduc- tions at more than $15 billion. Applying that -money to general government revenue has the effect of creating an artificial overall govern- _ ment surplus — the same surplus Mr. Martin : loved to take credit for when he was finance ‘ minister. So what we have is an elaborate shell ‘ game rather than brilliant financial planning. ' Now consider the $12 fee imposed this spring for one-way and $24 for return airline travel. - We were told it was necessary for increased se- "curity measures. ' That’s not the case for northwestern residents - who fly Hawkair. The airline uses the South Terminal at the Vancouver International Air- ' port. It doesn’t have x-ray machines and people - who check carry-on baggage for people flying : out of the terminal. It also means Hawkair pas- “sengers don’t hayé’td’ go’ thidtigh screening j; when leaving the Prince Rupert, Terrace or... _ Smithers airports for the South Terminal. | Tf Hawkair flies 5,000 people a month back and forth from Vancouver to the northwest, that’s $60,000 a month or $720,000 a year - flowing to the federal government for a service _ which isn’t required nor provided. To put that _ into perspective, the entire budget of the airport here for every facet of its operation is approx- ' imately $1.1 million a year. : This begs the question as to whether the fee represents the true costs for extra security or whether it represents yet another Mr. Martin- - inspired revenue source. Just as bad is the revelation that the $24 round-trip fee includes GST — yet another hid- den revenue item in the form of a hidden tax _ making its way into general government cof- | fers. _ Governments work in mysterious ways and _ Mr. Martin has proven himself an expert in . those ways. Yet if he wants the top job in the : country, a lot more transparency in how he in- ' tends to run the affairs of state must be forth- _ coming. PUBLISHER/ EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Jeff Nagel 2001 WINNER NEWS/SPORTS Sarah Zimmerman Soe TERE NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang COMPETITION FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Carol McKay CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Terri Gordon ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband & Stacy Gyger TELEMARKETER: Stacy Gyger COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $56.25(+$3.94 GST)=60.19 per year; Seniors $49.50 (+$3,47 GST)=52.97; Out of Province $63.22 (+$4.43 GST)=67.65 Outside of Canada (6 months) $152.34 (+$10.66 GST )=163.00 within the RCMP. , MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, a CANACIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION MN AND MH CNA, seemcer rermine B.C, PRESS COUNCIL (www.bepresscounell. org) “Teter Esleodia wed Toler Serving tha Terrace end Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, Britlsh Columbla, V8 5R2. Stories, pholographs, itlustrations, designs and lypestyles in tha Terrace Standard are the pioperty of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1968) Ltd, its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Faproducton in whola or in part, without written permission, Is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail panding the Post Offica Dapartment, lor payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents Ct ne ee ee ee ee CAN'T BLAME HER! OF “FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER”, “HIGHER” 1S THE ONLY PART OF THE OLYMPIC MOTTO A BRIDGE PLAYER CAN ACHIEVE WITH ANY CERTAINTY. OIRIECL Another Clark probe not needed VICTORIA — The criminal trial involving farmer premier Glen Clark, who stood ac- cused of breach of trust for having accepted $1,800 worth of labour on his sundeck from what he thought was a friend, was nothing short of ridiculous. An inquiry into how police and the media handled the story, as proposed by the trio of unlikely bedfellows, Bill Vander Zalm, Dave Barrett and Gordon Wilson, would turn the ridiculous into the sublime. Not that IT remember with relish the BCTV crew filming RCMP officers exercising a search warrant in Clark's home. Then again, any repor- ter worth his salt would have done the same thing. What the two former pre- miers, Barrett (NDP) and Vander Zalm (Socred) and toppled Liberal leader Wilson don't like is that the TV crew may have been tipped off to I felt sorry for Clark, but at - the police raid by someone- - that point we didn’t know what ’ . the charges were. : For all we knew, Clark could have been involved in a million-dollar bribery. The prosecution, on the other hand, knew alt along that the only thing they could hang Clark for was the stupid $1,800 worth of labour Dimi- trios Pilarinos, his neighbour, didn’t charge him for. Clark had paid for all the materials for his sundeck. FROM THE CAPITAL | HUBERT BEYER oldtimers as the crime beat, for the Winnipeg Free Press, | received tips from the cops on a regular basis. I couldn’t have done a good job otherwise. That hasn’! changed. Whether filming the house search through Clark’s living raom window is intrusive jour- nalism is another question. I don’t think so. And? Do they really be- lieve that reporters don't get tips from the cops? BCTV insists that it was good news sense that directed the crew to Clark’s home that day. Right, some sixth sense drove these guys to the pre- mier’s home at exactly the moment RCMP arrived. When I covered the police beat, then still referred to by It’s obvious that Clark should have been more careful in his choice if friends. As Madam Justice Elizabeth Ben- nett of the Supreme Court of B.C. noted: “There is no question that Mr. Clark exercised poor judg- ment in hiting Mr. Pilarinos to do renovation work for him when Mr. Pilarinos had an ap- plication for a casino licence before the government. “However, there is nothing in his conduct that crosses the line from an act of folly to be- haviour calling for criminal sanction.” And even the folly is under- standable. Pilarinos was Clark’s neighbour. Their kids went to school together. And as Clark told the court, he tried to fead as normal a pri- vate life as possible. That in- cludes having a normal rela- tionship with neighbours. One can only imagine the stress the three-year affair put, on not only. Clark but his-fami-+ you have done nothing wrong, the sheer pressure of being tried in public is something | wouldn’t want to go through. Which brings us to the question: are our conflict-of-in- terest laws too stringent? The laws, I believe, aren’t, but their interpretation and appli- cation is. The jaws are there to keep: politicians honest. There is no Bring back the fiddlers THOUGH THE Skeena Valley Fall Fair’s first ever old time fiddling contest drew only six participants, the oldest teen- age, the winner of the $1,000 prize, has the technical skill to rival Don Messer. A personable 15-year-old from Telkwa, Scott White bows a fiddle with finesse and aplomb. His quiet confidence relaxes his audience. Each contestant was re- quired to play a qualifying set of three pieces - a waltz, a jig, and a reel. Finalists played a second, different set of tunes. They were judged for tone, timing, rhythm, and old time fiddling ability. Old time fid- diers play by ear, never with sheet music. ‘ White and his 13-year-old sister Christine, second place winner, belong to the Bulkley Valley Fiddlers who play re- gularly for the seniors’ homes ‘is Smithers and Burns Lake, in parades, and as fill-in enter- tainment during seniors’ games. Pubtic performances make them at home before an audi- THROUGH BiFOCALS.. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI ence. So is their nimble fingered, puitar strumming older brother who plays back- up for them. Organizers were disappoin- ted with the limited participa- tion. So was I. | expected 20 to 30 contestants, including adults. After all, $1,000 is no shabby purse. The Shelburne, Ontario fiddle contest with ils long history and prizes ranging from $750 to $1,500 draws up- ward of 40. Finalists are fea- tured on CBC Radio. Fiddle lovers plan their vacations to B WITH THE NEW GUN lempeaxa orgs @L.CRQUHATT | So'THIS ISA PETITION FoR CAs MeRe's AN GONERNMENT TO MAKE (1 i MANDATORY THAT p KNIFE CRIMES » HOUSEHOLD REGISTER ALC fi ITS SHARP POINTED KNIVES. aN } attend. Skeena Valley's fiddle con- test wasn’t as widely adver- tised as it might have been. One contestant, from 100 Mile House, was driving through Terrace when he noticed the poster. He stopped in at the contest venue (beside the medical building on Park Avenue, far from the fair grounds), paid his $10 entry fee, borrowed a fid- die, and played his four-minute set before a handful of toe-tap- ping officiandos. Organizers take heart. this year’s test contest gave young- sters valuable public exposure, a taste of entertaining an ap- preciative audience, and a chance to play through giga- ntic amplifiers. What a high. To see one 12- yeat-old’s face Tght up when he was invited to play along with two seasoned fiddlers said it all. The fair’s entertainment tent was crowded throughout the fiddling. One enthusiast bounced up to do an impromp- tu step dance in the parched gtass, scuffing spuris of dust room for bribery and kickbacks and back-scratching in our modern and fine-tuned demo- cratic system. However, the decisions of when and when not to proceed to charges and to trial should be taken a look at. In hindsight, we know that early on, the only matter in dispute was the $1,800. Based on that, we now have to foot a total bill of several million dol- lars. Even if clean politics is the aim, that’s a bad invest: . ment. To now add several more - millions for a public inquiry into the role police and the media played in the affair, would be an even worse invest- ment, Finally, I don’t want to miss this chance to say, “I told you so.” | predicted from the start that Clark would be exonera- ted. I know Clark as well as any og gant.'I have called him reck- less. But I didn’t believe for a moment that he was even re- motely capable of a criminal act. For Clark and his family, — I’m glad | was right. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; Tel (250) 381-6900; Web Attp:/hwww.huberibeyer.com In 2003 with his oxfords. A 12 foot square wood floor between the audience and the stage would invite dancers to elaborate on the music. Despite living within walk- ing distance, this was the first Skeena Valley Fall Fair | ever attended. [ went solely to fol- low up on Friday’s fiddle con- test, to hear the top three win- ners play. I wasn’t the only one lured by fiddling. A tentful of us shi- vered through more than two hours of cold wind as an unfet- tered tent tarp slapped in and out like a giant stropping a straight razor, I kept time to the tempo until the fiddlers trooped off stage. Ill return next year if the fiddlers do. In future, the fair board could decide earlier to hald an- other contest, sending notices to B.C.’s many fiddle groups, fall fairs, city councils (where local media might treat it as news), violin teachers, and CBC Radio’s current event ca- lendar. Having the finalists play on CBC’s morning show would be a treat for listeners. , “1 Gian. TF have called’ him> arré- ly. No matter that you’know’*”” TT WAS » INEVITABLE: = j»journalist can know .a-politj- _