Editorial

Tories the minority

~ Many of us still remember the aftershock of the 1988 Tory election victory.

We recall the feeling of frustration and anger watching Brian Mulroney’s
victory night celebration where he and his corporate pals gloated at having
bought their way to a second term in office with the biggest infusion of money
and media blitz ever seen in federal politics.

We can still taste the bitterness of knowing the anti-free trade forces, after a
magnificent campaign and unprecedented unity, took more votes than the
Tories — but lost the election. And we remember the added grim fact: By
utilizing Canada’s undemocratic electoral set-up, the Tories parleyed a minority
of votes into a majority government.

The rest of the story, as they say, is history.

The Free Trade Agreement, centrepiece of the country’s opposition in the
1988 campaign, was rammed through Parliament by this Tory “majority”.
Canada’s passenger rail system was destroyed — again in the face of a massive
public outcry — by this “majority.”

The list goes on and on, culminating in the shoving of the Goods and Services
Tax down the country’s throat by this “majority” which knew full well that only
they and the corporate elite which bought them power in 1988 backed the GST.

Not surprisingly then, some submissions to Royal Commission on Electoral
Reform and Party Financing, now touring Canada, are raising the basic issues
of how Canadian votes are counted, how our elections are run, who has access
to the media and, key to it all, what kind of parliamentary system we need to
ensure the fullest democracy.

Presenting the views of the Communist Party on these matters, party leader
George Hewison argued for a new electoral system of democratic proportional
representation which would encourage a wide political diversity in parliament.
He spoke in favour of a bi-cameral parliament consisting of the Commons and
an elected senate based on equal representation from English Canada and
Quebec, with strong representation from aboriginal peoples and equality from
provinces and territories.

The CPC’s submission also addressed how elections are fought, pointing to
the present monopoly over the process by the so-called major parties and the
virtual inability of smaller and special interest parties to be effectively heard due
toa discriminatory law on political broadcasting. Financing and registration of
parties also form part of the process sorely in need to change to break the
present cosy arrangement.

Rightly so, we Canadians take our voting seriously. Five years is a long time
to wonder what happened and why. The issues are too crucial to continue witha
outdated system which miraculously turns a minority of ballots into a majority
of seats.

Si. b00 WOKK ERC

HAVE WALKED OUT ©
BECAUSE WE SUSPENDED |
A SHOP STEWARD

Fok

SWEARING

r sPeecH AT GM

FREE DOM O

TRIBONE

Published weekly at
- 2681 East Hastings Street

EDITOR
Sean Griffin Vancouver, B.C., V5K 1Z5

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Phone: (604) 251-1186
Fax: (604) 251-4232
Dan Keeton Ninakes
BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Subscripts. rate;
‘ = Canada: @ $20 one year @ $35
Mike P roniuk two years ® Foreign $32 one year.
GRAPHICS

Second class mail
registration number 1560

Angela Kenyon

pr that even the anti-people jugger-
naut in Ottawa isn’t unstoppable in its
drive to create a brave new world of reac-
tion was the victory recently scored by
women’s community activists. After
weeks of demonstrations and sit-ins — an
action that should inspire “the labour
movement to greater effort — at Secre-
tary of State offices on both coasts, the
Tory government caved in early this
month and partially reinstated funds to
women’s programs chopped in its Febru-
ary budget. :
In restoring $1.2 million of the $1.6 mil-
lion axed by Finance Minister Michael
Wilson, the Conservatives hoped to cool
some of the heat generated by the closure
of several women’s resource centres in
British Columbia, and centres and pro-
jects elsewhere. But it’s only for one
year — for 1991-1992, Ottawa will call on
the provinces to kick in funds, according
to the minister responsible for the status of
women, Mary Collins. Given the track
record of provincial Tory governments
and clones, there will likely be new battles
once the next fiscal year comes nigh.
Notwithstanding this small but signifi-
cant victory, other projects that empower
Canadian women are still in peril. The
$400,000 that remains cut would have
supported several publications that effec-
tively spoke for women’s rights (along
with lobby organizations). The Vancouver
Status of Women’s monthly tabloid, Kine-
sis, is one journal whose future is cloudy.
Others include three top rated magazines,
all based in Toronto: Canadian Women
Studies/Les cahiers de la femme; Resources

for Feminist Research; and Healthsharing.
Collectively, they’ve lost almost $200,000
in funding, after suffering a 15-per-cent cut
in the previous year’s budget.

Those figures come from Masthead
magazine, a trade journal for publications,
which reports the magazines are desper-
ately seeking financing from other sour-
ces. Masthead notes, however, that the
publishers are not taking the cuts lying
down: they’ve urged readers to send letters
to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and
Secretary of State Gerry Weiner, and have
criticized Collins, whom they term, “the
minister irresponsible for the status of
women.”

Ironically, Masthead notes, Canadian
Women Studies had received a letter from
the former status of women minister, Bar-
bara McDougall, in January praising the
magazine for “remarkable quality” and
wishing the publishers and staff “many
more years of success.”

Masthead writes that “the federal
government’s true feelings towards Cana-
dian feminist magazines were revealed in
hard numbers” in the February budget
cuts. We note too that the government’s
feelings were revealed back when it
decided to fund, over a national outcry,
the reactionary REAL Women organiza-
tion. REAL Women has gone on to
greater notoriety in recent months for its
mailing to members — funded by the
Socreds — of material displaying homo-

People and Issues

phobic and anti-feminist sentiments.
Federally and provincially, we face
governments with agendas that include
more than deregulating and privatizing.
They’re aiming at the very thoughts that
oppose their agenda, and such actions
demand a united, emphatic response.

* * ok

€ wrote last month about Mark

Curtis, the U.S. packing house
worker who is serving 25 years for rape
and burglary in Des Moines, lowa. And
we pointed out that the jailing of the 31-
year-old union activist and_ solidarity
worker was almost certainly motivated by
his political activities — which included
protesting racism and brutality in the local
police force.

We think the words of 79-year-old Edna
Griffin, a Des Moines civil rights activist,
sum it up: “This is not a case about rape. It
is about the case of immigrant workers.
Mark Curtis is a dangerous man in my
opinion because he speaks Spanish and
can communicate with the immigrant
workers and (has) worked ‘side by side
with them in the Swift plant.” __-

Speaking for the effort to free Curtis —
which is supported by several prominent

- Canadians and others worldwide — is his
‘wife, Kate Kaku, who comes to Vancouver:

~ on Saturday, June 2, 8 p.m. at the Langara
Student Union Building of Vancouver:

Community College, 100 West 49th-Ave. °

(It is preceded by a reception at 7 p.m.).
Also speaking are local people including
prisoners’ rights activist Claire Culhane,
student activist Pam Frache, local African
National Congress representative George
sais Amnesty International’s Frances
MacQueen, and Mike Barker of the Hos-
pital Employees Union.

Donations are $5 and $3. Plans are also
under way for Kaku to speak at meetings
on Vancouver Island. The local Suppor-
ters of the Mark Curtis Defence Committee
is at 1053 Kingsway, Vancouver V5V 3C7,
phone 872-3314.

* * Ok

Gores to the family of Tribune
reader Charles Vernon Turner, who
was in his 99th year when he passed away
in New Westminster on April 16.
Turner, a confirmed socialist, was born
Nov. 4, 1891, in Bottineau, N.D., of par-
ents who had emigrated. from Kent
County in southwestern Ontario. The
family later moved to Mountain Home,
Idaho, where his parents contributed to
the defence of Big Bill Haywood and other
officials of the Western Federation of
Miners, framed on charges of murdering
the state’s ex-governor.
,__.In 1907 Turner moved his family to
Salmon Arm, where he operated a garage
and hosted many unemployed activists in
the Thirties, including Steve Brodie. He
was a local representative of the B.C.
Peace Council following World War II.
Turner was predeceased by his wife and
three children, and is survived by several
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

4 » Pacific Tribune, May 21, 1990