4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, August 10,1988 ‘Up the creek without a policy - Once again we’re seeing what happens when the pressures of the economy land on a resource that can’t ‘sustain the weight. This time it’s the Skeena River fishery, and as always it is not a pleasant sight. The summer run steelhead, king of the sport fish, has the unfortunate migratory instinct to return to the Skeena at the same time as the king of the commercial fishery, the sockeye. Both fish come roaring into the Skeena estuary simultaneoulsy, and the effect on the steelhead is, by all accounts, devastating. The sockeye, many of which are from the overenhanced Fulton River stock, can take it due to sheer numbers. ~ Every year we hear the commercial fishermen and ‘the anglers growling and snarling at one another, each arguing the economic benefits of their fishing methods, The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is caught in the center of this, being the decision-making body for commercial fish openings. This year they closed the fishery for three days at the height of the sockeye run to allow a window for the steelhead to swim through. Millions of sockeye swam through the same window, and reports indicate the river became so crowded that another huge number of them are swim- ming around in circles out in the deep water, waiting for the queue to die down. The local DFO can’t legitimately be blamed for fail- ing to please both sides. What is needed is some definite policy direction from the top, the political will to solve this problem in favor of the resource, not the lobbyists. Hoke detector We hear that Premier Vander Zalm has told the Social Credit caucus that the news media is responsible for most of the party’s problems over recent months. We know exactly how he feels. How often have most of us been tempted to rip the batteries out of our smoke alarms? They sometimes make such irritating noises. 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Bud Smith could emerge with spoils after Socred battle by Victoria correspondent Mark Collins Brian Smith and Grace Mc- - Carthy are among the least likely Bud Smith supporters in B.C., but their declarations of displeasure with Bill Vander Zalm have given Bud’s leader- ship chances a big boost. If you are wondering why you haven’t heard anything about Bud Smith running for the Social Credit leadership, of- ficially he isn’t. If you asked him he would deny being in the race, but some of his caucus colleagues are considering him as a possible successor. The leadership game is tricky because you can’t openly start first if you want to finish first. Leading a movement to over- throw the Premier would alienate the middle of the road folks who don’t like to have the party laundry aired in public. If somebody else top- ples the throne, however, then there's an opportunity to step in and pick up the pieces to unite the party, Brian Smith and Grace Mc- Carthy have been unlikely Bud Smith supporters ever since the 1986 Socred leadership conven- tion at Whistler when Bud chose to throw his support to SE Vander Zalm after placing *‘Leading a movement to overthrow the Premier would alienate folks... if somebody else topples the throne, however, then there’s an opportunity to step in and pick up the pieces to unite the party.’’ fourth on the second ballot. That dramatic move was a ter- rible blow to those other two candidates because it gave the Vander Zalm campaign the momentum it needed to win. Bud Smith’s move across the convention floor was sharply criticized by supporters of the other two potential winners but he justified his actions. ‘‘The first two ballots demonstrated very clearly the party wanted renewal and change,”’ he said. Vander Zalm won the most votes in both ballots but a ma- jority is required to win. ‘‘I ob- viously thought ] was the per- son best able to do that and the party felt differently,’’ His research also indicated the ma- jority of delegates supporting him felt Vander Zalm was their second choice candidate. Many people expected the new premier to reward him with a cabinet post but when you think about the reason he gave for crossing the conven- tion floor, it was not so much a declaration of support for Vander Zalm as it was admit- ting the inevitable. The decision to make Bud Smith Attorney General is similar in that he got the post because he was judged to be the lesser evil of the available lawyers in the Socred caucus. During the leadership race, the biggest complaint that peo- ple seemed to have about Bud Smith was lack of elected ex- perience; Since then he has won one of the two Kamloops seats in the Legislature and is now _ geiting experience in cabinet. For those who criticize Premier Vander Zalm for not having enough respect for the legislative process, the new At- torney General could have some appeal. His travels through Cuba, Central America — : and South America have given him strong feelings for the benefits of our democracy as opposed to governments run by. “narrow, single purpose elites’’. Smith did not make many | speeches in the Legislature this year but he made some good points. One was to establish prohibitively high automobile insurance rates for those con- victed of offenses involving — alcoho! and driving. He spoke _ of the need to establish private property rights in Canada and in favor of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. He has taken 2 slightly soft line on privatization, saying he generally supports it, but ‘‘at times there may be a sound argument to be made to develop a Crown agency fora particular purpose’’, It doesn’t count for much in the real world, but he is comfortable in the Legislature and fared well in verbal jousts with strong - NDP MLAs like Bob Williams, Moe Sihota and Glen Clark. At 42 years of age he can af- ford to wait awhile for Premier _ Vander Zalm to retire, but if the chance comes sooner he is now in a much better position ago. to win than he was two years.