GREATER VANCOUVER

A

Three-quarters of the way through a
June canvass of key Vancouver polls, the
prognosis looks good for the Committee
of Progressive Electors.

COPE organizers said June 20 the tele-
phone canvass of 10 polls has found a 2-1
favorable response to the question asking
residents to rate the performance of the

~ four COPE aldermen on city council.

In addition to giving a “good” or “fair”
rating to Harry Rankin, Libby Davies,
Bruce Eriksen and Bruce Yorke, respond-

- ents have been positive concerning the per-
formance of council as a whole.

With Mayor Mike Harcourt and Ald.
Bill Yee, who ran as part of the slate
endorsed by the Vancouver and District
Labor Council in 1982, the COPE alder-
men have ensured that several progressive
policy positions have carried in council
during the last two years.

The progressive civic alliance also has
three members on the Vancouver school
board — Phil Rankin, Wes Knapp and
Pauline Weinstein — along with commis-
sioner Pat Wilson on the separately-
elected park board.

COPE increased its representation on
all three electoral bodies in the highly suc-
cessful election of 1980, when Yorke and
Eriken joined Rankin, who has been an
alderman since 1968, on council. That

year saw five COPE candidates take con-
trol of the nine-member school board, and
two elected to the park board, dominated

_ by the right-wing Non-Partisan Associa-
tion.

Since 1980, COPE candidates have also
run in a loose alliance that includes two-
time mayor Harcourt, and, since 1982, his
running mates, from which Ald. Yee was
elected.

That combination on council has upset
the traditional right-wing, big business
control formerly enjoyed by the NPA, and
later by the short lived right-wing reform
group, The Electors Action Movement
(TEAM).

The success of the labor-backed alliance
has been aided by several factors cited by
civic analysts: increased cutbacks and
layoffs by the provincial Socreds; a subse-
quent increased financial and material
support for COPE and Harcourt’s forces
in the last two campaigns; hiked effort by
COPE forces during, before and after elec-
tion times involving canvassing, public
statements and leafletting; and, to a cer-
tain extent, a right-wing divided among
TEAM, the NPA and other candidates in
unsuccessful but vote-spoiling right-win
civic alliances. eet be.

The knowledge that the right, backed
more strongly than ever by the provincial

Canvass shows 2-1 vote for COPE policies

Socreds who have seen their plans for tax-
consuming ‘megaprojets slowed down, if
not stopped, by COPE aldermen, will not
be as divided this time around prompted
the civic group to engage in unprecedented
early electoral activities.

The canvass has shown that the tradi-
tional support for COPE from Vancouv-
er’s working and some middle-class resi-
dents is strong. But it has also shown that
general political awareness among the
voters outside of wealthier areas such as
Shaughnessy and Kerrisdale is low, and
that education remains a key task for
COPE between now and the fall elections.

The most positive feature of the survey
has been the 2-1 ratio of answers support-
ing the COPE aldermen and the COPE
“philosophy” — that no city services be
cut or civic workers laid off despite cuts in
provincial funding for cities in the name of
the Socred’s “restraint” program.

Yet some who indicate such support
have also stated they would support
Socred ex-cabinet minister Bill Vander
Zalm, should he, as has been speculated,
run for the miayor’s chair this year.

Some COPE supporters have also indi-
cated they’d elect a Socred government
should a provincial election come up
“tomorrow.”

Such split opinions among areas of tra-

ditional COPE support mean that the |
labor-backed slate should put forward 18 |
no-cutbacks program with the strongest |
emphasis possible. And, with an almost
certain unity struck among Socred-leaning
and supported candidate this fall, the need
for unity among the civic reform forces §
crucial.

So say. COPE officials as they sit dow?
with Harcourt and his campaign staff t0
reach a consensus on the number of cat
didates each group will run. Last election,
COPE dropped one of eight initial alder
manic candidates to make room for Hal
court’s three running mates.

The accommodation ensured labor
council support for the unity slate, as we
done in 1980 when COPE left the mayors”
slot vacant for Harcourt, then af
alderman.

Speculation is that Harcourt will be
joined by West End community leadet
Carole Walker; who ran in 1982, forme!
city equal opportunities officer Reva Dex
ter, Ron Johnson, a past candidate for the
federal NDP, as well as by Yee. ;

The COPE canvass continues until
June 30. Volunteers should phone
251-4014, or drop by the COPE office at
the Maritime Labor Centre, 111 Victora

Drive.
——

Council hits media ‘distortion’

Angry Vancouver city councillors June
19 hit the daily media and three aldermen
for their “deliberate distortion” of the facts
surrounding a $500,000 penalty levied by
council against a developer. :

In a rare accord, the aldermen from the .

~ Committee of Progressive Electors, Ald.

Bill Yee and Mayor Mike Harcourt teamed
up with right-wing aldermen Warnett
Kennedy and Don Bellamy in criticizing the
aldermen — May Brown, Marguerite Ford
and George Puil — and the Vancouver Sun
and Province newspapers for editorial
remarks concerning council’s alleged
“buy-off.”

In editorials and opinion columns the
papers had echoed the comments of the
three aldermen. Most outspoken was the
Non-Parisan Association’s Puil, who called
the money from the Shaughnessy II devel-
opment “bribery.”

Despite the involvement-of Kennedy and
Bellamy in the initial decision to accept the
$500,000, the case smacked of an election-
style attack of the “*get-COPE-and-
Harcourt” variety.

The case in question goes back to 1981,
when city council took developer Andre
Molnar, the originator of the project who
has since sold out, to task for deliberately
overbuilding while constructing several
housing units in the fashionable Shaugh-

~ nessy neighborhood.

Council froze construction on four “‘hos-"
tage” units, while allowing the remaining 75
to be completed and sold. In retaliation,
Molnar sued the city, but lost both the orig-
inal suit and an appeal.

That meant the city was free to order the
demolition of the four units. Instead, they

Trib goes

to 8 pages

As staff vacations, the usual
summer news slowdown, and the wilt-
ing heat all take their toll, the Tribune
will shrink to eight pages from the
normal 12 during July and August.

The summer eight-pagers, begin-
ning with next week’s issue, will con-
tinue until September.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 27, 1984

By HOLLY HORWOOD
Staff Reporter

change for half a million dollars, which

“How can they get upset about this

will go into the city’s social housing deal and go ho-hum when hundreds of

opted for the $500,00 penalty payment from
current owner Joseph Segal. s

“It would have been absolute insanity to
tear down units in one of the nicer devel-
opments and leave the empty space there,”
COPE alderman Harry Rankin said.

To say the issue is one of bribery is
“nonsense — bribery, as I understand it, is
when you take money for some favor and
put it in your own pocket. This money goes
to social housing forthe city’s needy,” noted
Rankin. :

Mayor Mike Harcourt, who raised the
issue in council, said of the charges from
Puil and the newspapers: “I found it very

insulting to the integrity of our council.

There was no illegality committed, nor
immorality, nor is there any precedent set
here.”

In a letter sent to the local media, but
ignored by the Sun and Province (although
dealt with later by Sun columnist Peter

McMartin), COPE aldermen Bruce Eriksen
pointed out a precedent was unlikely since
the developer had lost more than $1 million
while the units lay uncompleted, in addition
to the $500,000 penalty.

The council decision was backed from
some curious quarters, including school
trustee Jonathan Baker, the lawyer who
handled Molnar’s case and who, it is specu-
lated, may run for alderman under the NPA
banner this fall.

But Baker, whom some media tout as an
“expert” in municipal law, really gave a
backhanded compliment to council when,
in an interview with the Courier, he attacked
the initial decision to penalize Molnar.

Baker also received front-page coverage
in a recent edition of the Sun when he
attacked council’s new anti-pornography
bylaw, alleging it was “unworkable.” The
bylaw is still in the fine-tuning stage.

Rally to mark July 7

July 7 is Justice Day as the Lower Main-
land Solidarity Coalition celebrates a year
of fighting cutback budgets and attacks on
human and trade union rights.

A rally and picnic, to take place in Van-
couver’s John Hendry (Trout Lake) Park,
at Victoria Street and 18th Avenue, from
1 p.m. to 4 p.m. will mark the first anniver-
sary of the Socred budget that, with 26 bills
of ham-fisted legislation, helped start the
ball rolling in the direction of the massive
fightback that shook the province last
summer and fall.

Elsewhere across the province, other

local Soldiarity coalitions will be observing
July 7 with activities.

The event in Vancouver features speakers
and entertainers, is wheelchair accessible,
and “signing” for the hearing impaired will
be provided. Refreshments are free, but par-
ticipants are asked to bring their own picnic
lunch.

The event is hosted by the Lower Main-
land Coalition, and sponsored by the pro-
vincial Soldiarity Coalition, Operation

Solidarity and the Vancouver and New

Westminster labor councils.

VDLC to set
up Vancouver
Solidarity

Delegates to the Vancouver and Dis
trict Labor Council voted unanimously
last week to etablish a Vancouvel
Operation Solidarity as a component
group of the provincial organization.

The resolution, adopted at the cout”.
cil’s June 19 meeting, also called on thé
executive board to meet with officers °
the New Westminster and District
Labor Council and invite them to pat
ticipate in forming a Lower Mainlan@
Operation Solidarity. ;

The action was aimed at providing

"an organization that could initiate lo
actions in co-operation with the pfO
vincial Operation Solidarity. But the
resolution was also in response to thé
position of the B.C. Federation °
Labor leadership which has been relu~
tant to initiate action despite growin®
evidence of an intensified assault 0?
trade union organization.

“The number of unions in dispute
and coming here for assistance is grow
ing every week,” council president
Frank Kennedy told delegates.

He added that there was little ques”
tion that the government “isn’t going !

] ease up its attack on the trade unio#
movement. :

“I’m not prepared to wait three yea
for an election — I want to do some
thing now.”

He also emphasized that the trad@
union movement needs to “take somé
initiatives — not just react defensively:
We need to put forward our positions
and do so strongly,” he said.

Council vice-president George Hew”
ison, replying to comments made bY
some during the Operation Solidarity
conference earlier in the day that trad@
unionists should focus on ‘educating
their members”, reminded the meeting
“The best education comes when wor k-
ing people are in struggle and in action
around their own interests.”

“We still have a lot of strength in ou!
movement,” he added. ‘“‘If we use it, W°
can win. — but if we wait for three

years, we'll lose.” - |