The Committee of Progressive
Electors officially entered the
1980 Vancouver civic election
race last Wednesday with 25
nominations for city council,
school board and parks board.

Expectations for
breakthroughs at all three levels
are high within COPE ranks, and
were reinforced Tuesday by the
decision of the Vancouver Labor
Council to endorse a unity slate of
Mike Harcourt for mayor, alder-
man Darlene Marzari for one
aldermanic position, and the en-
tire COPE slate for all other posi-
tions.

COPE did not formally en-
dorse Harcourt for mayor at its
nominating convention which
drew about 150 COPE members
to the Ironworkers Hall, but
COPE president Bruce Yorke
made it clear that its decision not
to run a mayoralty candidate was
to allow ‘“‘all democratic reform
minded citizens to unite at the
polls this coming November.”

Leading COPE into the elec-
tions once again will be alderman
Harry Rankin. This year,
however, there are several other
COPE candidates within striking
distance of joining Rankin on
council. Best bets are Yorke, who
gained wide recognition for a two
spirited mayoralty campaigns,
and Bruce Eriksen, the outspoken
Downtown Eastside community
advocate who finished in the run-
ner up position in 1978. Other
(aldermanic nominations include

Jean Swanson, David Schreck,
Sol Jackson, Joe Arneau,
Carmela Allevato and Jim Quail.
COPE left the tenth spot open for
Darlene Marzari, in the unlikely
event that she decides to run

again.

The school board slate is led by
Pauline Weinstein and Wes
Knapp, both in line for election
this year, joined by Connie Fogal,
Gary Onstad, Margaret Chunn,
Nick Nicolopoulos, Mike
Chrunik, Ruth Lowther, and
Don Jang.

Parks board nominations are
Phillip Rankin, runner up in
1978, Pat Wilson, Libby Davies,
Hugh Comber, David Stone,
Doug Laalo and Peter Marcus.

At a press conference Monday
at city hall, Yorke listed the ward
system, transit, housing and tax
reform as the major issues in what
COPE anticipates as a ‘‘two-way
fight between COPE and the
NPA.”’ He said that COPE is en-
couraged by the prospects of a la-
bor council campaign which
COPE can cooperate with.

Yorke, Eriksen, Swanson and
Davies were on hand at Tuesday’s
labor council meeting and receiv-
ed a warm round of applause
from delegates. Bakery Workers
delegate Hugh Comber, a COPE
candidate for parks board, com-
mended the executive for working
out a unity slate and appealed for
full support for the entire slate
from affiliates.

‘Labor council endorses united slate
of COPE, Harcourt and Marzari

VLC president Syd Thompson —

urged that the applause given the
candidates be ‘‘turned into
dollars and bodies for the election

campaign.”’ ;

The labor council played a key
role in bringing about a united
reform slate between COPE,
Harcourt and Marzari, although
Harcourt, publicly at last, re-
mains a silent partner in the
alliance.

Most anaysts agree, however,
that with TEAM fielding Martin
Zlotnick or mayor, and with
mayor Jack Volrich enjoying
wide support from establishment
forces, Harcourt’s only hope for
a victory rests with a united left

~ centre campaign, including

COPE and the labor council.
Sober elements on the Harcourt
for mayor committee, like the
VLC’s Thompson, know that in
1978 Volrich outpolled the com-
ined vote of his major opponents.

The door to fuller cooperation
between Harcourt and COPE
opened a ‘little more at last
weekend’s NDP convention
when Harcourt repudiated the
Urban Transit Authority and vot-
ed for a resolution calling for its
abolition. Harcourt’s member-
ship on the UTA Board of Direct-
ors has been a major policy ques-
tion dividing him from COPE
and the labor movement.

There is no doubt that COPE’s

prospects for breakthroughs also
rest with unity. Its vote has built
steadily to about 25 percent, but
most leading COPE candidates
still need between five and ten
thousand additional votes to
secure election. Co-operation
with the labor council and the
Harcourt campaign, and
COPE’s expanded representation
in the city’s ethnic communities, |
reflected in candidates from the
Italian, Greek and Chinese com-
munities, could make the dif-
ference.

The other major factor which
could assist the left centre slate of
the labor council is the continuing
disintegration of TEAM, the
Liberal Party dominated civic
group which has held the centre
ground in city politics since 1968.

In a polarized vote in 1978,
TEAM lost ground to both the
NPA and COPE, and this year,
with the exception of May Brown
and Marguerite Ford, it is without
any electable candidates.

TEAM’s problems are brought
into focus on the school board
where its two incumbents, Betty
Ann Fenwick and Norm Robin-
son have been holding discussions
with COPE for several months
about forging a working relation-
ship. Fenwick will not be seeking
re-election this year, and this
week the Tribune learned that
Robinson will stand for re-

election as an independent. )

Tenants will ‘eat less and pay more rent’

Continued from page 1

in six years, to .01 percent from 0.2
per cent last October.

The new amendments provide
landlords with easier access to their
tenants’ suites and increased flex-
ibility in serving notices of eviction.

‘*At atime when the government
should be acting to protect tenants
caught in a housing crisis, they are
putting the screws to them once
again,’’ he said.

“Bitterly disappointed”’ by the
changes to the Act, Linda Mead,
spokesperson for the Red Door
Rental Agency questioned the
“philosophy behind the consumer
and corporate affairs ministry.

“Nielson has leaned more to the
corporate side of his portfolio, not

E ven though the rental vacancy
rate is threatening to become a
negative quantity, and newspaper
headlines underscore the growing
crisis in housing, the provincial
government blithely declares that
there is no problem. And housing
minister James Chabot, when he is
reminded of the crisis, still clings to
the government’s fiction. In a
lengthy — but long delayed — rep-
ly to the Vancouver and District
Labor Council which had outlined
a seven-point program for govern-
ment action, the minister proceed-
ed through an endless recitation of
irrelevant housing department
statistics, all the while chiding the
council, ‘*. . . perhaps you are not
aware of what the government is
doing. =

Where he did concede that there
might possibly be a problem — on
new housing construction —he im-

ee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 24, 1980—Page 2

to the consumers, in this case, the
tenants,’’ she said.

Mead called the appeal provi-
sion guaranteeing rental units built
post-1974 ‘‘no great advantage
because it only guarantees an ap-

“There is no indication of how
much help it will be to tenants and
every indication it will help
landlords because ‘excessive’ rent
increases are permitted for mor-
tgage refinancing at current high
interest rates,”’ she said.

NDP opposition critic of con-
sumer and corporate affairs, Norm
Levi told the Tribune that “‘tenants
will be eating less and paying more
for rents”’ with the 10 percent rent
hike.

He added that an appeal pro-

mediately passed the buck to the

federal government.
* * *

ribune readers are, of course,
familiar with petitions that cir-
culate from time to time, calling for
immediate action on various issues.
But trade unionists and others may
have seen a different kind of peti-
tion that is currently circulating —
which seeks to correct an injustice
done more than 60 years ago.
This one originates with the Il-
linois Historical Society and
spearheads a Joe Hill exoneration
campaign aimed at winning a full
pardon for the IWW leader and
poet who was framed and executed
by the copper mine owners who
dominated the state of Utah for
half a century.
Some 17,000 signatures have

been collected in the U.S. and ~

Canada and the objective is 25,000
by November. They will be pre-

cedure for tenants in post-1974
units during a zero vacancy rate is
useless, because ‘‘tenants are lock-
ed into where they are living.”’

Maurice Rush, provincial leader
of the Communist Party, also
characterized the appeal provision
for post-1974 tenants a ‘‘farce.’’

‘‘Few tenants will be in a posi-
tion to challenge their landlords
when the bottom has fallen out of
the rental housing market,’’ he
said.

‘“‘The Act should require
landlords to justify increases rather
than the other way around.”

Rush went on to call the am-
mendments to the Act ‘‘favorable
to landlords while increasing the
burden for tenants. This is in line
with the philosophy of the Socreds

that by giving more profits to land-

‘PEOPLE AND ISSUES:

sented to Utah governor Scott
Matheson on Nov. 19 — the an-
niversary of Joe Hill’s execution —
demanding that he grant a ‘‘full,
free and absolute pardon.”

* OK *

0.: great thanks to the many
people who have made contribu-
tions to the Tribune press drive in
memory of Mike Freylinger who
passed away May 5S. Appropriate-
ly, the money, which includes
donations from three press clubs in
the area in which Mikelived, will be
so credited as to make Mike a
member of the 500 Club whose
ranks he would undoubtedly have
joined had he lived to see the drive’s
end.

Although the amount turned in
so far — $458 — is still shy of the
$500, we’re confident that other
contributions will push it over the
top.

lords they will induce them to build
housing.

“Tt won’t work — and it never
has.””

Declaring total opposition to the
10 per cent rent hike, the Van-
couver and District Labor Council
at its regular meeting Tuesday call-
ed on the provincial government to
work with the municipal and fed-
eral governments to develop a
housing program. -

Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors president, Bruce Yorke, labell-
ed the amended act “landlord
legislation’’ and said that ““COPE
intends to bring maximum pressure
on city council to intercede on
behalf of tenants in Vancouver that
are hardest hit by the shortage of
affordable rental housing.”

Daon tower
could start
new trend

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Daon Development Corpora-
tion, one of the biggest real estate
developers operating in the city,
wants the city to amend zoning by-
laws to permit Daon to increase the
height of the office tower it pro-
poses to build just north of Christ
Church Cathedral.

It wants to build a 167-metre,
45-storey tower, which would be 30
metres higher than existing height
restrictions. og

We need another office tower 10
the downtown area like we need a
hole in the head. There’s no short-
age of office space now. f

But to permit an increase im
height of almost 100 feet would be

even worse. It would start a whole |

new trend towards still higher and
higher office buildings.

Do we want our downtown area
to be another New York? Do wé
want our downtown streets to be-
come just wind tunnels, which 1s
what is happening already? Is Van-
couver to be developed only for
tourists and conventions?

That’s certainly the direction
we’re heading in now under the
NPA and its developer friends.

If Daon gets what it wants, you
can be sure that the same or more
will be demanded by the CPR for
the hotels and office tower it pro-
poses to build around the conven-
tion centre. And we’ll get the same
kind of development on the North
Shore of False Creek when premier
Bennett gets his B.C. Place going.

Business interests seem to be able
to get every damn thing they want
from this NPA council. But it re-
fuses to do anything about the urg-
ent needs of ordinary people —
things like action to limit rent in-
creases, or action to improve the
bus service and build a rapid transit
system.

Burchett here

World renowned author and
journalist Wilfred Burchett will
speak at a special meeting in Van-
couver June 5 at Langara campus.
(See Coming Events page 11.)

Burchett has just returned from
an extensive tour of Indochina and
will report on the situation in Kam-
puchea and the China-Vietnam
conflict.

Burchett, who was also recently
in Afghanistan, is being brought to
Vancouver by Canadian Aid for
Vietnam Civilians.

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earliest convenience.

RESIDENT ELECTORS

OWNER ELECTORS

31st, 1980.

accurate as possible.

Re CITY OF VANCOUVER
es REGISTER OF ELECTORS
y ; VOTERS’ LIST CANVASS

During the period commencing Monday, March 17th, 1980, and including Monday,
June 30th, 1980, a canvass will be made of dwellings throughout the City of Vancouver
Enumerators will call at each residence taking the names of eligible electors.

If no contact can be made, a ‘‘pink’' business reply card will be left for completion
and mailing to the City of Vancouver Voters’ List, 2512 Yukon St., Vancouver, B.C.
PLEASE RETURN YOUR COMPLETED CARD WITHOUT DELAY. No postage is

If you are in doubt that an enumerator visited you, or you do not feel that you re-
ceived the ‘“‘pink’’ card, please phone the Voters’ List office, (873-7680 or 7681, 7682, ©
7683, 7684) to enquire if the enumerators have visited your area.

Persons missed during the enumeration may register, in person, at the Voters’ List
office, 2512 Yukon St., Vancouver, B.C., up to and including Thursday, August 21st,
1980, during office hours (8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.). You are urged to register at your

Qualifications of Electors are as follows:

1. Must be resident in the City of Vancouver CONTINUOUSLY from January
Ist, 1980 to and including June 15th, 1980.
AND 2. Must be Canadian Citizens or other British Subjects, 19 years of age or over
ON ELECTION DAY (Wednesday, November 19th, 1980). -

1. Must be the registered owner of property in the City of Vancouver by July
AND 2. Must be Canadian Citizens or other British Subjects, 19 years of age or over

ON ELECTION DAY (Wednesday, November 19th, 1980).
Your full co-operation will assist the Voters’ List office in compiling a list that is as

CITY HALL, VANCOUVER, B.C. March 15, 1980

R. Henry, CITY CLERK