Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, Oclaber 11, 2000 TERRACE. STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, L988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C, * V8G SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermede.net More nurses ALMOST LOST in the din of the pay dispute be- tween doctors and the provincial government is the critical shortage of nurses in this province. When beds close, it is not so much due to a lack of money, it is due to a lack of nurses. It’s simple arithmetic - a hospital’s ability to care for people is directly tied to the number of nurses it has. Without nurses, it cannot care for people. Mills Memorial Hospital here in the last 18 months is a prime example of this. The reality is that this province is not training enough nurses to replace those who retire or quit. And a goodly number of those we do train in B.C., opt for jobs out of the province. An obvious solution would be to pour more money into training more nurses. The province has done this by putting $50 million into the task of training and keeping nurses on the job. But all is not well within the nursing profession itself. There’s an internal raging debate over the merits of degree nurses, those who go to a uni- versity on a four-year program, compared to those who obtain a diploma after two and a half years at a community college. Even though both categories receive registered nursing status, the degree nurses’ faction feels their diploma coun- terparts don’t receive an appropriate level of train- ing. Taxpayers must urge the nurses to make their peace on this issue. It goes again to arithmetic. If more nurses can be trained in a shorter period of time, much will be done to ease the shortage. And if more can be trained in a shorter period of time, the cost will be less and this means stretch- ing scarce health care dollars. Just’as important for the northwest is the tanta- lizing prospect of re-establishing a nursing pro- gram at Northwest Community College. There was one, but it closed in the early 1990s. A simi- lar program in the northeast also closed during the same period. Both were replaced with a de- gree program at the University of Northern Brit- ish Columbia in Prince George. Unfortunately, the number of people it can handle is far tess than the sum of the two community college programs. | Northwest Community College board chair- man Dr. Ed Harrison made passing reference to the program in a speech on the occasion of the college’s 25th anniversary. He said nurses from that program are still in Terrace and are working in the profession. He also said it is important to provide educational opportunities for north- westerners so that when trained, they can stay, live, work and prosper here. Sounds like a good fit. We’d combine an iden- tifiable skill shortage with an institution that can provide the training using a ready and available poo] of talent. Our area hospitals would benefit, we'd get the medical care we need and north- westerners would have jobs and a reason to stay. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Navel » NEWS/SPORTS: Keith Freeman NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: | Sam Bedford, Mark Beaupre & Stacy Swetlikoff TELEMARKETER: Stacy Swetlikoff DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik & Clare Hallock SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $54.88(+$3.85GST) per year; Seniors $48.62 (+$3.40GST); Out of Province $61.69 (+$4.32GST) Outside of Canada (4 months) $151.60 (+$10.61GST) MEMBER OF CAI PEAS ASSOCIATION : AND . CNA Come veer ru B.C, PRESS COUNCIL @cna 2000. BLUE RIBBON apiptiarees Bish Retoalig nef Pubes Sarving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2, 4 Stories, photographs, iilusiralions, designs and typestyies in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its Itustration repro services and advertising agencies, a . a Reproduction in whole or in part, without writtan permission, is specifically prohibited.” Authorized aa sacond-class mail pending the Pos! Offics Department, for payment of poslage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents : for their time and talents -- 0p. NOT DSIRE "eds js al ee rr Trudeau charted his own course VICTORIA - The editorial cartoon in an edition of the Victoria Times-Colonist was one for the books. It showed St. Peter and an- other keeper of the pearly gates, one of them holding a coat and a hat, both adorned with wings, and Pierre Elliot Trudeau striding past them, aloof and proud, rose between lips. Says St. Peter: “He just walks right in, tosses me his cape and fedora and starts asking about our society and if we have our own constitution.” That cartoon better de- scribes the quintessential Tru- deau than any verbal comment 1 have heard and read in the past few days. Devoid of the flood of emo- tions that has gripped Canada the moment the nation learned of Trudeau’s death, this: car- toon shows how [ imagine the man making his grand en- trance in Heaven, although, I suppose, a few people in Sal- mon Arm and throughout Al- berta might have a different place in mind. The outpouring of emotion so evident in most Canadians reaction to Trudeau's death shows one thing clearly: a great leader doesn’t have to be a great economist, for econo- mically, Trudeau’s perfor- mance couldn't be called ster- ling by any stretch of the ima- a an Noel, — EYE Ati ae eee tre de FROM THE CAPITAL . HUBERT BEYER gination. From starting Canada on the road to massive deficits to the ill-fated National Energy Policy, most anyone could have done a better job. Why then are Canadians so shaken by Trudeau’s death? Great leaders fire up a na- tion’s imagination, They cre-_ ate an expectation of Camelot. and make people believe that Utopia can be achieved if only we want it badly enough. John F, Kennedy had that quality. His famous appeal to Americans, “Do not ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” galyanized a nation. It yanked Americans, young and old, out of their pathetic apathy, if only for a while. A great leader has style and pizzazz. ‘Trudeau had both in Let's near it for DIVORCES, WITH or without kids, are messy, But in a re- cent Nanaimo case, a B.C. Supreme Court judge confined the messiness to the parents when he tuled that a 13-year- old girl and her 11-year-old brother can continue to live in their family home while their estranged parents take turns living with them. What a revolutionary rul- ing! For once, the best inter- ests of the kids was uppermost in the mind of the court. Wrote the judge, “The children wish to live in the home to which they are accus- tomed, and which is very close to their school. in this time of turmoil, they need at least that stability.” And with a sweep of the judge’s pen the kids get to at- tend their usual school, skate at their usual tink, attend clas- ses taught by their usual tea- WAY ARE THEY THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI chers, and go back and forth in their routine paths. Remaining a part of their usual sotial circle should help the kids feel less guilt and embarrassment. After all, their friends and teachers have watched this divorce arrive: they know the kids’ situation. — | BECAUSE WHEN YoU ~] ~—. MI,DAY CANNOT BE REACHED 0-DAY. .. HE TS BUSY DIGGING HIS OWN GRAVE... a 7 ry oe t spades. No mediocre leader could get away with showing up at a Grey Cup game in a cape and Fedora. He wouldn’t even try. Trudeau carried it off with aplomb. The greatest contradiction in Trudeau was to be found in his motto, “Reason over passion,” for no prime minister in living memory was more passionate than Trudeau. Pas- sion is also an important ingre- dient of great leadership. The women in his life de- scribe a gentle man, a politi- cian with the heart of a poet. That, too, is an apparent con- tradiction. The public Trudeau with the sharp intellect that could destroy the self-confi- dence of lesser opponents, the spring-coiled man with the steely eyes, would not bring images of poetry to mind. Immigrants are among those _who™admiréd Trudeau, most. And I am in a good position to judge the reason why, having immigrated to Canada in 1957. Trudeau's concept of Cana- da was that of a country. wel- coming peaple from every part of the world without asking them to shed their culture and traditions. Trudeau’s Canada was one in which a multitude of ethnic groups could be proud Cana- dians while keeping that which made them different. And he included his home province cf Quebec in that vision of Cana- da. Somehow I doubt that Tru- deau would have sent the boat- loads of Chinese back to China, shackled to their seats aboard chartered planes. It is a shameful chapter, excuses of cue-jumping notwithstanding. Take it from an immigrant. ~ The people have a keen sense of what makes a great leader, and they don’t emerge | from the stale brew concocted by pollsters, image consultants and handlers. Great leaders chart their-own course. - As anyane who worked clo- sely with Trudeau during his time as prime minister testified during the ‘past few days, he would not allow himself ta be . packaged and handled. A great leader has a vision and the abi- lity to make others believe in It, “ . : Our time. no fonger allows for heroes. Instant communica- lion and the media’s insatiable appetite for finding flaws are not conducive to creating her- oes. Perhaps Trudeau was the last great Canadian leader to escape the hobgoblins of simall minds. Beyer can be reached at: BE - Mm a io? hubert@coolcon.com;: Tel {250) 381-6900; Web htip-dAewwdubertbeyer.com the children. The kids will be saved a lot of explanations. The judge ordered the 34- year-old mother to live with the kids for three weeks a month, the 36-year-old father one week a month, Instead of the kids owning duplicate sets of teddy bears, pyjamas, and toothbrushes, it will be the parents who have to stuff a week's supply of clothing into a suitcase and mave back and forth. If the economic level of the kids drops, the father will have a chance (to experience depri- vation first hand when he comes to stay for a week, If the menu consists of Kraft din- ner he can either eat and enjoy, or buy a better class of groceries while he's with them. And if the kids have less than good clothes to wear, he can share the shame of that, too, Another hassle for parents ) Pur. pup-puP- puP!! might crop up if either takes on a new partner. For at least one week a month the parent will be separated, or the partner’ will have to tag along to a dif- ferent. address. How. romantic: would that be? The judge ordered bath to keep separate, locked bed- rooms in the family home, and each is to leave the home in a “reasonably tidy condition.” This judge must be exper- ienced in the ways of warring couples, a I picture this divorce settle- ment being back in court with- in six months for revisions, Old bugaboos will re-surface.. The car won't be gassed up, the bills won't be paid on time, and both will gripe about. the grocery shopping of the- other. For the sake of many child- - ren, I hope this decision be- - comes the norm in divorce set- tlements. ; AND WHEN THEIR WIND UP THEIR Lifflé TAILS THEIR Brn aU LITLE MOTORS GO-.. LEAK COO¢ANT ALL LOPvegvingr OVER THE FLOOR!