Editorial

 Aperilous course

Two events in this country last week dramatize the perilous future that is being
set for this country by the Tory government in Ottawa.

In Toronto, representatives of the Trafalgar Consortium, the British group of
defence contractors bidding to build the nuclear attack submarines, met with
officials of the defence department to move the government’s submarine proposal
one step closer to a final decision.

In Ottawa, International Trade Minister John Crosbie told reporters that the
legislation to implement the Canada-U.S. trade deal would be introduced in the
Commons in May.

Those two Tory initiatives — the trade deal and the submarine proposal, part of
the White Paper on Defence — frame the course that is being set for Canada by
this government. But it is a course that diverges 180 degrees from the direction the
world is going, 180 degrees from the direction that the majority of Canadians see
their country going.

On the submarine proposal, the evidence has come in with compelling force and
from a variety of sources, including the military itself: the 10:to 12 nuclear
submarines proposed for Canada will link us relentlessly with the U.S. “forward
maritime strategy” — a first strike strategy. They will undermine Canada’s com-
mitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and undermine the progress that
has been made toward Arctic disarmament. And they will push military spending
to enormous heights, undermining Canadian social programs for generations to
come.

Worse, the defence white paper of which they form one proposal, revives the cold
war, threatening Canada’s future independent role and endangering the fragile
process of disarmament.

The trade deal will add a new dimension to that integration, opening the door to
increased ‘defence-related industry in Canada. Under the proposed pact, military
production is the one area of the economy in which the federal government is
allowed to provide subsidies and regional development programs without fear of
trade reprisals.

As the Ontario Coalition Against Free Trade noted: “Communities will be
confronted with a choice between joblessness and deepening involvement in the
global arms race.”

The course is being set — but Canadians can change it.

The peace walks around the province this weekend and the Peace Voter Pledge
Campaign are part of that process of changing this country’s course — and

moving Canada towards an independent foreign policy, the establishment of

nuclear-weapons free zones and an end to weapons testing. :

In the weeks and months ahead, Canadians will be also be called upon to join the
campaign against the trade deal and the submarine program — and, when the
federal election is called, to join the campaign to defeat the government that is the
author of this dangerous new course for Canada.

Those walking for peace this weekend can give this country a different
future — if their momentum carries beyond April 23.

Tae

HALIASK ING

IRIBUNE

EDITOR

Sean Griffin

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

GRAPHICS
Angela Kenyon

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ae

he term “corporate agenda” has

become part of the common lexicon of
the 1980s, identifying the social policies of
the corporate sector — policies which
include privatization, tax breaks for the
wealthy, free trade and cutbacks in social
programs.

Since that agenda is being dutifully fol- The main burden of Campeau’s com-

lowed by the Tory government in Ottawa,
it’s not usually necessary for the corporate
elite to emerge from the oak-panelled
shadows to spell out the next initiative.
But every so often, some pin-striped soul
does step into the public limelight to

remind us once again that the impulse for.

the regressive policies coming from
Ottawa and Victoria originated in the
boardrooms of corporate Canada.

That’s certainly the way it was last week
when Robert Campeau, fresh from his suc-
cessful"$6.6 billion takeover of the huge
U.S. Federated Department Stores chain,
appeared before the Canadian Club in
Montreal to condemn the federal govern-
ment for spending so much money on
social programs.

He singled out medicare particularly,
calling it unnecessary and mistaken. “I
question whether politicians, federal or
provincial, who put in medicare were
really thinking of the welfare of the people
or were they, perhaps, thinking of their
own political welfare,” he told the lobster-
stuffed audience at the club.

Of course, Campeau welcomed free
trade and added that he preferred the
working environment of the United States
because there, “if you work hard and pre-
vail, you win.”

plaint was that the government has racked
up a huge deficit — in Canada, the deficit,
as a proportion of Gross National Pro-
duct, is three times what it is in the U.S., he
claimed — to pay for social programs.
“They (the federal government) are creat-
ing debt ... for future generations and
putting a burden on our children that they
will not be able to cope with,” he said.
The federal government is creating a
burden all right — but it’s not because of
social programs, it’s because of the free tax
ride that Campeau and the rest of his

’ corporate set are getting from the federal

government.

In fact, according to the report prepared
by Globe and Mail reporter Linda
McQuaig for the paper’s Report on Busi-

ness Magazine, there is more than $30 bil-’

lion currently outstanding in deferred
taxes by Canadian corporations. And
that’s in addition to $20 billion in unused
tax deductions in the hands of corpor-
ations — which represents money that
Revenue Canada will not get from those
companies in future years.

The same report lists the 10 most profit-
able companies in Canada which paid no
income tax at all in 1986 — a list which
includes Alcan Aluminum, Brascan, Xerox
Canada, Wardair and Hudson’s Bay. It

People and Issues

doesn’t include Campeau Corporation
but then he cleaned up on the federal take
in earlier years, when the Trudeau
government gave him several lucrative
contracts to develop federal government
office buildings.

As for spending on social programs,
there’s another statistic for Campeau:
Canada ranks only ninth among OECD
(Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development) countries in terms of
spending on social programs.

Actually, Campeau’s speech at the
Canadian Club illuminated another point
on the corporate agenda — the call for
further cuts in social spending in order to
make more federal revenue available for
corporate tax breaks and to reduce the
federal deficit so that federal borrowing
doesn’t get in the way of corporate acquisi-
tion schemes. After all, Campeau had to
borrow nearly $8 billion to finance his
takeover of Federated and it’s no fun hav-
ing to compete with the federal govern-
ment for capital.

But will Campeau’s great takeover
coup benefit anyone? Not working people,
that’s for sure. He’s already talking about
layoffs at the various stores across the U.S.
that make up the Federated chain. He told
reporters following the takeover: “You
cannot survive and compete by adding

Jobs and jobs and jobs.” ;

And there you have the corporate
agenda in a nutshell.

seen Saree
he federal government may have
wanted to sell the Canada-U:S. trade
deal along with National Enquirer and
People magazine at the local Safeway
store, but its marketing scheme was short-
lived in one store, at least.

Reader Betty Griffin tells us that the
government’s brochures which advertise
the deal as a boon for Canadians appeared
on the racks briefly at the chain’s West-
lynn Mall store in North Vancouver last
week, She returned to the store later to
complain to the manager about the dis-
play and the lack of any material present-
ing an opposing viewpoint.

But when the two went to look at the
display, they discovered it had already
been taken down — the result, it seems, of
a whole number of customer complaints.

As the display goes, so should the deal... ..

* ok ok

ust a reminder to readers who may

have missed the first notice when it
appeared here several weeks ago. We’re
still looking for those who participated in
the occupation of the Vancouver Post
Office, the Art Gallery and Hotel Georgia
by the single unemployed in May and
June, 1938.

If you, yourself were a participant or
you know of someone who was, please
give us a call at 251-1186 or drop us a line
at the address printed in the masthead
above.

4 e Pacific Tribune, April 20, 1988