Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 3 1999 TERRACE. STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Power game NDP electioneering is based on the idea that jobs are the currency of politics. What’s important is not how you come by the jobs but the notion that they can be cashed in for votes at election time. Flip that lens on and you see why the pro- vince’s Jobs for Power Accord is so seductive," B.C, in theory anyway has a surplus of power in the future because of the termination of its re-_ quirement to sell power to the U.S. under the now-expired Columbia River Treaty. Someone figured out that by waving this stream of extra energy about like a magic wand and an- nointing selected corporate recipients, the government could be seen sashaying about with the capitalists while creating jobs and doing it all : with something other than direct tax dollars. The NDP first harnessed this new fount of. political energy to fend off the phalanxes of Al- can Jawyers poised to sue B.C, over the pro- vince’s 1995 decision to cancel the half-built billion-dollar Kemano Completion Project. Instead of coughing up direct compensation, the’ government promised Alcan enough energy at cheap rates to power a future expansion of its Kitimat smelting operations. It wasn’t a subsidy or a payoff, we were told. It was about convert- ing power excess to B.C.’s needs into jobs. The premier promised similar deals to other aluminum firms if they build new smelters. Now the concept has been extended beyond the energy-intensive aluminum industry. Developer Intrawest is getting a B.C. Hydro! rate grant to increase its snow-making capacity at Whistler-Blackcomb, ostensibly to extend the. ski season and maintain jobs there longer.’ Similar deals are said to be possible for other, companies that protect or increase jobs. Technical concerns aside — some energy. analysts doubt B.C, will have" all-th hee & energy: ta”. meet these obligations. a few decades out — the’ most troubling part of all this j is the potential for political abuse. This marks a continuation and an expansion of this government’s penchant for doing cute deals with individual companies or industries in ex- change for them standing docilely with the premier on a stage in front of the TV cameras. It may not be out-and-out bribery. It may be. couched in terms of.‘‘good business deals.”’ But the foul stench about this wil] not go away. Name game THE DOCTORS of B.C, have prescribed a new: definition for RADs — those days. when they, close their offices to patients due to their ongo- ing billings dispute with the province. Known up to now as ‘‘Reduced Activity: Days’’, some spin doctor has decreed that RADs! will henceforth stand for “‘Rationed Access Days’’. The old name probably stirred up con- notations of docs lounging at the golf course while patients writhe in agony back at home or head for the emergency room. If this name doesn’t stick, maybe they can try another: ‘‘Ridiculous Acronym Days.”’ PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel » NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens 1998 WINNER NEWS/CONIMUNITY: Alex Hamilton NEWSPAPERS OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly COMPETITION CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote TELEMARKETER: Tabatha Orange © AD ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT/TYPESETTING: Julie Davidson SUBSCRIPTION RATES 8Y MAIL: $57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64.39 Outside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER CF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. - CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION BC, PRESS COUNCH, G@cna Serving the Terrace and Thomhal araa, Published on Wednesday of aach week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbla, V8G 5R2, Stodes, photographs, llustrations, designs and typestytes In the Terrace Standard are the property of the pail holdera, Including ‘Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd, its illustration repro services and advertising Foprodson whol or par thou wnitien permission, t-spectically prohibited. Authorized aa second-class mail pending the Post Otfice Department, Tot ajmont postage csi: Special thanks to ail our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents WILL SOMEBODY _ — FINDOOT IF MR.YELTSIN IS WELL ENOUGH THAT (CAN TAKE ALITTLE SKI HOLIDAY ~INBRITISH COLUMBIA ¢ Recall: today’s VICTORIA — Disgruntled voters in British Columbia have been watching too many movies, particularly of the Arnold Schwarzenegger type. Faced with perhaps twa more years of an inept govern- ment, some ticked-off folks, calling, themselves Concerned Citizens of B.C., are organiz- ing a Total Recall campaign. No longer will two or three NDP MLAs be targeted for annihilation; no sir, the whole lot of them are to be sent to that big Socialist place in the sky. “There’s enough anger and frustration out there that I believe that this government is in serious trouble,’ says Kevin Falcon, co-chairman of the group. oy Well, J can’t; -argue with ; | - that. The: evel of: ranger and. frustration with the Glen Clark government surpasses even that which eventually drove the Socreds to political extinction in 1991, But back then, voters had to wait for a general election to express their profound dis-. pleasure with the Bill Vander Zalm-Rita Johnson gang, The legislation that would allow a bunch of self-appointed, would-be dragon slayers to bring down a duly-elected government whenever they feel like it had not yet been HUBERT BEYER written. The Recall and Initiative proposal was placed before the voters in the form of a ref- erendum in the same election that saw the total disintegra- tion of the Social Credit Partyo 40. “The ‘idea had’ come from the Reform Party: The Socreds«:: were running scared and embraced the cancept as a last-ditch effort to salvage some voter support. The NDP, not wanting to leave any base uncovered, stupidly signed on as well and promised to bring in Recall and Initiative legis- lation, if elected, The referendum passed with an 80-per-cent voter approval, and the new NDP government, ever so teluc- tantly, brought in the promised legislation, although it was drafted in such away as to be considered unworkable. The rest, as they say, is his- tory. We’ve been awash in recall campaigns pretty well ever since that stupid act was passed. For a while, Paul Ramsey, a favorite recall tar- get, probably spent more time defending himself against these — extra-parliamentary onslaughts than on his cabinet duties. And now, the Concerned Citizen jokers are planning to unleash the mother of all recall campaigns. They want to go after every one of the 40 - NDP MLAs, hoping to kill off at least five or six of them, which would rob the NDP of its majority in the legislature and force a general, flection. Recall has been referred ‘to "98 participatory democracy. “That’s like calling a’ lynching participatory justice. I'm not saying our concept . of parliamentary democracy ought to be written in stone, Like all institutions, it too, must be allowed to evolve, ta reflect changes in public atti- tudes. - But the recall idea is any- thing but evolutionary. There’s one hell of a differ- ence between participatory democracy and mob rule. Recall and its uses smack of the latter. ynch mob I’m sure Premier Glen Clark would dearly love to repeal the recall legislation, and not just because it’s bad legislation, but because it actually might enable the Total Recall mob to succeed, storm the palace and hang the king from the nearest tree. The inevitable public back- lash will prevent him from abclishing the act. Instead, his government will tinker with it, making it even harder to work, Nor can the Liberals be counted on to deep-six the act if and when they come to power. They’re enjoying the recall show too much, quietly hoping for its success, to. admit that it’s bad legislation, .» pure and simple. a in Assaresult,.it won't be very: