Page 12 — May 5, 1945 Skeena-Land Of The Future . - ca VER since our public nominating convention, in the Prince Rupert a year ago, affair. And as J write this where our boat lies storm-bound, the Queen Charlotte Islands, it is becoming clear that our elec- tion effort is the instrument through which thousands of people in northwestern British Columbia are rallying them- Selves around a bold program of postwar development, assur- ing jobs and prosperity to all. We have done great things for the war effort in Skeena, but we are still a pioneer coun- try. This constituency stretches from Vancouver Island to the Yukon border, from the Queen Charlotte Islands to beyond Burns Lake. It is bigger than New Zealand, Ireland and Palestine put together. And in this whole rich territory of 150,000 square miles there are still less than 50,000 people. eAfter the last war this area was strangled. The communi- ties of ex-servicemen and others which sprang up along the brand new Grand Trunk Pacific Railway were gradually flattened under an unbearable burden of lack of markets and political graft. Prince Rupert, the rail ter- minus, shrank to seven thous- and people. It was by-passed by world trade, routed through Vancouver by the all-powerful CPR. ; The world then was a world of appeasement of Fascism, with Japanese interests finding ready allies in Canada in their blocking of the Alaska High- way. It was a world of isolation of the Soviet Union and of ruth- less colonial domination of the teeming, millions of Asia, elim- inating the trade that would otherwise have flowed through the Pacific Northwest. And at home there was a shrinking scarcity economy which brought unemployment to the people and could not pump life into Canada’s per- ishing frontier regions such as the Skeena Riding. Skeena, in fact, became a gigantic happy hunting ground for monopoly, into which the lumber barons and fishing companies stalked, Setting up temporary camps where their employees skim- smed the cream of the rich resources of the north, leay- ing nothing for permanent development. UT the election finds us in - Skeena organizing our fu_ ture in a totally different world. And the lLabor-Progressive Party is bringing to every com- munity and camp an wunder- standing, in bread-and-butter terms, of the changes brought by the war. Through the frame- work of the Wnited Nations, built on an enduring basis of socialist-capitalist co-operation, the peoples of the world are Sweeping away precisely those obstacles. which for a genera- tion have blocked the develop- - ment of northwestern British Columbia. We are vitally concerned in seeing that Canada, at the San Francisco conference and F [ throughout the whole field of international politics, fights to build flesh and blood around the decisions of Teheran, Crimea, Bretton Woods and Dumbarton Oaks. Canada, as a member of the British Commonwealth of Na- tions, as a member of the great community of American na- tions, as a neighbor of the United States and of the Sovy- iet Union, has a great role to play in cementing international unity to raise the living stand- ards of the peoples of the world. Qur success wil]| mean that Skeena, and its port of Prince Rupert, will find itself astride anew crossroads of world trade, with billions of dollars worth of goods flowing across the North Pacific between Canada, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and many Other countries. Our failure would mean eco- nomic ruin, and a new terrible war, ‘in which this ter- ritory would become the battle- ground. eS THE realizing of the first per- spective -will involve mod- ernizing the CNR transcontin- ental line to Prince Rupert, a line which has already hauled “millions of tons of the tools of war to the North Pacific. It will involve broadening and surfacing the Skeena highway, a British Columbia link with the Alaska highway, and a Peace River railway to pour grain through Prince Rupert to the Orient. Prince Rupert itself will need new port facilities. Ottawa re- cently demonstrated an appal- ling failure to grasp the future needs of Canada in the North Pacifie when it awarded a very measely 1.46 percent of B.C. shipbuilding contracts to the Rupert yard, a yard which must \be modernized and kept in op- eration to handle any repair job offering itself. The building of an airport in Prince Rupert will link the Prince George, Smithers and Terrace fields with an imper- atively-needed air service run- more . BY BRUCE MICKLEBURGH Deep Sea Fishermen’s Hall in this campaign has been much more than a narnow, partisan in the middle of a tour of ning the full length of the Pa- cific coast. These are big projects. But I - voice Shall not be afraid to these demands of the people of Skeena at Ottawa because I know we have allies, The late President Roosevelt himself, in his speech at Brem- erton last August, placed the joint development of the Pacific northwest high on the agenda ef common business of° Canada and the United States. But the war has not only. changed the world abroad. It has also changed Canada at home. It leaves our country. with breath taking opportuni- ties and staggering problems. The number one problem will be finding new jobs for two million men and women who will leave the armed forces and War industry when the shoot- ing stops. This can only be done by keeping production at an even higher level than it has attain- ed during the past Six years, when it has doubled itsel— in Canada. The problem of main- taining “production is essenti- ally one of finding: markets. While Canada must seek markets abroad, it is equally important (and will become even -more important as the years go by), that we greatly expand the home market. It is becoming generally understood that we must do this by raising the standard of living of the Canadian people—giving them more purchasing power. What is not yet so widely grasped is that we must also expand the home market by developing Canada’s vast frontier regions to support thriving, prosperous communities. Half of British Columbia actually lies north of Prince Rupert and Prince George, and is almost com- pletely uninhabited. Look at the map and see for yourself. It is at the core of national self-interest that the Canadian government pump life into Skeena. The day is gone when the individual pioneer can go out and carve a future for him- self from the wilderness with mattoeck and axe. But the Ca- nadian people, through the goy- ernment, can join hands with us in building highways, -hydro- electric projects, farm machin- ery depots, avenues -of techni- eal assistance and social serv- ice, and all the other bases upon which industry, agricul- ture, and community life will grow in Skeena. HE supreme importance of _ transportation..can be ex. pressed. in the formula, “no transportation, no develop- ment.” We now have the Skeena highway, but it needs broadening and surfacing from Prince Rupert to Prince George. One reason construction has not even started yet on a Brit- ish Columbia link to the Alas- ka highway -is because some northern communities have en- gaged in suicidal bickering on this question, each demanding the route it deemed most im- mediately advantageous to it- self. ~ & For a long time the Labor- Progressive Party has urged all these communities to unite around the demand that the Provincial government survey the various routes. proposed, and then build along the route which would best serve the int- erests of the whole province. Men like Walter Wilson of Burns Lake, on behalf of the northern Boards of Trade, are doing outstanding work in unit- ing business people around Such a demand, and the Ques- nel Board of Trade is now spearheading the drive in the Interior. It will prove cheaper in the long run to build first-class highways and maintain them on that basis, than to tolerate the ipenny-wise pound-foolish makeshift and patchwork pol- icy so dear to the heart of the cheap political bosses who have trotted out the shovels prior to every election since men first voted in the north. A highway on the Queen Charlotte Islands has been the’ chief political football there for 30 years and still there is only a muddy trail. Two decrepit Union Steam- ship, the “Camosun” and the “Cassiar,” have navigated their way these stormy waters _to the scores of little settlements for many years. The “Camosun” is now condemned, leaving the tiny “Cassiar”, unfit for deep- Sea service, to tackle the Queen Charlottes alone. Fresh food? Figure it out for yourself. And the Rupert shipyard short of contracts meanwhile! GEEENA is a natural for pow- er development. Within a few miles of Hazelton are two sites where 100,000 white horses come foaming down the Bul- keley, enough to electrify every farm and home in Skeena, to Tun pulp mills, to smelt the mountain of iron behind Telk- wa, using coal from the gigan- tic ~untouched Groundhog coal fields. The settlement of veterans on the land can be carried through if the tragic mistakes of the last postwar period are C - in Skeena as the war enters} precariously around : scrupulously avoided. Prin, ’ ily, it must be linked with — development of markets. Further, the rather Stu clauses in the Veterans’ L; Act of 1942 which block Vet . ans from pooling their a eated funds in: c0-operat farm projects must be strig, from the statute books, and « placed by provision for S0ve! =4 : £) ment assistance to such pe jects. j Rural electrification, fs machinery depots, settlem, on a planned, community ba. all these are essential, : The cleaning-up of the d graceful slum conditions in ie pert and throughout the eny_ riding, and their replaceme by modern low-cost housr projects, will employ theusay : of men hitherto working | wartime construction. Decline of the Skeena §] mon pack from 100,000 to 6 000 cases in recent years q | phasizes the need for 4 fun tioning fisheries conseryatj program. : S HESE are some of the maj and varied problems we fa final stage. In tackling them our small and hitherto-isolat communities we are stren thened by the fact that we a building powerful organiz | tions, trade unions and €coope atives, through which to spe With a united voice. The International Woodwor ers of America (CIO), throug Struggle has won collect bargaining agreements ‘wi Kelly’s, Morgan’s. Aero Tir ber, North Coast and Paci: Mills logging operations and moving into the interior. T! Winning of wages and cone. tions for the loggeys is layi | the basis for the stabilizatic of the industry. 3 Workers at shore and sea. the fishing industry are playir a similar role through the United Fishermen and Alli: Workers’ Pederal Union Loe 44 Rupert halibut men hay | their Deepsea Fishermen i Union, and the role of ft unions is supplemented by a 3S Several hundred fishermen will be in the North Islanc area on election day. Bruce Mickleburgh has led the fight tt have ballot boxes placed there.