A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 1, 2005 TERRACE STANDARD. - ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 _ PUBLISHER: RODLINK | ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. - V8G SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 . WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Going forward. SKEENA VOTERS chose more thana new Mem- ~. ber of the Legislative Assembly in last month’s election when New Democrat Robin Austin de- feated Liberal incumbent Roger Harris. | They also chose a different relationship with the provincial government in that Mr. Austin will sit on the opposition benches in the legislature. It’s been years since Skeena has not had a pro- vincial representative who is also a member of the government. Socred Dave Parker was part of. the Bill Vander Zalm/Rita Johnson governments between 1986 and 1991, New Democrat Helmut Giesbrecht was part of the Mike Harcourt/Glen Clark/Ujjal Dosanjh administrations’ of 1991- 2001 and Mr. Harris was an MLA in Gordon | _Campbell’s. first Liberal administration of 2001- ~ 2005. There’s a theory out there that a riding with a government member can expect better access to __ the corridors of power when it comes to decisions, services ‘and money that will benefit the people ‘who live within the riding. Under this theory, a cabinet minister is perhaps more than likely quicker to answer a call from a fellow caucus member than from a MLA who is in opposition. And bureaucrats, the. real people .who run the system, just might be more respon- sive at the start to members of the government _ than MLAs who are not. : - This theory is very much rooted in the politics of government — to the victor go the spoils. It has not much to do with the other theory of govern- | ment that the whole idea is to provide an expected level of service and response to communities and veya ~ Austin as she Somme two roles. One is to ‘intel- | ligently oppose government policies he and his _ party feel work against the best interests of peo- ple. The other is to act as an advocate for the bet- terment of his riding. It'll be even more of a challenge to Mr. Austin as he must also confront and defeat the geograph- ical divide of urban versus rural and north versus south that exists in this province. Mr. Austin has already said some very interest- ing things in beginning to put together the mecha- nisms of how he will do his job. He wants to meet regularly with local governments of all sorts. And he’ ll be seeking out advice and information on the area’s natural resource industries. Mr. Austin says he needs to know a lot more about forestry and mining. It’s an admission as much as it is an olive branch to those who op- posed his election in the first place. Resource in- ‘dustry representatives would do well to establish contacts with Mr. Austin. The politics of govern- ment has ended, at least for now. Attention must: now shift to areas of common interest fort us all. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman _ COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs =» FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping © CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham , ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: , Bert Husband, Susan Willemen AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year: _ Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167.89 a! 2005 WINNER _ CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS . MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, y; a CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION | oy CN A Ko _ AND Community Nowsrapers. B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www.bcpresscouncil.org) SSE TTP aET Pra Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2. Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy- right holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents ‘the realtor who. COMPETITION a 1 PON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED: MR. HARPER WAS BANGING His HEAD AGAINST THE WALL FOR LETTING MR. CADMAN SLIP THRU LIS FINGERS DURING THE CONSERVATIVE - CANDIDATE NOMINATIONS AND THEN HE WAS BANGING HIS HEAD AGAINST THE WALL FOR LETTING MISS STRONACH SLIP TARU HIS FINGERS | AND THEN. ALL 1 SNID = WAS “ DON'T WORRY, STEPHEN, You STILL HAVE: Me; GURMANT = bere tn 5 gmsee ox} Vi - Libs need to build new economy) about, a truly diversified one #, 7 that can weather a downturn i ing: , .A BLAST from the past mo-’ ment on election night was a TV interview of Faye Leung, indirectly helped end Bill Vander Zalm’s reign... While happy with Camp- bell’s win, she heretically sug- . gested high prices for our nat-- ural resource products was the primary reason for the boom on which he campaigned. _ And that Campbell’s task: now was to “build up a real - economy”. Proving that under those outrageous hats there i is still an acute brain at work. © While the NDP was bound “to recover..some ground this — I ‘suspect. the. time around, Libs’ backroom girls and boys are just a tad troubled the James Gang was able to win so many seats during a “boom” - especially given the Libs kept hammering away at the de- cade of decline under the New Democrats. And that so many of those wins came in the booming. Lower Mainland. Leung’s implied point was commodity prices are cycli- cal. Therefore, when the boom goes. bang, BC’s economy goes down in step with declin- ing prices. The Libs therefore: have to worry that if they can- not hold seats at the top of the cycle, they are going to get clobbered when the economic worm turns. _ Not that defeat is inevitable. The Socreds proved that when the economy tanked in the ear- - ly 1980s. Bennett, son of Ben- nett, had the good sense to head out the door volun- MALCOLM BAXTER tarily and the party stayed in: power by going with the char-. ismatic Zalm. The NDP played the same card in 1996 with Glen Clark, pulling off the party’s first back-to-back victories. And let’s not forget; that was past the mid-point of the decade of decline. Which takes us to this elec- tion, the next election and the Campbell factor. In the case of the Zalm and Clark, charisma proved a great way of pulling the fat from the fire, but a poor choice beyond the short term. The Liberals’ problem is that Campbell is at the other end of the scale - a heck of a lot of people simply don’t like him. I’ve heard him variously described by some who have come into contact with him as stiff - even arrogant - and in- tolerant of criticism . Granted, at a conference I ‘attended last month a Liberal insider told me the more he got to know Campbell, the more - he liked him. However, most. voters do not see that side of the man. On the other hand, NDP leader Carole James is very ‘likeable. I saw her at work at -Coghlin Park when she stopped "off here in the final week of the . " another solution. campaign, watched her “press the flesh” with the crowd. .° It struck me I was watching someone who was behaving more like a den mother than a — professional politician. And’ saw how the crowd loved it. Sure, pre-election polls showed Campbell lead- ing James when it came to who would make the.best premier, but she was something of an unknown quantity for most. That will change over the next four years during which | she will lead a fully-funded, official opposition and, as leader, get a lot of exposure, If she performs as well in the’ Legislature as she did on the election trail, James will be- come a'force to be reckoned with. So let’s bring the elements together in’ the scenario that forward-looking Liberal strate- gists will doubtless be ponder- ing (you don’t stay in power if you don’t think ahead). ‘Having lost a_ troubling number of seats in a boom, you face an economy that’s cooling down. Your leader is not greatly loved while the op- position’s, even if not greatly loved, strikes a warmer chord with the voters. Which means you’re going to have a big problem holding on to the reins of power, One. solution is to build the economy Leung is talking commodity prices. But if that isn’t panning out" and the economy is beginning” to feel the effects of global — cooling, you have to look for Tes a4 ss Which is when. the whis- : pering campaign against the - leader begins. EEE rT Skeena MP Nathan Cullen must come as an extreme dis- appointment to those who gave him such a convincing win in last year’s federal election. PEEPS ESE pees oe. we ne SBR REA, oe a Spenser ern : Granted he was a ‘politi-: . cal neophyte, but you would: have thought that after nearly’ . a year he would have acquired’ at least a modicum of under-” standing about his job and the. obligations that come with it. Instead, his supporters, got, to read recently. that, in launch-~ ing a new youth entrepreneur. ‘award in conjunction with lo--, cal credit unions, he kicked in $5,000 of his own money. He clearly has failed to« grasp that when a new pro- | gram is launched, he is sup-, posed to dip into our pockets, not his own. This flagrant disregard for,, long established traditions in Canada threatens to undermine — the very fabric of democracy. as we know it. I strongly recommend that-' Mr. Cullen pay more attention‘ to testimony from the Gomery Commission in order to prop- erly understand the Canadian: way. Malcolm Baxter is the: edi-, tor of The Northern Sentinelin Kitimat, J AFTER MY third trip in a week driving east through the intersection at Frontage Road and Clark Street, | phoned Nechako Northcoast to report ornamental shrubs obstructing my view of oncoming traffic from the schools to the south. The shrubs have gradually . grown taller until only Excel drivers can see over them. Not a safe situation but a situation I could do something about. Now it’s up to Nechako North-- coast to trim the shrubs to an unobstructive level: for low level vehicles and motorcy- clists. If only I could do something to safeguard kids from abuse. , Last. week in Scarborough, Ontario, a young child was beaten and burned, allegedly by his mother’s boyfriend. The mother says her boyfriend locked himself in a bedroom with her son and for three and a half hours she listed to her child cry. and scream as her boyfriend punched and kicked her son, and scalded his face with a boiling hot towel. In her words, no mother should have to listen to her THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI child scream and cry as her son did. To do so was ago- ny for her. Yet for three and a half hours she, apparently . made no move to rescue her son. She didn’t phone police or firemen, or even pound on’ a neighbour’s door for help. She waited for her boyfriend toquit. When her boyfriend finally released her son, she took the child on a city bus ride to the hospital hoping along the way someone would notice her There: must be an end Ke) abuse | son’s injuries and report him to the authorities. - Fortunately the bus driver fulfilled her hope. He read the situation, alerted the police, ‘and the boy was transferred to the safety of authorities. The mother excuses her inaction by saying she feared for her life if she resisted her boyfriend. . Though 1 realize in most spousal abuse cases. the woman can be at real risk of severe injury, even death, I cannot fathom her failure to shield her child. Case studies show too many single mothers make poor choices. Over and over they share lodgings with men who turn out to be abusive, to them and to their children. And too often the men prove to be pe- dophiles. What easier prey for a pe- dophile than a lonely, single mother overwhelmed by a per- petual shortage of food money ‘and an excess of childcare du- ties. Any woman can be taken in by a man who only later shows his true colours — black and blue. But for a mother to passively stand by for three and a half hours while her, child is beaten into a coma.. that I don’t understand: This mother sounds like a, second Karla Homolka, only.. instead of participating in a murder, she allowed’ serious abuse to happen to a'defense-. less child. I would expect poz: lice to charge her. with being: an accessory to a crime if, im » fact, she did so little to rescue’ the child. - . I couldn’t help thinking of, this child’s future while listen-, ing to new reports of the extra, 12 missing Vancouver women: added to the previous 15 Wil-. lie Pickton is charged with murdering on his pig farm. A common denominator among these women is their back- ground as a stepchild. Divorce and step-parents can lead to running away from home, getting into drugs, then prostitution to support the, drug habit. From there it’s. downhill. Kids run away from home for many reasons but a com-' mon reason is ‘unhappiness brought on by step-parent dis-’ cipline and family alienation. |