Editorial The deficit card | It shouldn’t have taken an Environics poll to tell pundits that Canadians are leery about Ottawa’s fiscal plans as stated in Finance Minister Michael Wilson’s April budget. The poll’s findings indicate the honeymoon is over with the ruling Tories, who have only 34 per Cent of public support, compared to the Liberals who garnered 39 per cent and the New Democrats with 25 per cent. Rarely has a new majority government fallen from grace so quickly. But these numbers alone are deceptive. An earlier poll shows the government is , doing quite well with its multi-million dollar deficit bashing campaign. A majority of Canadians rank deficit reduction as a top priority. And certain aspects of the budget are popular. The figures show public opinion supports the tax claw-back on family allowances and old age security for families with incomes of more than $50,000. Opposition to changes in unemployment insurance is also weak. While the pro-Canada forces predicted Wilson’s budget would be the Tory vehicle for implementing the free trade agenda, they have obviously been caught off guard by the support the government has garnered for its agenda of cutting the deficit. But it really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The Tories played the deficit card in their first surge to power in 1984. It worked then and they’re playing it again. No one pretends that countering the government’s deficit campaign will be an easy job. But it’s worth remembering that when free trade was first announced it also received majority support. However the more Canadians learned about free trade the less they liked it. The same strategy applies to the deficit. Some points should be made. The deficit wasn’t created by the elderly, children, the sick and unemployed going to the trough once too often. In fact this government has been fiscally tight, tighter even than Thatcher or Reagan. Canadians have been paying more and more taxes since the Tories took hold in Ottawa and have been getting fewer and fewer services in return. Last year the government came in with a surplus of $2 billion (excluding interest payments on the debt.) This year it anticipates a $12-billion surplus. The main culprits behind the deficit are defence spending, corporate tax evasion (the legal variety) and the main villain — interest rates. Even with the cancellation of the nuclear sub program, defence spending will gallop ahead of the rate of inflation. The corporate share of the tax burden continues to plummet while more and more of it has been shifted onto middle and low income earners. And while the government acknowledges that high interest rates are the major contributor to the deficit, it refuses to pull them down. Why? First, because high interest rates keep the Canadian dollar artificially high, giving Canadian business “the competitive edge” as it moves into the U.S. and Mexico. Second, high interest rates keep unemployment rates high. To business this is essential. A workforce worried about unemployment is more reluctant to push for higher wage and benefit demands. It is also more likely to accept the “belt tightening” that a free trade environment demands. Adding up the deficit problem, one finds it is Canadian workers, taxpayers and consumers who are paying and the banks, corporations and arms manufacturers who are raking in the profits. Perhaps the more Canadians know about the deficit, the less they will be willing to foot the bill. A CARING Conservative 4 = TRIBUNE EDITOR Sean Griffin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dan Keeton BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C.,V~/5K 1Z5 Phone: (604) 251-1186 Fax: (604) 251-4232 Subscription rate: Canada: @ $20 one year @ $35 two years @ Foreign $32 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 ame ae D uring his long life, worker and song- ster Al Rankin lived by what we’ll call the Joe Hill maxim, as expressed in the immortal song by Earl Robinson: “ ‘I never died,’ said he.” That maxim will honoured July 30 when family and friends gather to pay tribute in what they’ve billed as “A Celebration of Life.” Al, a familiar figure to many including those who attended the early Burke Mountain Labour Festivals some years back, died June 28, two days after his 84th birthday. A member for many years of the International Woodworkers, Al was also a prolific poet and musician on the guitar and five-string banjo. He was born in Glace Bay, N.S., the son of a mine worker whose family moved west to the prairies following his death. Al eventually settled in Calgary where he met his first wife, Kay. Forging a life-long commitment to the Communist Party — Kay died in 1958 — the couple struggled through the depression. Al fought in World War II with the Calgary Highlanders, afterwards joining his family in Vancouver where he entered the lumber industry and became involved in the first Canadianization movement in the IWA. He worked in the B.C. Forest Products mill at False Creek until it was destroyed by fire in 1960, and was involved in setting up the plant safety committee as chief shop steward. Al later worked in the service industry until his retirement. In the early Seventies he fought and won a battle with cancer and continued his interests in writing and music. He is survived by his second wife, Yvonne, daughters Sandra and Donna, son Dennis and their families. Because Al devoted much of his time to writing, it seems fitting that we include a short poem of his which, included as it is in the obituary notices, serves as an optimis- tic epitaph: To a worker who gave his all But did not live to see the fall Of the many horrors which he fought Yet in his life a glimmer caught Of a new life his efforts wrought. ...To a worker who by his smile Brought sheer joy to us awhile He’s gone — dead — lying still And yet, he’s here until Those dreams of his we can fulfil. Family and friends are holding the cele- bration of life for Al at the [WA hall, 2859 Commercial, on Sunday, July 30, 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to the Cancer Society or the Pacific Tribune. of * * his-happens-every-year-about-this- time Dept.: During the rush to announce our top fundraisers in the suc- cessful financial drive that concluded June 24, we omitted some important contribu- tions. We note now that Emil Bjarnason’s - People and Issues name is added to the membership of the 500 club while Arthur Brown contributed $1,000 to become a new member of the Century Club, and we don’t want to forget the $50 donation that came in last week from the veterans of the MacKenzie Papi- neau Battalion. Once again, a big thank you for helping us to make 1989 a successful year by exceeding the target by more than $4,000, raising more than $86,000 to keep us pub- lishing for another year. * * * O ne of the risks of living in the nuclear age is, of course, the danger of radia- tion exposure (if not all-out nuclear con- flagration). Another risk, it seems, is living with contradictions, and one of the most glaring of these is the visit to Canada’s peace capital by several nuclear-capable warships for the Sea Festival. Vancouver citizens have, over the years, voted for disarmament negotiations and have declared the city a nuclear-weapons- free zone. Most recently, city council voted to ask the federal government to stop ships potentially carrying nuclear weapons from entering the Port of Vancouver, a federal Crown corporation. But it’s obviously going to take more than a vote to help the news sink in, and that’s where the third annual peace gather~ | ing called “Pier Pressure 89” comes in. Sponsored by the group, Save Our Seas, the event features several entertainers and speakers. Included are Vancouver Ald. Libby Davies, Point Grey New Demo- cratic MLA Dr. Tom Perry, Jr., North Vancouver district Ald. Ernie Crist and Dr. Fred Knelman, author of America, God and the Bomb. Groups represented include Canadian Physicians for the Prev- ention of Nuclear War, Lawyers for Social Responsibility, Greenpeace and Veterans Against Nuclear Arms. They'll assemble at Ballantyne Pier (accessible from the Heatley St. overpass), Saturday, July 15, 2 p.m. * *% * e’ve been informed that the Centre for Socialist Education has for the second year running $500 in its Dan God- frey Bursary available for a student attend- ing a post-secondary educational institu- tion. in the 1989-90 academic year. Preference is given to the daughter, son or grandchild of people who are active in working for socialism, peace or progres- sive causes. A short biography of the stu- dent, indicating activities, including partici- pation in left and progressive movements, is requested. s Applications should be addressed to the Bursary Fund, Centre for Socialist Educa- tion, Room 100, 1726 East Hastings St., — Vancouver V5L 1S9. ee 4 Pacific Tribune, July 10, 1989