Aad - The Terrace Standard, Necnastiay, August 30, 1995

TERRACE

SITTER

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27,.1988

ADDRESS; 4547 Lazelle Ave. , Terrace, B.C. *V8G" 188
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 « FAX: (604) 6 638-8432 |

- MODEM: (604) 638-7247". as,

Alcan’ s stone |

GREEK MYTHOLOGY has a marvellous
character called Sisyphus. The -king of Corinth,
Sisyphus was condemned to eternity in Hades. It

was no mere condemnation. The king’s task was.

to roll a large stone up a hill in Hades only to
have it roll down whereupon he would start
again, again and again — forever and forever. -

A modern day equivalent. to Sisyphus is Al-
can’s Bill Rich. He’s spent ‘the past 15 years
maneuvering the company’s. Kemano Comple-
tion Project to the pinnacle of reality. only to
have the thing. collapse again and again and
again. .

So it’s not surprising that Mr. Rich has left his
position as an Alcan vice president for a new one
as special advisor with the company. Who can
blame Mr. Rich or Alcan for the change.

He faced.several changes of government in Ot

tawa and in Victoria where politicians changed
policies like socks. There were innumerable: en-
vironmental - groups, natives, commercial
fishermen, regional politicians, court challenges
and tedious and mind-numbing reviews. There
was suspicion, mistrust and abuse. |

In some ways Mr. Rich’s shuffle reflects a

change in the corporate structure of Alcan. With ;
the Kemano Completion Project now dead, Al-

can is concentrating on its remaining business
ventures,

In other ways it’s a sign that doing business i In
B.C. has changed. No longer is the megaproject
considered a shining example of progress. Yet
just as Sisyphus rolls that stone up that hill in
Hades, companies in B.C. face a continuing chal-
lenge’in:the midst ofa frustrating climate:

Visitor radio

THE YUKON has a tourist information method
that would fit well in northern B.C.

Signs are put up along the tezritory’s highways |

telling travellers to tune to a certain frequency on
their FM radios. When they do; they hear pto-
gramming on what to. do in the area.

The transmitters are low-powered and have a
short range but it’s enough to entice travellers to
stop, look around and better yet — spend money.

What better way to tell visitors in the northwest
about Ksan in Hazelton, Heritage Park or the
North Pacific Cannery outside of Port Edward?

The idea was floated last year by Northern Na-
tive Broadcasting, the Terrace-based society
which provides programming to a multitude of
villages throughout the north. Sadly, the idea
was turned down for monetary reasons by the
tourism ministry.

The Yukon system is sponsored by the terri-
torial government and financed through commer-
cials purchased by businesses.

We urge the ministry to reconsider the Northern
Native proposal, Specialized radio messages can
assist the tourism industry here.

Gawd) PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link = sey
Lr ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm .
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter
COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf
_ OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller
- ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:

Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas

“verre
CrncuLAnCoRN

CONTROLLED.

COMMUNITY SERVICE/TELEMARKETER: Monique Belanger -

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT; Helen Haselmeyer
DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur COMPOSITOR: Shannon Cooper

CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette
MEMBER OF B.C, PRESS COUNCIL

Serving the Terrace and Tharnhill area, Published on Wednesday of each week by Carlboo Prass (1989)
Ud. al 4647 LazellaAve,, Terrace, British Columbia,
Stories, photographs, jlustralions, designa and typestyles in tha Terrace Standard are the property of tha
copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., lis illustration rapro services and advertising
agenciag.
Raproducion In whole ot in pat, withoul written permission, Is spactfically protibitad.
Authorized as second-class mal pending tha Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash.

Special {hanks to all our contributors and correspondents
. for thelr time a and talents

‘

- Victoria shines insummer _

“yicroria

” British
Columbia’s capital city bears a
striking = resemblance to

- Waikiki this time of year, and J

mean that in a very positive
seuse, Since I like Waikiki a
lot :
When I first moved to Vic-

toria 26 years ago, cynics ,

referred to it as the ‘‘city of the

newly-wed- and aearly dead,*’ -
wasn’t :
There |

a - description that
enlirely undeserved,
were no more than a handful of
restaurants in town. A good
portion of the population was
retired. The sidewalks were
rolled up atdusk,

_- The urban flight had taken its

toll. Hardly anyone lived in or
near the downtown core. An

. hour after the office buildings

- and. stores: closed, the streets
" were virtually empty. And
mass tourism had yet to affect
the city.

At that time, developers had
a firm grip on North America’s

urban scene. Old buildings, .
“regardless of their heritage

value, were demolished and re-
placed by often sterile new
concrete buildings.

Victoria bucked ‘that ‘trend:
Thanks to a young and com-
bative mayor, Peter Pollen, de-
velopers were put on notice
that their utopian gifis to

Surprises lurk in the stacks —

“THERE ARE two Kinds of
books: those that no one reads
and those that no one ought ta
read.”? H.L, Mencken,

When you find a fiction book
the library has owned for.
several years still so new the
spine’s stiff and the pages stick
together like a visiting team of
Olympic athletes, you know
which kind of book it is.

The kind of book no one
should read is smudged. with
More grubby thumbprints than
a pay phone and its pages fall
open in clumps to racicr bits.

Last week I found several
unread volumes of fiction on
the list of titles I wanted to
borrow. :

Books make my list for one
of several reasons. If I hear the
author give an interesting in-
terview on CBC  Radio’s
“Morningside’’, I wonder if
her writing might be fascinat-
ing, too. Sometimes it is;
sometimes it isn’t.

That’s how I found Ann

FROM: THE,GAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

mankind weren’t welcame.

City council placed a limit of
ten stories on the height of new
buildiags, Any developer who
wanted to exceed that limit had
to. give something in return,
usually in terms of landscaping
or small urban mini-parks.

Victoria’s Old Town, dating
back to the mid and late 19th
century, was refurbished rather
than demolished, Old and worn
facades suddenly looked old
and beautiful.

And then began the retum of
people to the city. Condo
buildings sprang up around the
core Which, coupled with in-
creased tourism, created, once

_ again, a demand -for services,

And whereas there had been
only a few restaurants, there

‘THROUGH BIFOCALS.,
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

Copeland’s collection of short
stories published in 1979. An
ex-min, Copeland related
several lively anecdotes about
convent life to Peter Gzowski.
Yet her book, “The Back
Room,”’ has a card pocket
glued to its Inside cover, The
card in-the pocket is blank; no
one borrowed the book pur-
chased by the library in 1981.
The second unread book |

NEVER MIND!
MY DAD SAYS
T HAVE A 6TH
SENSE IN THE

are now dozens and dozens.
Today, Victoria is like no
other city. Its buildings, new
and old; make for a unique
blend on a human scale. And if
you go down to the Inner Har-
bor on these warm summer
evenings, you’ll-see thousands
of people milling about, not

| just tourists but locals as well,

Street musicians, ranging
from lone guitar players tc a
Peruvian band that has become

4 very popular, entertain passers-

by. Vendors offer anything
from hoi dogs to cappuccino to
fresh joghourt. The city is pul-
sating with life.

Most downtown . restaurants
have tables and chairs on the
sidewalk. Pubs have wonderful

Title gardens’ with’ élaborate
‘landscaping “attached 10° them —
that ‘make European beer gar-'~

dens look pale by comparison.

Last Sunday, the Victoria
Symphony performed its an-
nual outdoor cvent, the
Symphony Splash, which drew
some 30,000 people to the In-
ner Harbor,

I had t work in the press ”
gallery for a few hours, and-
when I left the Parliament
Buildings in the afternoon,
people were already gathering
on the lawn in front of the
buildings, around the Empress

found ‘‘The - Stalker,’” also - ;
came from a CBC interview.
Author Kenneth J. Harvey is a
thirty-two-year old Newfound-
lander with a brisk readable
style but’ a bent toward
gruesome — topics: Murder.
Rape. Torture, Extortion.
Sometimes an author escapes
my attention until his death,
when those eulogizing him dis-
cuss his literary legacy. Other
times an author I've known
about but whose work I never
cared for wins a major award.

The fact others laud ber work. °

makes me take a second look
al her books, Carol Shields:
winning the Pulitzer Prize for

“The Stone Diaries’’ is one .

such author. ‘‘Swann,’’ her
earlier mystery novel, is about
to become a movie.
Occasionally I . meander
along library stacks watching
for intriguing titles, hoping. to
meet writers or subjects new to
me,
Generally, though, 1 tackle

And having made my home.
_in ‘Victoria. for the past 26.,

Whether they’re in to be bor-°.

"punch the blue key. -

THEN WE'RE
DOOMED You
DUMMY(THAT
WAS LAST SUMMER.

Hotel and at the causeway.
Technicians were testing the
sound system for. that evening, . .

playing a recording of
Mozart's Eine Kleine .
Nachtmusik. Young mothers
of all races were sitting on the ,
lawns, their children playing
together, oblivious of racial or.
ethnic differences. .
Tt suddenly occurred to me. ~ x
how fortunate we are. Here '
was all this beauty and display

of harmony, toddlers playing
wilh gay abandon, people smil-. . .
ing and feeling good, while. on

the other side of the world, ;
some nine hours’ flight away,
Serbs and Croats, Moslems |
aud Christians are soaking the |
killing fields with blood,

Having lived int ‘Canada for, .
38 years now, I know there's’ “-
no'' country like it. “Having just
returned from a trip through
the Okanagan’ and -the
Kootenays, T-know there’s no*
province: like British Colum: ’
bia.

years, well,’ ct me just say -
without ribbing it in, that this’ -
is one beautiful city to live in. . a

" Here’s to Canada, to Beauti-
ful British Columbia, and to%.
Victoria, 1 keep counting my
blessings.

the Library with the same sense .
of mission as a weekly shopper
armed with flyers, coupons,’
and a solar powered calculator; | -

My list accumulated through- —
out the week as I highlight «.
tides in the New Books at the
Library printout, book club. -
pamphlels, . book, revicws, »
Magazine articles, and B.C,
Bookwoild, the quarterly bul-
letin available free at the li-
brary.

First stop is the computer to’
check whether books on my
list are available here apd”

towed, Since a seven-year-old ,
showed me computer essen- :
tials, I’ve gotten no sass from:
the keyboard. Why, I’ve even -
shown my new found wisdom
to someone else, and it works
for her, too!
. The secret? If the left lower. :
comer of. the screen flashes,

Without a computer,
Mencken concluded correctly.

Now YoU RE 7
SEVEN! :

WRG
N