A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 25, 1995

TERRACE

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ITANDARD

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 1S8
_ TELEPHONE: (604).638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
MODEM: (604) 638-7247

~ Cable twists

‘BAD BOYS, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do
when they come for you.”’ .

_ That theme song to COPS, one of those reality-
type shows broadcast by the American FOX
network, about sums up the latest brouhaha over
cable TV.

‘What’s involved is a struggle over what a
government can control, what the cablevision in-
dustry wants to provide and what people want to

> Ge
watch. a ook Ue ™
Here’s what’s going on. The cable TV industry — hese i oe
for years has had a solid monopoly to provide a" in Vee 7 HO NN ALT ti aan
primarily American television shows. It’s now ae a @ o/ Resigeky Ley E Vo ‘ |

threatened by new technology whereby individu-
als can buy tiny satellite receiving dishes and
pull down whatever they want.

In response, cable TV operators are trying to
give their customers as many channel options as
they want both to keep them happy now and to
protect themselves against future competition.

Enter the federal government through its Cana-
dian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC) which regulates television.

It grudgingly accepts the Canadian public’s
wish to watch whatever shows it wants to but
also wants to ensure there is Canadian culture
and content on cable systems. ,

That explains why, on basic cable systems,
there has to be a majority of Canadian channels.
And it explains why, on extended cable pack-
ages, there’s a ‘‘one for one’’ rule. Under this
Tule, a cable operator has to carry one Canadian
channel for every foreign offering.

All of this is typically Canadian. We have a
government regulating what.it.thinks.is good for
us. We get American football in exchange for the
Royal Winnipeg Ballet!’ <"* "0° «Fer Fee
There’s no question there should be a basic
package of Canadian content on cable systems.
Television is the single most unifying communi-
cations medium in this country. Cable systems,
for now, provide television to a great majority of
Canadians. .

But cable operators must be able to operate in a
relatively unfettered manner. And governments
should know by now what business people know
— consumers ultimately drive the marketplace. :

The continued forcing of Canadian culture and
content on people won’t make them want to
watch it. Using cable TV as the battering ram for
this will make cable operators vulnerable to
angry consumers. In the end, everybody will suf-
fer.

Cash grab?

CITY COUNCILLOR David Hull’s suggestion
that Thornhill taxpayers start helping pay for the
cost of supporting community organizations
certainly has irritated that rural area.

But it points out one unalterable fact — Thorn-
hill is inextricably intertwined with Terrace.
Community organizations serve both Terrace
and Thornhill so it makes sense that any grant
received as aid should come from both areas.

Those who opposed Mr. Hull’s idea say it’s a
cash grab on the part of the city. It’s not. It’s just
another way of pointing out that the current sys-
tem of local government must change.

KS
Gcna PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link

ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credpeur

costde ery

BEFORE WE LOSE YOU 10

MRBURE AND OTHERS, =
WE'DLIKETO SAY, YOU'VE.

BEEN A WONDERFUL DAD
AND COMPANION DURING

VICTORIA — When Gerry
Furney called me at home the
other day, I thought I was in
for another ‘‘Hubert, Ict me set
you straight”? talk from my ald

* friend,

You see, the irascible Scott
who has been mayor. of Port
McNeill for a gazillion years,
and I baven’{ exactly seen eye
fo eye on a couple of issues
lately, including the land use
plan for Vancouver Island
which brought about 15,000
protesters to Victoria last year,
a feat for which Gerry could
take much of the credit.

Alas, Gerry wasn’t about to
blast me out of the water. He
wanted to run something by
me and, if possible, enlist my
support. I listened to him fora
few minutes and told him thatI

had absolutely no problem

throwing whatever support I

‘-bould offer behind his idea.-

Before I go into detail, I
should mention that Gerry
never deals in small potatoes.
His ideas and schemes are in-
variably on a scale that is in
sharp contrast to the litle town
on northern Vancouver Island
he’s served so well for more
than 20 years.

His latest project is to oust
Lucien Bouchard and his Bloc
Quebecois as the official oppo-
sition in Ottawa, no less, And
he’s going about it with his

f

ALL THOSt WEEKENDS es . : on

—

“FROM THE CAPITAL.
HUBERT BEYER

typical vigor and disregard for
what other people might think
insurmountable obstacles,

Briefly, his proposals call for
one of two things: Either three
NDP MPs cross the floor to sit
as Reform Party members, an
unlikely scenario, or the
Reform and NDP form a
limited coalition on matters of
national impact and ask the
governor general to appoint
them the official opposition.

The first option would be a
sure-fire thing, but ] can’t see
any NDP members crossing
the floor to become Reformers.
The second, according to a
lawyer friend of mine who spe-
cializes in constitutional mat-
ters, is a litle more cumber-
some, but not impossible to
implement.

Gerry told me he got similar

advice from a constitutional
expert and with that in mind
got the ball rolling. To start
with, the town council of Port
.MeNeill voted on and unani-

-.mously passed ‘‘A Statement

of National lmportance,’’
which they urge every other
municipality to adopt. It is a
passionate document, from
which ] here quote excerpts:

“Our country is staring into
the dark abyss of disintegra-
tion. By this time next year,
Canada, as we know it and
love it, may not exist. This is
thanks to the efforls of Mr.
Parizeat in Quebec and Mr,
Bouchard in Ottawa.

“As Canadians, we can do
litde about Mr, Parizeau as he
was elected in a provincial
election ... however, we can do
something about Mr. Bouchard
. He and his party ... are using
their posilion, their power, and
our finances to dismantle the
institution which they have
swom to uphold. This is the
epitome of deceit and unfair-

_ ness.”” ,

In a separate Ictter, the Port
McNeill council urges all
Reform and NDP members
place the interest of the coun-
try before that of their parties.

“Canada is important to us.
Tt should be even more impor-
lant to all those people who
have been elected as’: Members

Mayor tackles separatists

of Parliament, and whose duty
to build and serve the institu-
tion, not help destroy it.’?

So you think what hope does
a small-town mayor have to in-
fluence politics on that scale?
Well, you just don’t know
Gerry Furney,

I first met Gerry some 20-

ycars back when he had this
crazy idea of forcing the
provinciel government into
building a highway linking
southern Vancouver Island
with what he insisted on call-
ing ‘‘the forgatten north.’’ He
got his highway.

I can envision Gerry’s idca
catching on with every B.C,

municipality and then rolling’

east, gathering momentum like
a giant wave. And then let's
hear the NDP and the Reform
Party say no.

The very notion of having as
Her Majesty's Loyal Opposi-

tion a party whose only goal is:

to tear down the institution it is
supposed to serve is as
preposterous as it is lamentab-
ly legal.

The idea of a limited coali-

tion makes so much sense that
one wonders why our
estecmed © Reformers and
NDPers didn’t do it when the
Bloc first became the official
opposition. ‘I think Gerry is
onto something here and I wish
him luck,

Ah, those Prairie rinks

MY GRANDDAUGHTERS
got their first taste of ice skat-
ing last weekend and so made
the fight for a second sheet of
ice more personal.

Ouifitted in hand-me-down
skates and helmets from older
cousins, they took to the icc
with Daddy, onc ata time, dur-
ing Sunday afternoon’s hour-
long family skate.

They arrived home exhausted
from the cxertion and the cold,
but bubbling with excitement
over the day’s experience.
Prior io their skate they’d
watched live hockey, players
close enough to touch, heard
the grate of blades on ice and
the thump of puck against
boards,

They also complained about
one unsupervised youngster
who was finally shoocd off the
dee by staff for interfering with
others’ skating enjoyment.

It’s a marvel how many Ter-
race folk know how to skate
when you consider the
shorlage of ice time. I suspect
many of them are imports from
the prairics or other cold
climes where ice is far more

THROUGH BIFOCALS

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

available, Almost every prairic
town, regardless of population,
has an ice rink.

When I was a kid, the would-
be Maurice Richards among
our fathers flooded the open-
air rink with water dipped with
a pail into wooden tanks on
bobsieds, hauled from a lake
two miles from town. The
team skowly circled the rink
flooding water and an oc-
casional thumb-sized black
beetle across the ice from a
bunghole in the rear of the
tank,

Finoding began with the first
_tnajor dip in temperature; the
ice never melted until crocuses
danced on  breeze-brushed
knolls. Throughout those six
months the rink was available,
free, 24-hours a day except for
hockcy team practice and the
occasional weekend pame,

Cur rink had no building
code to conform to, no staff to
pay at union wages, no heat-
ing, no lights, no ventilation or
cooling systems to repair,
Whenever it snowed, everyone
with a shovel pitched in. A
one-room shack with a gas bar-
tel for a stove, a couple ben-
ches, and a four-panc window
laced with cobwebs served as
locker room. .

Qur school’s lone teenage
truant reported there daily to
tread nickel comic books until
classes ended at four.

Because the rink was situated
beside the school yard, kids
skated every lunch hour, even
after school if they lived in
town, Kids who didn’t take
part in the pick-up hockey
learmed to escape puck
skirmishes by darting to the

nearest fence and hanging |

from the boards like medieval
zealots tortured on a dungeon
wall.

Bob Brownridge, son of the
CNR agent, went on to skate
three years for the Rovers, a

farm team of the New York |

Rangers, coached by Lester
Patrick, Since our school aver-
aged an annual enrolment of
forty students, he represented a
2.5 per cent success rate, -
Terrace schools average an
enrolment of about 4,000, yet
have produced only one Jeif
Sharples and one Wade

Flaherty, Given the overbook- -

ing of ice time in this arena,
the wonder is Jeff and Wade
found cnough practice time to
succeed at all,

Gordie Howe and Wayne
Gretzky perfected their hockey
skills by praclising endless

hours on a backyard patch of .-

icc, Our temperatures nix that

possibility. And that’s un-.

fortunate,

My granddaughters would
live on skates if they could,
just as they spend much of
summer in their sandbox.

Ait! A SIMPLE BUSH
LUNCH AWAY FROM

WiTH AN ORANGES] BANANA FROM

f C
FROM FLORIDA. | | COSTA RICA GEE! EVEN LUNCH IM

THE BUSH HAS BECOME

NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter
OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller

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AND GERMAN

Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas

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