Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 10, 1999 STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * ¥V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermede.net A solution WHAT?’S FASCINATING about the local elec- - tions is that one issue has popped up over which: local governments have no jurisdiction — health care. | More than one candidate has solemnly pledged to do their best to improve what health care ser- vices we have here now. That’s not surprising given that health care, or rather, the lack of it, is now a province-wide issue, The sheer impotency and frustration grow- ing numbers of people feel when confronted by cuts, delays and the like is translating into an anger looking for an outlet. Despite spending nearly $8 billion on health care this year, chances are you won’t be able to get a bed at Mills Memorial Hospital. With that ' glaring inconsistency, it’s no wonder health care has such a high profile. But local voters have to ask themselves exactly what their municipal or regional district candi- dates can do to correct the situation if elected. Short of rolling bandages and cooking meals, local politicians have no say in health care. They have no power to tax to increase spending or to adjust spending priorities. They have no power to hire or to manage local health facilities, What they do have is the ability to present a common front and ask for the creation of a strong regional health care authority, Such an authority would be able to establish re- gional spending priorities and develop regional specialty services in a coherent and rational fash- ion away from the current situation where local health councils have either to fend for themselves or end up in competition with each other. - Vice grips” _THE PROVINCIAL government sent two somewhat confusing messages last week. ' One was that we’ve now joined, at least in the : eyes of the government, the modern world be- : Cause we can now buy booze on credit at liquor - stores. The other was the promotion of the newest ver- sion of the Teen Tobacco Team, the group of teenagers who have the task of stopping other teens from smoking. The abuse of alcohol and tobacco rank at the top of the list of problems affecting society in any number of areas ranging from health care to crime. So the confusing message, particularly for a young person, is that while you can take part in one vice using the magic of credit cards, you can’t take part in the other. Then again, maybe the two messages were part of a devious plan. Reducing tobacco consumption reduces government cash flow. But buying alco- hol on credit may actually increase government , ‘income in that area, With any luck, the govern- ment could be figuring it'll at least break even. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel: NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Mark Beaupre & Stacy Swellikoff TELEMARKETER: Stacy Swetlikoff DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Julie Davidson, Kulwant Kandola _ SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75: Oul of Province $64.39 ‘Qutside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF 8.C, AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND (CNA Sarving tha Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week al 3246 Clinton Streat, * Terrace, British Columbia, V@G5R2, . Stories, photographs, illustrations, dasigns and typestyles in the Terrace Standard ara the property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., Its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. : . Reproduction in whole or in part, withau! written parmission, fs specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mall pending the Post Ofica Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and carraspondents for their time and tafents . 1998 WINNER CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION B.C.PRESS COUNCIL - eee AN | _ [WAS GORDON CAMPBELL... a NOTMUCH CANDY EH. 'kidkbacks, °°"? "Tf Boudria's plan is alarm- ’ ‘ing, some of the reaction to it” ‘is even more so. Now this plan is a goofy ideo VICTORIA — I thought only the New Democratic Part hatched those crazy schemes aimed at creating artificial male- female balances in eve- ry aspect of life. Then along comes Don Boudria, the federal Liberal minister responsible for elec- toral reform, with a goofy blueprint for electing more women to Parliament. He sug- gests that parties be given fi- nancial inducements to recruit more women candidates. According to Boudria's plan, parties that manage to recruit more female candi- dates, ought to be rewarded by having more of their campaign expenses paid back by taxpay- ers. He suggests a threshold: of 30. per cent women to’ start with. Anything above that would trigger the financial Weoey "There's a school cf thought that says if you get a critical mass of women -- something around 30 per cent -- Parlia- ment might be more consen- sual and less controversial,” says Lisa Young, a professor af political science at the Uni- versity of Calgary. She says that during Senate _FROM-THE CAPITAL | HUBERT BEYER hearings in the U.S., for in- stance, women have been found to be far less combative than their male colleagues, Well, that's precisely what makes me nervous. Parliament should be, must be, a comba- tive place. In a parliamentary democracy, based on. the rule Lee Te Wis OPeaty pote caiebos ., Of law, parliament .is a. proxy | forcivilwars. "To this day, the govern- ment's and ihe opposition's benches are two sword-lengths apart. There may no longer be a danger of an angry opposi- tion member stabbing a gov- ernment member, but the ang- er that once triggered such ac- tion can still be seen during many a parliamentary debate. When Bob Skelly was leader of the NDP during the 1986 British Columbia elec- tion campaign, he called for more co- operation between the government and the oppe- sition. Thank heaven it never happened. The day the opposi- tion gets into bed with the government, we had better count our fingers every night. The whole idea of women in politics being a kinder and gentler force is ludicrous any- way. Look at Sheila Copps, the federal heritage minister. In opposition, she was one of the Liberal “rat’ pack" mem- bers. , Men have called her shrill, but by George, she's comba- tive, One of my. colleagues was married to her eons ago, He said the three years were a kind of a blur. Here in B.C., we have a tra- dition of combative female ‘egitlators. Grace’ MéCarthy, _ didn't'take any prisoners, Rita | ~ Johnston, given by male de- tractors the moniker "Fishwife," was as scrappy. as -they come, And today's Liberal MLA Christy Clark is no ‘ slouch when it comes ta put- ting male government mem- bers on the run. None of the aforementioned women had to be cajoled into public service by silly quotas or campaign refund induce- ments. They fought for their nomination and election, beat- ing male competitors fair and square, Full marks to Elsic Wayne, the Tory MP for St. John, who says women don't need special treat- ment. —_ “We can prove ourselves, for heaven's sake. If you prove your- self and are there for the. people, the people will be there for you," she says. se Michelle Dockrill, the NDP MP for Bras d’Or, on the other hand, welcomed’ Boudria's pro- posed initiative, She also showed off her seven-week old baby in the House of Commons. Don't get me wrong. { love ba- bies. I can't walk past a baby with- out feeling. all fuzzy and warm, but the House of Commons is no more a place for babies than a boardroom is for breast-feeding. (Feminists ’note my'e-miail address below), So, here's my advice to Bou- dria: put the "more women- candi- dates-for-campaign-refunds” back where it came from -- your fertile mind. At the very best, the propo- sal is stupid, at worst, it's an insult to women, : Beyer can be reached at: E-mail- hubert@coolcom.com; Phone: (250) 381-6900 Web: http://www. hubertbeyer.com Please go easy on perfume MAGAZINES WITH per- fume strips stink, Buy a magazine from the store, and scent strips make themselves known before you extract the host magazine from your shopping bag. Even at the li- brary, walking past the peri- odical shelves, you can smell the offenders from six feet away. As a magazine subscriber, I can make a written request to receive only copies minus scent strips. Magazines are aware the scent strips are haz- ardous to people with sensi- live breathing. Glossy wom- en’s magazines such as ’ Vogue may contain as many as three strips, a dizzying jumble of odours. If a magazine I buy at a newsstand or by subscription has a scent strip in it, I imme- diately yank the odiferous page from the spine, On oc- casion, I’ve removed scent strips from magazines I’ve borrowed from the library. As a rule the page with a MY COUSIN ARTIS VERY SENSITIVE SO TRY AND SAY SOMETHING MICE MM AgouT His WRK! THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI scent strip shares no articles or recipes. I’m convinced, for people who must carry inhalers to assist their breathing, scent strips present a hidden -haz- ard, On our Saturday morning shopping trips to our favour- ite supermarket, while we make the rounds of the store picking up bread, lunch meat, milk, lettuce, and the Prov- ince, my husband experienc- PEFINITELY | #8 INTENSE! es no breathing difficulties, as a Tule. But on more than one oc- casion, by the time we've made it through the nine- items-or-less checkout and are on our way to the parking lol, he has to grab for the in- haler in his shirt pocket. I blamed his sudden short- ness of breath on perfume worn by customers in the lineup, or by a cashier, the cashier who served him or the one in the next checkout, Until last Saturday. With nothing to do but wait for him to check out, I chose a woman’s magazine from the checkout display rack and leafed through it. Perfume from a scent strip assailed my nostrils, making me feel dis- oriented, It certainly distracted me from the articles and an- ecdotes. Abruptly, I replaced the magazine on the rack and retreated to the entrance to es- . cape the overpowering smell. The absence of perfumes may be one unconscious rea- VERY DERIVATIVE ! | | son [ avoid drugstores with their perfume testing counters, but enjoy wandering through bookstores, hardware, and sta- lionery supply stores. Hard- ware clerks aren’t in the habit of drenching themselves in the perfume of the month. A hint of perfume tantaliz- es; a flood of perfume of- fends. Even chokes asthmat- ics. That’s why schools ask their staff to refrain from wearing perfume in class- rooms. Too many kids today suffer breathing difficulties even in kindergarten. Asthma is no longer an affliction of just adults. My observations are anec- dotal evidence only. Still, hav- ing observed my husband’s teactions after cashing through a supermarket till on more than one Saturday forenoon, I feel sure perfume from some source hampers his breathing, Moving magazines with per- fume strips far from checkout lanes would help. WoNDERFYL SO See ee ) THAT WAS |) are Se De as apes sai