British Columbia

Vander Zalm ‘leading B.

Something new is happening in B.C.
politics today. Public dissent over Premier
Bill Vander Zalm’s policies has grown
since the election as the right wing neo-
conservative agenda unfolds.

What is dramatically new in the debate
over abortion is that this dissent is now
splitting the Socred party, including the
cabinet, the MLAs and constituency asso-
ciations. The disarray in Socred ranks is
not only due to Vander Zalm’s obnoxious,
inhuman, anti-woman position on abor-
tion. The abortion issue has brought to a
head the growing concern among the pub-
lic that B.C. is saddled with a dangerous
man who is leading the province down the
road to chaos.

Many people are now seeing the real
Bill Vander Zalm in action — an arro-
gant, anti-democratic, anti-people dema-
gogue who got elected with the help of the
media, which now tries to disown
him — and not the charismatic, smiling,
populist, non-confrontationist leader the
media portrayed in the last election.

Vander Zalm is acting true to form. As
minister of education and municipal
affairs in former Socred governments, he
left those departments in chaos. Now, as
premier, he is doing the same for the pro-
vince.

Press stories report that leading Socreds,
including former cabinet members, have
been huddled in meetings with former
premier Bill Bennett about what to do to
save the government and the Socreds from

The province

Maurice Rush

being swamped by the rising anti- Vander
Zalm sentiment in B.C. There is also no
doubt that prominent figures in the corpo-
rate sector who helped elevate him to
power, are putting their heads together to
see what manoeuvres they can come up
with to extricate their man and the Socred
government from the growing crisis.

The widespread public outcry against
Vander Zalm’s stand on abortion cuts
across party lines and deepens the people’s
opposition to his policies — to his anti-
labour legislation, his unpopular privati-
zation schemes, his attacks on the poor,
his cutbacks in health services and educa-
tion, his sellout to forestry and mining
interests and his support for free trade and
the neo-conservative policies of the Mul-
roney government.

What has shocked most British Col-
umbians is the undemocratic, autocratic
position of the premier. He has not hidden
his contempt for parliamentary demo-
cracy. In a speech in Powell River recently
he said: “Meetings are not necessary if you

have principles” — his principles which
everyone is expected to follow without
question.

His contempt for the legislative process
was shown recently when he left B.C. for
three weeks and delegated his personally
appointed secretary, David Poole, to run
the province. The legislature has been by-
passed on every major issue. Debate has
been restricted or not allowed.

The Opposition had to mount a major
battle to get a one-hour debate on privati-
zation. The Socreds attempted to block
debate in the legislature on abortion by
rejecting an Opposition motion for an
emergency debate. His plan to reorganize
the province into eight duchies with his
appointed “secretaries of state” directly
responsible to him, by-passes elected
MLAs and municipal governments. The
Socreds are attempting to block or limit an
investigation by the legislature into the
Coquihalla highway scandal.

Vander Zalm takes the attitude that he
knows what is best for B.C. and he doesn’t

C. into chaos’

need meetings — or a legislature — to
tell him.

Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Pal-
mer, a supporter of many Socred right
wing policies, described Vander Zalm in
his column on March 2 as “out of con-
trol’. Palmer spent most of his column
advising Socreds what they can do to put
reins on the “out of control” premier. On
the following page of the same issue,
columnist Nicole Parton ends her column
with the words: “Resign, sir, resign.”

Many people share that view. The
demand, “Vander Zalm must go” is
bound to grow and should be supported.
More and more people find it difficult to
imagine him remaining at the helm for
another two years before another election.
The possibility should not be ruled out
that Vander Zalm and the Socreds could
become so discredited and isolated that
they would not be able to govern —
forcing a new election.

However, the most important thing
nowis to unite all streams of public protest
into a giant wave to demand new policies
for B.C. Nicole Parton is absolutely right
when she says in her column, “Together,
we are strong. Together, we will not accept
the tyranny and oppression you parade as
a higher morality.”

B.C.s_ powerful labour movement
should take the lead to bring together a
broad coalition of all British Columbians
who have had enough of Vander Zalm
and Socred policy and demand a change.

Lobby presses Ottawa

1

TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON

Continued from page 1

with federal officials indicated that the
Mulroney government was prepared to
acquiesce before the GATT ruling so as not
to create any trade irritants with the U.S.
when the free trade agreement is still before
Congress.

But both free trade and the GATT deci-
sion are anathema to fishing industry
workers. For if GATT decisions are volun-
tary now — and can be vetoed by any one
country — they would become mandatory
once the free trade agreement comes into
affect.

Prince Rupert, unionists carried placards
targeting both the GATT ruling and the
proposed free trade pact.

Inside the Maritime Labour Centre on
Vancouver’s waterfront, union members
were doing a brisk trade in anti-GATT and
anti-free trade T-shirts as more than 500

_ to uphold sovereignty

workers streamed into the hall for a noon
rally. Earlier, UFAWU members had
walked off the job at B.C. Ice and Cold

‘Storage where they were joined by others

for a march up to the labour centre.

In Steveston, some 300 unionists, most of
them from Canadian Fishing Company’s
Imperial plant, filled the Steveston Buddhist

Church for a late morning rally. NDP pro- _

vincial president Johanna den Hertog and
Richmond. aldermen Bob McMath and
Doug Sanders joined UFAWU secretary
Bill Procopation and trustee Homer Stev-
ens on the rally platform.

Workers were also off the job in Prince
Rupert and Ucluelet in the campaign to
pressure the government to block adoption
of the ruling by the GATT council. In Vic-
toria, a delegation of union members met
with NDP MLA Larry Guno.

In Vancouver, the rally crowd clapped

UFAWU trustee Homer Stevens addresses union rally in Steveston.

BS RAE

Labour Centre.

and cheered as Doug Evans, president of
Local 1-217 of the [WA-Canada and presi-
dent of the Vancouver and District Labour
Council, told them that his union “has a
similar fight” in seeking to halt log exports
and to encourage the processing of timber
in B.C.

He noted the danger in the free trade deal
and the GATT ruling, warning that other
industries which sought to guarantee pro-
cessing of resources could also face U.S.
pressure if Canada did not assert its sover-
eignty in the current dispute.

“Maybe the U.S. is going to say to us
next: we don’t want your lumber — ship us
down your logs and we will process them

‘here,’ he said. “And that could well

happen.

“The resources of this province don’t
belong to the MacMillan Bloedels and the
fish industry — they belong to Canadians
and we should have a say in how they’re
run,” he declared to applause.

His stand was echoed by Vancouver East
NDP MLA Glen Clark who told the rally:
“We have one simple message: Canadian
fish caught in Canadian waters by Cana-
dian fishermen should be processed by
Canadian shoreworkers.”

Clark slammed Premier Bill Vander

Industry workers march form B.C. Ice and Cold Storage plant to rally in Maritime

Zalm for his comments in the legislature on
the GATT issue. Asked how his govern-
ment viewed the possible loss of thousands
of jobs in the fishing industry, Vander Zalm
stated: “You win some, you lose some.”

“That’s an unbelievable response from a
premier,” Clark charged.

UFAWU president Jack Nichol said the
lobby would be spending several days in
Ottawa in an effort to convince the federal
government “that to allow the Americans
to come in here, harvest our fish and take
them to the U.S. for processing is nothing
more than bloody priacy. And the workers
in the industry are not going to stand for it,”
he said to applause.

“Somehow we’ve got to try and put some
backbone in the spines of those politicians
in Ottawa who say that there’s nothing can
be done, that when the full GATT council
meets, we'll have to go along with the ruling.

“Canada has a veto — it can stop it from
happening,” he declared. “The U.S. may
retaliate ... but it’s about time this country
asserted its sovereignty, asserted its inde-
pendence in the face of its dealings with the
U.S. and said: no, this is going to cost us too
much. We are not going to put the fishing
industry on the sacrificial altar of free
trade.” :

Pacific Tribune, March 9, 1988 e 3

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN