A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 16, 2005

. a

_ *. ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

: '. PUBLISHER: ROD LINK

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. - V8G 5R2 |
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Wine war.

woe “THERE ARE more than a few people locally who,
‘ » when they walk into a grocery store, won’t buy.
| fresh fruit or other prodicts grown or produced i in
the United States. |
It’s their very own mini-boycott aimed at the
continuing stubbornness of the United States over

the issue of punishing tariffs imposed on our soft-

~ wood exports.

Now. provincial forests minister Michael de
| Jong has gotten into the spirit of things, as it were,
e » with his call for banning the importation of Cali-
' fornia wines into B.C.-Wine’s a big commodity _
In. California. That state’s wineries made up 90°
;- per cent of the 59 million litres of American. wine
| shipped to-Canada in 2003. | :
: Mi. de Jong’s import ban suggestion came from
his. frustrations after nearly four, years of unsuc-
cessful attempts to halt the system of American
| ‘tariffs’ on Canadian softwood.

i despite countless rulings in our favour at NAFTA

mined that Canadian softwood producers are not

ye _ imports into the United States do not harm Amer-

‘ _ ican producers, -

_ The current flashpoint i is the: $4, 1. billion-plus
in tariffs: the American government-has ‘tucked

“stolen” from us.
lf negotiation hasn’t worked and neither has

hence Mr.deJ ong’ s-wine.ban- call.

tional trade agreements: provide for retaliation, a
mega-form of tit for tat.

But it is a chancy game. Boosting import du-
ties on American products would only cost Ca-
nadian consumers. Outright bans would seem to
go against the spirit of international free trade, a
serious step in that Canada’ s economy depends
upon international trade.

~-further trade measures on its part. As it is, we per-
» petually seem to be fighting a battle with both

‘hands tied behind our backs. (Heaven knows that.
our willingness to sacrifice the National Hockey

League hasn’t had any impact on the United States
through the loss of ticket or television rights re rev-
-enues south of the border. )

~ Still, there comes a time when taking a moral
. Stand against an immoral activity is all that’s left.

‘Mr. de Jong and his federal and provincial coun-
" terparts should continue to test the retaliation wa-.

“ters.

As‘ for the rest of us, resist t that California red.

“Tyo one from B.C. instead.

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| a

The.United States has basically ignored Canada |
and international ‘trade. panels which have deter-.

unfairly subsidized and that Canadian softwood .

" away-in a trust account and now won’t pay back.
~ A good chunk of that has come from B.C. lumber :
- producers. Mr. de Jong refers to that money as

litigation, ‘than retaliation remains as one weapon, —

-_.Antagonizing the United States might only draw

SUCH A LOSS.

Pod

w

SO UTTERLY SENSELESS &
AND PREVENTABLE.

MAYBE NOW WE’ LL

~ GET ToUGH AND START
_ CRACKING DOWN — }

/~ on
GROW-OPS?

ON KNOWN,
ARMED, VIOLENT }

PSNCHOPATHIC

cri M INALS.

4

Heard of STV? Please read on.

VICTORIA - It would be lame

to’vote against a new way of
electing MLAs just because
you couldn’t understand it.

So here, in a few hundred
words, is how the single-trans-
ferable-vote (STV)

works,

The issue of whether it’s

_a good change or’not —.and I

a

‘think it would be — can wait

for another column.

First, the number of MLAs

in the legislature stays the,

- same at’ 79. No.change there.

“But the number. of rid-

ings would fall to somewhere

‘ around 20 larger ridings.

‘Each riding would be repre-

" sented by two to seven MLAs.

pect the Liberals and NDP to-

_ lifetime of cattle farming near “|.
, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: *
he began writing poetry about

Two current sparsely populat-
ed northern ridings with 65,000
people, like Skeena and North
Coast, might be combined into

Mr. de Jong is not acting in isolation. nterna-’ a fiding with to MLAs.

Four urban ridings, with
130,000 people, might be
combined into a new riding

with four MLAs. ;
Clear enough so far, right?
So the election _ rolls
around.

Each party can nominate
any number of candidates, up
to the number of seats in a rid-
ing. - a a

So ina four-seat riding, ex-

nominate four candidates. But

‘the Greens might decide they
just want to have one candi-,
date run, or ‘independents’ may’

emerge.

.On election day you stride
_into the polling booth.

' All the candidates names
are on the ballot — four Lib-
erals, four New Democrats,

Greens, DRBCers, Marijuana.

system

| FROM THE CAPITAL ;
PAUL WILLCOCKS

Party, Libertarian.
But you don’t have to mark
an ‘X’ beside your single
choice, consigning all the oth
ers to irrelevance.
Instead you rank them - a 1

beside your first choice, 2 be-

side your next favourite, and
so on. You can stop anytime.
If you think one candidate is
worthy and the rest are scoun-
drels, you can place a X beside
her name and leave. ~
If you want the maximum

impact, you can rank everyone

on the ballot. You can rank
Liberal candidates 1,2,3 and
4, if the party is the most im-

‘portant factor in your decision;

you can mix and match if you
admire ceftain individuals, or
want broader representation in
the legislature. —

‘The polls close. And things |.

do become a_little more com-
plicated than the current. sys-
tem when it’s time to count the
ballots. Right now, whoever

‘gets the most votes wins.

The aim in the STV system
is to ensure more faithful rep-

2

-ber,

_ resentation. . ‘The Green Party

was supported by one in ev-

| ‘ery eight people who voted in

2001; they ended’ up with no
one. speaking for them in the
legislature. © .

Many people. believe it’s a
problem for democracy when

‘!."some voters feel silenced by
the system.

Under ‘the: new system
there’s an accepted mathemat-.
ical formula for determining
the number of votes needed to
be elected:

eo

ond place choices of his sup- ;

porters are counted, but at half
” their raw value, reflecting the

success his supporters have

-already had in electing him as

their MLA. ,
‘And so the process con-
tinues, until four MLAs have

been elected. Each has been

the first, or second, or third, .

choice of enough people to: .
- emerge as their representative..

And that is how the system

would work.

Elections. BC. counts the:

ballots once, and anyone who

has that number of first-place.

choices is elected. Simple.
But all the riding’s seats
won’t be filled, so there’s a

second count. The candidate

= who with_the lowest support

is dropped, | “but those ballots _
aren’t tossed away. Now Blec-""'

tions BC counts them again,
this time looking at the second
choice of those voters.

‘In the same way, the ballots
of people whose first choice
was elected aren’t tossed, but
are counted again. (Remem-
four MLAs are being
elected and everyone’s prefer-
ence should be reflected in all
four choices.)

-OK, this next bit is a bit
headache inducing. It would
be unfair simply to move to
the second choices of all those
people. Their views have al-
ready been reflected»in the
legislature with the first candi-
date elected. So the next count

.includes their second choices,

but on a discounted basis. If
Joe Bloggs got twice as many
first place votes as he needed
to be elected, then all the sec-

Footnote: ‘It’s - still a bit
head-spinning,

terest, visit www.gov.bc.ca/”

referendum _: info.

Of if you are simply seck- .
ing comfort, know that Ireland |
and other jurisdictions have
successfully used the system
for. decades. If you have. AS;
sues, email me.

And things gota bitrude; but
Montana Senator Max ‘Blame
Canada’ Baucus earned his,
rough ride when he showed
up in Fernie recently as: part
of his campaign against a po-
tential coal mine near the U.S.
border. MLA Bill Bennett led
the charge; New: Democrats’
quickly said they don’t like’

. Baucus either.

Dialogue is always ‘wel-
come. But Baucus has led the
fight to close the border to

_ softwood and Canadian cattle,
and never found it necessary -

to come up here to get any in-
formation until it suited him to

grandstand on the.coal issue.
‘He deserved to hear how an- .

gry many British Columbians

are with his position.

willcocks@ultr "ane. ca

NINE YEARS. ago when Ken -
McConaghie retired from a

everyday events in his life. His
humor captured audiences at

cowboy poetry events. Today

._he’s invited to headline the en-

tertainment at fundraisers be-
yond his home town.

But until last fall, he was un-
able to deliver his down home

rhymes himself. His wife,
daughter, or a friend took over .

for him. Because McConaghie
stutters.

Then he saw Oprah intro-
duce a young stutterer who
was able to speak: fluently

through the use of an ear “aid”.

called a SpeechEasy.
Worn like a hearing aid,

the SpeechEasy with its built
_ in-microphone, amplifier and

speaker, is worn in one ear and

et’s the stutterer hear his own .
voice only slightly delayed.

“It’s like interrupting your-
self,” McConaghie says.

The SpeechEasy has an ef-
fect similar to choral speech.
For instance, repeating the
Lord’s Prayer with other pa-

THROUGH BIFOCALS

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

rishioners in church, McCo-
naghie speaks effortlessly.

- After only a few months
using the device, even with-
out the SpeechEasy in his ear
he can now talk fluently. He
attributes his new fluency to
feeling more relaxed about his
impediment.

Whereas before he tried to
hide his speech difficulty, he
has adopted a So what? Atti-
tude which lets him relax.

He was .also taught to

breathe differently.
Non-stutterers fill their talk

- with lots of ums and ahs which.

give them time to breathe. The
stutterer. tries so hard to get
out his words, he runs short
of wind. Then he can’t say a
word. . .

At the time of Oprah’s
show, the device. was new.

-McConaghie -went to Boise,

Idaho for an assessment Now
Island Hearing Services in.
Vancouver has become a.Ca-
nadian distributor for the aid.

- Patients are given a hearing
test using a computer which
méasures the severity of their
stutter, and determines the
proper settings of the device
to deal with volume, delay, or
pitch, =. \

The assessment is con-
ducted by a specially trained
speech language pathologist
or SLP. The U.S. has 120,000
trained SLPs and 65,000 dis-
tributorships of the device.

The patient, after assess-

ment, is fitted with a demon-.

strator device tuned to his mea-
surements. He is taught how to
use the SpeechEasy before be-
ing sent out for an hour’s trial

Carolina.

Ear aids can help stutterers-

_ under normal conditions such

as ordering a restaurant meal.
Following the one hour tri-
al, the device is fine tuned to.

the patient’s needs and a “pre-

scription” arrived at. A cus-

.tomized device is then manu-.

factured in Greenville, North’
The personalized
device may take as little as one
week to delivery. A fitting ap-
pointment follow, and the pa-
tient is further instructed in the,
use of the device. Often fol-
low-ups can be done by phone:
where travel isaburden.

For McConaghie, the Spee-.
chEasy lets him be the star of
his own poetry, to the delight
of audiences.

For an-assessment appoint-
ment, reach Janet Gibson af,
604-926-9434 or jgibson @ihs.,
ca. Depending upon.the style,
model, size, and technologi-,
cal. complexities to meet the.
patient’s requirements, the de-
vice costs between $3,600 to
$4,900 Canadian.

‘Speech pathologist fees for
an assessment - $90 per hour
B.C. scale - are separate. An
assessment takes two hours, a
fitting one hour.

I know. For - .
more detail, if that is your. in- >