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Page 4, The Herald. Friday, May 11, 1970 -

TERRACE/KITIMAT.

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EDITOR - Greg Middleton

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EDITORIAL

The provincial election
race here in Skeena hag heen”

a toss-up from the very start’

and, with a recount still to
come, the battle isn't over

yet. -
At press time, provincial
Social Credit candidate Cyril

“Shelford was not only not

‘conceding, but was crying
foul’. and saying he could
still -win the election,

This can only be described
as a vicious and sometimes
even -underhanded contest.
The charges and counter
cherges surrounding the
question of the eligibility of
New Democratic Party
representative Frank
Howard, and the malicious
sign war were examples of
not only how polarized the
campaign was, but the
lengths to which. the sup-
porters of both parties would

.

On the provincial-wide
scene, theclear Social Credit
majority may mean the
voters have chosen to aup-
port the free enterprise
party as opposed to one
which’ . advocates more
governmeit-. involvement, °
but lt must be noted that if
has taken a coalition of all of
those to the right of centre to
stem the advances the NDP.
have made, .

To secure his win, Socted
leader Bill Bennett pulled
out all the stops. He
manoeuvered both insurance
rates and the sales tax to
demonstrate his party's
position against the NDP,

Barrett’s contention that
he was older and wiser and

not in as much of a hurry to
instigate social change was
_ not enough to restore the
confidence he lost after the
barrage of criticism the
Socreds levelled against his
handling of finance.

Bennett may well be right
that the voters felt burned by
the NDP and were afraid to

. let them back in. It must be
admitted, however, that he
had to pull out about every
trick In the bag to swing
another mandate. : -

I expect that while the
battle may have heen won,
with the Socred’s victorious
and set for another few, years
of preparing the voters for
the next electlon, the fighting
will not stop.

British Columbia‘ polities,
considered comic and
clownish in the more
sophisticated East, have
-polarized so completely that
we wilt be fa “a daily
battle in the legislature.

Perhaps the saddest thing
in this election was the
defeat of Conservative Vic
Stephens. It means that the
right-left spllt has become so
profound that not even one
moderator, one who stands
neither with nor against is
allowed. . ' °

see many more things
being accomplished In a two-
party system, what we are
now left with. I fear that the
extremes that both parties
are approaching is more

destructive than the lack of |

gress in a three or four
way split with its give and
take, necessary com-
promise,

COMMENT

By ROGER SMITH

VICTORIA (CP) — ‘The
thirdparty option seemed to
be disappearing from British
Columbia's polarized
political scene as both the
Progressive Conservatives
and Liberals failed to win a
seat in Thursday's pro-
vinclal election.

The loss of the one Liberal
seat, which had been vacant
at dissolution, left that party
without a member of any
provincial legislature west of
Ontarlo. .

It was the first ime this

’ century that the Con-

servatives and Liberals had
been blanked in the same
election, and marked a low
point in the provincial for-
tunes of the two partles
which formed ccalition
Kovernments here In the

1940s.

Tory leader Vie Stephens,
who won Osk Bay-Gordon
Head in a byelection 14
months ago, couldn't hold on
to the seat Thuraday agalnat
Oak Bay Mayor Brian Smith
of the Social Credit.

And Tothill, elected
Liberal leader in February,

hed a poor third in North
VancouverSeymour as
former Socred cabinet
minister Jack Davis came
back to win the seat he re-
signed after being convicted
of fraud inst fall,

Stephens acknowledged
the third-party shutout to be
a continuation of the trend
that started In 1976 when Bill
Bennatt leda so-called ‘‘free-

enterprise’ coalition that
swept the New Democratic
Party from power after one

term.

“] think it’s just a
reflection of the political
trend now,” said a dejected
Stephens. "They (voters}
are going one way or
another.” .

The voters started to.
abandon the middle-of-the-
road parties in .1976,
following the example’ of
several Liberal and Tory
MLAs. Tory Hugh Curtis
started the trend, but the
real death knell for the two

parties came when Liberal |

MLAs Pat McGeer, Garde
Gardom and Allan Willlama
threw their weight behind

Bennett, All four were re- -

warded with cabinet posts.

Following those high-

rofile figures, voters

eserted the Tories and.
Liberals in droves.

The Liberals’ share of the
popular vote plummetted to
seven cent from 16 and
elected only one member —
Gordon Gibson who became
leader but later resigned —
inatead of five, ;

The Conservatives elected
only leader Scott Wallace
with their share of the
popular vote dropping to 3.6
per cent from 18,

The figuras were even
more depressing Thursday.
Fielding 37 candidates, the
Conservatives got about the
same share of the yote, but
the Liberals picked up less
than half a per cent,

Letters
welcome

The Herald welcomes its readers com-
ments. All latters to the editor of general
public Interest will be printed. We do,
however, retain the right to refuse to print
letters on grounds of possible {ibel or bad
faste. We may also edit letters for style and.
length. All letters’ to be considered for

publication must

be signed.

ut

~ IN PICTURES

a

Dave Serry, independent loss.

Photos by a:
Brian Gregg a

a4,

Bae

ae
> ,

SALT...

seen. - >.

as a.

step

By ALCOLLETM
UNITED NATIONS (CP)

— Agreement on

_ essentinis of an arms ©

limitation pact in wi

supported at the UN, al--.
though it is seen as only a.
amall slep toward general’.

d complete disarmament. ©-- _
SALT His thesecond stage

of the strategic arms .

limitation treaty that is" -

expected to be signed by the
United States and the Soviet...
Union next month.

“In the U.S., the SALT":

debate has all the trappings

politicians for and against it “
go around the country
ing the will af the

Polls show a large
majority in the U.S. wantan -
end to the ah face AUS :

ident, ‘or.
Poiltical life, may well make

SALT a key party plank if* -

Congress rejects the treaty.
President Carter, low-
rated in polls on the kind of
job he has been doing in the
White House, is expected to
seek re-clection in 1980 and .
he Bkely will charge hard-
Iiners on SALT as being

against peace. - ;
Politics aside, the
seriousness of the arms race-

between the superpowers —
always has had priority In
the UN even if atiempts to.
being about general world
disarmament have proved to
be painfully slow.

Veteran gadfly disarmers

~ such as Canadian expert Bill

Epstein have been fighting
for the cause for years. He
has been a Canadian
government adviser .on
disarmament several times.

“You know, this whole
arms race, it goes on with a
mad momentum and we've

gottofind a way of coming to - ,

grips with it," Epstein says.”

SALT [I puts a cap on nu-
clear arms development but.
there still are the untouched
other systems of mass

. destruction — on drawing

boards or being tested — that
the public knows nothing
about. . me

Without SALT H, there: .

would be ‘no,'SALT :’ II

negotiations ‘in the 1980s,

when the superpowers could
tackle fimitatlon of weapons
of mass destruction as well
as destruction of nuclear
arsenals. © :
SALT II restricts the U.S.
and the Soviet Union to 2,250

* missiles and bombers each _
by the end of 1981. The ©

current figure is 2,400,

Each side is limited to the
development of ane “new"
landbased ballistic missile -
system for the duration of ©
the trealy which expires in, -

There is no limit on the
development of new sub-
marine-based missile |
systems, Existing systems
can be modernized, but only
within prescribed limits,

There is a protocol to the
treaty, expiring at the end of .
1981, which may cause -
trouble for Carter in
Congress. 7

The Pentagon wants to

deploy 4 new missile, land." -

based but able to be moved
from: silo 10 lo under a.
rotation system, m: it
hard to be knocked id in
‘war,

The protocol bars the
deployment or flight-teating
of a- landbased mobile
‘missile until Jan, 1, 1882. It
‘also bars deployment, but
mot the testing, of landbased.
and sea-launched cruise
missiles of ranges beyond
340 miles.

Epstein estimates that the

Soviet Union. and the U.S.
have increased thelr
dellverable strategic
weapons about seven times
alnce they first started.
taiking about SALT almost
10 years ago. :

Both the Soviet and U.8, -
ayatenis nga me become

rea! 40 cated —
in pier words, hard to take

“Now U.S. officials are
talking about new weapons .
that weren't even on the
drawing board in 1969," says
Epstein. ,

‘The cruise missiles, the
MX mobile  mixxiles,
They're talking about paving
— they have naw words for{
~ a multiple alm point
where you bullt silos, 20 silos
for avery missile 50 you can
methe inate he d

‘The las eard them
talking about was bull
10,000 to 20,000 ‘ailog,!" fing

‘The whole thing ia mad-
neas, days Epetein. Thearms -
race is going at tremandoug
speed. he

“We have to reverse that.
SALT IT helps.”

of a huge political circus an. .

4

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