Ward issue is still very

much alive, says Rankin

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Mayor Art Phillips says that as
far as he’s concerned, “the ward
issue is dead.’ The Vancouver Sun
says that, “the long-dead ward
system was reburied,” in the Oc-
tober 24 plebiscite.

They’re both wrong, dead wrong.
When 41 percent of the voters want
a ward system, the issue is V€ry
much alive in spite of any wishful
burial announcements by the
mayor and the developer-oriented
daily press.

Never in the history of Van-
couver has there been so much
confusion over a ballot. :

Of the 52,921 ballots cast in
answer to the question: ‘Should
the city retain the present at-large
system of electing aldermen?” —
6,449 ballots, 12 percent — were
declared invalid. E

Of the 51,691 ballots on a partial
or full ward system — 7,430 oF 14

CIVIC VOTE NOV. 17

On the initiative of the Alberni
District Labor Council, a new
“Citizen’s First Committee’’ has
been formed which will unite a
wide spectrum of labor and
democratic forces | |trade un-
ionists, NDPers, and left forces in-
cluding Communists, into a united
civic electoral organization that
will nominate and endorse civic
and school board candidates, and
fight for tax reform in the Island
lumber centre.

Elected chairman of the new
civic organization at its founding
meeting held in the Pulp and
Sulphite Workers Hanson Union
Hall was Gerard Janssen. Alder-
man Marko Ivasich was elected
vice chairman.

A full slate of candidates for
alderman, school board and the
Regional District will be

Tom
McEWEN

“partnership” doing a spate of
behalf of Washington and the
man” Gauvin’s hearty approval, any con ; WO
ICCS could do to bring peace to Vietna™ was inevitably
wrecked. The “‘role”’ it played was scarc€ wr
plaudits of a world yearning for a genusNe peace, In Viet- maker.
nam or elsewhere.

Now Herr Sharp who invariably sta

Port Alberni citizens form
united civic organization

nominated. Veteran alderman
GeorgeMcKnight (who headed
the poll two years ago) Was
renominated by the meeting along
with Labor Council president,
Walter Behn, and Len GailloUx.
Mark Mosher’s nominatio® for
School Board was also endorsed,
and additional candidates are to be

named at a second meeting, Oc- -

tober 28.

One of the first actions of the
new Citizen’s First Committe was
to send a delegation to Victoria to
meet with government rep¥€Sen-
tatives to seek changes if the
Municipal and Assessments Acts
that would shift the municipal tax
load from homes and Small
businesses to Alberni's mammoth
industry and big department and
chain stores.

“supervision” on its own on
Pentagon, and with “‘chair-
structive work the

ly one to win the

rs in the “‘role”’ of

percent were declared invalid.

A similar though not so great
confusion prevailed over the
ballots on the Four Seasons site.
Even on the issue of the five new
skating rinks, 1,155 ballots were
rejected.

Some people called the ballots
“crazy” and ‘‘stupid’’. If this
TEAM City Council is guilty of
these charges, then I would say
that it is “crazy like a fox”. In my
view the ballot was designed to
create the results it achieved, and
it was necessary to create confu-
sion to achieve them.

Take question number one:
Should the city retain the present
at-large system of electing
aldermen? This question should
never have been asked. The key
question was: Do you favor the es-
tablishment of a ward system of
electing aldermen? Those who op-
posed it would then simply have
voted ‘no’. But the way TEAM
placed the question prejudiced the
issue to begin with. Votes don’t
need to be taken to find out if peo-
ple want to keep things as they are;
votes should be taken on whether
or not people want certain propos-
ed changes.

Or take question number three

WILFLENNOX, trade unionist and
active community worker, is run-
ning as independent candidate
for council-in Surrey in the Novem-
ber 17 civic election.

has advocated and propagated the j
dependent, sdvereign and united in its ,.
two-nation State, exercising a united a), 'ghtful status of a
world Councils for peace and peaces.
proud and honorable role as a Worlg  *istence; for a

Successive Tory, Liberal and So,

dealing with the giz
cil. This was not r :
to the ward steno i any way
possible to get a clear ee was im-
opinion. Voters sho] q ee of
given a choice as to what ve been
preferred if the at-lar size they
remained and also thes system
preferred if We get a Wana they

The questions dealing Be
acquisition of the Four ce h the
were loaded Questions. | Sons site
further and say the isc would go
in a politically dishonest posed
only question . that a way. The
asked here was: p, “ded to be

€ of City Coun-

_city acquiring the yp) ou favor the

cost of $6.4 million Site at the

The reason TR)
question into
because-it.and jts
saw that.they Would }
asked only the one question. But b
asking Ane ; “Stions and malta
one o M 10adeq (payi }
‘Alilion tor a ES ying only $2
Rae Million fora
eis they Wants they got the
TEAM did not .-:
tion promises

Split up the
Parts was

few months

TEA
ago a M membership meeting

went a step furt!
full ward systen at feorsed a
of TEAM {ldermen ne ee
mayer. : not carry an any Gee
a campaign jp favor y kind 0
system. of a ward
Instead the
and left it to the
campaign dajj}

Cated the field
8ncouver Sun to

of the deve, geist it on behalf

spokesmen. On and their
: yY COp

NDP carried on any ees and the

paiet for a warg Svsidl of a cam-
aving s :

Seine Hinge sae the fact still
Couyv

going to be. ‘Ym if Counal

whole city. ; ©Presentative of a

r

ten rn

Th own the “sured a Ree

af ne the eb, Daily Press ney

Pl . lection fund and they

victory for thei; a S to assure
ies,

a
See RANKIN r
deal of

Powerful voice in
Tespected peace

red

se out if they -

eeks before the Vietnam-U.S. “peace agreement”’
3 was finalized, External Affairs Minister
Mitchell Sharp was literally begging that Canada play a
“role” in that world-renowned drama. Ultimately Canada
made it with a partnership on a three-nation International
Control and Supervisory Commission (ICCS).
The sorry and contemptable role played by an earlier
commission of which Canada was a member on truce

agreements in Vietnam should have been warning enough,,

but not enough people heeded it. Now we are at it again
with External Affairs Minister Sharp’s yakkety-yakking go-
ing full blast. :

The “role” we played on that ICCS before it was
abruptly terminated should have made every decent Cana-
dian hang his head in shame. With one Michel Gauvin ap-
pointed as “chairman” of the Canadian section of the ICCS,
it could not be otherwise. With this U.S. bellhop and stooge
in command, all the “peace agreement”’ violations, all the
fighting, all the untoward actions that followed the
“‘peace’’, was the work of North Vietnam, of the ‘“Cong”’ of
the Provisional Government and National Liberation Front
(NFL) of South Vietnam. Never, but never the

provocations and machinations of imperialism and its.

puppet regime in Saigon.

—
reteteteteterete®

an “obliging Joe” for U.S. imperialism, is at it again full

spate, this time in the Middle East. “‘OB. yes” croons this’

inveterate stooge for the U.S. war brokets. and merchants
of death, Canada can play an importast “role” to bring
peace to the Middle East. “If we are ask€d (by whom? ) we
are ready to go. But of course we must be first invited to
articipate.”’ :

: apts job for the special talentS of Mr. Michel
Gauvin? All he will have to do is change his “impartial
vocabulary from the “North Vietnamese,” the “Cong,

- NLF, etc., to the Arabs and the Jews, With all partiality

centering on the latter, and all condemation beamed on
the former. (To those interested in this ‘““Peacemaker role,
I would heartily refer them to a detailed ticle by Mr. sine
Murphy in the August-September editio® of the Canadian-
Jewish Outlook, on the “‘peacekeeping’” Characteristics of
M. Gauvin).

Undoubtedly it will be discovered is? the course of Mr.
Sharp’s anxiety for a “role as peace-keeper”’ in the Middle
East, that the warring Arab nations cOMstitute the “bad
guys,” while the Jewish Zionists who m©W tule Israel and
annex their neighbor’s lands, homes a4 property as the
spoils of war, are the “good guys.”” THe Gauvin “*peace-

in concert with their respective MONopo administrations,
their greatest profits from mass murg 8houls who rea D
these administrations have invariably aud Pillage (war),
for Canada, by their abject cringing 3 etrayed this ideal
or another more powerful imperialj, , ‘CW-towing to one
the interests of British imperialism (,,./°" adventurer, In
Canada sacrificed the lives of some an happily in dee)
manhood in two World Wars. ,000

Now we sacrifice our honor, Tesour .
simple honestry in the direct interes, ae decency end
— for a small share of the blood-staineg ‘S. imperialism
tracts from the “‘body count” of its War profits it ex:
which our own monopolists and the; ductims; a “role”
ministrations seem to enjoy. At least Ouble-talking Ad:
manifestations of shame. they exhibit. no

By all means, Canada should have
voice in the establishment of a firm, .° 29d must have a
East, but not the “‘voice”’ of Mitchey) g: €ace in the Middle
and Company. That is the “‘voice’’ of » Michel Gauvin
Councils of the Nations. Canada heard Udas in the peace:
Versailles and in other peace treaties it in Vietnam, in
of it. ’ 4nd wants no more

Peace with honesty is apparent}y ; :
“Peace with honor” a Ja U.S. imper,.ctien to Mr. Sharp.

. Tialj
line. Hence his clamor for a repeat te is more in his
e ,

Pn to play.

of her young —

a