The Finnish Organization of Canada marks its 65th anniversary this year and last weekend, some 100
members and supporters of the organizatior’s Local 55 gathered in Vancouver to commemorate the event.
Alderman Harry Rankin (left) opened the ceremony while Sylvia Lowe, Osmo Lahti and Uno Soderholm (far
right) read greetings from several organizations and paid tribute to the pioneers who had founded and built
the organization and had played a major role in organizing the labor movement.

Housing a major issue

Housing legislation is expected
to be one of the controversial issues
at the upcoming session of the B.C.
Legislature which will convene in
Victoria on January 13.

Housing minister Hugh Curtis
has already announced that the
Socred government is considering
legislation in line with a report
prepared by recreation minister
Sam Bawlf, former Victoria
alderman and a developer, who
was recently elevated to the Socred
cabinet.

The Bawif report has come
under sharp fire from many
quarters which may make it-
difficult for the government to
carry through with some of the
reactionary proposed legislation
contained in the Bawlf report. The
report was supposed to be a joint
provincial-municipal project, but
as it turned out, it was the in-
dividual effort of Bawlf.

Latest criticism of the report
came this week from Greater
Vancouver Regional District
planners. They charged that if the

Tribute to a fighting rebel girl

Bawlf recommendations for new
housing legislation are adopted
they will have the opposite effect,
and lead to less action on housing
rather than more.

Under legislation suggested in
the report, housing minister Hugh
Curtis would be empowered to set
quotas on housing type and quality
for each region and municipalities
would then be required to prezone,
or set aside sufficient land to meet
quotas set by the provincial
government.

The GVRD planners also ex-
pressed sharp disagreement with a
recommendation by Bawlf that the
provincial government adopt
legislation which would call for
elimination of land-use contracts
and relaxation of approval
required for rezoning bylaws. The
end result, say the planners would
be ‘‘a virtual shutdown” on
medium-density housing which
would force up market prices of
houses and land faster than any
other feature.

The main aim of the Socred

* Calgary

government in appointing Bawlf to
prepare the report, and then
promoting him to the cabinet,
appears to have been to prepare
the way for provincial government
action to wipe out restrictions
imposed on developers at the
municipal level. Under the report,
Victoria will use the big stick to-
force civic governments to make
concessions to big developers on
the pretext of getting action on
housing. :

The Bawlf report also had one of
its main conclusions repudiated
last week by the chairman of the
Central Mortgage and Housing
Corp. Bawlf argued _ that
speculation on land and the high
cost of land was not a major factor
in restricting housing. William
Teron, chairman of CMHC, said in
that two-thirds of
Canadians who need housing
cannot afford it, and that the high
price of land, caused to a large
extent by speculation, is a major
contributor to the housing
problem.

.municipalities in

“it in whatever way

Right wing aims
to scuttle GVRD

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

An attempt is being made to
scuttle the Greater Vancouver
Regional District (GVRD). It
emanates from the far right,
specifically from right’ wing
mavericks like Mayor Ed McKitka
of Surrey and Mayor Tom Goode of
Delta. :

The GVRD is composed of all 14
the Lower
Mainland and three small electoral
districts. Its governing board is
made up of mayors and aldermen
elected to the Board during the

course of municipal elections. The ©

GVRD deals with such matters as
the building of hospitals, water
supply, air pollution and parks.
One of its main functions is
planning. The direction of growth
and development in the Lower
Mainland, establishment of town

-centres and transportation all

require regional planning.
Guidelines have been drawn up on
some of these issues.

Some of the plans and guidelines
established by the GVRD have run
into strong opposition from
developers. They want a free hand
to gobble up all the vacant land in
the Lower Mainland and to develop
is most
profitable for them, unrestricted
by any rules and guidelines. The
two mayors mentioned above
reflect this pressure from the fast-
buck developers. :

The main argument they use to
attack the GVRD is that because
voting strength is based on
population, Vancouver and Bur-
naby can outvote Surrey, Delta and
other smaller municipalities. The
answer to this argument is two-

Strength as North Vancouver of

“It’s the special file on dissenters.’’

fold. First of all, basing voting
strength on population is the most
democratic way there is in the
circumstances. Secondly, ther@
has not, to the best of my
knowledge, been even one instance
where Vancouver and Burnaby
have ganged up to defeat the
smaller municipalities or to im
pose their will on them.

This argument. of Mayor
McKitka and Mayor Goodeis just 4
red herring drawn across the trail
to divert attention from the real
issue which is that some control
must be exercised over develop
ment and over developers. 3

This is not to say that the present
structure of the GVRD can’t be
changed or shouldn’t be. re)
examined. It is unrealistic, for
example, that small communities
like Bowen Island and Lion’s Bay
with less than 1,000 people each
should have the same _ voting

Coquitlam. But such = an)
examination or review should be
aimed at strengthening the GVRD |
by making it more democratic, not
by dismembering it.

Mayors McKitka and Goode
would like to see a GVRD com”
posed only of the municipalities
surrounding Vancouver an
Burnaby, with both Vancouver and
Burnaby left out. This would result
in anarchy, not a_ planned
development of the Lower
Mainland. It may be good for
developers’ profits and it may
allow these mayors to build their
political empires but it would be
bad for the people of the Lower
Mainland.

That is why it’s in the interests of
all the, people of the Lower
Mainland, including the people of
Delta and Surrey, that these at
tempts to dismember and destroy
the GVRD be defeated.

But while defending the GVRD
from destructive attacks from the
far right, it is at the same time
necessary to subject the GVRD 10
pressure from people on issues like
housing anda rapid transit system
for the Lower Mainland. Until noW
the GVRD has spent far too much
time studying these issues without
doing much about them.

By MAURICE RUSH

be immortal Joe Hill paid a tribute to women in the

revolutionary movement with his song, ‘“‘The Rebel
Girl” in which this line appears: ‘‘The rebel girl, the rebel
girl, to the working class she’s a precious jewel.” I was
reminded of that line last week when I visited Effie Jones
in the Vancouver General Hospital.

Her hair all white now at 85 years of age, Effie has the
same fighting spirit, enthusiasm and warmth as when I
first met her more than thirty years ago. As we held hands
and talked, my mind went back over the many years Effie
and I worked and fought together in many civic cam-
paigns in Vancouver, and I thought what a precious

jewel the working class movement in Vancouver has had _

in Effie Jones.

Always enthusiastic, never downhearted by defeat or
setback, a militant, determined and courageous fighter
for the needs of the ordinary people in Vancouver, the
secret of Effie’s popularity lay in the fact that every little
problem of the people — no matter how small — con-
cerned her. Andshealways did something about them, not
out of a sense of duty, but out of a deep feeling for her
fellow human beings. To act for people was as natural to
Effie as breathing. Everybody that had a problem knew
they could go to Effie and that Effie would make their
problem her own. :

Effie’s life has been a model of a Communist woman:
deep devotion to the working class and the socialist cause
in which she believed; militant, self-sacrificing and
courageous in her fight for the rights and needs of her
fellow human beings — yet always with a friendly warmth
and sense of deep humanism.

Many were the delegations led by Effie to City Council
to do battle against the B.C. Electric; the big real estate

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 10, 1976— Page 2

operators; for electoral and tax reform; against higher
phone and transit rates; for decent welfare and housing
for the unfortunate; for a chance for our youth. Effie’s
campaigns, more than any other, discreditted and ex-
posed the machinations of the big utility monopoly, the
B.C. Electric, which profited and fed on the city’s
population.

Effie’s name was enough to strike terror into the hearts
of the rich and powerful in their board rooms from which
they dominated Vancouver city hall. But her name also

brought affection and support from a growing section of

the population which reached a high point when Effie was
almost elected mayor of Vancouver.

Although Effie was never elected to civic office because
of the thoroughly undemocratic nature of civic govern-
ment— which still persists to this day — Effie had a more
profound effect on civic politics than many elected of-
ficials because of the campaigns she waged and the
growing public support she rallied for civic reforms.

The years of struggle by Effie have had a profound
effect on our city. It was thanks to her many effective
campaigns that a broad base was laid of public support for
progressive civic reforms, some of which have been won
and many which still remain to be won. She played a
central role in exposing the Non-Partisan Association and
probably did more than any other individual in helping
reduce that once all-powerful big business civic political
machine to a shadow of its former self.

Above all, Effie’s many election campaigns through the
Civic Reform Association: and Effie Jones Election
Committee, established in Vancouver broad electoral
support for civic reform candidates. And it was not many

age, that her efforts led to the first breakthrough for thé
reform voters with the election of Ald. Harry Rankin.

In a true sense, Effie Jones and her Civic Refor™
Association was the forerunner of Ald. Harry Rankin at
the Committee of Progressive Electors. And if othe!
reform civic candidates are now knocking at the door 9
civic office in Vancouver, they can thank Effie Jones fo!
having plowed the ground and planted the seeds.to enable
progressive civic movements to flower.

Some day a way will be found in the city of Vancouver to
honor this great Communist woman civic leader who di
so much for its citizens and whose efforts have made ou!
city a better place in which to live. :

I started this tribute to Effie with a line from Joe Hill's
“The Rebel Girl.” Let me end it with another: “We’ve had
girls before, but we need some more, in the revolutionary
movements of the world, for its great to fight for freedo™
with a rebel girl.”’ For me it’s been a great experience to
have had Effie asa comrade and to have been by the side
of this rebel girl in the fight for freedom.

Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months: —

years after Effie was forced into retirement by advancing

RIiBUNE

Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — MIKE GIDORA
Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3;
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