na

=

* ut Brutus is an honourable man, so are they all, all

honourable men.’’ So spoke Mark Anthony on the

floor of the Roman senate over the body of the murdered
Caesar.

If they weren’t all honourable men, where do you think all
the ‘‘Honest”’ John, *‘Honest’’ Bobs, *‘Honest”’ Joes, etc. and
etc. in our modern Establishments come from? Those political
flunkeys of Big Business who always adhere to the good old
dictum that ‘‘honesty is the best policy— if it pays."’ That is the
nub and art of modern partisan politics, to make ‘‘honesty”’ a
paying proposition. Success in the art assures its devotees a
niche in the heart of posterity as a ‘‘great statesman,” a “‘self-
made man.” Y

Thus it came as no great surprise the other day when a
headline in the Vancouver Sun caught our. eye which said

‘‘Bennett sons honourable.’ Since the quality of this “honour”.

is now sub-judice, before the courts so to speak, comment is
taboo. Hence we can only repeat with Mark Anthony that they
are ‘‘all honourable men.’ Moreover, since honesty in our
modern way-of-life is largely relative, and upon occasion
remotely so, there is little the humble layman can do— except
gaze in awe, if not in admiration at all such souls.

Socred ‘‘Flying: Phil’’ Gaglardi and sons are also
‘honourable men,” and only the basest of minds would impute
the contrary to a bit of real estate ripoff along the routes of our
new highways for filling stations, hot-dog stands, or other
monopolistic decor that now adorn all modern highways.
Vancouver Sun columnist Allen Fotheringham recently did a
fine compendium on the Gaglardi virtues of honesty and
integrity, but failed to take into account that the elements
which destroyed Rome, are in a fair way doing the same for
B.C. for their own aggrandizement and profit, yet they were
‘all honourable men.”’

Then there was that fine upstanding Liberal senator, (his
name slips me at the moment but it is well recorded in
Hansard 1927), who made a neat killing in the Beauharnois
Power Project (Quebec). Upon the hurried exit of this *‘honour-
able senator,’ late Right Honourable Mackenzie King made
one of his most touching speeches ever in the House of
Commons. Quoting from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress,
(no relation of the immortal Paul Bunyan) Mackenzie King
with bowed head and shaky voice, said, ‘‘Today the Liberal
Party is sojourning through the Valley of Humiliation’’ this
while his ‘honourable’ senator was already sojourning to
the sun-kissed Isles of the Carribbean to enjoy his
““honourable”’ rum-running windfall.

And so on it goes down through the years, with the
changing times bringing to the fore new and ever-increasing
hordes of ‘‘honourable men,’ whose prime objective in life is
not what “I can do for the country and the people, but what the
country can do for me.”

“Ah,” but says the honesty oracle, “they are very sincere
men.’ Sure they are very “‘sincere’’ but since sincerity like
honesty are purely relative to the issue on hand, they can also
be very “‘sincere’’ in this practical art of diddling the people.
No one is more objectively sincere than the burglar ramsack-
ing his neighbor’s home, or the political broker selling out a
peoples’ natural resources and brithright.

A friend of our acquaintence of some years ago, who had
begun life at what is generally referred to as a ‘‘crook,”’ and
who had served a number of long prison terms for his plain and
fancy robbing, decided to ‘reform’ — without benefit of
Socredia’s ‘‘guide-lines to honesty,’’ and to become an honest
man.

In pursuance of this laudable and worthy objective, he
became a building trades contractor, specializing in cement
construction, foundations, basements, etc, etc.

“Tom,” he told me later at one of our numerous over-the-

back-fence tete-a-tetes, ‘I can steal more in this business than
ever I did before, and don’t have to serve any time doing it.
You just forget to put in all the bags of cement, reinforcing,
etc., the contract calls for, and boy, you're on easy street.”
Later on in his new-found affluence of honesty, his building
contractor colleagues elected him to the local Chamber of
Commerce. Who says such honesty does not pay, or that they
are not ‘‘all honourable men?” Even their courts confirm it.

FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL NEEDS

Contact:

GLOBE TOURS

2679 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C.

253-1221 254-2313

AM YAOI JUUSINT OAIEIAS

Tt? VYE At YAY GDA a
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1972—PAGE 2

5 1S IT EMPLOYERS COUNCIL?

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Nero fiddling while Rome
burned had nothing on our non-
mayor Tom Campbell.

He diddled while negotiations
were going on with civic
workers. When the Municipal
Labor Relations Bureau, which
represents seven Lower Main-
land municipalities. broke off
negotiations, he diddled some
more. When Vancouver City
Council passed a _ motion
instructing Campbell to tell the
M.L.R.B. to re-open negotia-
tions, he refused to carry out
Council's decision. Then when
civic workers struck in an effort
to get the M.L.R.B. back to the
bargaining table, our non-mayor
clandestinely diddled off to
London, England!

But before he went he made
sure, with the help of NPA alder-
men, and also with the support of
TEAM aldermen, that Council
voted a six percent increase to
himself and to the aldermen.
This gives him an additional
$1,200 a year to diddle with while
he’s away from Council and the
city which seems to be about half
the time — on expense paid trips
that are paid for by homeowners
and tenants.

His salary of $22,400 a year is
three times that received by the
average civic workers now
walking the picket lines, for
doing about one third of the work
of civic workers.

I strongly opposed the
increase. In my opinion our non-
mayor doesn’t deserve it,
doesn’t earn it and doesn’t need

it. You, can use whatever
adjective$ you want to describe
what we have at the head of City
Council in Vancouver but it
certainly isn't a mayor.
However, more important
than our irresponsible mayor
and the aldermen who back him,
is the question of what happens
with the civic workers’ strike.
With non-mayor Campbell's
departure from the scene we
haven't even a representative
on the M.L.R.B.! Vancouver
City Council representing
420,000 people ‘instructed the

M.L.R.B. to re-open negotiations _

without any  pre-conditions.
Burnaby Municipal council, re-
presenting 130,000 people, did
the same. :

That’s over 75 percent of the
population in the municipalities
involved. Yet the M.L.R.B.
refuses to budge. That raises a
significant question. Who is the
M.L.R.B. taking its orders
from? In refusing to carry out
the instructions of the people it is
supposed to represent, is it
carrying out the instructions of
some other shadow group,
perhaps the B.C. Employers
Council? Is it deliberately
prolonging this. strike on
somebody else’s instructions?

‘It’s time we had a showdown
with this M.L.R.B. It was set up
by the municipal councils, its
bills are paid by the municipal
councils, yet it takes its orders
from somewhere else. This has
to end. The M.L.R.B. must agree
to get back to the bargaining
table without any pre-condi-

Gala birthday party
honors city alderman

The celebration of Ald. Harry
Rankin’s birthday last Friday at
the Canadian Legion Hall on
Commercial Drive was a joyous
and happy event, and a glowing
tribute to Vancouver’s fighting
alderman.

Expecting around 300 people,
the hall was packed to over
flowing with an estimated 550
people turning out to celebrate

the occasion — in itself a
powerful demonstration of the
popularity of Rankin.

There were people present
from all walks of life — but
predominately working people
from just about every occu-
pation. They joined ina Standing
ovation for Rankin when he rose
to speak.

Pointing to what the people of
Vancouver have been able to
achieve in recent years, Rankin
said that it was essential to
elect more representatives of
the people at next December's
civic election. and pointed to
Bruce Yorke, tenants leader and
driving force in the movement
for rapid transit. as the kind of
representatives needed at city
hall. ‘

Liberals and Tories were
smart enough to form an alliance
— the NPA — to impose big busi-
ness wishes on the city admin-
istration. said Rankin. “Surely
labor. ratepayers and progres-

sive people can learn that lesson~”

and realize the néed for an
alliance to oust them,” said the
alderman in an_ obvious
reference to recent decision by
the Vancouver area of the NDP
to reject any form of civic unity
and to run a full slate next
December. He appealed for
more members for the Com-
mittee of Progressive Electors
(COPE).

Port Alberni alderman George
McKnight paid tribute to the
work Rankin has done and the
example he has set for pro-
gressive civic leaders through-
out B.C. He sharply criticized
NDP policies in civic affairs
which split progressive civic
voters and thereby help big
business and real estate
promoters.

Angie Dennis of the Fred Quilt
Committee expressed the appre-
ciation of Native Indian people
for the work Rankin had done on
their behalf, and particularly, in
exposing the injustices in the
Fred Quilt case. -

Dorothy Lynas, chairman of

the North Vancouver school
board. also expressed appre-
ciation to Rankin for his
vigorous fight on behalf of the
people.
_ An excellent musical program
in which many groups and artists
took part rounded out an unfor-
gettable evening.

SR A A RD Se

tions. This strike has a
settled by negotiations soot 1
later, so why not get talkili,
and end it as soon as possi |
If the M.L.R.B. dee
immediately get back ©)
negotiating table it shov |
fired and replaced by 2 © ail
tee of aldermen from” |

council involved. =”

Valley CP cals |
for rapid transi |

Members of the Frase! ve
Region of the Communist mi!
met in their annual cone
last Sunday in the Royal
Hotel, New Westmins® ig
adopted a series of res acl
dealing with problems
the area.

After considering the we:
address by Regional eet!
Rod Doran, the ae th
adopted ten resolution’

“first one of which COM afi

wage controls an
repeal of the Socte. ig)

sion of the right 10 | oat
tenants through amen
the Municipal Act; and! mo
Bill 49, which virtual} aii
Minister of Rehabi
Gaglardi a dictator.

ore

A key resolution called H
provincial governme? rity
a Transportation Authol ig!
democratic represen Pat
municipalities to opera tae
transit and urban trams that
system. It also ure® 1 Wt
provincial govern” id {
over all assets of ee am
including railway Me
for rapid transit. Anot i
tion called on the Fee®™ ort
ment to apportio? d yf
grants for rapid
transit. 1

The delegates als? # Yi i
resolution callin® _ ici
amendment to the
Act which will allow ste",
lishment of an are
civic government.
described as much ™ tive
cratic and represe? "até
the present election 4

ft

ied

Other resolutions gl
extension of UnemP nde”

surance Benefits, sana $
the bombing of V!
called for a

aggression; demanl ed
plant closures and 1 |
Federal governme” pe At
Crown corporation nts

Davis along gs
contribution tO" 1.98
defence. A wire W4° ios
California author” al
demning the frame
manding the ©
dropped. vf
a
Greetings from partly,
executive of the
delivered by Maur gl
meeting conclude? “oe
new regional comh
the work-in-the- com