By ALD. HARRY RANKIN The Social Credit government plans to pad municipal voters’ lists with thousands of new names of people who will vote for developer- oriented municipal political parties and candidates. That is the real meaning of the amendments to the Municipal Act introduced by municipal affairs minister Bill Vander Zalm in the provincial legislature Aug. 8. The amendments would give the vote to any business owner who rents of- fice space in a municipality, whe- ther he or she lived in that munici- pality or not. This would be in _ addition to the vote which they al- ready have in the municipality in which they live. This means that a lawyer, doctor, store owner or the owner of any other business who rents office space in Vancouver will be given a vote in Vancouver civic elections even if he or she lives in another municipality, as many of them do. ~ The amendments introduced Aug. 8 apply to all municipalities other than Vancouver. But it has already been indicated by the gov- ernment that a special amendment applying this concept to Vancouver will also be introduced shortly. How many names will this add to municipal voters’ lists in the pro- vince? Figures are not yet available but it would certainly be many tens of thousands. One estimate is that, in Vancouver alone, it will pad the voters’ lists with 10,000 new names. There is no doubt whatsoever that this padding of the voters’ lists will decide the fate of many muni- cipal political parties and many candidates. It is designed to keep by in office and keeping out reform groups such as COPE in Vancou- ver and the BCA in Burnaby. This action by the Social Credit government violates the whole principle upon which our demo- cratic society is based, namely one person — one vote. From now on we'll have two types of voters.. Working people will have only one vote, but many business people will have two. The outcome of municipal elec- tions will no longer be decided by the people who live in the munici- pality — it will be decided by the votes of business people who live vincial constituencies to guarantee the election of Social Credit candi- dates, now it is gerrymandering the voters’ lists to guarantee the elec- tion of developér candidates in the municipal field, many of whom are Social Crediters. From now on, property, not people, will decide the outcome of municipal elections. We shouldn’t forget that when the NDP was in office from 1972- 1975, it took away the right of.pro- perty to vote and based elections on the principle of one vote — one per- son. New bill ‘cynical gerrymandering’ Now this is being taken one step further and the right to vote is also being given to people who rent bus- iness premises. Ifit is right to give property own- ers and business renters the right to vote in a municipality in which they don’t live, then it would be equally right to give to all working people the right to vote in the municipality in which they work, even if they don’t live there. These amendments are a cynical violation of our democratic system. There is no justification whatsoever for them. They should developer parties and candidates in : at When Social Credit got backin, be withdrawn. This time the pro- and to keep reform-minded parties itis esrunNapaliy: in 1975, itimmediately restored the vincial government has cone and candidates out. It is aimed at It is a form of gerrymandering. right of all property owners in a far-in its manipulation of voters’ keeping parties like the NPA in Just as the provincial government municipality to have the right to lists to protect its selfish party in- Vancouver and the BVA in Burna- _ has changed the boundaries of pro-. vote even if they didn’t live there. _ terests. Rupert to set up housing corporation Prince Rupert municipal council has voted unanimously to set up a non-profit housing corporation, =PEOPLE AND ISSUES hen the Olympic Games open- ed in Moscow last month, the Canadian government’s all too obliging support for the Carter boycott was already an accomp- lished — if disgraceful — fact of history. But most democratic Ca- nadians would still be disgusted to see the diplomatic contortions that the government went through to _ snub those progressive journalists - who supported the Moscow Games. A returning Bruce Yorke, who attended the Games and covered them for both the Pacific Tribune and the Canadian Tribune, tells us that he was one of three journalists who were effectively declared non- Canadians by the Canadian em- bassy in Moscow and were frozen out of a reception given by a retir- ing Canadian ambassador Robert Ford. Apparently, the reception was to be for the Canadian journalists covering the Games — including reporters from the Southam News Service, the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Star, and the Vancou- ver Sun — but because they were in support of the Games, Yorke, Lari Prokop from the Ukrainian Ca- nadian and Koozma Tarasoff who was covering for various B.C. In- - terior newspapers, didn’t get invi- tations. As with other journalists, the three had official press accredita- tion from the International Olym- pic Committee but again, since they were in support of the Games, that accreditation came directly from the IOC, not through the boycott-supporting Canadian Olympic Committee. Even when he telephoned the press attache inquiring about invi- tations, Yorke says, he was told “‘in the best diplomatic language that the three of us were not welcome.” * * * g ise people who have voiced suspicions about the purposes of the new Discovery Parks — re- search facilities planned for B.C. universities — have additional rea- son for concern. According to the August fiewsletter published by the Canadian Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, the man who has been appointed to head B.C. Re- search is Dr. Allan Mode, a nuclear scientist now employed at a Liver- more, California facility which, along with that at Los Alamos, New Mexico, is responsible for re- search and development of all U.S. nuclear weapons. CCNR warns that the appoint- ment may signal new nuclear re- search in B.C. and has urged peo- ple to write Dr. John MacDonald, chairman B.C. Research, 3650 Wesbrook, Vancouver, opposing the appointment. * * bal Ithough he “has already seen thousands of kilometres of rail- road as a trainman for both the CNR and the CPR, Paul Lawrence will soon be seeing many more in the country where rail transporta- tion has been developed to a high art — the Soviet Union. He’ll be going there this week as part of a study tour on rail transport or- ganized by the Labor Research In- stitute in New York and sponsored in the USSR by the Railway Work- ers Union. The extensive itinerary includes stops at the Scientific Research Railway Institute in Moscow, the Sochenka rail test loop and training and recreational institutes for rail- way workers. They’ll also take a ride on the famous ‘“‘crack train’’ which makes the run from Moscow to Leningrad at average speeds in excess of 150 kilometres per hour. On his return we hope to have an interview with Paul who, incidentally, is also an accomplish- ed amateur photographer. * * * or those travelling the various highways of the province dur- ing the summer months, the sight of trailers is as common as cars were in years past. But last Sunday, as the car cavalcade organized by the B.C. Peace Council and the Co- mox Committee for Nuclear Re- sponsibility made its way up to- wards the Comox base, there was one trailer that didn’t fail to turn heads wherever it passed. It was the huge plywood mockup of the Tri- dent nuclear submarine pulled by John and Rita Tanche. With help from others; they built the model several years ago to sym- bolize the opposition to the con- struction of the Trident base at Bangor, Washington. And they’ve been taking it to demonstrations ever since — with dramatic impact as Sunday’s cavalcade indicated. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 15, 1980—Page 2 the first time a municipality has taken such action to alleviate a housing crisis. “For the first time in northern B.C. a municipality is going into non-profit housing to ease its zero vacancy rate,’’ Prince Rupert al- derman Mike Darnell told the Trib- une. (Vancouver created its own non- profit housing corporation in 1975 but it failed to build a single unit and it folded a year later.) Darnell, who presented the mo- tion to council, was instrumental in winning unanimous endorsement and now is pressing for a speedy legal incorporation so the new soci- ety wil be eligible for federal fund- ing from the Central Mortgage and _ trict Bob Hull. Housing Corporation’s. 1981 budget. **We have to make CMHC a proposal about the number and type of units we want to build, and, at the same time, go to a bank or a credit union and borrow the money for land purchase and construction at current interest rates,’’ Darnell said. : “CMHC then guarantees. the loan and pays back the bank in monthly installments, except for two percent — which we have to pick up.”” “Tt surprises me that municipal- ities don’t do this more often,” noted housing director of the Greater Vancouver Regional Dis- Hull helped to sell the idea to Prince Rupert council when he gave a presentation on the GVRD’s non-profit housing corporation at Darnell’s request. The GVRD has financed 800 rental units through - CMHC’s scheme to date. © Darnell said that council ‘‘wants to build a 60- to 80-rental unit com- plex to begin with,” adding that al- though the new non-profit housing corporation wouldn’t be able to solve Prince Rupert’s housing cri- sis, ‘it would providesomereliefto _ the handicapped, pensioners and working poor.”’ There were only three suites for rent in all of Prince Rupert in June. age, and are either: on July 31, 1980. by July 31, 1980. tors). STEPS TO TAKE: from these times). . ; *Friday, August 15th ‘**Every day ***Every day CITY HALL VANCOUVER, B.C. 1. Phone the Voter’s List Office (873-7680 or 7681, 7682, 7683, 7684), to m not your name appears on the current List of Rlestors: WEST END COMMUNITY CENTRE _ ‘STRATHCONA COMMUNITY CENTRE BRITANNIA:COMMUNITY CENTRE *RENFREW COMMUNITY CENTRE *MT. PLEASANT COMMUNITY CENTRE *KITSILANO COMMUNITY CENTRE *“KERRISDALE COMMUNITY CENTRE *DUNBAR COMMUNITY CENTRE *MARPOLE-OAKRIDGE COMMUNITY CENTRE — 990 West 59th Avenue *“*KILLARNEY COMMUNITY CENTRE ***SUNSET COMMUNITY CENTRE _ City of Vancouver REGISTER OF ELECTORS Registration Period City of Vancouver and School District No. 39 (Vancouver) including University Endowment Lands available particularly for the correction of errors and ommissions, and any such errors and ommissions may be corrected if complaint is made to the City Clerk on or before the 21st day of August, 1980. Those who are eligible to have their names added during this Registration Period are: CANADIAN CITIZENS OR OTHER BRITISH SUBJECTS who, on the day of the election, will be 19 years of A. (1) REGISTERED OWNERS or AGREEMENT HOLDERS of real property in the City of Vancouver (2) A PRINCIPAL LESSEE of a suite used solely as a dwelling in a building of which a corporation is the registered owner and provided among other things the lessee has made application to the City Clerk (3) An OCCUPIER having a right or interest in a parcel of Crown Lands on July 31, 1980. B. RESIDENTS in Vancouver continuously from January Ist, 1980 to/and including June 15th, 1980. (Persons who have purchased property in Vancouver or the University Endowment Lands in the month of July 1980 should phone the Voters’ List to ensure their names are included on the List of Elec- LOCATION: VOTERS’ LIST OFFICE — 2512 YUKON STREET (corner of Broadway & Yukon) TIMES: 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. — August 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18 8:30 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. — August 19, 20; 21 ; 2. Come to the Voters’ List Office, 2512 Yukon Street, Vancouver, B.C. (If your name does not appear on the list, it will be necessary to fill out an application form). - Registrations will also be accepted at the following Community Centres on August 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20 and 21 during the hours of 2:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. (please note asterisks for deviations P.M. to 5:00 P.M. — 2:00 P.M. to 5:30 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. to 8:30 P. P.M. to 5:30 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. ake inquiries and to find out whether or — 870 Denman Street — 601 Keefer Street — 1661 Napier Street — 2929 East 22nd Avenue — 3161 Ontario Street . — 2690 Larch Street — 5851 West Boulevard — 4747 Dunbar Street — 6260 Killarney Street 404 East 51st Avenue M. M R. HENRY CITY CLERK August 5, 1980