yap ie eae peg po ae ime na aan . ndard, Monday, December 23, 1991 — Page's Se ae 2, : ] ! pye tee ” 'f : auigie Reform to stay” An open letter to Jim Fulton: Dear Sir: os "By CLAUDETTE SANDECKI “You look tired, Santa”, laus said, hanging up his ed red jacket. “How wag 1 A dusting.” Santa sagged: ferret eee Fe eee eee as . ; ” . Santa warmed to, his story.” “some bozo stuck a CAT decal. IR" your. Jatest "Skeena Report”’, you state that the Reform “Santa ‘sipped his cocoa, “{ ~ on schedule most of the _ . ;Everything was smooth ~. as’@ parole application until 1 “deck and: say, Indians, Tntook -- Haida fishermen from.__ “The. most; frustrating Eve. ever. Even said Santa. b.. Was fun - before barge led kids to ex- ban iyo.me,”* M Claus’ removed Sanita’s ~ ittens from his jacket crumpled paper fell to loor. .“"What's this?’ She ded 'the’form to him, xplained.-'‘*Remember the gle pup I took along for little on?.-Well, the pup ended up onthe seat beside me, ren't’ allowed loose in my, “Mrs. Claus said, she bustled about Preparing a joon she set two steaming. ta. “Eat, and tell me appened,”* she said, sit- sdown, “And no Edith r shortcuts.’ “Off over the Atlantic, I woke up, I spotted a ship below. 1 landed on its them for Islands.. ut they. weren’t, fishing. ‘The ip the Sea Shepherd,” -eMrs. Claus ‘snapped her " ", fingers trying for recall, “They “Were the. natives who in- tercepted the Christopher Col- bus celebrations, You were Puerto Rico.” chair and tugged off.-his: t armful of toys. Before - th garbage that could | ¢ Of my frustrations'*; he — ehicles, I found out. |... 2. $75 ticket I have to. ling | the ticket where “it © wouldn’t be ‘overlooked. Then :, «: Mugs of cocoa. and a plate, of wiches on the tablein front |“. Haidas, all right, ‘Paul Watson lifted the bag of golf clubs out .of my sleigh and dropped the clubs overboard, ‘He said golf courses are Teplac- . dng. agricultural land | and | ’ destroying wetlands.” : “Poor Santa,’’ soothed Mrs. Claus, running her hand down the back of his head. - “Ouch”, Santa paid, ducking r “away, He touched “his: ‘head gingerly, wal tel lump?” “When we made a sudden stop to avoid a chunk of space debris, the oak. lectern for Dan Quayle thumped - me, Might have hurt less to be hit by the flying space garbage.’* . “Quayle could have opted for “Where ‘did ‘you’ gét that” eer » “to bed early. Christmas Eve; George Bush,” remarked Mrs. Claus. instance,” ‘Santa pushed back his plate and stretched "his legs... “For sure, this job was less stressful in the good old days, Kids went “Heel” lifts, for fended him, In the Kootenays, I ran into Ken Georsetti, the labour leader. He was. keen on Canadian-made __goods. Anything labelled Taiwan, China, or Korea he tossed out on the snow, I never realized _before how many toys came 7 Ande all'of tham elorigdd to one environmental _ OUR or another * Ra ‘ adults stayed home, Last night .there = were | grown-ups ‘everywhere. And all of them | together from your old belonged to one environmental group or another.’* “Every time I left the sleigh to make a delivery, someone. ‘plucked out whatever toys of- from Asia, The only toy Georgetti approved of was the teddybear you sewed."?. You mean the one I pieced nightshirt and stuffed with wool from - your. worn out. mittens? Georgetti has a lot of taste, for _& New Democrat.” . -, pute*check on mess. 02) 7 _ Mrs. Claus’s eyes grew-wide with comprehension. “But he, rit Wushyitnete 8 “Last snightuithenaoweare grow: atick: it on the -back -win-; usually: driven between 1 a.m. and $'a.m, Ina Counterattack. noticed the decal and ran.a com- j . : te couldn't ‘find you in his com- puter because your sleigh isn’t licensed. So what did you do?” Santa winked. “The team and I rose straight up like a. Sikorsky and left him gaping at the Milky Way.” ae Mrs. Claus giggled. ‘What happened at border crossings?’* Santa rolled his eyes: like a’ teenager. “Don’t ask. I. swear, the GST and cross-border shop- ' ping have riled these Customs officers, One inspector figured, since F went to the trouble of such an elaborate disguise, I must be smuggling’ valuables, He thought I was avoiding duty by wearing : several layers of. suits. He had me park, go inside - for interrogation, and remove my jacket and shirt before he believed me.. “The humiliation of being doubted didn’t upset me as much as the parade of do- gooders who raided my sleigh at every stop. ‘Walbran ‘ roadblockers removed the stuff- ed owls. Recyclers made . off with cardboard boxes. Power Smarts nipped the Nintendos. A Raging Grannie staggered toward the police station under a cord of air rifles. A fellow in an SPCA jacket ran his hands along the reindéer’s ribs like Oscar Peterson ‘trilling piano: : Kays: A WCBireki tied it all ¥ the lawn darts.,.%¥ ~*~ . Mrs. Claus looked alarmed, “Did you have anything left for the kids?”" — . ~ “lI was pretty well down to stuffed toys, wooden blocks and coloring books, but every kid got at least one toy.” Relaxing, Mrs. Claus placed a comforting hand -on Santa’s, “One Canadian-niade toy for each child. Just like the good ‘Precisely,’ agreed Santa. a kinder, gentler way to emulate y J. ROCKY GRAY ‘So what exactly is the spirit of Christmas? )gyIs it, the three vague spooks that: appear in our nightmares after-eating some soup that has i been left on the back burner of he stove a few days'too long, or bit the unerottrellable urge to: vear-the digits off our: plastic atives:that we have never met arge. cards, trying.to impres. Dig deep, Itilhelp Time f itso J. Rocky Gra _by extreme cases of financial in- _ Sanity, characterized by the in-" stinctive need for greed as well ‘as the destructive Passion. of. ; i ae en : self-centeredness created by an egocentric desire to prave “one up” on the next person. ~ Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace and: goadwill to not only those that can finan- cially afford it, but to those with little and are forgotten so often — those who have littlé to depend on or little to look-for- ward to on the twenty-fifth of December... oy As Christmas draws nearer I watch countless people push . Carts loaded with food and gifts past the Salvation “Army's Christmas kettle. I see just how deep the greed runs in people when 1 see these: cart. pushers turn their heads away. from these charitable organizations, pretending that they didn't see . the Christmas kettle, . The commercialism of gratitude Christmas has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that before Christmas can in* anyway be successfull, we have to spend it all on people that will forget it all two weeks past Christmas, : . But thanks to people ‘that know, everyone deserves Christmas. No ‘one should be excluded, Thanks to people that know, even a small contribution towards imakitig someone less fortunate. happier means the ‘Teal Christmas spirit is present, My heart goes out to those who spend their time and effort trying to make a difference in our. community, those people that give of themselves o that others may benefit and ex- perience .some of the Joys of Christmas, ~ _! Christmas is for our children and other children, yet there ter, RO Ae on ae pt eng at ot ete APRN OLE ER eT ew ef Gib lpia Og OT EE RB Se es ica tete at. @ res old days, eh?” ory will be children in our area that - - Will mot even see a Christmas dinner because the family could notafford it. There will be children that won't have a Christmas tree, not to mention the lack of gifts to put under it, This is why I personally have @ Special gratitude for the peo- ple that do what they*can to help others, Groups and people | like CFTK, the Salvation Army, Juanita ‘Hatton and the many churchs that truly represent the true spirit of Christmas. But remember, these people and their organizations can not. do it alone, they need our con- tributions and support, Give willingly, you'll feel bet- Merry Christmas to all. J. Rocky Gray tives in Terrace. It tells police your car isn’t ’ toad block:‘later, the constable : form Party is “pushing Policies that divide’, from the truth, The Reform Party seeks to create constitutional equality for all Canadians regardless of... -race, including Aboriginals. and the 12 million Canadians who are neither French or English ex- traction, a a _..Our desire is to have a New Quebec as an equal and fully Participating Province in a New Canada, Reformers are advocating a'5.step process to change the question for..Quebec from ‘Do you want to leave Old Canada?” to “Do you want to bea unique, equal and ful- ly participating -province in New Canada?” We say, | _ 1. Let : Quebec define a New Quebec —. This process is already. underway, , 2. Let the rest of Canada and Quebec federalists define a New Canada. Our prefer- Nothing could be further | red process would start with constitutional conventions being presented .to - Parlia- ment and the. provincial legislatures for modification and adoption. ae 3. Let there be a provincial election in Quebec and a federal general election to determine who is authorized by the electors to Tepresent the New Quebec and the New Canada, _ 4. Let there be conclusive constitutional negotiations with the objective. of establishing a New Canada in which Quebec may.. freely choose.to participate as-an ras cfhinaee fe ie, referendum to ratify any new These are not policies that divide, Mr. Fulton. These are a few of many positive, con- Structive and democratic | Planks in the Reform Plat- form, Yours very truly, constitutional arrangements. .}- Reform Party of Canada Skeena Constituency About - letters The Terrace Standard welcomes letters to the editor on all topics, All letters must be signed and carry an ad- dress. and local telephone number. Addresses or phone numbers won’t be printed necessary for confirmation of the letter’s authenticity The writer’s name will be published. Requests for names to be withheld-may. be granted in extraordinary. cir- cumstances... a 7 _ Thank you letters should be submitted to the “Card of Thanks’ ” section. of the classifieds, oe . Letters containing libelous or objectionable matter will be edited or returned to the writer, All letters are run on a space available basis, with Shorter letters likely to be published soonest. Vandals, watch out. = ty, eee red The Terrace and ’ The \“chamber says. | names of those who give: the rewards will be ke All of this will start in J: bruary Watch out | with the letter, but they are] REIS nie sera ng we yaa WEL g Paina OW fern pea . .