te | ao a... , _ The spirit of receiving __ “1... A face on every mountainside and a soul in every |. stone.”’ ee Thom is Pynchon. - mo fo . - At this time of the year most’of.us become sO obsessed with the spirit of giving that the art of receiv-’ ing gifts graciously becomes a neglected quality. The gifts of living in this area are so vast they are nearly invisible-at times, and they are seasonal only in the . sense that they take on new dimensions as the year resses. on. 7 progress = . m 2 ANDRE an ine oon ce Perea p pect tea ce ee ee eettoibee pst OO pale add io fe Ta, te, Lt . ar ty US nT a aia lila 7 It is remarkable to reflect that this vast seeming ee 1 wilderness that surrounds us, at times looking like a re / "9 OAKHAROY, vacuum of development and ownership, is in fact . | | staked, committed and planned throughout its totality (92) ~ 1989 both in space and well into the future in time. An ex- _ : sy Willa amination of any of several mapping systems for the . . CORRE < Northwest shows that each square inch is accounted for many times over. There are mineral rights, timber ae billy, supply areas, transportation rights of way, traplines, ee — Me pF hile Y, recreation corridors, land claims and other uses, pro- a 0 gti ya i a a _ posed, asserted and actual. | IW re ~ — . _ Viewing the mountains and forests from civilized comfort, we are sometimes like stewards of an enor- mous castle who never leave the parlor, while the silent ghosts of proprietorship rattle busily around in the corners of each room. The furious debates over land and resource usage that have barely begun in the _ 1980's will require us in the next decade to-get up and move around and witness for ourselves the region in - SESS irri eeaheig WR tEte ease ———— fii) SEE PE “teaappamaeliattiiiy y os iy Chey, ae om secre my al Mtb tpesteon. The view from ‘ which we live: i. Perhaps the best way to approach the adventure and © demands the 1990’s promise to offer is,to view, cach, . evergreen in our region as a Christmas tree and to receive the ground, air and water around each of them as gifts. ° During the holidays we become intensely conscious of the economy, with its market forces, costs of living, _ wage and price spirals, taxation and consumer ploys. — All around us, however, is an economy of trees, rocks and rivers, with its own rules that have nothing to do with ideas or theories, an economy so final and ab- solute that we can do nothing but receive it as a gift and hope to become wise by learning from it by ex- ample, Merry Christmas. VICTORIA — One Cabinet minister has called the four defectors from the Social Credit caucus ‘‘a bunch of flakes’?. Another even labelled them as ‘‘jackals’’. . One of their fellow MLA’s told me they were “‘courageous men who had the strength to stand up and be counted’’. Be they heroes or villains, - the four — Graham Bruce, Dave Mercier, Doug Mowat ‘ and Duane Crandall.— last . 7 week spelled out their. concerns over the leadership of Premier Bill Vander:Zalm in the — -bluntest’of terms. . More than two months after their stunning departure from — ~~ caucus on Oct. 4, the four - Established May 1, 1985 The Terrace Review is published each Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Publisher: Mark Twyford . Editor Michael Kally mS Staff Reporters: =. Tod Strachan, Betty Barton oon Advertising Manager: “> Mar] Twyford Typesetting: o Carrie Olson > Production Manager: Jim Halt Ly Production: Charles Costello, Gurbax Gil, Ranjit Nizar, Surinder Deo! ; Office: . Carrie Olson Accounting: Marj Twyford, Harminder K. Dosanjh : l Second-class mail registration No. 6896. 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V8G 1M7- Phone: 638-7840 Fax: 635-7269 One year subecriptions; (n Canada $24.00 Out of Canada $50.00 " Seniors in Terrace and District $12.00 Senlore out of Terrace and District $15.00 finally stopped generalizing .. about the issue, and stopped skating around direct reference ~ to the premier being the prob- lem. 2 At Thursday night’s $100-a-plate fund-raising dinner in Duncan (Bruce’s riding), they said many of the things about Vander Zalm which Socred Cabinet and caucus members have been saying . privately for nearly two years. They pulled few punches — _ from raising the spectre of former New Brunswick premier ‘* Richard Hatfield and his humiliating. defeat at the polls, to the fact that the Socred par- " ty could die if the current leadership troubles continue. For four sitting members of government to go to such lengths to prevent Vander Zalm from becoming Richard If — as they. view it — is unprece- dented in this province, and probably in Canada. Their concerns about the a by John Plfer a ao premier and their condemmna- tion of how they feel that Cabinet has abused caucus, in - a way also vindicated the much-battered news. media. We have been reporting on, speculating about and reflecting these concerns since early 1988... not creating them. The four MLA’s believe that many of their colleagues feel much the same way as they do about the mess the Social. Credit Party is in, but are afraid to be as up front about it’ — especially those enjoying — _ the additional $39,000 annual reward a Cabinet post brings... Their decision was to keep the pressure on Vander Zalm, rather than back off and wait for his January announcement about his future. Obviously, they did not want the premier: to take heart from any easing of the concern. . It was brutal hardball politics -of.the kind that B.C. is-in- famous for.;. and I can think of at least five senior Cabinet - ministers who play the same kind of no-holds-barred games, with glee. Whether this latest move will cause the enigmatic Vander Zalm to become defiant and determined to stay no matter _what the cost, or whether it will be further confirmation to him that he is jeopardizing the future of free enterprise gov- ernment, is something only Bill Vander Zalm knows. Arid we won't know what that is until the second week of January. Does the premier have any — option but to resign? Of course he does. But with friends like this, who needs enemies? Why would he want to stay? _ Even though there is not any option I can think of which -- will save the government from defeat in a general election if he does stay, the nature of this man is such that until he ac-. tually says.it, anything can happen. Stay tuned. It was not all doom and gloom in Duncan, .The event was hardly festive, but it did have some lighter moments, Best quips of the night came from MC Bill Keserich, who told the crowd that ‘‘the bad news is we've lost six straight by-elections; the good news is there are no more by-elections planned.” He also reported the Wednesday earthquake in B.C., ‘which hit six on the election - scale,’”. and reminded diners that “as the twig is bent, it is _ time for a new gardener.’’ Prominent among; the con- cerned Socreds were former — Cabinet ministers Jim Nielsen - and Bob McClelland, with Nielsen the main thrust behind . the Political Equality Research Group, or PERG, pronounced purge, of course. - PERG is dedicated to getting the Socreds to amend the party constitution ‘‘so as to reflect. the pluralistic nature of the ’ province.”’ It also wants all. members to have a direct vote in any leadership selection pro- cess. os Nielsen told this correspon- _ dent that the party must avoid a repeat of the divisive 1986 Whistler convention at all . costs. He envisions a province- — wide satellite TV hookup, with - Socred members gathered in |. - continued on page A7