iia lites teen Page A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 15, 1993 QS TERRACE STANDARD) Registration No, 7820 Phone (604) 638-7283 (1969) Utd, it’s illustration repro services and advartising agencies, Serving the Terrace area, Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Presa (1969) Ltd. al 4647 Lazelle Ave,, Tarrace, British Columbia, Reprodudtion In whole or in part, wihoul written permission, Is specifically prohibited. Auihorized as second. “class mail pending tha Post Olfica Department, far payment of postage in cash, Jef Nagel - Naws/Community, Malcolm Baxter - News/Sports, Publisher/Editor: Rose Fisher - Front Office Manager, Pam Odell - Compositor, SHED WR ese Rad Link Tricla Walker - Typesetter, Susan Credgeur - Composing/Darkroom, Special thanks to ESTABLISHED APA 27. 1 Janet Vivelros - ~ Advertising Consultant, Sam Calliar - Advertising Consultant, all our Charlana Matthews - Circulation Manager . 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, BC, v8G ‘es wanenert contributors and ; , espondents Mike L. Hamm corr ; - Fax (604) 638-8432 | Hamm ‘or their time and Slories, photographs,’ Illustrations, designs and typastyles in tha Terrace Standard are the property af the copyright holders, Gi Caritoo Press Production Manager: talents. * Gna Edouard Credgeur CONTHOLLED _ EDITORIAL, Difficult selection Voters face a bigger challenge this feder- al election than in recent ones, That’s be- cause there are more political parties from which to choose. The traditional Progres- sive Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats are now joined by the Reform. party in the west and Ontario and the Bloc Quebecois in Quebec. There is also ‘a healthy smattering of Christian Heritage . Party and National Party candidates spread throughout the country. We're going to hear a lot between now and Oct. 25 from each: party as it and its candidates maneuver for the hearts and souls of the voters. The central thenie is and will remain the state of the economy, Each. party has its theories about how 1 it will “‘fix’’ the economy. So far about the most reasonable states ment on the economy appears to- have come from Prime Minister Kim Campbell. She said last week that the high level of unemployment could stretch into the next century. ‘That’ 's because of massive. federal One. of, the biggest economic shocks out there nowadays is the bank interest rate ‘paid on savings accounts. It’s 1 per cent. That’s right, 1 per cent on all those hard- veanle after-tax and sorely prized dollars ople have: mana an (inal Pay’ Ay ‘compared to those awful days of the 1980s. The cost of borrowing all sorts of money has dropped. And so it would seem to ‘make sense that the: ‘return, on investment -would also be cut. . the financial institutions. nowadays. Geéner- ally speaking’: the. spread: is. the difference ‘between what a financial i institution Pays te to. | Tk fo ke an < to squirrel away for... _ that'satisfactory high rolling clients. Yet it’s the spread t tha shows: the state of government deficits and the ever climbing national debt. The more money required to keep the kind of services now going the less there7ll be to, as politicians 1 love to say, create jobs. That kind of thinking. makes sense if voters accept the idea that it is the role of a government to hand: out tax dollars in the expectation of creating employment. or to provide a variety. of stimulants. It is indeed _.a weird world in which people and -. businesses who complain about higher taxes.jostle at the door of the government vault when it’s time for hand outs. ; Voters should remember two things when evaluating a political platform. First is that more and more government dollars are _being borrowed. That means something no longer costs a dollar, It costs the dollar plus whatever interest rate there is, Second ‘is that governments are experts at bribing taxpayers with their own money, In the end, voters get the kind of Povern- ment they deserve. interest keep your money and what it charges for borrowing. With mortgage rates in the 8-9 per.cent range and consumer loans hover- ing in the 10 per cent area, that pitiful 1 per cent savings return indicates somebody — and it ain ‘t you ~ — is making a handsome . TUWANIO al tOatilcieedl (palit. TaNGRO Wye hi ‘Bhoiild -be expected: - The rate’ of inflation ‘is ‘drastically reduced’ ° rule a) iol. eleaorot VY Cy To be sure, Banks ‘ie aven't pe thiaps dad’bn ! ” easy time of it. Like any ‘other business, they’ve been taking hits because of the na-" tional recession, But some of those hits _ came: “fiom simply lousy business decisions involving’ billions of dollars Jent to less. losses. It’s: less . than a Happy annie $ ary Pity the: successful arsonist. “A year. after lighting ‘Up: a neighbour's life by torching his home to the: ground, the successful : ‘arsonist must - celebrate © the anniversary: of his | pyromanical ‘deed in his head, Now,. ‘though: there is: plenty of space in his head. for a. reunion-sized gathering com- plete with. barbecued: burgers, oo ys well wishers, ‘and brisker traf- fic flow than the Coquihalla, he must commemorate liis in- . cendiary occasion. without so = much as a Hallmark’ card, a - “Through Bifocals | | by Claudette Sa deck' ao ground sb siory. No ‘elevision faction of loosening his belt, He can quit looking over his shoulder and ease the crick. from his neck. i. to bid -_WEHAD AN EXCITING TIRST DAY | ~WEATTACKED THE OUTDATED PROGRAMS... CHALLENGED THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM... aA — QUESTIONED TEACHERS SALARIES OBJECTED TO... (on wd ELE , telegram of good wishes, or a- “‘Gee, Gee, Look Who’s Still Free” ad jin the. announce- — ments’ section ofthe newspa- per, His buddies never get-to sing Auld Lang Syne. When’ he does. gather with . buddies, he © dare’ not, tell Stories .of his: ‘peculiar: “past: time or. indulge in boastful. - oneupmanship; | no matter how - much he burns to disciose. - ‘He can’t notch a gun. like Billy: the. Kid, keep'‘open score like a Blue: ‘Tay, -or, display’ a. telethon, total of property he's S. scorched.” So long as “he | te ains as. anonymous: » aS philanthropist, he, avoids, the... notoriety: of arrest, tial, and possible conviction.” He ‘also has to do. without recogtiition. 7 stg “yideo footage of the: Sight he ‘tumed a Thornhill home: into’ a -black cloud of Terrace. ‘Everyday. he worrles ‘whether. folks notice:he avoids passing the site of his handiwork. Sup-. pose a witness informs police? ~ Will “his family: always ‘cover his tracks? What if someone - punctures his alibi. How: long before his heart quits bungec _ . jumping whenever a cop: care “ "slows near his driveway?) “Support: groups. don’t exis ; for arsonists smoldering 10’ get ~ + things off their chests, Neither “are - there . firebug. fraternities” with ‘secret ‘Signs, rings, and lapel“ pins.” He” can’t” join ‘an Amway, or Mary Kay. organi- zation. to spotlight his achieve- ment: and « receive’. accolades, And there’s no national com- petition where singe artists can “win a statue, “a plaque, or a “place in a Hall of Fame,’: The unsuccessful arsonist, on ~ So what if his mug: appears _on the nightly news. He gets to. "spill his guts on Oprah or _.Geraldo., Heck, he. can even nap, and talk in his sleep, And - -he no ‘longer has to-live up to _ every. letter of the law ta make ~ gure’ police: have no reason to take a.closer look. at him, That -alone can be 4 big relief. ~ What, I'd like to know is this: does. the ‘successful “arsonist await the anniversary ‘with anticipation or dread? . T CAN? reer ENOUGH f SPEVP ALL MY CASH. ON if! CAN'T HOLD A STEADY JOB! KEEP GOING BACK To ir! , Journey to to Kootenays a soothing experience _ VICTORIA — It was time to clear the cobwebs from my mind and confirm, once again, that there is another world out there, a world apart from politics, a British Columbia ‘ removed from deficits and overtuns, ftom bureaucracy and petty politics. I took a week off and headed east for a tour of the Kootenays, surely one of Brit- ish Columbia’s most beautiful regions. Having travelled the Co- 1 quihaila Highway thedasttime s+ I travelled-east,.] decided to go. . : the Hope-Princeton route in- stead. Not that the Coquihalla isn’ta a scenic road, It is, very much so, but I pre- fer the narrower, winding, _ . ‘Hope-Princeton Highway, _, And that leaves the distinct impression of smaller ‘customers absorbing the: banks’ ~ self-inflicted “ favourable si situation. leading through dark and cool _ forests, with beautiful vistas at every turn, "My first overnight stop was - - ‘Osoyoos, 8 summer paradise ‘perched at Osoyoos Lake, which has the distinction of ‘being Canada’s warmest fresh- water lake with summer temperatures averaging 24 de- - grees Celsius. The lake stretches for 17 miles on both sides of the: - Canada-US, border and offers vacationers every type of. tecreational activity from swimming, to boating, to water skiing, to fishing. A number of parks have ex- ° - cellent camping facilities, and the town of Osoyoos has all the amenities a traveller can wish for, including good hotels and motels, excellent restaurants and chic shops. - Next morning,'] was back on _the road, stopping in Grand . Forks to drop in on John Smith, an old friend and pub- lisher of the Grand Forks © Gazette. Then it was onto ' Nelson. | Nelson has got to be one of the jewels of British Colum- bia. It’s large enough to give . the feeling of being in a city, but it hasn’t lost its com- munity spirit. - Nelson is said.to have the largest concentration of PhDs ’ . with a few Bavarian-style in British Columbia. For. . whatever reason, Nelson has - for a couple of decades been a LEAVE My FAMILY FOR ir p SKIP WORK FoR tr! = el FIGHT POR IT! RISK MY d. LIFE FOR py ft From the Capital by Hubert Beyer refuge for intellectuals who want to escape the fast lane of the province’s large urban centres. The other thing | that strikes "Yduabout Nelson is the" re ‘presence of a vibrant arts com- munity. I ran into more arts exhibits in Nelson than you can find in either Vancouver or Victoria, The arts even spill over into the regular street scene. Right on the main drag, a chap with long hair and an even longer beard was playing the piano, which he had some- how dragged to the centre of _the street. As he was playing classical music that would have been met with approval by the most — sophisticated audience in any concert hall, traffic was flow- . ing past him on both sides of the street. Ilovedit, That evening, I had dinner with Corky Evans at the . Heritage Inn, a hotel built in. _ the late 1890s. Corky is the MLA for Nelson-Creston. With us was David Lawson, instructor at and booster ex- traordinaire of the Kootenay Schoo! of the Arts, an institu- tion that owes its existence to the untiring efforts of many volunieers, It’s a success story I will deal with ina separate column. : My next overnight stop was to have been Kimberley: I had “never been to Kimberley, but had heard.a lot about it. Kimberley is a Bavarian-. style town in the Kootenays. I don’t want to be too unkind,. but I prefer my Bavarian — _ towns in Bavaria, where you get the real thing, not just - some clapboard shopping mal] touches, -grandly referred to as. the Platzl, the German word ouwhich doesn’ t have to. depend ; 0n-@ phony theme:to’make: visitors welcome. During. am to Revelstoke, one of my — | Cheek, I decided to.try outa . Canyon, I drove west to Lil- . -looet, then along the Duffy ‘Lake Road, which is oc- rushing through yawning can: : | A Pane BUSH! THe Busy / —|HE BUSH//7) WAR —— = =f a — SS ESS aN BES aS EES ———— for small town square. . It didn’t take me too long to decide to push ontoln- .. vermere, a lovely small town’ breakfast.next moming, I . overheard someone behind me talk with an unmistakable Ger- 7 man accent. me I knew that voice and, sure”. - enough, it was Hans Hartwig, | formerly of Victoria, Before | retiring to his ranch near In-- vermere, Hartwig lived in Vic- toria, where he made a name for himself as one of that rare : species — a developer with a « conscience. . - Hartwig gave a lot to Vic- fas toria, including Hartwig Court on Wharf Street and Nootka °° Court, a downtown shopping. mall, Both projects are among. . the most tastefully designed - developments in’ Victoria; celebrating our own heritage » ~ rather than catering to some phony tourism theme... © © Thad to decline an invitation - to see his ranch and pushed on. favourite towns. Next day, it. ~ was time to be homeward - bound. Arriving in Cache route I had never driven be- - fore, Rather than taking High-" way Number 1 via the.Fraser: . casionally subject to blockades by First Nations, and on to. Pemberton and Whistler.: If you have a chance, tive ut that stretch, It leads through some of the most ewesomely beautiful country you have = ever seen, with white-water yons and a mountain pass on . . top of the world. . Beautiful British Columbia? : You bet it is, » No ie on will.arm to the waite, his, back- the, other. thane, has the. Satis-