Page 4, THE HERALD, Thursday, August 31, 1978

a

’ redistribution of 264 House of Commons seats
into " ‘ : ee
. = will be 18 more constituencies voting [

N /
“So, you still have a job...you’re lucky”’ no,
we're not making this statement. This is the title
of a blue cover brochure put out by the New
Democratic Party of British Columbia. Open the
pamphlet, and in bold blue headlines, the next
page announces, “More than 100,000 people in
B.C, need jobs.” ;

It goes on to inform the reader that “One in
every ten is without work.” and, “One in every
five people aged 19 to 24 is seeking work and
can’t find it.”

Abox, in the left hand corner, illustrated wi
a pile of coins and a bundle of ten dollar b
tells you that “Unemployment cost you $519.92.

Since the statistics quoted are at 1976 levels,

one must presume the brochure is not a recent
one.
It, along with three other pieces of literature
and bumper stickers was distributed from a
literature table at the Old Chalet during Federal
NDP leader, Ed Broadbent's visit to Kitimat and
Terrace last week.

What intrigued this editor most about the
pamphlet was not only the age of the statistics,
but the purpose of its publication.

Having assured the reader how expensive
unemployment was to every of the one our of five
who does have a job, in B.C., the rest of the
message was a pitch for funds for the NDP

party.

J CC \

EDITORIAL |

Nowhere in the four-page folder is there any
enlightenment as to how the NDP plans to
provide employment. The message is, first, one
continued wail ‘bemoaning the high unem-
ployment rate, and the drain that it is on the
worker. The second part is an appeal for funds
from that obviously overtaxed one-in-five, for
contributions fromi $1 to $100 to help the NDP
“eontinue the fight for action’.

A second piece of literature was ‘NDP - an
introduction to the B.C. New Democratic Party”
(Ed Broadbent, you will remember, is not from
B.C. Also, he is the federal‘leader - not the
provincial leader.) This pamphlet actually hada
1976 date of publication: ; ;

It states, erroneously that Manitoba is NDP
(Manitoba having overthrown the NDP
gavernment since the pamphlet was published).

We are not suggesting the NDP should discard

the pamphlets as a result - but they could have

corrected the statement using a rubber stamp or
® ball-point pen. ; me
> Nowhere in the single-sheet brochure, folded

into 8 small pages, is there any mention of what
the NDP can do to solve the leading problems
facing our country. The “policy paper", in a
small, orange ruled box, gives its purpose for
being: “‘The NDP was created to give youa voice
in your government. This booklet was designed
tu give you a stronger voice in the NDP. Tell us if
it helps - and how to make it better.”

The third piece of.the four we picked up on the
NDP literature table is labelled “Big News All
about PAC”. .

PAC, it seems, stands for Pre-Authorized
Chequing. It enables NDP members to have
monthly payments deducted from their chequing
accounts to support the NDP. By signing a card,

authorizing the deduction, a member can donate

Onawa Offfent . ty Rudard Jachssn |

Ottawa, - One thing about this oncoming |
election, for the first time in the Pearson- —
Trudeau bilingual era Quebec may not decide it.

Opinion? No.
Then what's
The figures.

the authority for it?
The arithmetic of the

only one of these additional seats is in
evec.
Redistribution is making Ontario, British
Columbia and the Prairie Provinces the bat-
tleground on which the winning and the losing
will be done. ~

Ontario goés to the polls with seven new seats.

There are five new constituencies in British
Columbia, *

Two in Alberta,

One each in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the
Northwest Territories. : ©

All 17 of these in Erf#Rsh-speaking Canada.

And the one extra riding for Quebec.

So the new arithmetic of redistribution of what
basically is voting power gives Quebec only 75 of
282 seats.

The Conservatives, to be realistic, again will
have to pretty well write off Quebec.

That’s Trudeau country, the same as it was
Pearson preserve, Mackenzie King-dom, and in
fact, by voting tradition, Liberal turf well posted
with “Conservatives Keep Off the Grass"’ signs.

Last time out, the Conservatives squeezed out
only three of Quebec's 74 _ seats.

How much better will they do this time with 75
seats all but “reserved” by the Liberals?

-If they're looking for miracles, they're
hallucinating, for all Leader Joe Clark’s French
lessons,

But for once in their unlucky political lives --
holding power in only six of the last 43 years ~
maybe this time they won't have to be looking for
election wonders.

They took power once before without Quebec.

That was in 1957, the year former Prime
Minister Diefenbaker, with his good right hand
man Gordon Churchill planning the strategy,
broke 22 years of Liberal rule.

Now with Quebec power slipping — fewer seats
in relation to the rest of the country -- it should be
easier. ;

- And not to worry about a victory without
Quebec damaging national unity.

For Quebeckers, good, sound bread-and-butter
people — excepting the separatist militants - go
where the power is.

They did it after Dief’s 57 victory, and in 1953
piled on their votes with the rest of the country to
give him those unequalled 208 seats.

On paper then — looking at the new numbers of
redistribution — it doesn't look all that hard for
the Conservatives.

_ They need only hold their grip on the West,
retain their strength in the Maritimes and make
gains in Ontario where they now hold only 25 of 83

seats.
This time Ontario has 95 seats,
But Trudeau has been turning Ontario off -- far

enough off that it sh m into backing away
from a planned Spring election with the cam-
paigning already in full gear.

Can the Conservatives do it?

Bets on Parliament Hill seem to be going down
on them half doing it. With a minority.

Again arithmetic is the key.

For the last 20 years or so, minorities have
been a way of political life. In five of eight
rnajority between 1957 and 1974, no party got a

y. ;
If it's again a minority, there'll be another .

election in 1980, for each of those minorities

lasted only two years. .

© NOP Can tt produce 1100.00 Jobs? —

$120 a year to the party coffers, of which he can

. have $85 refunded as a tax rebate, making the

actual cost to him a mere. $35.

Still nothing, in this third of four pamphlets,
about what the NDP will actually do to bring an
end to unemployment, inflation, and the
breaking up of Canada by the Parti Quebecois.

The fourth - and only federal - NDP piece of

‘ literature we picked up from the table at the

meeting was headlined, ‘NDP Canada’s only
alternative.‘ ;

It was a tabloid-size, 4-page newspaper, at the
bottom of each page, described as ‘Democrat
Special Report”. The upper half of the front page.
was a torso shot of Ed Broadbent, cigar stub in
right hand, speaking into a microphone.

The lower half of the page begins with the
statement Canada is about to face a very crucial
federal general election. It then goes on to blame.
the Liberals for the state Canada is in, says that
Quebec has “had enough and wants out”, and
suggests the Conservatives haven't anything
substantial to offer by way of remedying the
situation:

Across the top of the two-page centrefold, is
announced, ‘'More than a million Canadians
can’t find work.” Below, in box heads, are
Housing, National Unity, Farming and fishing,
Energy - all under a bigger box head: NDP
Canada’s only alternative.

Under housing: A New Democratic federal
government will ensure every Canadian the
right to housing at reasonable cost. How? By
providing 100 per cent federal loans to provincial.
and local governments to. acquire land for
housing, transit and other purposes. There is no
mention of how the government will find this
sum of billions of dollars - and, mind you, this is .
for the land. There is no mention of the houses to

I forgot to get my copy of the Terrace 1978 Progress Report from the HERALD office!

"native

Gy Giakam Lea

By the time this column appears, most British.
Columbians. will be looking forward to Labour
Labour Day, 1978. I say “most” because of one
significant exception - the brewery workers.

This year, the brewery workers will be viewing
Labour Day as more than the traditional end of
summer. It might also mark the end of their
resistance to the eastern cartel which has locked
them out of their jobs since early June. Three

- months without a pay cheque will break the
backs of most union families. But three months

without production doesn’t seem to have affected
the companies. Consider Molson’s as an
example.

Two weeks ago, Molson’s announced its first
quarter earnings. The company reported a profit
of $13.8 million, up 46 percent from the
corresponding period a year earlier. The more
significant statement, however, was the rider
attached to the quarterly announcement by the
company president. He forecasted that brewing
profits throughout the year would be higher than
last year’s, “despite continuing labour problems
in the industry.”

What is particularly disturbing is the rather
hand-in-glove appraoch of the profincial
government with regards to these large eastern
companies. In what surely must qualify as an
attempt to minimize whatever pressure the B.C.
consumer might apply to a completely dry
summer, the provincial government has been
importing generous amounts of U,S. beer. That
way consumers’ buying habits are maintained,
but at premium prices. Once the brewery
workers’ resistance is broken and the dispute is
settled, Molson’s and its friends can resume
production with impunity. The consumer will
quickly abandon the $6.50 case of U.S. beer in
favour of the cheaper domestic brands.

Had there been three months of absolutely no
beer, there of course would have been a change
in the B.C. consumer’s consumption habits. He

or she might have switched to wine and the
longer the lock-out, the greater the risk of a
permanent change in drinking preferences. But
as long as the government promoted the sale of
US. beer,. the brewery companies were
laughing. .

But, then again, should we expect anything
different from the government? Composed as it

is of so many millionaires, the Social Credit

government would see no inconvenience in
paying $1.50 a bottle for beer. And the complete
drying up of the stocks of draught beer hardly
rates as a priority problem for the Socreds.
Draught beer is the drink of the working man.
The Socreds, as exemplified by the Premier,
rarely seem to use beer to quench their thirsts.
In a story in the Canadian Magazine of August
5th on Mr. Bennett, a member of his staff went to
great lengths to point out what a “regular guy”

the premier was. No old time Socred tea-totaler, .

not the premier. His press aides stressed that
“he enjoys a drink”... Black Label, Chivas
Regal, vodka and water, German white wines.”

For the 5,000 workers in the hotel industry that
have been laid off as a result of the dispute and
for the brewery workers themselves, it is ob-
vious the premier has little sympathy for their
plight. Why should he?It will probably be the
farthest thing from his mind on this Labour Day.
If the Canadian Magazine story is any guide, the
Premier: will most likely be relaxing in his
magnificent home, probably in front of the T.V.
set indulging in a favourite past time - watching
football. And he’ll probably be sipping his glass

‘of Chivas Regal.

BE AN ARTHRITIS

| FIGHTER
HELP WITH YOUR

DOLLARS

1

be erected on the land! (This is probably spelled:
out in other publications.) The only mention in:
the tabloid is, “The New Democratic Party thas:
outlined a National Mortgage. Corporation and a
Department of Housing and Urban Affairs which
guarantees Canadians the right to adequate:
shelter - because the NDP considers shelter a -
right no less important than food, health care.
and education.” ; a

To sum up. , oe
Attacking the present government for failure '
to keep Canada from high unemployment and::
inflation is one thing. Attacking the Con;-!
servatives for not coming up with any, aiter~ ;
solutions -is all very *~ well.
But just to say the NDP is for the working.man, -
that by forming a housing corporation it: will :
provide adequate housing for everyone ‘who-: ”
needs it - still dees nothing to provide one million /
one hundred thousand jobs for the unemployed;’:
nor does it help the breach between Quebec and :
the rest of Canada. It seems to completely: -
ignore the advertised poverty of the hearly-':
bankrupt Maritimes, other than to blame this on.:
the present government's “abject failures, of an’
unplanned economy and the stubborn reluctance. ;
of its complacent’ managers to meet. the.
legitimate cultural and economic needs of all
Canadians.” at
Mr, Broadbent stated, last Monday night, that -
he is going to reveal, within the next few weeks, .
his solutions to Canada’s problems. at
Let us hope they will be real solutions not just .
another dose of electioneering - oriented «
vagueness, such as we have been reading in the :
available brochures that seem to have been pre- :
occupied with plans for campaign contributions : —
from the taxpaying public for the NDP. a

DO. ULA

The commitment by the Conservative party to.
eliminate the provincial sales tax and the.
property tax for school purposes has naturally;
raised questions as to how government could.
function with so much less money. The answer:
involves many things, one of which is the pupil-
teacher ratio. a

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has conducted :
a vigorous campaign in recent years for im--
proving the quality of education by reducing the:
number of pupils in a class -- in other words by.
hiring more teachers. ag, ‘

It seemed natural to assume that smailer;
classes would indeed be of benefit to.pupils,_bu
studies and surveys done in many areas had
consistently gailed to establish that any im-
provement im pupil achievement could be ob-
tained by making classes smaller than they
already were in British Columbia. The N.D.P.
government accepted the idea, however, and
provided the money to hire more teachers and
build more classrooms for. them, bringing the
pupil-teacher ratio down from approximately 23
pupils per teacher to approximately 19 Under the '
present government the trend has ‘continued,
although much more slowly. *: mc

I do not question that everyone concerned was
making a sincere effort to improve the quality of
education, but it was undoubtedly the most
expensive way imaginable to try to achieve that
desirable end and, as has been the case
everywhere, it had no measurable result.

The present cost of employing teachers is
about $700 million. Had the pupil-teacher ratio
not been changed the saving in the current year, .
not counting the cost of extra classrooms, could
have been close to $150 million.

The present minister of education is obviously
reluctant to spend that money, but has taken the
position that it is up to the school boards to set
the ratio. In other words he hopes that the school
trustees will brave the wrath of the Teachers’
Federation, but he isn’t going to.

The Conservative party does not believe that
the taxpayers have any responsibility to
guarantee employment in the school system to
everyone with a teaching certificate any more
than employment could be similarly guaranteed -
to those who trained themselves.

In government our party stands ready to pay
the full cost of a good basic education program,
including special services such as those required
by students with learning disabilities, but we see
no justification for burdening the taxpayers with
a cost.of more than $100 million a year to con-
tinue a failed experiment, and we will not do so.

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald

Published by
Sterling Publishers

i
4

General Office - 635-6357
Circulation - 635-6357

PUBLISHER - Laurie Mallett
EDITOR - Ernie Senior
REPORTER - Donna Vallleres

REPORTER -
CIRCULATION - Pat  Zelinskl 632-2747
CIRCULATION Joyce = Fish 635-6357

KITIMAT OFFICE - 632-2747

Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street,
Terrace, B.C. A member of Varifled Circulation.

Authorized ss second class mail. Registration number
120). Postage pald in cash, return postage guaranteed.

NOTE OF COPYRIGHT

The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright in
any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or
photographic content pubtished in the - Herald,

Reproduction is not permitted withaut ihe written
permission of the Publisher. ’ a