—_

~The writting on the wall.

-of a dogwood tree, About the

* feet unaccountably

" Lettere tothe editor will be considered for publication only when signed.

|, expressed are not n

Bong

Heaven help us all, but the signs are everywhere —_
there will be a provincial election this summer. |
Our house haruspex (look it up; that’s a very:
specific type of fortuneteller that every newspaper |
keeps around for government budget forecasting and
hockey pools... ours bears a surprising resemblance to
a pit bull terrier. We keep him in the attic and feed ©
him raw meat with a slingshot) recently examined a
crow found-in the 4700 block Lazelle. Its intestines
were tied in half-hitches, a sure bet that an election’s
on the way. . a ;
A staff member reported last week that during a
walk through Frank’s Field the sun suddenly went dim
at midday and a stellar’s jay fell dead at her feet out
) same time while on a
“ramble across Ferry Island another staffer found his
frozen to the ground and a
Western Red cedar leaned over his head, whispering -
“doom, doom, doom”. Or was that...? Never mind.
‘On the night of. March 22 a creature that bore a
startling likeness to a deputy returning officer was .
seen baying at the full moon from the top of the
Tillicum Theatre building. : an

There are other signs of a more obscure nature. The

normally reticent Social Credit MLA for Skeena, Dave |
-: Parker, has submitted two
_ the past two weeks and last-week called a town hall

meeting on four days’ notice,

letters to this newspaper in

on} ce, where he expounded on
the virtues of the provincial budget.

On Monday we received a press release from, of all
people, Grace McCarthy. It was the text of a ,

"monolithic speech she delivered from the-back benches

in support of the March 30th’provincial budget, blam-—
ing the NDP for everything from the breakdown of
the nuclear family to the Canucks’ elimination from |

the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1977 (well, almost), It’s © 7

the first we’ve heard from her since the leadership race
and one has to wonder... Grace are you...?

The indications are everywhere: dogs are beginning
to bark at journalists, and strangers make warding-off

. signs at us when we meet them in the street, as if to

_prepare us for what’s to come.

But the most frightening sign of all came Saturday
night at the town hall meeting, where our staff
reporter overheard a Social Credit. association
organizer attempting to book the Happy Gang Centre
for June 3 — to hold a pre-election seminar.

mem Terrace Review NA
PAID ; a
Established May 1, 1985 - ‘Second-class mail
The Terrace Review is published registration No. 6896.
eac nesday Dy all tal ing in the T Rev!
Close-Up Business Services Ltd. All mater iader Canadian Copyright Nopistrar .
. Publisher: tlon No. 362775. and cannot legally be repro-
Mark T wyfor d duosd (for any reeson without permlasion of the
Editor: rors and omielone, acer 1 cepted
e@ con io a ave or:
bie Kelly typographical ero, that portion of the acer
__.. Staff Reporter: ng aa oe etor b Ye betanc Be ociver-
tain Regret eek
. dvertising anager. ; ; ertisers must assume respons f ar-
. . nh co al w .G,. Hum 8 Act,
- Advertising Corey nant: nO advertisement will be publiehed which
St nee f discriminates againat a person due to age, race,
Typesetting: ° religion, color, sex, nallonallty, ancestry or place
oS Carrie Olson of origin.
“7 Production Manager: 4535 Grelg Avenue,
co. Production: .
. oo. Alvin Stewart, Phone: 635-7640
-. Gurbax oo Mercer _» Fax: 636-7268
ee re ce: a
an Carle Olson "One year cubeeriptions:
“hese on eas
re jarj Twyfor ct Canada $50.
a veer - Seniors In T d District $12.00
3)” “Harminder Dosanjh geniora out of Terrace and Distriat $18.00

eel .

- Plaase Include your telephone number.

THe editor reserves the right to condense. and edit letters. Opinions

ecessarily those of the Terrace Review. :

La SME mee a eRe a, gS SHS ede 66, ei as aii _

rz} RHE Perr nny erurmenr ey rer calrree * fash

ces wy Sri ose writing aod an MRTUOD poes lt as bee ;

NOW, iF WE COULD

-|. END SOME FEATHERS...

AS

TSEC MN SON

by Bob Jackman

: Wednesday _ | oe
_. Perspectives

1 don’t know if columnists —
are supposed to scoop the
legitimate reporter types or not,
but I can’t resist this one. It’s
been kicking around for a
while, but no sélf-respecting

_ journalist can deal in conjec-- -

ture. They are of course free to
pick up on rumors and, by ask-
ing the right people the right
questions, turn the rumor into
a legitimate news story. So let’s
try this one on for size.

_ Jim Fulton will resign his
seat in the House of Commons
to run against Dave Parker in
the next provincial election.

" Helmut Giesbrecht will run in

the federal by-election. You
may have heard it somewhere
else, but you read it here first.
“IT couldn’t resist. My heart
won’t let me forecast the
Stanley Cup winner, and my
brain won’t let me suggest a
Canucks upset of the Flames
(by the time this is printed, the
Canucks might even be out of
it!), so I’m reduced to politics.
Mr. Fulton has been com-
menting more than usual lately
about provincial issues, and -
Mr. Giesbrecht has been keep-
ing a high profile leading my
teachers’ strikes. Neither of
these gentlemen are political
neophytes. By taking a swipe at

_ Fletcher Challenge, (and maybe

not expecting the tiger to strike
back), Jim was also taking a
sideways swipe at the Forests
Minister, who just by coin-
cidence is the MLA he'd be.

’ running against. Following the

political adage of ‘print ©
whatever you want, just, spell
my name right’ Helmut lias’. -

‘seen more press lately than he ©

did as Mayor. - | oy
. Mr. Fulton is probably get-
ting tired of crossing the coun- -

try and flying into places like ”

Hartley. Bay: A nice little retire-
ment.job-as- MLA: (a.Ja-Frank
Howard) could supplement his
federal pension, build a provin-
cial pension, and ease his -
return back to real life. Mr.
Giesbrecht, who presided over
several consecutive budget
overruns.as Mayor, would be
right at home in the rarefied

' deficit budget atmosphere of

Ottawa. Or so the scenario
goes. .
“I could be wrong. But for

- the life of me, I can’t see any

other credible NDP ‘candidate
out there. Having become pret-
ty non-political lately, I’m not
trying to force anybody’s hand,
but I'd rather be wrong in the
political arena than the hockey
arena. God, I'd love to see the
Canucks take itin six!

@ One of the basic shifts I
think you'll see in our
economic structure over the
next few years will be the
demise of the medium-sized
company. Buy-outs and ;
mergers are slowly changing the
relationship between nianufac-
turers and customers. If you.

try.to buy a new car, your

choice is limited to GM, Ford,
maybe Chrysler or a few Asian
makes. You can take a chance
on a more exotic type
(remember the Yugo?) but
you've got no guarantee that
parts will be available in six

- ‘months, let alone service.

A TV? How about a Sony or
a Sanyo? A computer? IBM or
Macintosh, Computer soft-

-ware? Lotus or Microsoft. And

if you've ‘got a problem? Well,

‘you‘can call their 800 number,

and stay on hold till hell
freezes over... Or, you can try

‘to fix.it yourself, ha, ha... or, .

you can-find some little guy ~~

— aun nel
with some hands-on experience”.
and a few smarts to fixitfor —
you. ,

Because there aren’t any
medium-size companies around

’ that you can reasonably expect.
will be in business next year,
you might as well go with the .
industry standard, The industry
standard is ‘the big guy’ and
‘the big guy sells to a whole lot
of other big guys, like govern. _
ments and other big companies.
The big.guy could care less
whether you’re happy with
your car, your TV, your com- -_
puter or anything else jn your
life!

So who cares about you? I

“have a favorite mechanic, who
cares enough about how I feel ~
about my car to try to keep it
running for me. It’s almost
worth giving up the warranty
because I know Norm is going
to fix my car, he’s not going to»
charge me extra, and I’m not :
going to have to get my muf-
fler repaired a week after he
fixes my heater. I found a
small shop that fixes VCR's, —
and they called the.day after I
took mine in. It’s fixed! In this
high-tech, industry-standard
world, it’s nice to know that
there are people around with»
the skills and the caring at-
titude to fill the void. It’s nice
to know there’s room for the
little guy! .

@ And it looks like they’ve .
started excavating for the new :
mall addition, Several large ex-
ploratory holes have been dug

_in front of the Commercé =
Bank, and the basement for at
least one building has been dug
where you would ordinarily
have driven from Ottawa Street
into the bank parking lot. wie

. Somebody tried to tell me they...

were potholes... ==