The first officialactof thenew

chairman of the Liberal govern‘!

Ment’s Food Prices Review
eard was to declare this week
“lat price increases willnot stop
Just because the board exists.

oo! Plumptre, appointed
h ~time head of the new board,
He ane notice onconsumers
tia € board will follow a ‘‘do-

Ing’ policy on prices unless

pushed by an aroused public.

She told the press im-
mediately after her appoint-
ment Monday, that the board
will prepare regular quarterly
reviews of food price trends as
well as special enquiries into
particular products.

Mrs. Plumptre made it clear
that while the board can study
prices and suggest solutions, it
has no power toforcechainstore

AW HIGH FOOD FNC)
"t sets up

retailers and processors to hold
the line on rising food costs.

She said she evisaged the
board’s jobas oneof analysing in
depth the reasons for rising food
costs.

Other members of the board
announced by Consumers
Affairs Minister Herb Gray are
Dr. Gordon L. Burton of Alberta,
Evelyn Root (Sun columnist
Penny Wise), and Louise H.

Lorrain of Quebec.

After laboring mightily, the
Federal government has
producedamouse. After months
of deliberations by the special
Commons committee on prices,
followed by recommendations
to the government, what the
public has now is board which
will tell them that prices are
high and why.

While that in itself is a

do-nothing board

concession to public demand, it
falls far short of what the public
wants and needs: thatis a board
with power to curb price
increases, andorder rollbacks
where justified. This was the
demand raised at a public rally
in Vancouver last Sunday— and
still remains the main demand
for consumers.

See report of the rally below.

Right opens drive
3 against NDP gov't

~ MIAJORITY
MOVEMENT

FOR FREEDOM AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

© Tribune

a 15°

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1973

British
Columbians

The M,

in freed,

British Cooney. Movement was not planned — it simply grew, all across

a lumbia, as local groups came together to express their concern

a mon Tecognition that public policy is now being directed by a
Y roup dedicated to the philosophy of state control.

mino,

enerty Movement exists to provide a’common meeting ground for
belice aving different political allegiances, but who share a common
iom.

Jarl A.B. Whist — Kamloops, 8.C.
Arnold F.C. Hean — Burnaby B.C. (

can participate.

(Provincial Spok

We invite participation by all concerned citizens, to join and support
The Majority Movement, the main objectives of which are: :
1. To provide a forum in which supporters of all free enterprise parties

Provincial Spokes man)

2. To inform all British Columbians of the fundamental differences bet-
ween socialism and free enterprise. ae ;
3.To restore free enterprise government to British Columbia.

pwitsned by THE MAJORITY MOVEMENT

Vancouver Branch: Ste. 304 - 1847 W. Broadway, Vancouver,

Provincial Headquarters: 248 2nd Ave., Kamloops

, B.C, Telephone 736-8077

Ase
an Ve is the front page of a four-page flyer being

nouncement by the newly-formed right wing “Majority Movem
aman

an
"ight

Officer. "9 political forces to defeat the government's progr
ac of the group are Jarl A.B. Whist of Kamloops, former ¢
archand, and Burnaby lawyer Arnold F.C. Hean. Hean
ment's policies and calling for an alliance of

Qvern

e :
'9 business press.

delivered toeveryhomeinB.C., according to
ent.” It calls for unity of all
d to turn B.C. to the right.
ampaign manager for Liberal MP
‘s recent speeches attacking the
theright have been given wide publicity by

Vol. 34, No. 22

Reduce prices,
demands rally

Labor, farmer and consumer spokesmen joined forces

last Sunday at a rally at Vancouver’s City Hall Square '

to condemn rising prices, demand a curb-on profiteer-
ing, and to urge the setting up of a Prices Review Board
with power to bring prices down.

Sponsored by the Co-ordin-
ating Committee of Concerned
Organizations, the open-air
rally heard Roy Atkinson,
president of the Farmers Union
of Canada, Elaine Podovinnikoff
of the CCCO, Paddy Neale, NDP-

MP and Maurice Anderson of the.

United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union.

Pointing out that ‘‘all is not
well back onthe farm’’, Atkin-
son told the rally that farmers
are caught in a cost-price
squeeze and that the income of
Canadian farmers has actually
dropped. He charged that
corporations are making huge
profits and are using high prices
to ensure themselves of
continued rising profits.

Atkinson pointed to recent
rises in feed costs to farmers and
gave as an example soya bean
meal which had increased 300
per cent per ton, and said food
prices are a manifestation of
increased costs, but the bulk of
the higher costs is going tomani-
pulators and speculators.

He gave the following exam-

ples of profiteering which are
hitting farmers and consumers
hard: Last year Massey-Fergus-
son, a major supplier of farm
equipment, showed a 326 per
cent rise in profits; Swiss-
Canada, 29.4 per cent; Inter-
national Harvester, 51.9 per cent
and John Deere, 46.3 per cent in
1971-72.

Atkinson charged that inter-
national corporations are
making decisions beyond the
power of any elected govern-
ment and that they are making
excessive profits which goes
into higher food prices.

He said that farmers and work-
ing people in the cities have
much in common, and one of
these problems is the high cost of
food.

NDP-MP Paddy Neale said
that workers and farmers are
not responsible for inflationary
trends in Canada which are
hitting hard at consumers in
every. area — housing, food,
clothes, interest rates, etc.

See CONSUMERS, pg. 12

NATURAL GAS CHEAP—

EXCEPT FOR

B.C. USERS

— See story page 3

Nici ia tliat