PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Tuesday, May 10, 1978

Editorial

An Oriental story tells of a compasionate
elephant sitting down to talk to a limping ant to
see if it could help, and in so doing sat on the
anthill and wiped out the whole colony. -

The story could serve as an illustration of what
occurs when a government, however well in-
tentioned, tries to assist in matters beyond its
scope; particularly on a humanitarian and
personal scale.

A case in point is that of a Native community in
Northern Manitoba, some years ago when the
annual report on vital statistics showed that
community to have an exceedingly high infant
death rate-particularly for babies under 2 years

‘age.
_ In an attempt to alleviate the’ siruation the
federal government medical services speeded up
its nursing station program and ‘‘rushed” in to
erect a modern unit, with four adult and three -
infant beds and cribs. The unit cost in the neigh-
borhood of $200 thousand plus.

Sometime later, a missionary there, alarmed
at the still high infant death rate noticed that
bottle-fed babies almost always succumbed
within a few months. An Indian myth was
widespread that bottle babies never lived
because it was an offence against nature to nurse
artificially.

Ottawa Offbeat

Enjoy an Election-free

Ottawa,- An election-free summer, Pierre
Elliott Trudeau calis it.

And if The Great One doesn’t change his mind
you'll be freer than you think.

For there’s more toan election than the voting.

There's any number of irritations that won’t
be aggravating you.

But don’t count on it, much less lay money on
Pierre meaning it.

For as he so frankly confessed the other day,
no Prime Ministér in his right mind ever calls an
election he isn’t sure of winning.

And Fearless Pierre wasn't at all sure after
examining the entrails of Gallup and Goldfarb.

But if those polls, taken monthly, go up for
Pierre and down for Joe, then look for an election
call in August for an October vote.

Meanwhiie, relax and “enjoy the respite of
Pierre’s “‘election-free summer” while it lasts.

“Election-free,” that is, if your friendly neigh-
borhood party candidates take Fearless Pierre
at his word.

Which any number of. them aren’t, including
some Liberals, and of couse most Conservatives
and New Democrats who are going to carry on
campaigning just in case Goldfarb and Gallup

give Pierre the go-sign on upcoming sample vote |

Letters

Too Much Government

The missionary’s wife refused to believe this.
Investigating the stock of nursing bottle nipples
available at the only trading post, when some she
had bought for her own infant proved unusable
(as the sides stuck together and tended to
collapse), she found the cause for the babies
decline and languishing and eventually dying.
Once a supply was ordered by the missionary,
almost miraculously the bottle-fed babies

flourished.

The story should have had a happy ending.
The bachelor store manager would not believe it.
He refused to stock the 20 cent variety instead of
the ten cent, perishable ones. When the nurse in
charge of the nursing station left, her successor
refused to go along with issuing nipples at all-for
awhile. After an incredible amount of letter

‘writing, surveys and research, the issue was

finally settled, satisfactorily. Now, on that fame
reserve, few people remember this ever hap-
pened.

The story is only recounted here, at all, th show
how a government can spend two hundred
thousand dollars toclear ua tragic situation that
could have been immediately alleviated by
making a safe nursing bottle nipple, costing onlv
20 cents apiece, available to non-nursing
mothers-of which there were about twenty a

Summer
counts.

’ Still, while they wait, campaigning in low gear.
it wdn’t be the real thing, and so happily you'll be

missing most of the aggravations.
Campaign workers won't be interrupting your

dinner hour with a call on any one of those 50 .

phone lines out of party headquarters to tell you
that your very own candidate would love to meet
and greet you next Tuesday for tea and marzipan
in the church basement. ’

Nor will The Man Who be knocking on your
door in the middle of your favorite TV sitcom to
assure you he’s the one to put things right in the
country. :

Open the door so much as a crack wide enough
for him to get his foot in, or give him time
enought to introduce himself and he'll invite
himself in to explain in awful detail why, as The
Man Who, he represents --"czything that isvital
to the preservation of the. nation.

Since The Man Who may not be calling on you,
he won’t get the chance to talk you into plating
one of his election signs on your lawn.

And this means that people won't be bugging
you all summer with calls asking if your house is

year, They could have even been given free, ata
cost to the government’ of only ten dollars-and
would havesaved perhaps fifteen or twenty lives
a year...

Few civil servants are willing to admit
mistakes. Some time later we went back to do
some follow up on the story. The evasion, the
subterfuge and the outright lying we discovered
would make a story in itself.

Nonetheless there are doubtless readers in
Terrace who have had similar experiences in
dealing with the government. A government

é

that can be either an angel of mercy-- or a
plundering elephant, crushing out life with its
clumsy attempts at aid-however well in-
tentioned.

We think there is a lesson to beremembered
from all this. Especially during pre-election
time,

‘The government must not be allowed to
become a gigantic computer, eliminating the
humanity without which common sense is im-
possible.

Quebec
Colleges
Hurting

_ By ALLAN SWIFT
MONTREAL (CP) — Que-

“| bee's junior colleges , ara
~ limping to the end of a tur-
bulent year marked by
student discontent and
walkouts by teachers
protesting layoffs. .

For a while this spring stu:
dents feared they would lose
their school year because of
strikes and sporadic
walkouts by Quebec's 8,000
junior college teachers.
Although the government
said no academic time would
be lost, some students have
yented their anger with
college administrations and
provincial education policy

- by backing the teachers.

There are more than
100,000 students in the
province’s junior colleges,
although about 11,000
students in four colleges in or
pear Montreal have taken
. the brunt of work stoppages
called to protest the non-
renewal of contracts for 400
teachers.

While students should have
been cramming for exams
early in the spring, classes
were disruped in several
colleges as activists oc-
cupied administration

““bulldings to support the .
teachers’ cause. .

While attention has been
focused increasingly on the

, teachers’ contract dispute

during the spring term,

for sale, how much are you asking for it, and can

they

drop around Sunday afternoon for an in-
spection of the premises. ee ee

te as
‘

armers
by .Tony MacGregor

8 tei

with B.C.

administrators and officials

from the provincial .
- education..department still

are trylng: to wrestle: with...
crepe tia problems highlighted.
throughout the school year
by outbreaks of student
unrest,

a is

TAKE TO STREETS

Hydro denies Secret Construction

Dear Sir:

Many of your readers
probably read a recent
report in a Vancouver
moralng newspaper ‘based
upon a statement by a B.C.
Wildlife Federation official
that B.C. Hydro is “hiding
from the public’ a giant
make-work power con-
struction strategy for British
Columbia, That suggestion
was untrue. The facts of the
matter bear repeating.

It has always been B.C.
Hydro’s job to anticipate
electricity needa for the
province and to develop
whatever energy resources
will best meet public
demand—technically,
economically, en -
vironmentally and socially.
If the provincial government
is atlempting to attract new
economic activity to B.C.
and fails to do so becauza
there ig  wnsufficlent
developed power available
for new industry, Hydro has
_ Bot done ita job. There is no
secret grand strategy in-
volved. Hydro’s job ip to
provide the electricity
necessary to meet the
economic goals of the
province.

It's no secret the power
projects mentioned in the
reas report are indeed being
assessed. This work is part
of our continuing program of
assessing potential energy
options for development as

‘Studies on tha

Liard and Iskut-Stikine
Rivers? Pr studiea
were done some years ago,
and arenow being updated to
give us a current idea of
their problema, should these
energy resources ever be
needed, These studies were
the subject of a press an-
nouncement by B.C, Hydro
last year. Preliminary
transmission line route

studies to connect these into existen

potential power sites to the
load centrea are also belng
done.

McGregor Diversion?
t project were
suspended early this year

after parasitology studies Hydro

identified five parasites
known to cause mortality in
the Pacifie (McGregor-
Frager) drainage system
that, if transferred, could
endanger fish in the Arctic
(Parsnip-Peace) drainage
system. The news release
announcing this decision
stated “for the moment
there appears to be. no
reasonable method of
preventing McGregor to
Paranip transfer affecting
the Arctic.” Studies will not
be resumed unless the fish
problem becomes solvable,

We have stated that the
McGregor could still be
developed as a conventional
power resource with no
upstream diversion into the
Parsnip River, which would
avoid the problem of

and when they may be parasite transfer, This
required, limited project, however, is
| TERRACE/KITIMAT

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daily herald

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MANAGING EDITOR...Ernest Senior
REPORTERS...Donna Vailleres (Terrace-Thornhill)
REPORTERS.,.Scott Brawes { Kitimat-Kitamaat)

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Published every weekday at 2212 Kalum St, Terrace,
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Published by
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much less attractive than the
diversion would have been.
and is not presently being
considered.

Flooding Reserves? Most
of the. major rivers in B.C.
have flooding and other map
reserves on them, held by
the provincial government -
not B.C, Hydro.
these reserves were placed
long before B.C, Hydro came
ce, Reserves
exist principally to indicate
to resource users that there
may be other potential uses
for a river basin. A slmple
statement of fact.

East Kootenay Coal? B.C.

B
preliminary feasibility
studies for a possible ther-
mal plant in the Fernie-
Sparwood area, using waste
coal from the metallurgical
coal mining. operations
there.
secret, We have had a
number of representations
from people in the Hast
Kootenay urging this project
be started. Energy from this
source may not be
before the mid-1980s, but
could precede development
at Hat Creek if it makes
exonomic sense to do so.
Studies will establish the
facts of the matter. -

Murphy Creek? We have
received inquiries about the
possibility of developing the
Murphy Creek project as a
means of maintaining
economic activity in the
Kootenay Boundary Region
now that hydro-electric
construction appeard to be
coming toa close in that part
of the province. After the
construction of several
hydro-electric projects in the
region there Is a highly
trained construction - work
force resident in the area

. and bome people want this

employment to continue,

Thers is no-present plan for.
the: davelapmeat of the
Murphy Creek project which
in the past has been rated far
below . other potential

s alternatives. However, the

coat-benefit values of the
Project are being re-
examined. This was mes-
tioned by our Seven Mile
project. constructior
manager at a public meeting
in Trail recently and
recelved considerable at:
tention from local news
thedia .

In addition to the above

Moat of

Again this is no-

projects, B,C. Hydro is also
studying geothermal
potential near Pemberton
and will also, within the next
few months, begin

preliminary feasibilit:

studies of a hog fuel and.
waste wood thermal
generating plant in the
Quesnel area. These studies
are part of Hydro's job to
Program for the future.
There is no secret about
any of the above projects.
Apart from routine
reranking -of potential
projects to meet Jong-term
planning scenarios, thest
potential projects are not
part of any corporate
planning timetable. Nor is
there any hurry to proceed
from preliminary to detailed
studies with any of them at
the moment. ‘If antleipated
power needs require that any
project proceed to the
detailed study. stage there
will be ample publicity and
project planning information

- Hat Creek,
McGregor, the Sita C on the
lower Peace River, and the:
Kootenay River Diversion
projects, But when it takes
ten totwelve years to bring a
project Into production can
anyone gerlously object to
the atudies necessary for
intelligent planning? .

Even detailed study of a
proposal by Hydro does not
in any way mean that its
development is a foregone
conclusion, Hydro must seek
formal government approval
for any new generating plant
thrqugh a public licensing
process, and for this ex-
tensive information Is

needed to identify the

potential environmental and
social impacts. We do not in
any way take the licensing
process for granted. Nor
should our critics.

Yours sincerdy, .

C.W.Nash |

General Manager for
Corporate Affairs

el
1911—Vincent Priee, actor,
wrt expert and cook, was

TM,
1937—The Golden Gate
Bridge at San Francisco

opened, ;
1949—Robert Ripley,
founder of Belleve It or Not,

. ded.

1984—India's first prime
miniater, Jawaharlal Nehru,
died, -

t

VICTORIA - Although the
confrontation between B,C,
farmers and the ministry of
agriculture over the farm
income assurance program
appears to have been di-
fused, one salient fact has
emerged from all of the
bluster and shouting.

Farmers are deeply at-
tached to the income
assurance program which
provides thent with financial

help when the cost of

producing food exceeds the
price at which they can sell
it, ‘And any attempt by

‘ governments to meddle with
that program will meet with

determined resistence.

The man most responsible
for pushing the program
through is Dave Stupich, the
NDP MLA from Nanaimo. It
was during his reign as
minister of agriculture for
the NDP government that
the program was passed and
it was also during his reign
that British Columbians

watched the biggest and.

angriest demonstration of
farmers that the province
has ever seen.

The demonstration was
against the NDP’s freeze on
the sale of farm land to
urban developers, The in-
come assurance program
was in part a reaction

against farmers’ protests tim

against the land freeze.

But despite all the turmoil
in the agricultural com-
munity’ when Stupich was
minister, he was a popular
man with leaders of the B.C,
Federation of Agriculture

‘which ‘represents about

11,000 farmers around the
province.

“He really put agriculture
on 'the map,” said Jack
Weasel, general manager of
the federation who worked
as the manager of financial
services when Stupich was
minister,

He said that beforeStupich *

took over as agriculture
minister, the miniatry’s
budget was around $14 to $15
million, but when he left it
‘was up to $4 million,

“He was the strongest
minister we'ya dealt with,”
he said, “When he agreed to
& point we had no worry.
There was no question about
him not being able to con-
vince his colléagues.”

Stupleh had good reagon to
put agriculture on the map.
A former chicken farmer
whe went broke when his

- immigrant

chickens caught an in-
curable disease, Stupich was
ralsed on a 13-acre Van-
couver Island stump farm
and has a first-hand
knowledge of the difficulies
av wrestling a living from the
é

Asmall, intense man with
a full head of greying hair,
the. 56-year-old Stupich
sparkles with nervous
energy and says he has no
romantic illusions about

to a self-sufficient
life on the land.

“Te is more often con-
sidered by people who have
never had to do it,” he said,

Stupich grow into
socialism and has never
seriously considered any
other philosophy.

Bees absolutely rational to

The son of a Croatlan
(a strong
Canadian Commonwealth
Federation (CCF) Supporter
who worked in coal mines on
Vancouver Island when they
were open), Stupich

‘ developed his love of politics

in part by listening to
political radio programs
with neighbors and friends of
the family. His father was
one of the first to acquire a
radio in South Wellington, a
village of 200 persons at'thet
e

"f guess I didn’t pick a
philosophy out of a fish bowl
and say this is the one I
want," he said, “My mind
was made up. It seemed 80
logical.” ;

One big problem Stuplch
has had to overcome is
shyneas and speaking before
a crowd, So nervous is
Stupich that he was rejected ,
by the airforce several times -
because his pulse rate shot
up to a phenominal 142 when
he went for his medical
exam. He was eventually let

But hia nervousness didn't
step him from launching his
political career in 1949 im-
mediately after graduating
from the University of
British Columbia with a
degree in agriculture. Hoe
attended university on the
veleran’s program,

After he took part in his
graduation ceremonies, he
rushed to a float plane to
speak at a political meeting
on Ganges Island.* He. went
into it cold, Nothing in his
airforce career had
prepared him for public

speaking.

“Tt was probably a terrible
performance,” he said, ‘“bul
I've forgotten exactly what

hap
But if Stupich lacks the
outgoing qualities usually
asscciated with politicians,
be makes up for it with
determination, hard work
and the ability to stick to his

guns under pressure. |
“Dave doesn't panic,” said

Barbara, Wallace, the MLA’

from Cowichan-Maiahat who
has known Stupich since he
was in high school.
She said that during the
angry farmers’ demon-
station against the NDP
legislation preserving farm
land against urban. en-
croachment, Stupich never
wavered in his atand.

-“T was organizing a
counter march at the time,"
said Wallace, “and I asked
him if he wanted us to come.

“‘Hesaid ‘come if you like.
We're on the right track and
we're going to tough it out.’
And he has certainly been

t. ib)

proved .

She said that Stupich isn’t
a verbose member of the
NDP caucus, but when he
speaks, the party listens.

Stupich hag yeally had
three careers (apart from
his period in the airforce
during the war when he
taught instructora how to
instruct pilots): te,
farming and accounting. He
has his own accounting firm
in Nanaimo now after
completing a chartered
accounting course by
correspondence,

But after getting out of
high school he spent his early
working perlod in logging
campe and worked for a time
serving tables, After the
collapse of his ‘farming
enterprise, he also worked as
aroofer, sheet metal worker
and hod carrier (the man
who mixes stucco and
carries it to plasterers).

He said he fell Into, his.
careers almost accidentally
and doesn't regret any of the
experiences he has had. '

Pve taken pleasure and
pride in being good at
that farmers are beginning
said, “I took some pride in
doing my best.”

He was married in 1960,
and has four daughters (one
of whom 1s married) whose
ages range from 19 to 24. -

Like a fainter echo of the
campus protests a decade
earlier, students toak to the
streets or occupied ad-
ministration offices to
demand abolition of tuition
fees, more academic free-
dom, a greater say in run-
ning courses, even lower
cafeteria prices.

Some of the Quebec
students who voted over-
whelmingly for the Parti
Quebecois two years ago are
beginning to-
disenchantment with the PQ
government, saying it has
mot fulfilled a party pledge to
abolish tuition fees, nor has
it improved the economy
sufficiently to assure jobs
when they graduate.

The government has also
come under fire from
students for raising ‘tuitlon
fees for foreign students.

“A lot of illusions have
fallen,’ said Daniel
Pauguet, president of the
Quebec Students ;
Association. :

The first junior colleg
known as CEGEPs—vwera
established 11 years ago as a
reformist and modernizing
Quebec government took
over public education which,
in the . Frenchlanguage
sector at least, had been run
by the Roman Catholle
Church for 300 years.

The CEGEP, or College
d'Enseignement General ¢e
Professionel, offers either a.
twoyebr pre-university
program to Grade 11, or a
three-year career program, —
There are 41 CEGEPs, four
of them English-language
institutions. :

BLAMES LEFTISTS
Donald Fortin, general
secretary .at the Montreal
college Vieux Montreal, says
much of the student unrest is
fermented by outside leftist

agitators,

“{t’s obvious that leftist
groups pet behind.
everything that could show
up as a problem. .,. to make
politica] capital.” ~ ,
- In March, some 60
CEGEP and. university
students paraded through
downtown Montreal to
demonstrate at the Hydro-
Quebec bullding- which
houses the Montreal office of

. Premier Rene Levesque.

Some carried large red
banners of varlous Marxist-
_Leniniat factionr, and leftiat
literature was distributed,

express __