“Why pass up an occasion for a political rally?” Harry Rankin asked more than 300 people who had turned out to honor him on his 60th birthday Saturday night. And in the style so familiarly his, Harry didn’t let the occa- sion pass as he kept the tributes to himself to a minimum and in- stead focused the birthday party on the 1980 civic election, de- livering a blistering campaign HARRY RANKIN .. . cutting 60th birthday cake. Harry's 60th launches COPE campaign fund speech and calling for donations And when Harry’s wife Jon- to the campaign fund. nie took the microphone, it was “The best birthday present to plug COPE’s contest to raise. you can give me is to elect more money for the election fund. ” COPE members to council, It was an unusual birthday school boardandparksboard,”’ party for someone as respected he declared. as Harry Rankin. But it was just & While that present can’t be _ the way he wanted it. delivered until November, the call for donations brought in $2,028 — an encouraging sign for a strong campaign. The tributes were kept short, a brief speech from COPE al- dermanic candidate Bruce Erik- sen. And it too stressed the elec- tion. ‘‘He’s carried the load for 14 years,”’ Eriksen said. “‘It’s time Harry had some help up there.” ‘Edifice complex’ disease — strikes Volrich, Bennett By ALD. HARRY RANKIN First it was the grandiose quarter of a billion dollar PNE complex, which, fortunately, never got going because its clever planners couldn’t figure out who. would pay for it. Then we had the controversy _ over a stadium and its location, the cost of which is now estimated at $100 million but will likely end up double that figure. Then we had the trade and con- vention centre which started out with an estimated cost of $25 mil- lion, which has now risen to $51.2 million, with a further proviso that the city and the province will have to cover any over-run. : Then we had premier Bennett’s billion dollar B.C. Place on the north shore of False Creek. Now we have Transpo ’86 with the fair site also on the north shore of False Creek. I almost forgot to mention the premier’s Annacis Island bridge which will cost another $100 mil- lion at least. 2 Finally we have a proposal for a ‘People Mover’? — a three kilo- metre $40-$60 million Toonerville Trolley to move people around the downtown area during Transpo 86. We have a premier and a mayor who have all the symptoms of a ter- minal political disease called ‘‘edi- fice complex.’’ What happens to these paranoid edifice builders is less important than the fact that their antics will land us in one hell of a financial mess. What about the housing short- age, you may ask? The answer is that the city and province intend to do nothing about it. Their money is all going into ‘‘edifices’? to promote the tourist trade and the downtown business interests. _ What about a light rapid transit system? Forget it. As long as the money is going into edifices there just won’t Inaction on housing crisis rapped at tenants meeting All three levels of government were slammed for their inaction during the current rental housing crisis at a tenants’ meeting in Van- couver East organized by the Greater Vancouver Renters Asso- ciation Sunday. About 40 tenants, some from as far away as Squamish, heard NDP federal housing critic Margaret Mitchell, NDP MLA Gary Lauk, alderman Harry Rankin and Linda Mead from the Red Door Rental Housing Registry warn that the cri- sis was here to stay unless all three levels of government were forced by public pressure to make a com- mitment to building affordable, public housing. Rankin, to the obvious delight of the meeting, took broadside shots at the federal government, the pro- vincial government and city council for promoting expensive projects like the trade and convention centre and B.C. Place. ““And yet, no way can they pro- duce housing,”’ he declared. ““We have the lumber, the skilled trades and the land, all in abundance and yet we have a housing shortage of “This system based on profit can’t build housing for people with limited incomes,”’ he said. Margaret Mitchell reported to the meeting that her talks with pub- lic works minister Paul Cosgrove, responsible for the Central Mort- gage and Housing Corporation, in- dicated he was ‘‘open to influence from the private sector and was go- ing for government incentives for private market housing.”’ She blasted Cosgrove and Allan MacEachen, minister of finance, for their “‘lack of commitment”’ to playing a direct role in building public or non-profit housing. ‘All three levels of government should begin assembling land, leas- ing it and building housing ‘under tenant control,’’ she said. “More immediately, money has to be put into social housing right away to ease the general rental market.”’ Linda Mead said that workers at the Red Door were becoming “more and more concerned be- cause many people still don’t know the situation is as bad as it is. © PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 16, 1980—Page 2 “Those hit first and hardest are those people with the needs,”’ she said. Mead illustrated her point by quoating from letters Red Door clients, mostly pen- sioners, single parents and welfare recipients, had written to their gov- ernment representatives describing the difficulty of finding affordable housing. “It’s a disgrace the government doesn’t take action,’’ Mead charg- ed. ‘‘But they will have to when we form strong tenants organizations like the GVRA and force them to listen to us.”’ Gary Lauk said Rentalsman Jim Patterson ‘‘should go and answer his phone and not hold press con- ferences expounding his liberal generalities against rent controls. “