a EUNICE PARKER and (top) DUANE PRITCHETT, ACE can- didates in Coquitlam municipal race. Prospects seen for labor advance Progressives in 13 civic contests — British Columbia municipalities will go to the polls November 19 to elect civic officials and in at least 13 of them, labor-backed can- didates have a chance of election. One of the closest, but important, contests is in Burnaby where in- cumbent mahor Tom Constable is leading the Burnaby Citizens’ Association’s campaign. The New Westminster and District Labor Council has endorsed the entire BCA slate. All eight aldermanic seats are up for election as well this year, and if the BCA can add another council seat to those now held by Con- stable, Gerry Ast, Doug Drum- mond and Fred Randall, it will ‘form the majority on the Burnaby Council. The other five BCA aldermanic candidates are Brian Gunn, who served on council previously, Elsie Rempel, Frank Ward, Joe Corsbie and Frank Boden. The BCA already holds a majority onschool board, but well- known Burnaby activist Beth - Chobotuck and her running mate Wilma Costain are_ strong _ challengers to add to the BCA majority. One of the central issues in the Burnaby council race is transit. The BCA is pushing hard for an * early start on a regional transit system that would include light rapid transit. Next door in Coquitlam, the Association of Coquitlam Elections have won labor council en- dorsements in their fight for two council and two school board seats. ACE’s incumbent is Eunice Parker, one of the strongest progressive voices in education, who is contesting for her fifth term on school board. Her running mate is 21-year-old Tom Albanese, a woodworker who wants improved vocational training in Coquitlam. ACE’s aldermanic candidates are Duane Pritchett and H. Doug Stead. Pritchett missed election by only 50 votes two years ago. In Surrey, a bastion of reaction in civic politics, a new formation, the Surrey Alternative Movement, hopes to break the Vander Zalm, McKitka tradition. With the reform movement united, SAM hopes to break through with their four aldermanic candidates, Ray Cox, Wilf Lennox, Bill Morrison and Vi Swann. Harry Harrison is SAM’s school board hopeful. SAM’s program calls for a ward system in Surrey, rapid transit and an end to youth curfews. They have also thrown their support to the 12- point program of the New West- PNE proposals rejected By ALD. HARRY RANKIN Community organizations would be well advised to keep their eyes on the Pacific National Exhibition for the next few months. Schemes are being hatched in board rooms between developers, the PNE Board and the big commercial sports promoters that could drastically affect the future of the PNE and impose a huge financial burden on the public that could run to well over a $100 million. Part of this scheme has surfaced in a report prepared for the PNE by Economic Research Associates of Los Angeles. The role of the PNE has never been to serve the citizens of Vancouver or B.C. It has served two primary purposes: (a) to provide facilities at public expense for private sports promoters such as the owners of the Vancouver Canucks and B.C. Lions, and also expensive, Burrard Amusements, the owners of the midway; and - (b) to serve as a place where private business interests could display their wares and get some free advertising for themselves. The new proposals now being advanced for the future of the PNE would not change its present role in any fundamental way — we would just get more of the same thing at still further public expense. They include the following: © The building of a new stadium for the B.C. Lions at an estimated cost of $31.2 million; e@ Other’ renovations, buildings and new “‘attractions”’ that would cost an estimated $26.5 million. These would include building a three-acre lake in the centre of the PNE at a cost of $1.2 million. The attractions would include a Ripley Believe It or Not with its emphasis on the grotesque andonodd-balls, pinball machines, a shooting ces “for ‘shooting new electronically at John Dillinger and his pals,” a UFO station and other assorted cheap crap. The proposals also include a street shopping area inside the PNE, 10 restaurants, a pier at Brighton Beach together with a seafood restaurant (built at public expense for private interests, of course) and a hotel. The aim of all this would be to make the PNE a year-round at- traction for tourists. The report contains many other proposals, not:all of them bad, but I strongly suspect that many of them are just window dressing to make it attractive to the public, empty promises that will never be kept. Its main aim is still to build only those facilities that will bring additional profits to private cor- porations, to build them at public expense and then to make the public pay double for them by high admission prices. See PNE pg. 11 . minster Labor Council, which in turn has endorsed SAM. Getting closer to election each year in North Vancouver District is Ernie Crist, a former Tribune business manager. The Crist campaign is hoping that this year he will break through and wo an aldermanic seat. Crist is getting wide sipport for his strong advocacy of a jobs program for North Van, and for his insistenceupona community plan, based on the GVRD’s Liveable Region Program. In North Vancouver City, school trustees Tami Lundy and Don Burbage are seeking re-election to maintain the progressive balance of forces on the North Vancouver school district board. Elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, the secretary of the New Westminster and District Labor Council, Tom Baker, is running hard to put a pro labor voice on the business dominated New West- minster council. Baker is business agent for the New Westminster local of the Carpenter’s Union. Finally, in’ Richmond, the Vancouver Labor Council has endorsed Margaret DeWees and Lorraine Hocking of REAL (the Richmond Electors Action League) in their bids for council and school board respectively. The labor vote in Richmond will also go to independent NDP can- didates Harold Steves, Ernie Novakowski and Doug Sandberg. The brightest prospects for labor on Vancouver Island are in Port Alberni where Labor Council supported incumbents George Mc- Knight and Walter Gehn ought to repeat. If their running mate Clem Rousseau makes it on to council . and mayoralty candidate John Heinemann secures “victory, the progressive forces in Alberni will have a voting majority on council. In Victoria, Larry Ryan wishes he had a similar situation, but the’ president of the Victoria Labor ’ Council will remain labor’s only voiceon Victoria council if he is re- elected. Up-islandin Courtenay, amid the controversy surrounding the criminal charges laid against the previous mayor, Richard Von Fuchs could bring a progressive voice on to the Courtenay council. Close by in Cumberland, logger Bill Bell is the labor candidate for council there. The Comox Valley will also be looking at the contest for the North Island Regional District where in PEOPLE AND ISSUES ‘ ERNIE CRIST ee aldermanic candidate in North Van District, and TOM ALBANESE, Coquitlam school board candidate. District Three Steve Rankin looks . like he might secure the election that he narrowly lost last tire. At the tip of the Island, in Alert Bay, long-time progressive alderman Gilbert Popovich has decided this year to go after the mayor’s spot in Alert Bay, and he - just may win it. Unfortunately there are few labor candidates in the north or Interior of B.C. One of the only bright spots is in Nelson where Gregg. Ottowell is seeking re- election to the school board. It is, then, a mixed bag for labor ~ in this year’s election. Without candidates in important centres like Prince Rupert, Prince George, Kamloops and Campbell River, there is a chance for major break- throughs in Burnaby, Richmond and Port Alberni. , ‘Watch for results and analyses in the November 25 desue of the Tribune. a W ith the kind of disregard for reality that seems to have ' become the norm among federal government agencies, the Anti-Inflation Board has informed us that food prices “moderated considerably” — even when Statistics Canada showed prices rising faster than they had in two years. The contradiction apparently passed the notice of AIB Officials who blithely insisted that prices for July rose by only 0.5 per cent while off in another cubbyhole in Ottawa, Statistics Canada officials reported an increase of 2.1 per Still undaunted, the AIB pushed on to say that “food prices for the balance of 1977 are expected to show little increase.” Stats Canada, usually eager to point to moderating factors, couldn’t even muster its usual op- timism. It cited increasing prices for beef, pork, bread and eggs. Lest people find its food price fantasy a little hard to swallow, the AIB did add the rider that the food survey was “‘subject to revision based on technical improvements that will not be available until next month.” As ‘“‘technical improvements” the AIB will no doubt tell us next month that they have discovered that the human diet consists of more than pickles, ketchup and condensed soup. Ironically, the AIB could argue that food prices had “moderated”’ if those were the only three items it con- sidered, since it recently compelled H. J. Heinz Co. Ltd. to reduce prices on those items as part of an excess revenue case. : As the Western Canadian Lumber Worker noted, “If only we could live on pickles and ketchup... .” * * * PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 11, 1977—Page 2 F rom Nanaimo comes a note from Nels Dean offering his praise for the comments on the McDonald’s hamburger chain which appeared in this column October 21. Since that issue, however, McDonald’s has again excelled itself in the notoriety department, having prompted a committee of the Legislature to issue a subpoena ordering Ron Marcoux, McDonald’s executive vice-president for western Canada, to appear before the Legislature’s food inquiry. Marcoux, it seems, dodged several requests by the committee to answer a confidential questionnaire dealing ‘with such things as profits, sales and sources of supply. - Now, apparently, he is in Europe. But although Marcoux’s actions were galling enough to ~ cause the Legislature to issue one of only three subpoenas ordered by a committee in the last 30 years, it’s unlikely that the multinational chain will be compelled to disclose its record of wages paid. If it were, it would demonstrate to MLAs who have yet to change the minimum wage law, just what kind of a sweatshop Ronald McDonald — or Ronald Marcoux — runs in this province. And still, reader Dean notes with some dismay, “good union men continue to patronize the joint.” * * * We have a special notice from Radio Havana in Cuba an- nouncing the opening of their fifteenth international essay contest which should evoke more than usual interest this time because of the upcoming 11th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Cuba next year, the first time ever in the Americas. 1 The festival is, in fact, the subject of Radio Havana’s contest and contestants must address themselves to two questions: ‘What do you know about the World Festival of Youth and Students? Why is it important that the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students is being held in the Americas?” Entries must not exceed 500 words and must be submitted _ not later than March 31, 1978. The prizes are more than enough to inspire people to their -best prose — five all- _ expenses paid, two-week tours of Cuba during the July 26 celebrations on the anniversary of the attack on the Mon- cada barracks. We can’t direct you to a place where entry forms can be obtained but the Tribune does have a copy which could be used and copied. For those who want to inquire further, the _ mailing address is: Radio Havana Cuba, PO Box 7026, Havana, Cuba. — TRIBUNE Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN «Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9 Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4,50 for six months; All other countries, $10.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560