unless you can come up with | Page 4, The Herald, Thursday, June 21, 1079 TERRACE/KITIMAT daily herald General Office- 635-4157 Circulation - 635-6357 GEN, MANAGER - Knox Coupland EDITOR - Greg Middieton CIRCULATION- TERRACE - KITIMAT OF FICE - 632.2747 . Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street, » Terrace, 8.C. A member of Verilled Circulation. Authorlied as second class mall. Registration number 1201. Postage pald In cash, return posiage guaranteed. NOTE OF COPYRIGHT Published by Sterling Publishers 635-6157 The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or Photographic elected members from Quebec, and:~ they can’t even get pruminent - French-speaking Quebecers to accept the plum of a Senate ap- pointment. Several people they approached have refused. Why has the party that dominated Quebec politics through much of the. 1th century been able to win a majority of Quebec seats just once in thia century? And why did Joe Clark manage just a dismal 13 per cent of the Quebec popular vole on May 22? Political observers and Clark strategists agree on several causes: —Because the Conservative party has traditionally elected so few members in Liberaldominated Quebec, ‘it has failed to establish a solid presence in the province. And because it has no solid presence, it has trouble electing members. The party hopes it can break out of this ‘ viclous cycle, The party has a definite image problem. The Conservatives have often been seen by Quebecers, whether rightly or wrongly, as opponents of equality for the French language and for French-speaking nadians, —Since the 1890s, the Liberal party has always paid close at- tention to French-Canadian in- terests and has put Quebecers in leading posta, Conservative prime ministers, in contrast, have named few F French Canadians to top posts. ce 1962, Quebecers with the Liberals have had the home-based Social Credit party to turn to as an alternative. erful rsonality of Liberal leader Plerre eau, Quebec's favorite son, ‘By ERIC HAMOVITCH Conservative organizers sometimes look back wistfully tothe ~ halcyon days of 1958 when their party, led by John Diefenbaker, swept 30 of Quebec's 75 seats. They can seek solace in the words of a young Montreal law professor named Pierre Trudeau who wrote in Cite Libre magazine in 1953 ‘that Quebec voters “must think about having themselves represented within the party that is eventually . victorious across the country rather than risk being deprived of the fruits of victory,” Joe Clark is pushing the same line today. \ But Claude Dupras, past president of the Quebec Progressive Con- servative Association, feels “there must be a radical change (in the party’s style) so that Quebecers will feel happy with the PCs. The party has to build itself up from the grass roots, riding by riding, he said. In many Quebec ridings, the Conservatives have no organization to speak of, although getting people to join should be easier now that the party holds power. — Historians ‘say Quebec's slide away from the Tories began with Sir John A. Macdonald's decision to hang Metis rebel leader Louis Riel In 1885. The breach became complete with the imposition of military con- scription in the First World War ~ att unpopular move in Quebec — by Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden. In the four following elections — 1917, 1921, 1925 and 19626 — the Conservatives falled to elect a single French-speaking member from ‘ Quebec, although in those last two elections the won a res table 34 per Pot af the Quebec popular vote. it today range as it may seem ' gues ad eu reg ery, n wa jac. donald’a day, and in the 1674 elec- ton, when the scandalplagued ~ determination. Conservatives lost heavily acrass . Canada, nearly half the party’s elected members were from Quebec. ; But once the Liberals chose Sir Wilfrid Laurier as their leader, the Tories’, fate was sealed. Quebec voted for Laurier and continued to vote Liberal under Mackenzie King and Louis Saint-Laurent, rarely electing more than a handful of Conservatives until Diefenbaker’s 1958 sweep, Tory organizers are still faced with image problems, not all of them dating back to Louis Riel and con- scription. . When 16 MPs voted against the Official Languages Act in 1969, they . all happened to be Conservatives. Their stand overshadowed support for the act from former leader Robert Stanfield and most members of his caucus, The party appeared to be siding with English-speaking pilots against ‘the use of French in Quebec air traffic control in the famous Gens de l’Air dispute of 1976. And Joe Clark made few Quebec friends with his recent statements that Quebec has no right to self- Several com: mentators say this probably hurt his chances of recruiting some top- string people he hoped to name to his cabinet via the Senate, Clark's 13 per cent of the Quebec popular vote was by far the worst in the party’s history apart from the 1945 election, when the Tories won eight per cent of the vote with candidates in fewer than half the province's ridings. But top strategist. Jean Bazin, a Montreal lawyer, says he senses that with the Conservatives in power, a lot more people are in- terested in running as candidates. Nobody seriously expects pro- vincial support would be en to lott a ost par appeas @ a ap 0 some Quebec Conbervativn vho feel it would increase the i) day-to-day presence and make it a more credible alternative to the Lib- erals, CONSUMER COMMENT | With the return of warm weather and dry sidewalks, more and more people are once again exchanging their walking shoes for wheels and enjoying the season from a rolling vantage point. But this year, there’s a difference, nF The ever-increasing numbers of bicyclists have been joined by skateboarders and roller skaters, and it looks as if this is a revival that will be with us for a long time to come. oO eo, Enthusiasts of all ages, shapes and sizes.are finding > that these pastimes are not only fun and enjoyable * form of exercise, but also that they are an inexpensive method of transportation that is free of pollution, traffic and parking problems. - ‘ If you are about to indulge in any or all of these wheeling activities for the first time, or are dusting off your old bicycle or roller skates after year's of neglect, here are some points that you should consider: Before purchasing new equipment, consider ren- ‘ting or borrowing for your first try at the activity. If you find that you dan't enjoy it or that it isn’t what you — had in. mind, you will have saved yourself con- siderable =e e and inconvenience, Once you have made the decision to buy, consider the brands and models available and choose one sultable to your needs. Why spend more for a ten Speed bicycle when a 3speed or 5 speed would suit you tter Obtain pre-purchase information from your local library consumers’ group from Consumer Infotel, and then shop around for the best deal. If you are buying a bicycle, remember -to look for the CSA (Canadian Standards Association) mark of approval. ‘Before using it, check your equipment to make sure that it is in proper working order. Throughout the - Season, continue to care for it and maintain it ac- cording to the retailer’s or manufacturer’s in- | structions. Do your bicycle tires and inflating? Do the bearings in your roller skates need olling? Should your skate boot leather be conditioned? -If you are new or rusty on your wheels, practice ina vacant lot or sidestreet until you are confident enough to go out on public street-. Learn to use your equip- ment properly and in the way that it was intended, and be aware of any traffic regulations that may apply. . In pedestrian or vehicle traffic, always use com- mon sense and courtesy. And - remember, THINK SAFETY. QUID RIDES? with Greg = Middleton re While the improved weather. might have some people tempted to get out there in the garden to dig up the vegetable patch or root around amongst ‘the peonies, i prefer to follow along behind and pick up the worms. After all, with worms you can go fishing. Spring may turna young man's heart to thoughts of love but for me it is time to embark on the annual sladghter of all manner of things fishy, I am afflicted with that strange condition which sees my hands and arms covered in scales every year about this time. I get an overwhelming urge to put on strange hats and rubber boots that come half-way up my chest. I am convinced that creatures which feed on mosquitoes, flying ants and the larval forms of other insects, as well as the young of their own and other species of fish, will not be able to resist snapping at bizarre combinations of feathers and hair, , A love of fishing is not an avocation without risk, however. Last year about this time I came close to getting into serious trouble because of it, No, I wasn't breaking any of the fish and game laws, I had a fishing licence, ] wasn’t in a prohibited area and I wasn't taking more than my limit; nor did I meet a bear or getlost. == The problem occurred before I even got out fishing. It was a bright, sunny Saturday morning. I had started out to do the obligatory spring cleaning. The first job I tackled was to sort out the closet, into which I had been cramming a winter’s worth of things that ; didn't have any other home, ‘The first thing I pulled out of the closet was a fly fishing rod. Well, I ask you. Could anyone have _ resisted the temptation to see if it still worked. Imean there wouldn’t be any use in putting it somewhere else if it had deteriorated from lack of use over the winter. I simply went out onto the front yard to try a couple of experimental casts. That was when the trouble started. One of the neighborhood raggamuffins came down out of a tree to ask my if that was a fishing rod I had in my hand. A bright little lad he was. I was almost sorry I had spent the winter trying to run him down for throwing snowballs at me. The little darling came to the immediate conclusion that if I was going fishing I would need a supply of worms. He was soon overturning every reck on the block. Within minutes he had reeruited an entire team of youngsters to turn out his father's compost box, after extracting & promis of a penny a piece for good fishing worms, nore of the skinny, stripped ones allowed. ; The little wretchc« «lmost bankrupted me, to say nothing of decimatiz, the worm population, probably “for miles around. I had all kinds of plastic ice cream containers, jars, and cans and even paper bags full of worms, in no time at ail. Thad so many worms, in fact, that tokeep them I had to put a lot of them in the vegetable crisper in the refrigerator. They stayed there in remarkably good condition until my girlfriend went into the fridge to see if [had the makings of a salad. ‘After she stopped screaming, she pointed out that had the vegetable crisper been intended for worms, it would have been clearly labelled “‘worm crisper", 1 thought that a little short sighted of her, but decided it was not a good time to debate that as she had calmed down enough to take alm with something from the part of the fridge I hadn’t turned over to the worms. ‘