ED DOES HIS PART FOR TRUTH ON | LABELLING: A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 4, 2001. a TERRACE ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1998 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 « FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kerrnode.net ~ AAI fg 1 MWS KA EY un | aE PA ECE TC cc Our senator | Wilfakn veal tea % call a'ncoswallfeells ap tn mont fi jt Nu so 2 on Abii an IF PRIME MINISTER Jean Chretien wants to WELCOME TO wee divert attention away from his golf course trou- i KES Sx y bles in his home riding, he should cast his eyes PA L\E M ENT ele toward northern B.C. Specifically, the Prime ~ BTiong | Minister should start working on who will be- H | L L = Zz come the next Senator from B.C. SS =z The Senate is a fairly mysterious part of the AN 2 federal government. About the only thing we all = _——— cos —. Ay, Z » } ) know about it is that we don’t like it. Senators are GME ZEAE 4?» Zz : | appointed by the Prime Minister, leading to OiRILE o} TA CerPen a = charges that it is merely an expensive patronage Zs ABE WW fee playpen we don’t really need considering the LE = _ = great demand for public monies in crucial areas such as health and education. Be that as it may, the Senate does play an im- portant role. Senators can hold hearings on issues of important public policy and all government acts coming from the House of Commons must be approved by the Senate. Where northern B.C. fits into this is simple. B.C. is permitted six Senate seats and one of those is vacant. What the Prime Minister should do is fill that vacancy with a northerner and to have this person be our representative in Ottawa, Why? Liberal MPs in B.C. are scarce, meaning _we’re underserviced in the corridors of power. A northern Senator would open the door to access to the government and a strong Senator would be a valuable conduit on issues important to us. Such a move is not without precedent. A recent federal press release on health care refers to Mr. Ross Fitzpatrick, one of the five existing B.C, Se- nators as the “Okanagan-Similkameen Senator”. Mr. Fitzpatrick is a good friend of Mr. Chretien and he has a residence in that area of the province. If such a geographical ‘‘désignation is a’go0d"'|" thing for Mr. Fitzpatrick, then it is not.such a dif-. ficult matter for Mr. Chretien to extend that con- cept to us. Chicken soup ONE DAY, when the rubble is cleared from the battlefield and an assessment is made of what has happened and what steps were taken to revive health care in this province, one measure will stand out as an inexpensive and practical solution. It’s the B.C, HealthGuide, recently distributed to each and every residence. Call it a version of a hot bowl of chicken soup. Speak to anybody in the health care field and they’ll tell you one of the many reasons for the explosion of costs in this area is the unnecessary amount of visits to family doctors and to hospital emergency rooms. The heaith guide is an attempt to cut down on those visits by providing people with common sense information. It’s also a way for people'to assume some responsibility for controlling health care costs. And that’s a good thing, PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS/SPORTS: Jeff Nagel NEWS/SPORTS Sarah Zimmerman NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Carol McKay CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Mark Beaupre & Stacy Swetlikoff TELEMARKETER: Stacy Swetlikoif DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik & Clare Hallock SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $55.15(+$3.86 GST) per year; Seniors $48.85 (+$3.42 GST); Out of Province $61.98 (+$4.34 GST) Outside of Canada (6 months) $152.34 (+$10.66 GST) MEMBER OF 8.0. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSCCIATION, : CANADIAN COMMUNITY HEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND E.C, PRESS COUNCIL (www.bopresscouncil.org) Sarving the Terrace and Thombil area, Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Streat, Tenace, British Columbia, VAG 5R2, ° . Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typasiyes in tha Terrace Standard ave the property of ihe Copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., ils dlustration fepro services and advartising agencies, , Rapraduction Jn whole or in part, without wrtlten permission, Is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail panding the Post Office apartment, for payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to alt our contributors and correspondents _>- for their time and talente Dirty tricks at work down in Victoria VICTORIA — Last week I lam- basted the opposition Liberals for not debating government legislation in the House. This week, I am going to nail the miserable hide of the NDP to the wall for behaving like a school yard bully. For days now, the NDP has been doing its level-best to goad the Liberals into debates that would, in the opinion of NDP strategists, force the op- position into a corner of unsa- voury, right-wing, policies. The problem with that strat- egy is that it’s based on school yard bullying tactics, not on reality. The NDP tried to lure the Liberals into a debate on human rights, specifically na- tive rights. The Liberals de- clined to be drawn into that debate, ...,, Having the opposition on that issue. , ‘The NDP switched to abortion. Now, abortion is probably the most sensitive issue in Ca- nada. It is an issue that divi- ded the nation a dozen or so years ago, but thanks to cooler heads, an issue that has not been divisive in most recent memory. There was a time when heated battles were fought a failed--to -draw out» FROM THE CAPITAL: HUBERT BEYER over control of hospital boards between pro-life and pro- choice activists. Doctors work- ing in abortion clinics were the target of pro-life terrorists. For the edification of read- ers who don’t know me and amy convictions, don’t like,; . abortions,‘ but 1 believe in- the - tule of law. And ifthe law... says abortions are legal, those who would kill doctors per- forming abortions are terror- ists, thugs, criminals. And spare me your outraged and pious letters to the editor about the sanctity of life. 1, too, believe passionately in the sanctity of life, but with me it includes an absolute and equally passionate conviction that the death penalty is ob- scene. The immediate problem is that there hasn’t been an abor- tion controversy until the NDP brought it up to force the Lib- erals into a fight. To me, that’s no different from a school yard bully say- ing to a boy who is moved to lears by some sad story that he is a goddamned sissy. The veneer of civilization is only skin-deep, and it doesn’t take much of a provocation to pierce it and bring out the ani- mal in all of us. And that’s ex- actly what’s happening right now. The NDP is trying hard to bring out the animal in the Liberals. So far, the Liberals are re- fusing to take the bait. Yes, I know, last week, I said that the. opposition. is. remiss,in de- bating., whal.; the. government throws. at/it in the. legislature. | That was before the NDP government raised the abortion issue without any reason. Jack Weisgerber, former Social Credit cabinet minister, now an independent Member of the Legislative Assembly, . put it very succinctly, when he said that his estimation of Ujjal Dosanjh has gone, dawn and down and down, Jack is wise, old owl. He’s been around for a long time. He has more political experience than the whole NDP caucus put together, And I do trust his judgment, Faced with almost certain humiliation and defeat at the polls, the NDP is trying to “define” issues. That means playing as dirty as possible, portraying the opposition in ‘as mean a light as possible, in this case, making out Liberals as some sort of born-again anti- abortion freaks. There are lies and there are damned lies. This one’s a damned lie. Gordon Campbell, the Liberal leader, has never said he would outlaw abortion. He’s no Bill Vander Zaim. Do I trust Campbell? Hell, no. [ don,t trust any politician until I Know, his or,her mettle, [ :: still. have to.find out -what . Campbells mettle is. | But until I do, and until 1 find out just what kind of met- tle Campbell is made of, I de- spise the cheap political tricks designed to paint him as some sort of monster, . Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; ’ Tel (250) 381-6900; Web http://www. hubertbeyer.com tt This election will be a dooz INSIDE OF three months, we British Columbians must hold an election. The parties and their candidates aren’t the only ones who must gear up, With 34 parties crowding the ballot, we voters, toc, must ready ourselves. To squeeze all 34 names on a single ballot, the printing will be as squinty as the five- language warranty of a Hitachi television. I’ve made an ap- pointment for next week to check my Ddifocals, and up- grade them a notch, I worry I might confuse two similarly spelled names and help to elect a party not of my choice. The ability to speed read is 4 necessity. And our shoulder muscles deserve weight train- ing to comfortably hoist the ballot aloft while it flaps down the way some people display their credit cards, , In case any of us lack the strength to do so, tables hold- THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI ing the cardboard voting Shields ought to be draped to the floor as though for a ban- quet or summit meeting. . Will Elections B.C. give any thought to rolling each ballot on an axle with its own tiny crank? Scrutineers will be expected to meet rigorous physical stan- dards in order to count the me- HOW DO You KEEP TRACK OF. ak. "AB wihlo BUYS WHAT? PP ET you neucero! ¥ | THAT'S HOW at " ter-long ballots without suffer- ing neck spasms or other repe- titive injuries. In my memory, I see the vo- te-counting in Florida with one person holding up a ballot against the light and half a dozen others scrutinizing for perfectly punched holes. To contain the voluminous paper, ballot boxes will be four times larger or total four times more. Watch for Workers’ Compensation inspectors flanked by chiropractors and physiotherapists contracted out for the day, This situation comes from B.C.’s election laws: anyone can form a party. No deposit is required. Just fill out an appli- cation, appoint a financial agent, and you've got yourself a party, Carried to its extreme, every two qualified voters in the province could form a party. A ballot could read like a phone directory. Expect court challenges to LIKE HUNTERS SHARING THEIR ‘Yee GAME! (CEVENS BAe OUT OVER TIME! 4a : a EAN. WERE y dunTees! "58 Beer y | decide which party leaders par- . licipate in TV debates. Last election our province had trou- ble trimming the number of leadership candidates to a. manageable count. This time, we'll have six times as many party leaders. If our local all-candidates forum is represented by all 34 parties, the candidates on stage wiil resemble a Caledonia gra- duation. To save time, each will be identified by number rather that by name, like crimi- nals in a police line-up. Given the questionable behaviour of a few of our elected politicians, consider it a practice run. As much as this pravince needs an election, I don’t look forward to this one. Arthritis in my right shoulder is a major . concern, While I wait for Dosanjh to call the election, instead of fingering worry beads, | unfold. map. and ‘refold an: Esso highway .