A4- The Tetrace Standard, Wednesday, August 17, 1994

TERRACE

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 :
ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 1S8

TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
— MODEM: 638-7247 >

Serpent swit

IF SATAN had taken the form of a cute Border
Collie instead of a serpent for that fateful en-
counter with Eve in the Garden of Eden, city
council wouldn’t be in the mess it is today.
Snakes are now regarded as something slimy,
slippery and downright evil whereas dogs are
universally held as man’s best friend.

All of this boils down to the rights and free-
doms of those with commonly accepted pets
compared to those who have pride and joys not
liked nor appreciated by the majority of other
people. On the surface, it seems to be a case of
pure discrimination. oo, |

In reality it involves the responsibility that all
people have to not do things which unduly affect
others. Certainly there’s a strong case to ban
snakes from city parks. There’s just as strong a
case to ban dogs from city parks or, at the very
least, to require that Rover be put on a leash.
Parks are meant for the enjoyment of people, not
as exercise yards for pets. .
If city council truly wants to do something
about snakes, then it should rightly and correctly
examine all of its rules and regulations pertain-
ing to pets.

_ Tricky guys) |_

GOVERNMENTS both federal and provincial
have made a big deal for a long time about seek-
ing ‘‘public input’’ before introducing new legis-
lation or policies.

Cynics have suggested the process was more
concerned with public relations than learning and
acting upon the feelings of the public.

Not surprisingly such suggestions have been
dismissed as, well, cynical. .

Now, however, comes confirmation their
jaundiced view is an accurate one. .

It’s provided by provincial Forests minister
Andrew Petter in a letter to chief forester John
Cuthbert. .

In that letter, Petter outlines the government’s
‘‘social and economic objectives’’ for the forest
industry.

Afier stressing the government’s concern for
the stability of communities which rely on the in-
dustry, Petter tells Cuthbert he should consider

important local social and economic objectives |

that may come out of the public input on timber
supply reviews such as those recently completed
in this area. .

Then comes the kicker: ‘‘...where these are con-
sistent with the government’s broader objec-
tives’’,

That. sounds awfully like, ‘“We’d love to hear
from you, the people, provided you say what we
want to hear.’’ _ ——

. ; oe a cena
E'S ~ PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link Bd

|@ncuLanan

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Serving the Tarrace area. Published on Wednesday of each waek by Cariboo Press (1963 Lid. et 4647
Lazalla Ave., Terrace, British Columbla,

Stories, photographs, ilustratlons, dasins and lypestyles in tha Terrace Standard ate the property of the
copyright hokdets, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Ud, ie ilustralion repro services and advertising

CONT ANIEY

fog wt.

ae?
YOU'RE TOAST

BECTON DETE

SABE

Au. - —

MMU

—_

B.C. wines come of age

VICTORIA — Back in the
70s, only the brave and the ig-
norant drank B.C, wine. The
stuff foisted on consumers by
British Columbia wineries in
those days should have been
confiscated by the health min-
istry and poured down the

| drain.

And even though folks with a
Tudimentary knowledge of
wine refused the buy the pro-
duct, enough of the slop was
sold to keep the purveyors of
bad taste rolling in dough.

There was, however, one
critic the wine industry
couldn’t ignore. Pat McGeer,
one of the Liberal Members of
the B.C. Legislature, later to
become a Socred, was on a
constant war path against what

_ he considered a blight on civi-
_ lization.

Not a year went by that
McGeer didn’t level at least
one broadside against B.C.
wine makers. He’d use any op-
portunity to climb on his soap
box and let them have it. One
year, after a particularly sting-
ing attack, the wine industry
responded by inviting McGeer
to an official taste test. It
turned out to be a bad move,
for the industry, that is.

Members of the press gallery

bought an assortment of wine.

SUNDAY MORNING our
dogs alerted us to an intruder.
Hiding in the fireweed was a
porcupine. Disturbed by the
dogs, it scaled a hemlock
where it balanced on a high
branch, a dark blob silhouetted
by a black and white halo.

Now, I’m thrilled to see
wildlife live in close-up 3D
rather than as roadkill. But no
backyard Wild Kingdom,
please.

Porcupines are hazardous, |

especially to dogs and pigskin
wailets. With their ponderous
gait and rude habit of hoisting
their bristling tail, they rouse
the ire of any dog, Often the
result is a canine muzzle
spiked with quills, a vet's bill,
and pain. Plenty of pain.

When 1 was a teenager, our
farm dog Buster returned from
a tabbit romp, his face be-
whiskered like Popeye. In
agony, he dug a hole deep
enough to bury a Winnebago.

I got the impossible task of

holding my whimpering pet

"HUBERT BEYER.

Included were wines from

France, Germany and, of
course, British Columbia. The
venue for the showdown was

. Victoria’s venerable Empress

Hotel. ate

We media types poured
samples from numerous bottles
into glasses, and McGcer pro-
ceeded to taste. He’d take a
sip, swish the wine around in
his mouth a bit and delivered
his verdict.

**That’s a Mouton Cadet ... a
German Riesling, probably
Weingut Schmidt .. ah, what
have we got here? No doubt,
Herb Capozzi left his socks in
that one.”’ He got every one of
them right.

Times have changed since

THROUGH BIFOCALS.
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

FT. DOGGEREL, RESIDENT
MARTEN FISHER REFORTEP
Mm ABRIGHT LIGHT IN BIRCH

1 SWAMP LAST NIGHT 1+:

while Dad extracted visible
quills with pliers. I might as
well have tried riding a long-
hom. For months embedded
quills festered through Buster’s
checks into his mouth.

How do you evict an
uninvited porcupine? Not by
shooting it, if it were legal to
do so within a residential area.
And no dog catcher is avail-
able at cight on a Sunday

j

| BUT WHEN HE GoT
: THERE THE LIGHT
WAS MOVING AWAY AT
ASTONISHING SPEED!

then. Not too long after the
famous taste test, the Bill Ben-
nett government brought in
legislation that gave birth to
so-called cottage . wineries,
which later grew into the estate
wineries of today.

It paid off big. Today's estale
winery products can hold their
own in the company of the
best. Which brings me ta the
main point of this piece. A few
wecks ago, a Charnonnay by
Mission Hill of Westbank was
judged the best in the world at
an international competition in

- London, England.

Anthony von Mandel came
from New Zealand in 1981 and
bought Mission Fill. It took
him 13 years to gain the recog-
nition that he set out fo achieve
for his product. if tried to talk.
to von Mandel, but he was
away on a business trip to Cal-
ifomia.

My second choice for an in-
terview turned out to be the
guy I should have asked for in
the first place. John Simes is
Mission Hill’s wine master,
and the award-winning Char-
donnay was his baby from the
start.

“T spotted he potential of this
Chardonnay the moment I
walked into the vineyard,’” he
said. And fortunately the

morning,

Wildlife officers routinely
felocate bears, but only the
Farside comic herds  por-
cupines, Carloonist Gary Lar-
son had a border collie jump-
ing from the back of one por-
cupine to another, ‘‘Ouch
Ouch, Ouch.”

RCMP gave me a toll free
number 1-800-663-9453 for
BC Fish and Wildlife in Vic-
toria. I was amazed when a
woman promptly answered.

“What if the two-year-old
next door discovers she finally
has a pet all her own?”’ I
asked, “Or a nelghbour’s mutt
tries to flush the portly rodent
from its territory? Suppose our
dogs corners it next day under
a thimbleberry bush?’”

‘Warn your neighbours of
the intruder, then wait For the
animal to go away,’” she sug-
gested.

Accordingly, we tethered our
dogs where they would be safe
until the porcupine departed.

MR, FISHER AND HIS FRIENDS ARE
GRACIOUSLY RENTING ALL THEIR BUSH
GEAR AND HAVE HIRED ON AS WELL

grower went along with Simes’
instructions of how and when
to harvest the grapes. ,

Simes came to Canada two
years ago, also from New
Zealand, where he had worked
for the largest winery in the
country. He brought with him
not only his dedication to qual-_
ity, but an insistence that’
things are done his way.

**To get a wine of this quali-
ty, everything has to be done
right. I need a higher quality
than the regular contract calls
for. I also insist on somewhat
different harvesting methods,’’
Simes said,

He must be doing something
Tight. His baby, the award-
winning Chardonnay, the Mis--
sion Hill Grand Reserve, Bar-
rel Select was found to be the

best, beating out 200° other ©

contenders from 13 countries, ©

We’ve come along way —
since the days when drinking
B.C. wine invited comparisons
with vinegar, bad vinegar. And
some of the credit must go to
Pat McGeer whose glee for
harassing the B.C. wine indus-
try was surpassed only by his
tenacity.

Here’s to B.C. wine. May it
prosper and continue to bring
us pleasure,

Truly a prickly situation

Then we tried poking it from”
its Bark-a-lounger using a

twenty-foot
aluminum tubing. The four-. _
legged pincushion only.”
scrambled higher until it was
standing on a slender branch
that sagged under Its weight,
threatening to Ict it slide off. It
clasped the slim trunk above in

"a desperate hug.

Realizing the nocturnal tree-
hugger would probably snooze
until dark, I unchained. the
dogs. They scemed unaware of
the porcupine perched over-
head, motionless and silent,

Throughout the forencon we
made frequent checks on the
visitor. It soon descended to
the branch it had found com-
fortable before we poked it.

At nightfall, it was still
curled comfortable on a broad
branch, immobile.

Near midnighi, it made
several sounds Ilke hemlocks
grating in the wind.

Next morning it was gone,

length Of “free

‘

es //

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