4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, November 5, 1986 Skeena MLA- elect waits to be sworn in TERRACE The Registar of Voters for the Skeena riding, Bar- bara McGowan, ported recently that 1,899 unregistered votes remain to be counted from the Oct. 22 provin- cial election; McGowan also stated that she had no connection with an earlier erroneous report that the Section 80 count would be less than 1,000, Social Credit candidate Dave Parker’s victory over Skeena New Democratic Party in- cumbent Frank Howard, however, appears to be secure. Parker stated in a re- cent interview that he plans to go to Victoria Nov. 17 to be sworn in as Skeena’s MLA, after which he will participate with the rest of the government-side mem- bers in a two-day caucus meeting. ‘‘I imagine the first order of business will be the appointment of a new cabinet,’’ Parker said. ‘‘There are *Latters to the editor wilt be considered for publication only when signed, Piease Include your phone number. The editor reserves the right to condense and edit letters. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Terrace Review. : Terrace Review Established May 1, 1985 The Terrace Review is published each Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Publisher: Mark Twyford Editor: | Maureen Barbour Staff Reporter: Michael Kelly Advertising Sales: Jean-Luc Roy 635-7840 Production: Kim Kimbte Office: Carrie Olson Accounting: Marj Twyford Second-class mall tagistration No. 6896. Reproduction of this paper or any por- tlon thareof ls prohiblted without per- mission of the publisher, 4535 Greig Avenue, Terrace, B.C, V8G 1M7 Phone: 635-7840 ee re- also a number of other pressing issues to be dealt with, and perhaps after that I can get around to working on some of my pet projects for the Skeena consti- tuency.’’ During the election campaign Parker identified the set- tlement of native land claims, improved forest management and the ee revitalization of Kitimat’s declining retail economy as being the three dominant concerns in the Skeena riding. Parker said he plans to set up a constituency of- fice after the caucus meeting, but for at least the next two weeks he will be operating out of his business office at 308-4722 Lakelse Ave., an office he shares with engineer John Morgan. Parker also said he has decided to retain his seat as a trustee on the board of School District 88. ‘“‘My initial reaction was to resign,’ he said, ‘‘but a number of people have asked me stay on the board. I looked into it and found out it’s legal; I think that I should be able to do an even more effective job in this posi- tion.” Reviewing the election contest, Parker remark- ed, ‘‘I thought we ran a very clean and positive campaign.”’ The official results of the provincial election, including the final count of Section 80 ballots, will be released this week. Detailed analysis of the final outcome for the province will be available in the Nov. 12 edition of the Terrace Review. Lotter To the editor The “Skeena Valley Runners Club” would like to thank the follow- ing groups for their con- tribution to the recent successful “All Season’s Half Marathon”: All Seasons Sporting Goods ~~ sponsorship & spot prizes; R.C.M.P. — patrolling route during race; Safeway — _ be- verages and to Ms. Lehmann’s class from Skeena High School who volunteered their time. Dave Parker, MLA-elect for the Skeena riding, will con- tinue operating from his business office tn the Tillicum Building for the time being. Parker said recently that he wiH make a dectsion about setting up a constituency of- flce after a government caucus meeting later this month. Editorial Some win and some lose but what’s most important is that a number of people decide to play the game. There is nothing like choices to keep the guessing game at a fevor pitch. | The provincial election 86 campaign was waged on a variety of issues in the Skeena riding. All candidates agreed that native In- dian land claims must be dealt with, that questions about the future of the forest in- dustry in the northwest must be addressed and that financial assistance should be available for students wishing to attend post _ secondary institutions. The political competitors voiced an array of opinions, on a variety of subjects, and provided residents in the constituency with the conceptual variations that help promote a process of analytical thought in the voter's mind. There is nothing quite like choices to sharpen accuracy of judgement and there is nothing quite so dull as a lack of alternatives in any political arena. New voices rise, others fall and perhaps it is this democratic gift that preserves freedom for all. Voters in Skeena chose MLA elect Dave Parker as their representative this time. He brings to the platform a realistic view of the political process... ‘‘an MLA must be recep- tive to all people in the riding... if the issues were easy, they would have already been solved.” Parker stands in tribute to the valued democratic process called ‘‘Freedom of Choice’. Hubert ‘) Beyer | Terrace Review Victoria Correspondent } No matter which way you look at it, Bill Vander Zalm and his Social Credit Party slaughtered the NDP on election night. — The man who made no promises during the cam- paign and refused to debate issues, insisting that the only thing which counted was leadership, swept his party to an impressive victory. In this age of computers, the election was all but decided a quarter of an hour after the polls closed. ‘BCTV projected a majority Socred government by 8:17 p.m., which certainly takes a lot of the fun out of watching the results on TV. The big winner and the big loser now face their. own difficulties. Vander Zalm, who was given the next-best thing to a landslide victory, now must live up to the expectations of a lot of voters who haven’t always been in the Socred camp. His victory speech was the first attempt at pacify- ing those who may expect too much of him. Staying _with the non-committal style he used during the cam- paign, the premier called on all British Columbians to ‘‘pull together’. NDP leader Bob Skelly faces an even bigger prob- lem. Had he lost his own seat, the hatchet job his par- ty will have to do on him, would have been easier. Unless he offers to step down as leader, things could get a little messy. Every indicator during the campaign showed that Skelly was the NDP’s biggest problem. One way or another, he will have to go. With David Vickers’ unsuccessful attempt to get a seat in Saanich and the Islands, the new leader will almost certainly be Vancouver Mayor Mike Har- court. How will the NDP tackle the unsavory task of dumping its leader? Every leader, no matter how popular, automatically undergoes an annual leader- ship review at the NDP’s fall convention. My guess is that the next convention, review and all, will come sooner than next fall, and that’s when Skelly will be given his walking papers. The quote of the evening came from political veteran Garde Gardom, who has left politics after 20 years. Skelly, he said, deserves another chance. I’il bet the old Liberal-turned-Socred would just love that. Skelly wrote his own epitaph during his concession speech. ‘We will beat them eventually,” he said. Un- fortunately for him, he won't be the leader if and when that happens. The man to watch now is Harcourt. He’s the NDP’s best bet to win a future election. Not only is Harcourt a better campaigner and better. leadership material, he’s also the only man who's ever beaten Vander Zalm — for the Vancouver mayor’s job. For those watching the results on TV, there almost was another notable story. For a few minutes, Liberal leader Art Lee was shown in second place after Grace McCarthy in Vancouver Little Montain. In the end, it turned out to be an error in adding up votes. Too bad. The return of a Liberal to the B.C. legis- lature would have called for a celebration. But I sup- pose we’re stuck. for some time with the two-party system. The biggest upset of the election was the defeat of Labor Minister Terry Segarty in the riding of Kootenay, a riding that has consistently had close races. One thing I learned from this election is to trust my own instincts, In one of the last columns during the campaign, I predicted that the Socreds would get a §0-to-19 majority. I was hesitant to go with that prediction because of a number of polls done for various news outlets and some evidence that the NDP was closing the gap. As it turned out, I was right to ignore the pollsters and the legion of political pundits who afe always eager to change your mind for you.