i ies

endorsements
insult voters

Did you happen to read Satur-
day’s (Nov. 8th) Vancouver Sun
editorial headed ‘‘The City Elec-
tion’’? If you didn’t, don’t waste
your time looking for it now. It’s
so wishy-washy, so negative, so
full of contradictions that it in-
sults not only logic but the in-
telligence of anyone with an
ounce of brains. If this is the kind

) Horry
: Rankin

of “‘leadership’’ we are to get
from the Vancouver Sun now
that it has been taken over by the
Southam newspaper chain, it’s
just one more strong argument
that we need another newspaper
in Vancouver, not controlled by
one of the two big chains that now

have a virtual monopoly of the'

press in Canada. To expect the
Vancouver Sun, or the Southam
or Thomson newspapers empires,
to call for progressive reform at
city hall would be like expecting
the Pope to lead a campaign for
the right to abortion.

After a cursory and utterly in-
adequate and ineffectual review
of the issues before the voters in
the November 15 election in a
wordy editorial that takes up al-

most a third of a page, the -Van-
couver Sun concludes that we

up of “four or five represen-
tatives of the NPA, three or four
from TEAM, and one or two
from COPE, headed by Mike
Harcourt as mayor. What a dog’s
breakfast that would be!

The editors know that. the
voters of Vancouver are fed up
with the NPA and want not onlya

change of faces at city hall but a’
change of policy and priorities. It:
admits that mayor Volrich and:

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MIKE HARCOURT . . . oddball endorsement from Vancouver Sun would see Harcourt head NPA-

TEAM dominated council. Harcourt’s campaign has solid backing of labor, COPE and NDP in city
and this week continued to gain ground on Volrich. Shown above: mayoralty all candidates meet-
ing this week at Kensington Centre. As in most mayoralty debates, Volrich was absent.

aldermen show ‘‘courage and in-
telligence’’ and are ‘‘the soundest
and most sensible candidates in

The dilemma of the editors of

his NPA majority forced on the =

city, “a convention centre witha —_ Phillips and his TEAM majority

built-in deficit that could cost the that railroaded through council

taxpayers dearly’. It admits that _ the rezoning of the North Shore

the mayor and his “willing ma- of False Creek (owned by the the race’’.
jority” of NPA’ers ‘‘betrayed’” CPR) from industrial to residen-

voters when they refused to in- _ tial and commercial, thereby giv-

troducethe ward systemendorsed ing the CPR huge windfall profits

by the majority of voters in a
referendum in the 1978 election.
The editorial calls alderman
George Puil, the leading
spokesman for the NPA on
council, ‘‘abusive and
dogmatic.”” And after all this it

just by the stroke of a pen that
amounted to tens of millions of
dollars. The CPR is cashing in on
this unearned profit now in its
new deals with the provincial
government concerning the so-
called B.C. Place whereby it will

adises voters to elect four or five ~ get $30 million in cash plus five of
NPA’ers to council. the choicest properties in

The editors of the Vancouver downtown Vancouver in ex-
Sun know that although TEAM change for its North Shore pro-
has called for a ward system  perties so that premier Bennett
dating back to the time when Art may builda stadium and amonu-
Phillips was mayor, (and when ment tohimself called B.C. Place.
TEAM had a majority on Coun- The editors of the Vancouver

cil), not one TEAM alderman
who was elected has ever sup-
_ported a ward system once they

got into council. They betrayed -

the voters who put them into of-
fice every time.
The editors of the Vancouver

Sun know that it was mayor
Phillips and his TEAM majority
that handed over a big section of
the entrance to Stanley Park to

‘private developers and real estate

speculators. Yet, in the face of all

the Vancouver Sun is clear. They
are only too well aware that voters
are dissatisfied with the
shenanigans of mayor Volrich
and his NPA majority whose one
and only priority has been to push
through deals favorable to
developers and big business in-
terests and subsidized by tax-
payers. The editors are afraid that
the voters will turn away not only
from the NPA but also from the
played-out TEAM organization
which has a score behind from
trying to sit on both sides of the
fence (while serving certain
business interests), and turn to
COPE. So that’s why they come
up with the directive to voters that
they should elect a majority of

NPA and TEAM candidates. °

That will ensure that things go on
as they have been.

want real change, and I’m sure
they do, there’s only one way to
get it and that’s to elect a majority
of COPE candidates. Since its
formation 12 years ago, COPE
has consistently day in and day
out (and not only at election time)
advocated and campaigned for a
ward system, an improved bus
system and a light rapid transit,
but other priorities such as the
building of affordable housing
and the lowering of taxes on

homes by ensuring that the

developers and other owners of
big properties pay their fair share
of taxes.

That’s why I’m asking for your
vote once more and appealing to
you to vote for the other COPE
aldermanic candidates including
Bruce Eriksen (who was runner
up last time), Jean Swanson,
Bruce Yorke, Delicia Crump,
Dave Schrek, Carmella Allevato,
Solly Jackson, Jim Quail, and
Joe Arnaud.

These are the candidates that

\_need a “balanced council’? made

Sun also know that it was mayor

this, the editors of the Sun claim
that certain of the TEAM

If the voters of Vancouver

put people first.

T he two courageous single mothers who last week
camped out on the doorstep of Vancouver city hall to
dramatize their personal crisis and help the newly formed
Housing for People Coalition draw attention to the crisis
facing thousands, have this week finally found decent and
affordable housing.

For June MacLaurin and Sharon Thibert the home they
were able to rent this week ends a five month ordeal of frus-

themselves and three children.

For most of that period the two had languished at a tran-
sition house for battered wives where they had sought shelter
after leaving their husbands. The task of finding housing for
the women and their children, together or separately,
stumped both the Red Door Rental Agency and the YWCA
Housing Registry, the two publicly funded rental agencies
which know more about finding low-income housing than
anyone else in Vancouver.

The truth soon became apparent. Decent housing within
the $325 allotment for rent provided by the ministry of hu-
man resources, even when doubled up, and with a landlord
prepared to accept single mothers on welfare with children,
just was not available.

It took as much courage as desperation for the two to take
the issue to city hall steps Nov. 4 and to stay there for four
days before returning last Friday to the transition house.

When they left Friday they already knew of the prospect
that came through this week. But after four days of a cold,

and the subject of enormous publicity, not all of it positive,
they couldn’t think of staying any longer.

Before leaving, MacLaurin and Thibert, never before in-
volved in a political act, learned first hand about the political
world. Wednesday, someone phoned the mayor’s office
with news of an apartment for rent, and Volrich quickly
dispatched his assistant George Madden who took the
women and accompanying media to view it. As it turned out
the apartment was unsuitable for a number of reasons. But
when an inexperienced MacLaurin explained that it was un-
suitable because it had no bathtub for her children, the in-
itially sympathetic news reports suddenly became indignant
that these “beggars” were now ‘‘choosers.”” Thursday mor-
ning on Jack Webster’s TV show, they received brutal
treatment and were accused of being political setups for
COPE. No one bothered to ask for or explain the real

reasons why the apartment was unsuitable — it was too

tration and despair attempting to find a home for

miserable existence in the Ford van at 12th Ave. and Cambie:

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

small for five people and too expensive, at $365 per month,
for one family.

But there was a tremendous amount of public support for
the women as well. A constant stream of well wishers and
visitors at the camp were evidence of that, and, the house
they are now living in, was itself the result of their action at
city hall.

“They are very happy now,’’ Frances Wasserlein, Hous-
ing Coalition spokesperson told us Wednesday. ‘“The house
is within their means and it is comfortable. They feel very
good about the support they have received.”

* * * * *

rogressives in the United States are as apprehensive
about the results of last week’s U.S. presidential elec-
tions as we are. But they had expected the result and were
braced for it, visiting Washington State Communist Party
chairperson B. C. Mangaoang tells us.
B. J., in Vancouver last weekend for the anniversary cele-
bration for the Russian Revolution, also brought some en-
couraging news. :

In Seattle’s 32nd congressional district, the CPUSA can-°

didate, Marion Kinney, a friend of many in this province,
polled 10 percent of the vote.

_ The outstanding achievement was helped along by some
peculiar circumstances. The Democratic incumbent in the
32nd district is a renowned right wing slumlord so integrated
into the local business establishment that the Republicans
had decided not to oppose him. That left only a number of
independents and Kinney as the opposition.

Under Washington State electoral procedures, all of the
candidates went on a primary ballot about six weeks ago,
with only those getting a minimum number of votes pro-
ceeding to the final ballot last week. Two madeit to the final
ballot — the Democrat and Kinney, who took five percent in
the primary. ;

When Marion doubled that last Tuesday it was a reflec-
tion of the mass contempt held for the Democrat slumlord,
and a long overdue recognition for her long and consistent
work in the predominantly Black and low-income district.

B. J. had another purpose in coming to Vancouver. She
wanted information about the criminal charges being laid

against the Ku Klux Klan by the National Black Coalition’s
Delecia Crump.

The information is needed in Seattle because of the step-

_ ped-up activity by the Klan there. In fact two weeks ago only

a few blocks from the CPUSA office in the 32nd district,
there was a cross burning on the front lawn of a Black w0- |"
men’s house.

Cross burnings only two hours away from Vancouver are
a chilling reminder of the upsurge of ultra-right and racist
activity sweeping North America. It was buttressed again
this week with news of another cross burning Saturday night
in London, Ontario. About 40 KKK members reportedly
burned the cross at the farm of Martin Weiche, president of
the National Socialist Party of Canada.

* * * * ue

§ urrey Alternative Movement (SAM) school board can-
didate Steve Gidora smiles when he calls the scandal in
the current municipal election race ‘‘Signgate.”’

It is a scandal of small proportions, but a very great em-
barrassment to the Surrey Municipal Electors, the NDP-
Liberal coalition which has dominated Surrey municipal
council for the past two years.

The scandal was literally uncovered by Gidora about 2
week ago when he noticed a vandalized SME sign in Clover-
dale. Showing through the ripped cardboard on the two foot
by four foot sign was some familiar lettering. A closer look
confirmed that the sign was one of the 10 SAM signs stolen
one year ago in the last municipal campaign. —

- Since then Gidora has uncovered four more SAM signs

covered up with SME posters, spaced along the King George

Highway. When he took one along to an all candidates
meeting in Surrey Nov. 6 and asked for an explanation, the
SME candidates cried foul and “‘frame up.”

The next morning a Surrey Leader reporter was tracking
down yet another stolen SAM sign on the King George
Highway when he bumped into SME’s George McNally,
husband of SME candidate Laurae McNally, hurriedly try-
ing to take the ‘sign down. The reporter caught the incident
with his camera, and the published picture was another
source of embarrassment for SME.

It is hard to know at this point how far the coverup goes
into Surrey’s poltical hierarchy. But it has been confirmed
that SME’s signs were stored for the past year on the farm of
Surrey alderman and former NDP candidate Garry Wat-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 14, 1980—Page 2