Page 4, The Herald, Wednesday, June 27, 1978 TERRACE/KITIMAT daily herald Published by Sterling Publishers General Office - 635-6357 Circulation - 635-4357 GEN. MANAGER: Knox Coupland EDITOR - Greg Middleton CIRCULATION - TERRACE - KITIMAT OF FICE - 632.2747 Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Verified Circulation. Authorized as second class mail. Registration number 1201. Postage pald In cash. return postage guaranteed. 635-6987 NOTE OF COPYRIGHT The Heratd retalns full, complefe and sole copyright In any edvertisement produced and-or any editorial or Photographic content published in the Herald. Reproduction ts not permitted. EDITORIAL A group of primarily French-speaking Terrace-area parents are asking that the core-curriculum be taught to their children in French. A spokesman for the group, which represents about three dozen parents now and has a French-speaking com- ‘munity of at least two thousand to draw from, says their children learn English from the English speaking members of this community in their daily lives and have no problem in becoming fivent in - that language. The conern here is that the children will not get the support to speak and a working knowledge of French unless there is more than the home to use the language in. These parents have both a legitimate concern and the perspective fo see that this is how to encourage bilingualism . and Canadian unity. Theirs is a cause that should receive the support of the school board and the administration here. COMMENT BY BRIAN GREGG How does one react to a neighborhood that forms its welcome wagons into a circle and tries to fend off another group of people from moving into the block just because the newcomers happen to be mentally retarded. The people who will be living in the Sparks Street teacherages only have one main handicap and that is some people in the community. ; Terrace is a recognized leader in this province for its exceptional treatment of handicapped people, particularly with regard to mentally handicapped. In this particular field, the expertise come to Terrace and jearn how to deal with it. . The Jack Cook School is one example of how the community has gotten behind the mentally han- dicapped. The Alice Olson Home, where the Jack Cook School students live, is another example of how Terrace has accepted this special need by providing the level of care that is required. Jack Cook, president of the Association for the Mentally Retarded, says that when it was proposed the people living around the Alice Olson Home reacted in ihe same manner as the people on Sparks Street who want to stop the handicapped from moving into their neighborhood, Cook is also reminded of one resident who sold his home because of his fears that the property would be devalued; but this never happened and apparently the person later regreted his actions. The value of property is determined by the mood of the community, In Terrace the devaluation of property is more likely to be attributable to rumors in Southern and Eastern Canada that conditions are not economically good here than to 16 people moving into town duplexes and a large house. As Jack Cook says: They have the right to live somewhere," Cooksalso says that the people who live on Sparks Street in the teacherages will not be institutionalized. “How can they be...two them have jobs as janitors with the school district and all. of them do their shopping in town..you see them everywhere,” he BAYS. Cook sees the success rate of local service to the handicapped as a community effort. ‘The whole town is supportive...that’s why we have the finest service in the province.” There will be six house parents in the three buildings in case of fire, or other emergencies. “If you want to get mercenary you could say that we are creating six new jobs in the town, which will be of benefit to the local economy," says Cook. Since the Association for the Mentally Retarded is still in the process of purchasing the teacherages it is possible that this project could be halted if the protesters get their way. Since service Is Terrace'’s leading industry, and Terrace is a leader in providing service to the han- dicapped, any move to halt such a project could even be considered antisocial, however. And having, as a reporter, dealt with the kind of people who will be moving into the area, I think that they will enhance, not detract from the neighborhood. HIS FAVORITE _ Raton 15 PLAID “Those who th ink I m goin sono EK. 2 to waffle on my election promises now that I’m prime minister are wrong... more or less.” . . NEW YORK ever- Caught in a tightening eco- _ nomic squeeze, Americans are becoming confused and angry and the country may be moving into a long summer of discontent. The mood seems bitter, but undirected. There is ample bad news, but no single villain on which to focus consumer wrath. People are spending weary hours in line for expensive ‘gasoline. Food prices are going up, with the whole consumer pushing higher each month. price index The fuel shortage promp- (CP) —. Dwindling and expensive gasoline supplies, increasing food prices and worries about the future are casting a pall over American consumers. EVERYTHING UP : Americans in a squeeze ~ By JOHN WARD ted the independent truckers to strike, demanding cheaper and more plentiful diesel fuel and that has . curtailed produce deliveries. New York City, for example, is expecting a meat shortage by the weekend. ‘ Some states dre trying gasoline allocation plans, but in some’ — New. York, for instance — officials are already drawing on next month's. emergency al- location to meet this month’s demand. : Nothing could have hit harder at the very fabric of American life than the current gasoline shortage. Commentators have made the point repeatedly: American life is predicated on the availability of cheap enetgy, particularly gasoline. Consumers are not soothed by the gloomy and sometimes contradictory pronouncements fram Washington. Officials have blamed current problems on evervthing from the Iranian revolution to gouging oil companies, ; te The Organization of Petro- - leum Exportmg Countries gets a llon’a share of the blame, but the liberal political body — Americans for Democratic Action - — have called for the na- Honalization of the oil com- panies. Some politicians have added to the worries by fe predicting that heating fuel will be and what is available may cost 50 per. cent more than last year. an Eeonomic indicators are slumping — car sales dropped 26.2 per cent in mid- June — and the future seems to hold more inflation, less ta cope With a, unemployment rate, 7.9 per cent compared to 5.8 per cent in the U.S., but in other economic areas, Canada comes off well in comparison to its giant neighbor. The message from Washington to Americans is that they are golng tohave to learn to settle for less, but there is no consensus on how much less. scarce next winter - Gov't called arrogant EDMONTON (CP) — Opposition charges of government arrogance swirl around the Alberta legislature like the poplar fluffs drifting up from the North Saskatchewan River. But Premier Peter Lougheed, the man the press gallery cynics call The King, says he sees no reason for worry. “[ think = the element is whether we're sensitive to the public,” he said in an interview. The opposition called his government arrogant from 1975 to 1979, he said, but the key was that the. key ' government admitted any mistakes it made. That was the approach Lougheed took last winter when he sald he had made a mistake in accepting free passes from the country He said he thaught other premiers had accepted similar passes, and he paid the alrlines the price of the ticketa when it turned out not to be so. The tickels were an issue but in the March 14 provincial election Lougheed’s Progressive Conservatives ‘took 74 of the 7 seats in the legislature. Soclal Credit Op. position Leader Bob _ Clark put the ticket affair on the record when he made it the subject of the new legislature's firat question period. The reply he received was - that voters had passed judgment on the issue. In following weeks, however, he and New Democratic Party Leader Grant Notley have made ‘s major airlines. - MATTER OF ETHICS By MARK LISAC such issues the theme of their attacks on the government, ‘ They asked why former energy ‘minister Don * Getty had not filed with the legislative clerk's office information about the investment company ~ he had formed three months before leaving office, Lougheed, apparently genuine angry over the questioning of his friend’s integrity, said the company probably was a shell until after the election, a statement Getty subsequently con- firmed Clark and Notley found the premier had per- sonally asked Getty to stay on with the energy department as a $1,000-a- month consultant, They drew out the in- formation that Lougheed had offered government posts last summer to two other cabinet ministers, Bert Hohol and Roy Farran, several months before their retirement from polltics. There were no other candidates. Clark held a news _ conference to announce a builder In Red Deer had recelved a request for. campaign funda from Housing Minister Tom Chambers shortly after recelying a contract from Chambera’s department. With the end of the legislature's spring sit- ting only days away, Clark and Notley were still hammering Monday at the provincial government's surprise transfer of government files from offices at six ‘Metis settlements, The provincial ombudsman ’ agreed to investigate the affair. Clark, claiming Lougheed knew he was “on thin ice’ in various ethics matters, said in an Interview the premier was “at his petulant worst” in answering _ questions about Getty’s appointment. The petulance surfaces whenever Lougheed feels his personal judgment questianed because 50 few people are in the legislature to question it, said Clark. Notley called ” Lougheed's response to the Getty question ‘in- credible’ and sald the premier had the attitude that after an election one should “shut up, sit down and get out of the way.” He said Conservative government has “too damn much power bnd too little sense of re- sponsibilty,”’ No‘ley’s accusation was prompted — by Lougheed'’s approach to government. * The premier ended his first major speech to the- new legislature this rT by saying he and e rest of the govern- ment faced the challenge of years of important decisions. “We have the mandate to do it; so without any further talk from me, I say let’s get on with the job ard do it.” } Asked for / an assessment of whether ‘job; the government was -dealing with his depart- ; pinarally and polltically the accusations and pointed questions in the legislature have done political damage, | Lougheed replied that the opposition was doing its remaining sensitive to the public and time would tell, if government mem- bers ever slip into a serious political morass, it may be because of their apparent inability or unwillingness to discuss both sides of an issue when they feel they have not made a mistake. Chambers said everyone collects’ cam- paign funds from busi- ness associates and there was nothing wrong in his collecting fram fellow engineers, even those ment, , Snelal Services Minister Bob Bogle ad- mitted he was concerned about relations with the province's Metis, but said the files transferred from Metis settlements last week: were government files in government buildings. "T think Hob Bogie’s given a pretty fair ex- planation,” ‘said Lougheed. The government won the March 14 election resoundingly but on radlo hotline shows It ia the target of epitheta such as - nkrupt,” Lougheed has brushed off -the. persistent ac- cusations but the op- position has made 80 many he may be forced to listen to reporters’ questions about them. OTTAWA OFFBEAT | _ "BY RICHARD JACKSON .. Ottawa,-If you thought this last election was 4 attention-grabber, just wait until the next. aed And it shouldn’t be long coming, perhaps as soon as: . next spring. . ee: oa _ | - For the ‘elements of the new government "and: -|. Parliamient are too incompatibie, too volatile; and as; unstable as the party alliances which must combing, vith extreme fragility and uncertainty. on very; visive issue requiringa vote; == 4 In the last constituency countdown, the political: universe unfolded as most voters expected it would. - Pierre Trudeat got his. eee So did Joe Clark, _ a yeas But for Trudeau defeat was unequivocally unstable; It proved the truism of the cliche that made. the: - ~ campaign not so mucha test of political popularity as’ ‘| unpopularity. . ae Canadians did not vote for the Conservatives + because they wanted Joe Clark as much as they voted’ against the Liberals because they wanted Pierre. Trudeau even less. oo me - That’s what makes the result-the minority: government and Parliament—so perishable. == The widly unbalanced regional distribution of seats; . among the four parties—yes, in the peculiar ‘cir-, cumstances . Social Credit will count—does _not correspond in any remote way with their shares of the: popular vote. ; 7a Neither of the two major parties can form an ef- fective coalition with the minority group closes to its, own political philosphy. | ow ’ The Tories and the Socreds do not a parliamentary majority make. = : And the Liberals and New Democrats don’t add up to a combination that could upset the Conservatives, | much less form a government. us a With Trudeau turning power over to Clark it places the Conservative and New Democrats into.an im- possible and extremely temporary alliance. oo It can last only as longas beth parties can con- veniently forget their doctrinaire principals and’ precommitted policy positions in the interest of stable . government... ; Saad, __ ‘There’s an element there, too, of NDP leader Ed. ‘ Broadbent being almost compelled by prevailing | ; public opinion, political necessity, and his instinet to , dothe decent thing, to “give Joe Clark his chance,” as i they put it’: 2.) ak : But that kind of ‘power Christianity'’ will last only as long as the New Democrats think It profits them. When they’ve had enough of swallowing themselves: and their left-wing beliefs to accommodate the Con- , servatives, and the Tories sense danger in the com: promising of their right wing to appease the socialists, Joe Clark will be expendable. rn The resulting election campaign will be fought in very different circumstances from this spring’s. . _ The Liberals just might have a new leader, Pierre Trudeau having said he’s not the kind of man who likes ’ to be kicked ‘ny the way the i § ve booted him, i aving: signs; afte joie, rf I wéarinesd witht e ng sn aa Oe ee Joe Clark might have managed to stimulate, or Heaven help us all, to destablize the economy. And the New Dems will have had a chance to build _on their increased strength to the point where they . could make a rational bid as an alternative in an. election that will be more than just an exercise in - voting for the least unpopular of two, unwanted ‘ leaders. : Even before the new Parliament begins, the new’ election campaign has started. In‘fact, this last one; ° really hasn't ended. Lo Actually, it'll be just another lap in an indefinite™ , relay race, to end only when one party or the other wins a majority, ; TODAY IN HISTORY Joseph and Hyrum Smith Carthage il. and Brigham @, Ii., an nm Young became head of the ; church. 2 1646 — Charles Parnell,’ Irish Patriot, was born. =. 1909— The Central London * Electric Railway was opened, 143 — U.S. bombers at- | tacked the German-occupied city of Athens, Greece. 1949:— Louis St. Laurent | and his. Liberals won 183 out of 262 seats in the general election. . ms By THE CANADIAN PRESS June 27, 1879 ; General James . Wolfe landed his British army near Quebee and blocked the St. Lawrence River to French" shipping 220 years ago today — in 1758. After a siege lasting 75 days, 33-year-old Wolfe led his treops up the “cliff behind Quebec to the Plains of Abraham, where they defeated Montcalm’s garrison and captured the city. Both commanders died in battle.. . 1844 — Mormon leadera 91970 orn rom Syeda FE "Take that thing off or I'll fine you for contempt.” es a Tee: