Editorial

—Time to trade PM

It was Brian Mulroney’s last chance to grovel before U.S. President
Ronald Reagan — and grovel he did.

His final Washington visit, his talks with Reagan, his speech to
Congress, all had one goal: to urge Americans to ratify the trade deal, to
assure them the Tories can ram the bill through Parliament, to avoid
threatening U.S. “goodwill” — in short, to save Mulroney’s political
skin in the next election.

There was evidence early that acid rain was to be the first victim. A
week before, aides told the media the prime minister would not issue any
“tough” statements or link U.S. failure to act on acid rain to any other
bilateral matters.

Tory surrender terms were
quickly accepted. Reagan aides
repeated their boss’ neander-
thal notion that “‘more study”
is required; that “‘existing
knowledge is insufficient to
warrant new laws.” With acid
rain neatly out of the way,
Mulroney’s “free” trade sales
show could descend on Wash-
ington.

Mulroney called Reagan “a man of peace” and received Reagan’s
promise not to block the Tory plan to equip Canada’s navy with
expensive and deadly nuclear submarines.

The president harkened back to “high on the ramparts of Quebec,”
calling Mulroney’s contribution to his presidency “refreshing and help-
ful.” Brian beamed.

The prime minister’s tour de force came in his speech to Congress.
One member said he ‘“thadn’t heard such charm since Cory Aquino....”
The PM touted the trade deal as “historic” and promised all opposition
at home would swept aside by his Tory steamroller. “We have the
majority to enact the agreement, and we shall,” he intoned.

So the tally sheet for Mulroney’s final pilgrimage to Washington is: he
sacrificed Canada’s environment, receiving in return Reagan’s green
light to buy nuclear submarines. He made his last plea to the US. legisla-
tors, receiving in return no guarantees, no “special” treatment — nothing —
from a protectionist Congress.

This latest indignity now out of the way, the task before Canadians is
to organize to defeat this Tory gang, along with their trade sellout and
nuclear U-boats, in the coming election.

Mulroney called Reagan “a
man of peace” and
received Reagan's promise
not to block the Tory plan
to equip Canada’s navy
with expensive and deadly
nuclear submarines.

we WILL NEVER HAND pawep

To

THE BLACKS

FTIRIBUNE

EDITOR

Sean Griffin

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

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Angela Kenyon

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Ficnds of long time Saskatchewan
activists Bill and Anne Gilbey — and
we know from Bill’s participation in the
commemoration of the On-To-Ottawa
Trek that there are many — will be inter-

ested to know that the progressive move-
ment in Regina will be celebrating the
work that the two have done over the
years in a special banquet set for May 16.

Originally from Winnipeg, Bill had
been an unemployed leader and Young
Communist League organizer in Van-
couver during the 1930s before becoming
a staff worker with the Oil, Chemical and
Atomic Workers Union (now the Energy
and Chemical Workers) in Saskatchewan.
He was later elected to the executive of the
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour and
served as president from 1964 to 1970.

Also from Winnipeg, Anne was a
prominent figure in the Manitoba women’s
movement and a long time staff worker
for the Communist Party in that province.
Both she and Bill remain active in the
Communist Party.

Len Wallace from the Retail, Wholesale
and Department Store Union, University
of Regina professor Lorne Brown and
Saskatchewan CP leader Kimball Cariou
are slated to speak at the celebration, to be

held at the Cathedral Neighbourhood
Centre.

For those who want to send messages,
they can be mailed to Unity Books,
3 — 2210 Albert St., Regina, S4P 2V2.
For Regina readers, tickets are also avail-
able at Unity Books.

pO OR

Fo" the same province comes a well-
aimed barb, issued by Local 922 of the
Energy and Chemical Workers Union in
Lanigan, Saskatchewan.

Ina leaflet entitled, “Choose Your Pol-
itical Friends Carefully,” they simply
quoted Webster’s dictionary to make the
point:

“tory (tor-ee) n. [Irish toiridhe, a hunter,
applied to bogtrotters and outlaws.] 1. A
name originally given to one of the
numerous mosstroopers who, during the
civil wars of the sixteenth century plun-
dered people in the bogs of Ireland, being
in arms nominally for the royal cause, but
really to afford a colourable pretext for

People and Issues
a

their own lawless proceedings. 2. [T — ]
A political party name first used in Eng-
land about 1679, and applied originally as
an epithet of reproach ....”

What more is there to say?

ee ae
e had been a premier supporter of the
Tribune for as long as any of us on
the staff could remember — and even in
those years he was already retired and
living on a pension. But on April 13, Tom
Mountford’s long life came to an end.

A native of Springhill, Nova Scotia
where he was born Jan. 5, 1897, he came
to this province after military service dur-
ing World War I. Following a stint as a
miner in the Crowsnest Pass mines, he
settled in Wynndel, near Creston, where
he worked as a farmer and strawberry
grower for nearly 70 years.

An activist in the local growers’ associa-
tion, he also joined the Communist Party
in 1932 and two years later, took part in
one of the early workers’ delegations to the

Soviet Union. He was a member of the
Creston club of the Communist Party at
the time of his death.

Both he and his wife Ena, who survives
him, have been long time contributors to
the Tribune’s financial drives.

* * *

he ranks of those who knew him in this

province have grown thinner over the
years but those who did will be saddened
to know that Mackenzie-Papineau Battal-
ion veteran Jim Cameron passed away in
Britain following surgery.

A founding member of the Pacific
Coast Fishermen’s Union — a precursor
to the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers’ Union — he volunteered for
Spain in 1937. He was later captured and
was one of the last International Brigade
members to be released from Franco’s
jails in early 1940.

Back in Britain, he was told by Cana-
dian authorities that he could only be
repatriated to Canada if he undertook to
refrain from trade union activity — a
condition he could~not accept. He
remained in Britain where he worked for
many years as a seaman and trade union
activist.

4 Pacific Tribune, May 4, 1988