“It’s all right, you can come out — that was the starting gun!”

EDITORIAL |

New broom-new hopes?

T rudeaumania is still warming up the political breezes
in British Columbia. Last week 4 Benleon , what is
Teported to be one of the largest Liberal conventions for many
— the B.C. Liberal parte elected Dr. Patrick Lucey (Pat)
McGeer, MLA (Vancouver Point Grey) new provincial leader.
McGeer won handily over his only rival Garde Gardom, MLA
from the same constituency, by 686 to 318 votes. : 5
- The Liberal convention also elected a new executive with
‘go-getter’ Russel Brink of West Vancouver as the Liberal
party’s provincial president. According to Liberal convention
enthusia, sparked with a touch of ‘Madison Avenue’ hoopla,
the selection of McGeer to fill the vacancy left by ex-leader
Ray Perrault, was sparked by four main considerations; the
political elixer of Trudeaumania; aM urge to get out of the
political wilderness, where the B.C- Liberals have been for
almost three decades, the ‘Setting Sun’ of a Social Credit era,
and a growing fear of the NDP. The latter perhaps the
strongest driving force of all;

Hopeful, of hyptnotizing the B.C. electorate come the next
provincial election into electing a Liberal government, to
becoming the governing party in B.C., the new leader called for
“an end to a generation of wandering in the wilderness’’. (In
the present legislature the liberals hold only six seats).

Waving the old trusty ‘Red Bogey’ of socialism (with
reference to the NDP), new Liberal leader Pat McGeer spelled
out some of his party’s programmatic aims. ‘British
Columbia” he said, ‘‘wants social reform, but not socialism”,
and pledged himself and his party to “strengthen the free
enterprise system”, with a parody Of Lincolnism thrown in
about “government by, and for the peoPle’’, etc;

If McGeer and his Liberals can outstrip the Bennett
regime in “strengthening” the ‘“‘free enterprise” system there
won’t be much of B.C. left the people can call their own. In
‘fast buck’ deals with U.S. and home>bred “free enterprise
monopoly, two decades of Socred wheeler-dealers have almost
stripped B.C. of its natural resources heritage;

In his acceptance speech enthusiasm, McGeer almost
committed the same faus pas as Toronto financial tycoon
George McCulloch did nearly three decades ago, when he told
the electorate. “I'll be a good jockey, #f you'll be a good horse”’.
Pat put it with slightly more genteelity by telling the delegates
“I want to be your leader. I want to lead, and I want your
ae political omens of this Liberal convention should not
be lost upon the NDP and labor generally. It is precisely

because of the deadening and unattractive political dullness
and “respectable” timidity of the NDP. plus the continued
general apathy of oeganized labor towards the NDP a the
Liberals, and especially a more Youthful and exhuberant
generation, draw their inspiration 294 hope for a brighter

rtisan ‘‘ * in B.C.

set eons tree’’ goes back to the days when

hungrey and jobless workers got the ‘‘Riot Act” in lieu of jobs -

and bread. With a new Liberal ‘Just Society’’ just taking
menacing form in Canada, it could happen again, unless the
NDP, labor, and indeed all socialist-minded people “look to
their moutons”’ as the French say: : :

The Liberal convention deliberations last week in
Penticton should serve as a warning to B.C. that a Liberal
frying pan offers no relief from a Socre4 fire;

Se

Tribune

ast edition: Canadian Tribune

Pig
1

Editor—MAURICE RUSH

Editor—TOM McEWEN :
Published weekly at Ford Bidg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288.

Associate

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AEE Ey,

East End neglect calls for

‘new look’ by West End

BY ALD. HARRY RANKIN

City Council and Parks Board
have several commendable
projects under way or under
consideration. Among them are
the Junior Stadium at Central
Park, the Botanical Gardens at
Shaughnessy Golf Course, a
beach level road and/or walkway
from Kitsilano to Alma Street,
and the Bloedel Development on
Little Mountain. Together these
projects will cost about $5
million.

Two points immediately stand
out, however, when you take a
closer look at these projects.

(a) They are all located in the
West side of the city, with the
exception of the Junior Stadium
which is in Burnaby. It is
‘financed jointly with Burnaby.

'(b) The East End of the city
has no comparable projects, and

(to put it kindly) is being badly
neglected.

To compound the neglect of the
working class section of the city
is the fact that we still haven’t
supplied recreational facilities
for low rental public housing
projects at Raymur Place,
Skeena and Orchard Park.

This neglect of the East End of
the city is not accidental; it has
been Council and Parks Board
policy over the years. It reflects
the geographical composition of
these bodies (I am the only
alderman from the East End) as
well as their occupational make-
up (mostly business man and
real estate interests. )

Under public pressure there
has been some verbal
recognition that this policy must
be changed but neither Council

nor the Parks Board has yet _

come up with a plan to provide
facilities equally ang fairly for
a 1 parts of the city. In the East
ad the families are bigger and
pe a and the population less
le — here more than

anywhere recreation, iliti
al facilities
need to be close at hand. a

Council

2
Shan nd the Parks Board

commit th S-
without further delay to building
a Fee omega house at Orchard
ae another at Skeena, plus a
es z. equipped community centre
e Raymur-Strathcona area,
complete with a skating rink,

Swimming pool bees
mae and fa
senior citizens Cilities for _

‘Louis

Excerpts from an address by
Prime Minister Trudeau at the
unveiling of a monument to the
memory of Louis Riel in Regina,
Saskatchewan, Wednesday,
October 2, 1968.

Sponsored by the Thatcher
Liberal government of
Saskatchewan, the erection of this
monument to a Canadian patriot
is perhaps the only contribution to
the history of Canada that
government has ever made, or is
likely tomake. —

A part of the Prime Minister's
address follows: —

Eighty-three years ago in the
Mounted Police barracks in
Regina, Louis Riel awaited
execution as a convicted traitor.
This afternoon we are assembled
to unveil a monument in his
honour.

No man in Canadian history
suffered as many reversals of
fortune during his life. He was,
in turn, unofficial leader of his
people, President of a
Provisional Government,
founder of the Province of
Manitoba, fugitive in exile,
Member of Parliament, outlaw,
leader of another Provisional
Government, and prisoner. Yet
it may be that none of the twists
and turns in his tragic biography
will be as important to the
history of this country as the
reversal of official and public
opinion which this monument
symbolizes.

' How difficult it is for any of us
to understand Louis Riel. What
forces motivated this man?

What social conditions led him to
believe that nothing short of
rebellion would serve the cause
to which he had pledged himself?

How many other Riels exist in
Canada, beyond the fringe of
accepted conduct, driven to
believe that this country offers
no answer to their needs and no
solutions to their problems?

How many of us understand

_ the loneliness, the sense of |

iel lives a

futility of such a man? How
many of us are willing to
concede that future historians, in
chronicling the events of our
lives, may choose to emphasize
and applaud the activities, not of
the privileged majority but of
some little known leader of an
unpopular minority?

For me this is the lesson of
Louis Riel. For me this is the :
reason why we are here.

During his life Riel aroused
the fiercest passions among his
compatriots, and the manner of

his death was a cause of deep —

division throughout Canada. The
controversy has not died, as we
know from the stream of books,

plays — and most recently an-

opera — which continue to be
written about him. But in the
perspective of eight decades of
our history perhaps we can agree
on the underlying themes which

make an understanding of his

those w
from history “2° 4
repeat it.”

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