4 iS 'RON a f oIN BRITISH Co a -UMB; 4 ' R,S\ FORESTS pg “4/ GAS- OIL” on» t WATERSHEDS COPPER MINES * INDUSTRIAL Bs , ; i — —— == The Mine Mill union, led by National vice-president Harvey Murphy, met with the provincial Cabinet last Monday in an at- tempt to resolve the closure of Britannia Mine by Anaconda Opper, The union delegation Urged government action along’ hree possible lines: (1) Institute an impartial in- Yestigation, This could be done Y order-in-council without going °ap in hand for permission from mark MOSHER, well-known trade fonist and community leader in Al- ha announced this week he will Sh election as a rural trustee in ol district No. 70. He is urging ag school bus service and more Nlor government aid for education. © is president of Local 503 of the "gshoremen’s Union. Anaconda’s head office in New York, (2) The government could take over the mine, run it, and turn any legitimate profits over to the company — thus disproving Anaconda’s contention that Brit- annia is an unprofitable opera- tion, The union would be prepared to go along with such a step for a period of one year, (3) The government could ready new legislation whereby any closure of mines would auto- matically result in cancellation of existing crown grants or min- eral leases, This could be fol- lowed by outright government ownership or new leasing ar- rangements with other private owners, In its brief, the union stated; “We have done everything within our power to consider the inter- ests of the community in the first place, If the ‘nominal’ own- er is not prepared to operate on the basis of reasonable demands then it is our opinion that your government should operate the mine in the public interest,” The delegation pointed out that crown grants of mineral re- sources in perpetuity are“avery generous arrangement, to say the least,” All that companies like Anaconda pay to exploit our resources are 25 cents an acre per annum, Canada should oppose A-force in any form The Canadian Peace Congress last week wrote Prime Minister Pearson and External Affairs Minister Martin urging that it be made clear to our N,A.T.O.° partners that Canada will oppose any plans for a Multilateral Nu- clear Force in any form, This action followed the recent announcement from Ottawa that Canada will not join the proposed nuclear force, The Peace Con- gress letter welcomed the an- nouncement made by Martin in Parliament, The letter said that “any ‘N.A.T.O. plan which would give Germany nuclear weapons would transform N,A.T.O, into an of- fensive alliance, Inevitably mem- bers of the Warsaw Pact coun- tries would react to it, Instead of a limitation and final aboli- tion of nuclear weapons, there would be further proliferation.” Under these circumstances, charges the Peace Congress let- ter, “Canada’s efforts for relax- ation of tensions and disarma- ment would come to naught,” In a press release accompan- — ying the letter the Peace Con- gress said the establishment ofa M.L.F.. would remove the last Wide support for Tickson fight to save hospital NANAIMO. — Support for the campaign of aldermanic candi- date Walter Tickson to stop the demolition of the old Nanaimo General Hospital is snowballing, On Monday, a delegation from the Nanaimo Old Age Pensioners organization went to Victoria to urge Health Minister Martin to stop the demolition of the hospi- -tal, They decided to take this action after it was learned that Ottawa had given a$112,000grant to North Vancouver to renovate the old North Vancouver General Hospital, The delegation urged Victoria to seek a similar arrangement for Nanaimo, where the hospital shortage is acute, The Nanaimo New Democratic Party Club has also come out against demolition Stewart urges of the old hospital. A statement issued by the club said that the old hospital “is only 38 years old and to demolish it at this time is, practically speaking, un- realistic,” The Nanaimo Hospital Board recently voted to demolish the building but this was stopped by Tickson’s action and the public protest which followed, The PT has learned that no permit for demolition has yet been issued, Meanwhile, Tickson is pre- paring to take court action to stop demolition of the building on the grounds that the board has no proper authority to proceed with demolition and that such action is contrary to public policy, ‘no’ vote on biennial elections William Stewart, independent labor candidate for Vancouver City Council, has urged an over- whelming “NO” vote on proposed biennial elections in the city. Stewart spoke on a radio broad- cast Sunday, Nov, 29, over radio station CK WX, Proponents of the scheme are using the lame duck excuse that voter turnouts on non-mayoralty years are dropping, hence the “need” to eliminate every second election, Stewart charged, But an examination of voting WILLIAM E. STEWART Independent candidate for Vancouver city council records in Vancouver shows that in 1941, for example, only 21 percent of the voters turned out to vote, he pointed out. This com- pares to 43,2 percent in 1962, And the 28,2 percent turnout last year (an off-mayoralty year) was up almost four percent from the last two off-year elections, The real issue at stake, Stew- art said, is the fact that “the NPA city council is dominated by big business and real estate inter- ests in this city and in between elections the tune is called by these forces, “The longer between elections, the more control over the city passes into their hands, The more frequent are elections, the bet- ter the opportunity the people have to keep a check on their affairs and replace those not serving their needs,” In addition to Stewart, Rate- payer candidates, other inde- pendents, Vancouver Labor Council and many other civic minded groups and individuals have expressed opposition to bi- ennial elections, The issue is shaping up as one of the most important pieces of business on Vancouver’s voting day—Wednesday, December 9. Many votes in city Independent aldermanic candidate William Stewart, whose program is this week going out to thousands of homes in Vancouver, is recommending the following vote on by-laws and plebiscites up be- fore ratepayers and tenants: 2 -barrier to the complete revival Five Year Plan (By-Law) ........... YES . of German militarism and would New City Museum (Plebiscite) ...... YES : be an insult to the memory of Mt. Pleasant (By-Law) ......... : YES | those who died intwo world wars, Addition to Kitsilano Community Centre : The N.A.T.O. meeting at which (BYOUAW) i vaet ee eee ON as os YES : the setting up of the M.L.F, will Hastings East Comm. Centre Extension be considered is to be held in (By-Law) pet ayses pecs ee a YES Paris on December 15, The Purchase of Langara for Public Park | French peace movement has call- (lebiscite) cgers eee YES | ed on all peace movements in Increase Council from 10 to 12 Aldermen 7 N.A.T.O. countries to join in a (Plebisaite)2. 245. YES . tS eas ae eee . Biennial Elections (Plebiscite) ........ NO : Coliseum (By-Law) ............. NO RUNNING FOR ‘COUNCIL IN SURREY. Floyd Hamilton (left) and Fred Bianco (right) are both running for council seats in the Fraser Valley municipality along . th former Burnaby councillor Harry Ball, a CNR railway engineer. Hamilton is ; Shingle weaver and former chairman of the Surrey School Board. Bianco, a teel worker and airforce veteran, is running for the first time. Letters and telegrams of sup- port should be addressed to: French Peace Committee, 35 Rue de Clichy, Paris 9, France, We urge Vancouver readers to clip these recom- mendations and use them for reference by taking them with you into the voting booth. BL Ms eee bit, tele December 4, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3